We're running Red Hat 6.1, kernel 2.2.12-20smp on a Dell PowerEdge 4300. We run ntpdate once/hour from the cron to maintain the system time. Last night we could ping, but not telnet into the system. The console had a blank screen. The only recovery was to power off/on.

The last message in /var/log/messages was:
Oct 17 18:10:01 intranet ntpdate[16679]: adjust time server 10.9.2.50 offset -0.293181 sec

Nothing unusual in dmesg.

Previously, we had tried running the ntp daemon and experienced problems with the daemon occasionally causing system panics, that is why we went to running ntpdate from the cron. The system has been stable for many months since that change.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Any suggestions on where else to look?

Thanks much.....