Intel S1200BTS problem with FreeBSD 7.2

D

dkline201

This is my first try at posting a problem on the FreeBSD Forum, so please forgive if I make any errors.

We just received a new Intel Server S1200BTS motherboard to replace an "End of Life" Intel motherboard. We use both FreeBSD 8.1 and still support older FreeBSD 7.2 systems, so I need both versions to work. We installed 8GB RAM into the system, and install a custom build FreeBSD onto the 250GB OS drive.

FreeBSD 8.1 installed fine on the S1200BTS, and our server application testing is working with no problems. The 3TB Data drives even installed without problems.

However, FreeBSD 7.2 did not fare as well. The system started throwing errors when trying to install Postgres. The picture I took of the screen is too big to upload, but it boils down to Postgres having trouble
Code: 
could not create shared memory segment: invalid argument
and
Code: 
failed system call was shmget(key=5432001, size=43655168, 03600)
and finally
Code: 
could not start server

I do not know enough about FreeBSD to dig into this, but my first suspicion is the motherboard. If I hear back otherwise, then I will get our software developers into this. For now I am treating it as a hardware problem.

Anyone else out there using this new S1200BTS Server board from Intel?

Thanks,

Dale Kline

This FreeBSD 7.2 configuration works fine on several other motherboards, several with more RAM than this new board.
 
Hi, according to the documentation for Postgres, the problem can be that "your kernel's limit on the size of shared memory is smaller than the work area PostgreSQL is trying to create (4011376640 bytes in this example), or it could mean that You do not have System-V-style shared memory support...". See for yourself; PostgreSQL 8.3.16 Documentation and check out subtitle called 17.3.1. Server Start-up Failures. You can also look for answers why does Postgres uses so many memory; FAQ - memory use.

Very interesting informations about various operating system (also about FreeBSD) resource limits You will find here; Shared Memory and Semaphores. Of course one of the best source of informations about performance tuning under FreeBSD is a tuning(7) man page. Besides information about the performance, You will find a description about one of the sysctl(8) options, which is responsible for the shared memory (please check description of the kern.ipc.shm_use_phys option).
A couple of useful - I hope so - links:

On Your question about the use of S1200BTS Server, I will answer briefly: I do not use, so I can not write anything about this. You wrote that everything works fine with FreeBSD 8.1, so maybe You should think about change 7.2 to 8.1 (remember that this release is marked as extended[1] version with Estimated EoL on July 31, 2012) or even 8.2-RELEASE? But You already mentioned that You need both versions to work. Maybe You are right by writing that it could be problem of hardware or motherboard and it is not associated with shared memory settings? Maybe.

Best regards!


__________________
[1] Here You will find more informations about current designation and estimated lifetimes of the currently supported branches; FreeBSD Security Information: Supported Releases.
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S1200BTS and FBSD 7.2

Francis, thanks for your reply. I'll check that documentation to see if anything fits.

But we have many hundreds of servers out in the field that have not upgraded their systems to FreeBSD 8.1, which is the current version we are providing. We need backward hardware compatibility until they do upgrade.

I have at least three other "newer" motherboards (C2SEA, X8DTL, DH57JG) that ALL run both 7.2 and 8.1 without throwing this error using the 7.2 release and our custom prep disk. That's why I am asking if anyone else is using this new Intel S1200BTS server board with FreeBSD 7.2. I am hoping we don't have to build a new custom prep disk, because that will cause problems with compatibility with the previous installed base.

If it is a motherboard compatibility problem ,maybe I can get some help from Intel...
 
Problem resolved!

The Intel S1200BTS motherboard I received was at BIOS R0026. Since this is a newly relesed motherboard, the BIOS updates have been coming quickly. BIOS R0027 release notes - the first note in the list says "FIXED: memory allocation error". I updated to R0030 (had to do R0029 first) and reran the Prep DVD. Everything worked fine this time. Curious that FreeBSD 8.1 did not see the allocation problem, but 7.2 did.

Thanks for your note Francis.

Lesson Learned: check for BIOS updates, especially on a new board.
 
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