In a message of "Fri, 21 Apr 95 16:27:52 +0800." Chang commented that
> We're running a DEC 2100 server with OSF/1 3.0 and 128 MB of real memory.
> The number of users is about 50-60.
>
> Recently, we had a number of crashes with the message "packet dropped: no
> mbuf" on the console.
>
> According to the DEC engineers, they suspect that the problem is due to
> the memory leak in the Advanced File System.
[ ... ]
> They also suggested to upgrading the version of OSF/1 to 3.2a which they
> claim addresses the advfs memory leak problem.
>
> Has anyone out there experience the same problem? Is the patch the
> correct solution? Or should we go for the upgrade?
I can't comment on what the flag the support engineers changed does, as I've
not investigated the code. It probably turns off a feature of AdvFS that
uses the code that caused the crashes.
I will, however, comment on DEC OSF/1 V3.2A. If you have upgraded to or
have installed DEC OSF/1 V3.2 (which delivered a large number of bug fixes
that you will want if you are running DEC OSF/1 V3.0), and are using AdvFS,
DECsafe/ASE, or any of the other products delivered in the V3.2A kit, you
should install the OSF321 update from the V3.2A kit. It delivers several
critical patches (mandatory updates). Even if you're not using optional
products delivered on the kit, you may benefit from the updates.
If you have not yet upgraded to V3.2, you might want to wait for the V3.2A
media and install the OSF321 update immediately after your upgrade, and do
the necessary kernel rebuild at that time.
So, in most cases, and in this case for sure, the correct solution is to
install the upgrade.
Tom
Dr. Thomas P. Blinn, UNIX Software Group, Digital Equipment Corporation
110 Spit Brook Road, MS ZKO3-2/U20 Nashua, New Hampshire 03062-2698
Technology Partnership Engineering Phone: (603) 881-0646
Internet: tpb_at_zk3.dec.com Digital's Easynet: alpha::tpb
Worry kills more people than work because more people worry than work.
My favorite palindrome is: Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
-- Phil Agre, pagre_at_ucsd.edu
Opinions expressed herein are my own, and do not necessarily represent
those of my employer or anyone else, living or dead, real or imagined.
Received on Fri Apr 21 1995 - 09:03:36 NZST