Kicked off webserver - Maintenance Mode?

[besttb]

Got this message:

Broadcast message from root (tty1) (Wed Feb 16 12:41:26 2005):

The system is going down to maintenance mode NOW!

Then my connection cut off. Is there a CRON job putting this into
maintenance mode?

I didn't see anything in the cron configuration, but I don't know why
its going into maintenance mode...

Could this be the NIC?
Tim

[gehidore]

Please do not double post.

[besttb]

Sorry, didn't think posting to two separate categories would be considered double posting. I was not sure if this might be a hardware problem or solely a web server problem...

Tim

[bwkaz]

It's not hardware related. However, it's not your web server either -- Apache can't shut a machine down. ;)

What it is, is somebody's logging into this machine as root on TTY1 (the first virtual console), and bringing it down to (I think) single-user mode. At least, single-user is how I would interpret "maintenance mode" -- that may not agree with what your server's distro thinks, though.

I don't know for sure, but I don't believe it's automated. My reasoning is as follows -- it says "(tty1)" in the message, which means it originated at TTY1. Cron jobs usually don't run on a TTY: if they have any output at all, it usually either gets discarded, or mailed to the user that created the cron job. I don't believe that a message broadcasted from a cron job would therefore have "(tty1)" in it.

But then again, I've never tried it. You should probably do a crontab -l (that's dash, then lowercase L) as root at a time that you have access to the machine, and see what cron jobs show up as scheduled. If there are any jobs that involve "run-parts", then look at the scripts stored in /etc/cron.daily, to see if any of them would be messing with runlevels.

If it's not automatic, then you need to find somebody who's physically logging on as root and messing with runlevels. Then get them to stop. ;)

[besttb]

can you explain more about logging in as root and single user mode? I ask because I am SSH'ing in as my username but I install software as su.

Would that be throwing it into single user mode?

Also - the admin on location rebuilt the server today. I was immediately ablt to get in, then 2 hours later - I got in, then 2 more hours later - no dice. Current status - can't access the machine. I did log in and use the su account though, you think that is causing it? How can I configure the server to keep this from happening...

Thanks for your help!

VR
Tim

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by besttb
I ask because I am SSH'ing in as my username but I install software as su. No, you're installing software as root. ;)

You're using the "su" program (substitute user) to start a root shell from your user account, but there is no such thing as a "su" user. So "installing software as su" is totally impossible.

But, that's just one of my minor pet peeves. Moving on:

Would that be throwing it into single user mode? No, it would not, unless you did one of the following:

/sbin/init S
/sbin/init 1
/sbin/telinit S
/sbin/telinit 1

Any of those commands will bring a machine down to single-user mode. (And by default, only root can run them.) If you aren't running them, but the machine is still going to single-user mode, then somebody else is. And based on the message you're getting, I think that somebody is logged in on TTY1, which means they have to physically be sitting at the server. I suspect it's this "admin on location", whoever he is. Is he doing some kind of maintenance?

I did log in and use the su account though, you think that is causing it? Using the root account through the su command should not have caused this, no, unless you did one of the above init or telinit commands. (Or some script that you ran did one of them, but I doubt that.)

[j33716]

No need to troubleshoot this one......
It is our server and the error was caused by us replacing the network card. It was an intentional downing of the server. A phone call would have helped in this case.

[gehidore]

Originally posted by j33716
No need to troubleshoot this one......
It is our server and the error was caused by us replacing the network card. It was an intentional downing of the server. A phone call would have helped in this case.
How does replacing the network interface stop someone from logging onto the machine and sending it into single user mode?

[knute]

Originally posted by gehidore
How does replacing the network interface stop someone from logging onto the machine and sending it into single user mode?

In order to replace the nic, the machine would have to be (gasp) turned off! :eek:

It was only assumed that "maintenance mode" meant single user mode, when in all actuality it was just a notification message that they had stuff to do on the machine that they didn't have the time to explain to everyone else! :rolleyes:


Gehidore, You are normally quicker on the uptake than this! :D

[IsaacKuo]

Originally posted by gehidore
How does replacing the network interface stop someone from logging onto the machine and sending it into single user mode?

How does replacing the tires on a car prevent someone from getting in and driving it out of the shop?

[gehidore]

... at both of you :rolleyes:

I managed to misread this 12 times:
Originally posted by besttb
Also - the admin on location rebuilt the server today. I was immediately ablt to get in, then 2 hours later - I got in, then 2 more hours later - no dice. Current status - can't access the machine. I did log in and use the su account though, you think that is causing it? How can I configure the server to keep this from happening...


I still don't quite understand that. Thanks for the clarification knute :D
(yeah I am slow right now...long story)