[Voyage-linux] Better network stability

[Merul Patel]

Hi Robert,

I've found a similar issue with power cuts in my environment. In my case my Voyage box is sitting behind a broadband router, and so requires a DHCP address. 

If the power cycles, and the DHCP server is not up and running by the time the network interface is initialised, then no IP address is obtained and the box is unreachable until it too is power cycled.

Merul

On 26 Feb 2010, at 10:51, Robert wrote:

> Hi Michael,
> 
> Thanks for the info. We use the hardware watchdog that is built into the Alix with a fair level of success, however I don't like to have the watchdog to monitor network traffic as I don't want our system stuck in a constant reboot cycle every time the internet drops out for 20-30 minutes.
> 
> I don't think our issues are hardware related, they're in a very cool environment so it's definitely not likely to be a heat issue, my guess this is just a Linux networking config issue.
> 
> Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.
> 
> Rob
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Cohen [mailto:scudette at gmail.com]
> Sent: 26 February 2010 10:46
> To: Robert
> Cc: voyage-linux at list.voyage.hk
> Subject: Re: [Voyage-linux] Better network stability
> 
> Hi Robert,
>  We found stability issues with the Net5501s in hot environments and
> possibly even with the Alixs - we had some units lock up hard and some
> fail to boot altogether.  We enabled the watchdog but the problem is
> that even after reboot the alix seems to lock up in the bios stage and
> there is a window between the machine booting and the kernel
> initialising the watchdog that the machine will deadlock with no hope
> of resuming.
> 
> The watchdog chip seems to need to be enabled by the kernel before it
> will fire a reset. This is inadequate for our application since if the
> box is overheating it locks up in the bios stage and then never
> restarts.
> 
> The solution we came up with is a hardware watchdog - similar to
> 
> http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/July2002/article239.shtml
> 
> Except we ended up using tx on the RS232 so we can still use it as a
> console - we just emit data on it periodically .
> 
> Another useful tool is monit which allows you to monitor an external
> device like a modem and using the watchdog which can relay all devices
> together, we can reboot the modem as well.
> 
> Michael.
> 
> 2010/2/26 Robert <Robert at supporttime.com>:
>> Hello Guys,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I’m looking for some advice on how to make the networking a little more
>> fail-safe on our systems.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I have systems which are out in the field and they seem to intermittently
>> lose their internet connection and stop talking home until they’re rebooted.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I’ve not really been able to replicate the scenario to know exactly what’s
>> causing it but it seems to be due to the router-modem rebooting, our voyage
>> box then doesn’t lease a new IP from the modem or something like that,
>> perhaps an IP conflict? I don’t really know.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Either way, I’m looking to make the networking a little more robust so that
>> if the router-modem looses it’s net connection, or reboots our system will
>> pick it’s connection back up again.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Can anyone advise on how to configure a slightly more robust setup to ensure
>> the connection is picked up again as soon as it become available?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Cheers, let me know if you need any more information.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Rob
>> 
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>> 
> 
> Support Time Managed Services - monitoring and development for entire business technology
> 
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> www.supporttime.com
> 
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