Why would system shutdown and not go through it's regular display of processes/programs?

[Shaun Aldrich]

Hello everyone,

I seem to have run into something in which I have never seen before. When I shutdown the server it doesn't display all the normal shutdown processes (you know how when you start the server, it goes through a few screens and tells you if things started okay...this also happens normally with shutdown). Shutdown was complete within an unusually short period of time.

System shut down way too quickly for my liking...normally, you see it going through a list of processes/programs it's bringing down, and it tells you if anything failed or not...I didn't see this for some reason...

Any ideas or thoughts I would greatly appreciate it...

Thanks

Shaun Aldrich
SAldrich@chaptersinc.com

[Cheryl Griffin]

Shaun,

Check /etc/shutdownlog. It may tell you that the system was halted (vs. a normal shutdown), or it if there were a panic.

It won't show you the command that was used, but it may give you some hints as to what happened.

Also, if this was done as root, you may be able to go back and look at the shell history to get the actual command used.

[CHRIS_ANORUO]

Shaun,

You don't have to panic about that. System does shutdown without displaying the stop messages and at the end you will see the final instruction to turn your key.
Check the /etc/shutdownlog to see if there is any panic message at shutdown or the syslog file.

Cheers!

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

How did you issue shutdown command? With halt? reboot? single user mode?
Check /etc/rc.log.old (if you had just one more reboot after that shutdown).
How well are you patched?
See s700_800 11.00 patch for shutdown(1M)(PHCO_21534)

[Shaun Aldrich]

Thanks for the responses... I checked with the gentleman that I work with and it only happens on the shutdown. The proper shutdown command is used shutdown -ry 0. When the system comes up everything is displayed properly it displays all of the processess/applications and goes through the various screens letting you know everything is okay. It only seems to happen when the server is being shutdown it doesn't display all the normal shutdown processes letting you know if everything went okay.

Is this normal? I don't remember this happening on systems I have worked on in the past at other companies.

Any insight is greatly appreciated...

Thanks Shaun Aldrich

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

As I said, check the /etc/rc.log.old file. This file contains the output of rc scripts that are running at boot/shutdown time. At the biggining are S (start scripts) and by the end the K scripts (ruan during shutdown.
Check this file: more /etc/rc.log.old and see if everything is ok. (eventualy post it).
2. swlist -l product }grep 21534 to see if you have the patch.
3. As Chris suggested, check /etc/shutdownlog for possible errors.
Come back with details.

[Shaun Aldrich]

Thanks for the response...

As you mentioned I checked the /etc/rc.log.old file which contains the output of rc scripts that are running at boot/shutdown time. At the biggining are S (start scripts) and by the end of the attached file there should be the K scripts (run during shutdown). As you will see by the attached file there are no K scripts in that log.

Is that the problem? If so, how can this be fixed?

I also performed an swlist -l product grep 21534 and found nothing. Is this a patch that should be on the system? I am currently running HP-UX 10.20.

I also checked the /etc/shutdownlog for possible errors but didn't find any.

Are either of the first two points a problem ( ie no patch and no K entries in the log)

Please let me know as soon as you get a chance...

Thanks for your help

Shaun Aldrich
SAldrich@chaptersinc.com

[Brad Marks]

I believe that you need to look at rc.log.old: At the end of the file will be the processes killed at last shutdown (rc.log is created at startup, not shutdown).

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

Sorry, 21354 is the patche for HP 11.
The patche for HP-UX 10.20 is
s700_800 10.X patch for shutdown(1M)(PHCO_21574) .
By the way, what patches level do you have in that machine?
How long the machine is doing that?
Normally, you should have the K scripts in the rc.log.old...
It is not an emergency, your system is up and running correctly.
Check if you have the patch. (swlist -l product | grep shutdown, (you might have an old revision of this patch) or swlist -l product | grep 21574
When you get a chance, install the patch, doesn't required reboot.
Wach the system at next shutdown (shutdown -r -y 0). Still the same?

[Cheryl Griffin]

Shaun,

The /etc/shutdownlog will not contain errors but tell you how or why the system was shutdown. For instance:
10:38 Thu May 6, 1999. Reboot:
This entry indicates a shutdown -r

16:11 Thu Jul 6, 2000. Halt: (by rong!root)
This entry indicates a shutdown -h

08:06 Tue Jul 18, 2000. Reboot after panic:
This entry indicates a reboot after system crash or panic. If you see this, check your crash directory (/var/adm/crash by default).

You'll find your kill scripts in /sbin/rc0.d so no need to worry there.

[John Palmer]

Shaun,

Has anybody installed a replacement shutdown script on this server? It sounds a lot like something is just running 'reboot' to me.

Regards,
John

[Youlette Etienne_2]

You can also check the /etc/rc.config.d/list_mode file for the line:
LIST_MODE=0

I am not sure if this will help, but I had changed this value to "3" once when I was creating some automatic shutdown/startup scripts and was a bit stomped when all of a sudden, my shutdown/startup check lists turned into regular lines.