CSS 11501 StartUp Problem

Hi all,
After i boot up for the first time, the CSS asked for change User/Pass, wich i perform a well known ones.
After that it's always impossible to login.
Is there any way of return to factory default Settings?
or
Is there any password recovery procedure?
or
What are the default User/Pass of the equipment?
I already done a Power Off/On on it with no results.
Best Regards,
Petr?nio

Hi,
I perform the password recovery, as it was documented and then its always getting the "CSS 11501 Offline Diagnostic Monitor menu (OffDM)" Menu, even if i dont press the Y key in the bootup question "Would you like to access the Offline Diagnostic Monitor? (Y)"
Any ideias?
How can i test the login i changed before?
Here is the bootup logging that appear's.
I'm not pressing any key.
******** Boot UP ********
CSS 11501 Offline Diagnostic Monitor menu (OffDM)
Version: 08.10.1.06
M A I N M E N U
Enter the number of a menu selection:
1* Set Boot Configuration
2. Show Boot Configuration
3* Advanced Options
4. Reboot System
> 4
Are you sure you want to reboot? (y/n) [n] y
Rebooting....
BootRom...booting
Copyright (1998-2002), Cisco Systems, Inc
Locked boot flash.
Validating operational boot flash, please wait...
Operational boot flash valid. Jumping to operational boot flash.
Copyright (1998-2002), Cisco Systems, Inc
Operational boot flash.
Attaching interrupt handlers...Done.
Built Mar 9 2006 @ 17:56:32
Version 08.10.1.06
Press to enter the Diagnostic Monitor
Ran 1 times, 24 tests. Detected 0 errors.
Booting OffDm @ 0xbff00000
SCM:MASTER Other:NOT-PRESENT
Initializing the disk...OK
Reading configuration records...
No Primary or Secondary Boot Record Found
FAILED
MGMT disabled, network port not active
Would you like to access the Offline Diagnostic Monitor? (Y)
Booting(-) ...
Transferring to menu...
Waiting for commands..
CSS 11501 Offline Diagnostic Monitor menu (OffDM)
Version: 08.10.1.06
M A I N M E N U
Enter the number of a menu selection:
1* Set Boot Configuration
2. Show Boot Configuration
3* Advanced Options
4. Reboot System
>

Similar Messages

How to reset password on Cisco CSS 11501?

Hi,
I have changed the password for the Admin user (which was SuperUser) but when I changed it I forgot to add "SuperUser" at the end, now I don't have SuperUser access to the CSS 11501.
Can anyone shade some light on this problem and explain how can I reset the password for a SuperUser?
Thanks in Advance,
Shai

Hi Shai,
You need to reboot the CSS. When prompt, hit any key to go into the Offline Diagnostic Menu.
When you get in the menu, you will go to Administrative options and create an additional Admin user. When you do this, DO NOT use "admin", use something totally different.
Get out of the Offline DM and reboot the CSS. When the CSS comes up, login as the new user (which will have Superuser rights) and run the "username" cli to change the password of "admin" and add the superuser part this time.
Regards
Pete Knoops
Cisco Systems

