*** poked timer ***

[bsdfunn]

This is FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE/i386

Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+ (1666.49-MHz 686-class CPU)
Origin = "AuthenticAMD" Id = 0x681 Stepping = 1
Features=0x383fbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,MMX,FXSR,SSE>
AMD Features=0xc0400800<SYSCALL,MMX+,3DNow!+,3DNow!>
real memory = 536805376 (511 MB)
avail memory = 510730240 (487 MB)


ns1# tail -f messages
Jan 30 13:59:45 ns1 savecore: no dumps found
Jan 30 13:59:45 ns1 kernel: rl0: link state changed to UP
Jan 30 13:59:45 ns1 kernel: vlan0: link state changed to UP
Jan 30 13:59:45 ns1 kernel: rl1: link state changed to UP
Jan 30 13:59:46 ns1 named[870]: starting BIND 9.4.2-P2 -t /var/named -u bind
Jan 30 13:59:46 ns1 named[870]: command channel listening on 127.0.0.1#953
Jan 30 13:59:46 ns1 named[870]: command channel listening on ::1#953
Jan 30 13:59:46 ns1 named[870]: running
Jan 30 14:04:36 ns1 named[870]: *** POKED TIMER ***
Jan 30 14:04:50 ns1 kernel: rl1: promiscuous mode enabled

 

[trev]

This "warning" message is found in bind's timer.c code and is triggered when a timer function doesn't return within 15 seconds - like a watchdog.

As to what is triggering it in your case, it could be almost anything, from a high load to something fiddling with your gettimeofday timer.

If it doesn't occur often and regularly, I'd simply ignore it.