Xserve G4 running Panther Server 10.3.6: Won’t restart automatically after a power outage

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Macintosh
November 16th, 2004 • 2:22 am

Another way in which the recent power outages in our region has affected me is that the Xserve server that I am administering and that is hosting my employer’s mail and web servers is no longer working as it used to.

The Xserve is on a APC Smart 1000U UPS unit, which keeps it on for up to half an hour, and shuts it down when the power outage extends beyond that. But the Xserve is also configured to restart automatically after a power failure. There is an option to check for this in the “Energy Saver” control pane (same as in regular Mac OS X 10.3) — but obviously this option is no longer working right. For the third time in a row now (we’ve had a couple of minor power outages before this last one), my Xserve has failed to restart automatically after the power was restored.

I have no idea what might be causing this — and it’s a major pain because it means I have to drive all the way to the university to turn it back on manually.

I’ve searched through the Apple Discussions forums for Panther Server and the Xserve, to no avail. Unfortunately, this reminds me of the problem I used to have with the automatic login in Panther Server refusing to work. That particular problem solved itself miraculously one day as if by magic, and now automatic login is working reliably every time.

But I have no idea what solved that problem, and I have no idea what to do to solve this problem now, which is just as bad because it too forces me to access the Xserve physically.

Grrr.

This entry was posted by Pierre Igot on Tuesday, November 16th, 2004 at 2:22 am and is filed under Macintosh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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4 Responses to “Xserve G4 running Panther Server 10.3.6: Won’t restart automatically after a power outage”

  1. Tr909 says:
    November 21st, 2004 at Nov 21, 04 | 1:53 am

    Although i have no Xserve and haven’t tested this but you could try the following.
    Zap PRAM and also try booting from another partition (or firewire drive) with a freshly installed OSX server. Although this will cost you probably an afternoon it will certainly rule out anything you might have done (unintended) to the system in the Xserve’s internal drive.

    Tr (ps i dunno if Xserve even has PRAM but try that for starters)

  2. Pierre Igot says:
    November 23rd, 2004 at Nov 23, 04 | 12:48 am

    Tr909: Thanks for the suggestion… Zapping the PRAM is an option I might try. Doing a fresh install on another partition would be a more major undertaking… I’d have to decide whether it’s worth the time/expense for my employer (as opposed to my having to drive there when there is a major power outage and the Xserve won’t restart by itself) especially since there is no guarantee that it will help.

  3. mauricev says:
    January 14th, 2005 at Jan 14, 05 | 5:55 pm

    I suggest deleting

    com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
    preferences.plist.applesaved
    preferences.plist

    located in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

    and

    com.apple.systempreferences.plist
    com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

    in the admin user’s
    ~/Library/Preferences

    then shut down and reset the PMU. Instructions are at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86757

  4. Pierre Igot says:
    January 15th, 2005 at Jan 15, 05 | 8:43 am

    Thanks for the tip… I might give it a try — although I am a bit afraid it’ll break something else for which the Xserve has been a bit touchy in the past (automatic login).

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