NAT and Servers behind CSS 11501

All,
Please forgive my asking this question again. I was injured shortly after asking the last time and out of work for a long period of time.
My problem stems from needing to allow my web servers to initiate traffic to the outside world from behind our CSS boxes.
The web servers sit behind a pair of CSS 11501 content switches in Active-Passive ASR with fate sharing. We are only interested at this time with load balancing HTTP and HTTPS.
Everything works inbound no problem.
What I need to do is setup some type of NAT for my 3 web servers to initiate HTTP/HTTPS for patches, send SMTP from the web apps, and initiate HTTPS for credit card validation.
I have setup NAT on PIX units and routers no problem, but I seem to be unable to do it on these boxes. :(
In reality something as simple as a PAT translation on the outside of the CSS boxes should be sufficient.
Is this possible with our setup? Does anyone have some code examples?
Thanks in advance.
Addresses changed to protect the innocent:
Load Balancer 1:
!*************************** GLOBAL ***************************
bridge spanning-tree disabled
sntp server 1.1.1.41 version 1
snmp community noway read-only
snmp community noway read-write
app session 1.1.1.252
app
logging subsystem netman level info-6
dns primary 2.2.2.41
dns secondary 2.2.2.42
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 1.1.1.1 1
!************************* INTERFACE *************************
interface e1
phy 100Mbits-FD
description "Connect to Primary DMZ 1 3550 Switch"
interface e2
bridge vlan 2
phy 100Mbits-FD
description "Connected to Primary LB Server Switch"
interface e8
description "Inter Switch Communication (ISC) Port"
isc-port-one
!************************** CIRCUIT **************************
circuit VLAN1
description "DMZ 1 Subnet (1.1.1.x/24)"
ip address 1.1.1.251 255.255.255.0
ip virtual-router 1 priority 254 preempt
ip redundant-interface 1 1.1.1.250
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.161
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.162
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.70
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.71
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.72
ip critical-service 1 upstream_downstream
circuit VLAN2
description "Load Balanced Servers Subnet"
ip address 2.2.2.2 255.255.255.0
ip virtual-router 2 priority 254 preempt
ip redundant-interface 2 2.2.2.1
ip critical-service 2 upstream_downstream
Various Services, Owners and Content
Load Balancer 2:
!*************************** GLOBAL ***************************
bridge spanning-tree disabled
sntp server 1.1.1.41 version 1
snmp community noway read-only
snmp community noway read-write
app session 1.1.1.251
app
logging subsystem netman level info-6
dns primary 2.2.2.41
dns secondary 2.2.2.42
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 1.1.1.1 1
!************************* INTERFACE *************************
interface e1
phy 100Mbits-FD
description "Connect to Secondary DMZ 1 3550 Switch"
interface e2
bridge vlan 2
phy 100Mbits-FD
description "Connected to Secondary LB Server Switch"
interface e8
description "Inter Switch Communication (ISC) Port"
isc-port-one
!************************** CIRCUIT **************************
circuit VLAN1
description "DMZ 1 Subnet (1.1.1.x/24)"
ip address 1.1.1.252 255.255.255.0
ip virtual-router 1
ip redundant-interface 1 1.1.1.250
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.161
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.162
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.70
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.71
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.72
ip critical-service 1 upstream_downstream
circuit VLAN2
description "Load Balanced Servers Subnet"
ip address 2.2.2.3 255.255.255.0
ip virtual-router 2
ip redundant-interface 2 2.2.2.1
ip critical-service 2 upstream_downstream
Various Services, Owners and Content.

Gilles,
I added the following commands, and things seem to be working.
To circuit VLAN1
ip redundant-vip 1 1.1.1.80
!*************************** GROUP ***************************
group natout
vip address 1.1.1.80
add service nat_web_servers
active
service nat_web_servers
ip address 192.168.1.10 range 3
active
I do have a question about the above service commands.
I have 3 servers behind the CSS. Let's call them 192.168.1.10, 192.168.1.11 and 192.168.1.12. Am I correct in my thinking that adding range 3 then allows a match on all 3 of those servers and the CSS will then PAT these servers from the VIP address assigned to the group?
Otherwise, I think you have resolved this problem for us. Thank you.

