Storage server, hung tasks and tracebacks

[Stefan Ring]

> I am completely at a loss with all this... I've never seen a Unix/Linux
> system behave so unreliably.

Fortunately, Linux doesn't have to prove itself anymore, these days.
Usually these things happen on really crappy hardware. I had a new HP
Proliant Blade server a few months ago, and it would randomly lock up
and produce NMIs for no apparent reason. It has inflicted a decent
amount of pain on me. Finally, it was replaced with an identical
model, and all problems were instantly gone.