Should a rp7410 be power cycled?

[Mike Tyrrell]

I've recently been asked by my management to shutdown and power cycle my rp7410 and a K570 servers once every 3 weeks. There is no problem to be solved, he just thinks it's a good idea. What I'm looking for is something from HP that says why this should or should not take place. I would think that the stress from cycling the power would cause more problems then any good it may do. Any suggestions or comments would be helpful.

[Alan Meyer_4]

there is some backing to this theory, albeit thin backing. The theory is that a reboot clears up orphaned processes, semiphores and ipc registers

[Mike Tyrrell]

Yes a reboot may help with this, But what about turning off the power then turning it back on. What does that do?

[Thayanidhi]

Hi,
Its always better to avoid power off/on. reboot is may acceptable once in a while!
Actually if your code is perfect (no orphened processes) then no need of any thing other than monitoring the system.

In fact "power cycling" may lead to problems. The thermal equilabrium changes in the whole system, especially disks. So there are more chances that disk fails during power cycle.
I my self have seen disk failures in several places after power cycling after a year or so.

Regds
TT

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
Regulary power cycling may be common in the Windows world but not in the Unix and particulary not for HP-UX. Unless you has any specific requirement for recycling, it is not necessary.

[Joseph Loo]

hi,

u sure have a very strange management. first time i hear that the management wants a restart of server that frequent, others just go "what again! too much interruption!".

i have a few rp7410 and k380 servers which goes on for 3 to 6 months without the need to restart unless u have to do patching or kernel parameters changes.

i do not exactly agree with leif on the windows world remarks. unless on winNT, but then again, if under better system administration, server may still be well-maintained. w2k version onwards r much improved.

regards.

[Mahesh Kumar Malik]

Hi Mike

I feel you should never power OFF the servers, unless a maintenance is desired. Powering OFF will disturb Thermal equilibirium and thus is more prone to electronic failures.

Rebooting is recommended to clear memory holes, zombie processes etc.

Regards
Mahesh

[Duncan Edmonstone]

This has come up before:

http://forums2.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=901997

I guess the big question is - do you get paid overtime to come and do this out of hours? If the answer is YES, then hell, maybe once every 3 weeks isn't often enough... how about once a day!

HTH

Duncan

[Patrick Wallek]

There is absolutely no reason to POWER CYCLE a server. It doesn't do anything but stress components.

A plain reboot is one thing, but a power cycle is totally different.

I don't power cycle unless I absolutely have to. I *HATE* actually powering off the servers. There is always a risk that some component will fail when you power the system back on.

In your case I don't see where you would gain anything.

[Mike Tyrrell]

I agree with everyone. But does anyone know if there is any Doc from HP that may say this. I just need proof to give the management.