up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I am using Ubuntu 11.04 server addition for my application. During some testing my server has just crashed. After that I am restart the server. My problem is how can i find the reason of crashing? I have googled it and find some suggesstion of checking /var/log/syslog but its too big file. how can i track the reason of crashing?

link|improve this question
20% accept rate
You need to look for kernel ops/bugs/segfaults or any other error/warning. Maybe, you can filter the irrelevant parts using grep -v gradually until you get a reasonably-sized file. – Khaled Jan 2 at 8:26
Thanks Khaled. But the information you have given is not avaiblable in machine. there is no such directory of opt in my ubuntu server editions. – Anand Soni Jan 2 at 9:18
feedback

1 Answer

up vote 0 down vote

The recommendations are right:

/var/log/syslog
/var/log/messages

When you say it is "too big file" - what exactly do you mean? Sometimes you need to plod through giant log files to figure out what went wrong. That's the life of a system administrator...

link|improve this answer
also, you can use dmesg to see what occurred in the kernel logs. – Jack Jan 2 at 6:45
"too big" means there is too many lines in that file. and i also dont know which message indicates crash of system. – Anand Soni Jan 2 at 6:50
It's going to be hard to find what you are looking for without digging in. Troubleshooting is an art and you need to just read through the logs. I suggest trying to replicate the crash and then immediately reviewing the logs after to reboot to look for anything anomalous. – Jack Jan 5 at 23:18
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.