For the past week every couple of days I have been experiencing random crashes recently and am unsure if it's hardware or software causing it. 

 

The entire system will crash, stays powered on but can't be accessed via the web GUI + all services go down. Seems to mostly happen while playing content on Plex both direct play and transcoding but it has also happened while doing nothing. 

 

I've attached syslog.

 

Any help is appreciated. 

syslog (1)

Unfortunately there's nothing relevant logged, this usually points to a hardware issue, one thing you can try is to boot the server in safe mode with all docker containers/VMs disabled, let it run as a basic NAS for a few days, if it still crashes it's likely a hardware problem, if it doesn't start turning on the other services one by one.

On 4/10/2024 at 3:03 AM, JorgeB said:

Unfortunately there's nothing relevant logged, this usually points to a hardware issue, one thing you can try is to boot the server in safe mode with all docker containers/VMs disabled, let it run as a basic NAS for a few days, if it still crashes it's likely a hardware problem, if it doesn't start turning on the other services one by one.

Dang. Fair enough. Actually is it possible that it could be the Unraid USB? I notice that from time to time when I need to reboot my server because of a unraid crash (could be hours or days), on reboot it won't give the ability to enter bios (and the screen stays black), so I have to remove the Unraid USB, reboot, then plug in the USB again for the BIOS to pop up. Really weird. Not sure if the USB is of any true importance to the performance after it has booted into unraid properly and the array/docker is working properly for a few days (before Unraid crashes again), but is there a possibility it could be the USB?

1 hour ago, Pjrezai said:

on reboot it won't give the ability to enter bios (and the screen stays black),

That sounds more like a motherboard issue. If it happens again try a cold boot, actually remove power from the motherboard with a power switch on the PSU or removing the AC supply.

1 minute ago, JonathanM said:

That sounds more like a motherboard issue. If it happens again try a cold boot, actually remove power from the motherboard with a power switch on the PSU or removing the AC supply.

Thanks for the input! Hmm what do you mean by remove with a power switch or removing AC supply? You mean removing the 24pin motherboard power connector and then plugging it back in? Or just flipping the switch on the PSU on and off? Also, since it gets fixed by just taking the USB out and putting it back in, it doesn't have anything to do with the USB itself? Interesting. Why would that be? Thanks!

2 minutes ago, Pjrezai said:

Or just flipping the switch on the PSU on and off?

Turn PSU off, press power button on tower to drain residual power, turn PSU on, wait a beat to allow the motherboard to wake up, then press the power button.

4 minutes ago, Pjrezai said:

Also, since it gets fixed by just taking the USB out and putting it back in, it doesn't have anything to do with the USB itself?

Probably not the USB stick, but the motherboard USB controller.

1 minute ago, JonathanM said:

Turn PSU off, press power button on tower to drain residual power, turn PSU on, wait a beat to allow the motherboard to wake up, then press the power button.

Probably not the USB stick, but the motherboard USB controller.

Should I take the CMOS backup battery on the motherboard out as well?

8 minutes ago, Pjrezai said:

Should I take the CMOS backup battery on the motherboard out as well?

No. This is just a test to see if the motherboard is not resetting properly.

Thanks! Regarding the actual Unraid crashes, what are the odds it could be the RAM?