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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?

Anand Soni
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  • 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 02 '12 at 08:26
  • 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 02 '12 at 09:18

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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...

Khaled
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jackhamm
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  • also, you can use `dmesg` to see what occurred in the kernel logs. – jackhamm Jan 02 '12 at 06:45
  • "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 02 '12 at 06:50
  • 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. – jackhamm Jan 05 '12 at 23:18