# How can I do remote fsck?



## halplus (Apr 21, 2010)

Hello:

I am administering a server on the other side of the sea. I had a trouble then other day that is was improperly rebooted and some filesystem corruption happened. I gave proper instruction to the hosting company employee on how to drop to single user mode, unmount /usr etc and fsck slices while later go back to multiuser mode. They are however uncapable of performing easy steps. I need some way to do this automatically or to get some software to do thins without droping in single user mode (repair inconsistencies) to do this over the network. So information is appreciated.


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## SirDice (Apr 21, 2010)

You can only set it so it'll fix the 'simple' errors automatically:

```
fsck_y_enable="NO"      # Set to YES to do fsck -y if the initial preen fails.
fsck_y_flags=""         # Additional flags for fsck -y
```

You cannot fix errors on a mounted filesystem. So I suggest getting in touch with your hosting provider and see if they can supply a serial console connection.


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## DutchDaemon (Apr 21, 2010)

I'd suggest setting


```
background_fsck="NO"
fsck_y_enable="YES"
```

in /etc/rc.conf


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## anomie (Apr 21, 2010)

In addition to the rc.conf changes, a serial console or _some_ means of accessing a console to view BIOS POST and OS startup (or not) is important. Depending on the hardware you're running on, the hosting company may have some options for you - e.g. DRAC on Dell hardware, ILOM on Sun hardware, etc.


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## halplus (Apr 9, 2011)

I am sorry, I see this now so much time later I almost forgot. I even lost internet connectivity by then as the business had to be closed because of this and was the one covering the internet costs. Many months later I am facing the very same issue. This one is not on the other side of the sea but it is remote anyway. I ended up asking for a refund to that company and closing the server and the services just because of this. I wish I had picked a Linux deployment instead to the hosting company. The business would have being working today. FreeBSD needs a fix for this! Most OS do this automatically! Especially Windows. And if somebody doesn't likes it that way at least the way to configure it one way or the other so those of us who need the feature can use it. It is a major blocker for me to use FreeBSD. My next remote server will be Linux 99% because of this simple issue . I do really prefer BSD by far but this leaves me with no option!


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## halplus (Apr 9, 2011)

> In addition to the rc.conf changes, a serial console or some means of accessing a console to view BIOS POST and OS startup (or not) is important. Depending on the hardware you're running on, the hosting company may have some options for you - e.g. DRAC on Dell hardware, ILOM on Sun hardware, etc.



The hosting company didn't provided that. Sorry was a cheap hosting as we had little money to start the business. We paid 100 dollars for renting three months a 2 Gb blade. The cheapest offer for a blade they offered!


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