Linux servers crash due to ‘leap second bug’ – update

A bug in the Linux kernel when inserting the leap second on July 1 is causing problems with Linux servers worldwide. Systems would crash or have too much CPU load, but a workaround is available.

The Serverfault site, among others, reports crashes of Linux servers running on Debian Squeeze with recent 3.2.x kernels. The issues are said to have occurred shortly after the leap second was added via the ntp daemon. This synchronizes the server time with the time of an atomic clock, but the implementation of adding a leap second seems to cause problems in the Linux kernel. The Pirate Bay’s Debian servers are also said to have gone offline as a result of the ‘leap second bug’, while hosting provider RackSpace is warning customers with a virtualized Linux server.

A possible workaround to avoid problems with crashing servers is to temporarily disable the ntp daemon and run the perl script ‘fixtime’. A reboot of the server would also fix the problem. It is not yet clear to what extent other Linux server distributions are affected by the problem, but the bug is not expected to be fixed until Linux kernel 3.4 and later.

Update 15:10: The Pirate Bay’s servers would not have gone offline as a result of the ‘leap second bug’, TorrentFreak reports. The reason for the downtime of the torrent site is the moving of a server rack of the Swedish Pirate Party.