machine:
Hp Proliant DL145/Opterom 2.4GH
2*72 GBB SCSi hdd,
suse:
suse linux Enterprose server 8.0 for Amd 64

problem:
1. can not boot properly. have to use installation disk to boot it: enter installation and choose "boot from existing installation" and this is the only option. ( just use the boot disk and enter the boot up parameters won't work either. The bootloader is grup and doesn't work either. )
after boot it from installation disck, I checked the boot.msg and boot.omsg in /var/log directory. and there are some wiered stuffs:
boot.omsg:
Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.4.19
Loaded 13874 symbols from /boot/System.map-2.4.19.
Symbols match kernel version 2.4.19.
Error seeking in /dev/kmem

Symbol #ext3, value a019a000

Error adding kernel module table entry.

klogd 1.4.1, log source = ksyslog started.
<4>FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
<3>cramfs: wrong magic
<4>reiserfs: found format "3.6" with standard journal
<4>reiserfs: checking transaction log (sd(8,2)) for (sd(8,2))
<4>reiserfs: using ordered data mode
<4>Using r5 hash to sort names
<4>VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
<5>Trying to move old root to /initrd ... failed
<5>Unmounting old root
<5>Trying to free ramdisk memory ... okay
<4>Freeing unused kernel memory: 156k freed
<6>md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
<6>md: autorun ...
<6>md: ... autorun DONE.
<6>Adding Swap: 10586824k swap-space (priority 42)
<4>reiserfs: found format "3.6" with standard journal
<4>reiserfs: checking transaction log (sd(8,17)) for (sd(8,17))
<4>reiserfs: using ordered data mode
<4>Using r5 hash to sort names
Kernel logging (ksyslog) stopped.
Kernel log daemon terminating.
....

I checked the /dev/sda using fdisk, and some strange file systems exist.

sda1 for swap (starts after 1 and end something like after 10 Gb)
sda2 for / ( located after swap, using up rest of the disk space)
sda3 for compack diagnostic( or something like that) (starts from 1 and ends at 1)

fdisk gives some hints about filesystem order is uncorrect.

so what is wrong here??? can any body help me??? to fix this, should I re-install the system??? and in reinstallation should I change the kernel options???


2. Do you think use 62 GB for /, and don't have other partition is ok for the server? or should there be some other patitions for different directories, like /var and /usr etc???

3. I have been told this server crashed the other day, and I am reponsible to find out the reason. so, what kind of log files should I check? and where is them?
the ones i find is in /var/log.
and in them, there are "warn" and " messages" contain something about that. so are these the ones that I should look into?

Hi,

There are several points that are worth considering here. The server has been built using the defaults from Suse Linux Enterprise Server 8.0, this has resulted in some of your problems.

I would recommend that the disk be re-partitioned to something like the following.

davem@darkstar:~> df -k
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1 2071384 1532748 433412 78% /
tmpfs 388356 16 388340 1% /dev/shm
/dev/hda11 9542280 4135832 5406448 44% /aviation
/dev/hda5 256667 7641 235774 4% /boot
/dev/hdc1 16779340 6515788 10263552 39% /copy_data
/dev/hda8 12389324 362520 11397460 4% /home
/dev/hda7 8262036 1604152 6238188 21% /opt
/dev/hda3 8262068 3443872 4398500 44% /usr
/dev/hda9 4200828 979604 3221224 24% /usr/local
/dev/hda10 4200828 92024 4108804 3% /usr/local/aviation
/dev/hda6 8262036 513572 7328768 7% /var
/dev/hdc2 33558752 13490708 20068044 41% /images
/dev/hdc3 33550724 38700 33512024 1% /work
/dev/mapper/data-lvol06 4194172 32840 4161332 1% /home/lindom
/dev/mapper/data-lvol08 16776700 396400 16380300 3% /home/support
/dev/mapper/data-lvol07 4194172 32840 4161332 1% /home/swaddlr
/dev/mapper/data-lvol02 4194172 3724888 469284 89% /home/davem
/dev/mapper/data-lvol09 4194172 32840 4161332 1% /home/mitchelg
/dev/mapper/data-lvol03 4194172 224908 3969264 6% /home/murrayt
/dev/mapper/data-lvol05 4194172 33820 4160352 1% /home/smithl
/dev/mapper/data-lvol01 4194172 111132 4083040 3% /home/whalleym
/dev/mapper/data-lvol04 4194172 32840 4161332 1% /home/ws
/dev/mapper/data-lvol10 4194172 47800 4146372 2% /srv/www
/dev/mapper/data-archive03 4931428 75996 4855432 2% /archive
/dev/mapper/data-archive02 4931428 646072 4285356 14% /home/archive
/dev/mapper/data-archive01 4931428 32840 4898588 1% /usr/local/archive

In addition your partition /dev/sda3 would appear to be part of the problem with the boot, it may be what is stopping grub from working. I would suggest that the disk is partitioned using fdisk and then the OS is reinstalled.

A little understanding of the sizes of the amount of space required for data and applications is required here.

Rgds

Dave