CSS 11501 Load Balancing Issue

Hi,
We are facing some issue in load balancing in cisco CSS 11501 as we are not able to access the application through virtual IP. Below is the ruuning configuration of the CSS:
CSS11501# sh running-config
!Generated on 10/06/2010 16:51:34
!Active version: sg0810106
configure
!*************************** GLOBAL ***************************
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 132.186.199.1 1
!************************** CIRCUIT **************************
circuit VLAN1
ip address 132.186.199.145 255.255.255.0
!************************** SERVICE **************************
service Server1
ip address 132.186.199.243
port 5001
protocol tcp
keepalive port 5001
active
service Server2
ip address 132.186.199.246
protocol tcp
port 5001
keepalive port 5001
active
!*************************** OWNER ***************************
owner L5_Owner
content L3_Rule
    vip address 132.186.199.146
    protocol tcp
    port 5001
    add service Server1
    add service Server2
    active
content L5_Rule
    vip address 132.186.199.146
    add service Server1
    add service Server2
    protocol tcp
    port 5001
    url "//132.186.199.146:5001/emi"
    active
CSS11501#
Observation : We are able to telnet on VIP: 132.186.199.146 on port 5001, but not able to access the application.
In Actual scenarion customer access application by accessing URL: http://132.186.199.243:5001/emi and once he enter this URL in web browser the request redirects ( by server itself) to URL: https://132.186.199.44:6002/cas/login?service=http%3A%2F%2F132.186.199.243%3A5001%2Femi%2Findex.jsp&acceptStrength=BASIC on backend server for user authenticaton and once user is authenticated then it again redirect to main URL ( http://132.186.199.243:5001/emi ) to access the application but when we are trying to access the application through VIP ( URL: http://132.186.199.146:5001/emi) we are not getting the login page as the request is not gettting redirected to backend server for user authentication.
Please suggest a solution here.

The problem is that you are in one-armed mode.
So you need to configure client nat.
Without nating the client ip address, the server response goes back directly to the client and bypasses the CSS.
Therefore the client receives a response from an unknown server ip address (not the vip).
So configure a group.
For example
group Client
    vip address 132.186.199.146
    add destination service Server1
     add destination service Server2
    active
Also, remove the url command from your content rule.
It is useless in your case and will just make performance worst.
Gilles.

CSS 11501 Trouble shooting data throughput

I have two groups of servers that talk to each other through the Load Balancer. It appears that on certain transactions where there is a "get", "head" or "trace" in the actual http data, the transaction is not forwarded through the CSS 11501. This happens maybe once in 11,000 transactions. It appears the word get, head or trace has to be in a certain part of the data payload to cause this problem too occur. Has anybody heard of such an issue? If so, do you have a work around? If not, any suggestion on how I can further isolate the issue. FYI I have a TAC case open but it does not appear to be going any where any time soon.

is it happening in the middle of a persistent connection or with the first request ?
There are 2 possibilities I can think off.
First one would be a flow timeout and the next request is just dropped because the css reclaim the fcb.
The 2nd option is that by default the CSS does not support the "TRACE" http method.
It must be enabled.
See info at :
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/contnetw/ps792/products_command_reference_chapter09186a008040c3cf.html
So, configure a flow-timeout-multiplier and enable parsing of rfc2518 methods.
Gilles.

CSS 11501 DNS

Do I need a live internet/DNS environment to test this switch? I have bridged vlan2 to e1. my VIP is set to X.X.X.47 and I have to services set to X.X.X.45 and .46. They both say active. The e1 port is up but my vlan2 is down. I am assuming that the circuit is my problem.
When you define a vlan IP address, the manual says that this is the IP address that the CSS will recieve traffic from, so that would be the virtual IP .47 that links to either .45 or .46 right?
I am suppose to configure 1 web server ip per port on the CSS switch? I currently connect the 2 web servers to a 8 port 10/100 switch and I have a straight ethernet cable from that 10/100 switch to port 1 (e1) on the css Switch.
Are all my port numbers suppose to be configured to 80 since they are being used for HTTP? Am I to use the HTTP keepalive function as well?
I guess any additional info would be great. I guess this isn't a click, click, and go switch like someone said.

Ok. Thanks for the tip on the examples. I have tried to follow them as much as possible and have made progress, but I am still having problems with a few things that i can;t seem to find answers for.
CSS 11501 = IP 10.0.0.49 Subnet 255.255.255.0 Gateway 10.0.0.1
Srv01 = IP 10.1.0.45 Subnet 255.255.255.0 Gateway NONE
Srv02 = IP 10.1.0.46 Subnet 255.255.255.0 Gateway NONE
Dell 2708 = IP 10.0.0.13 subnet 255.255.255.0 Gateway 10.0.0.1
Client = IP 10.0.0.113 subnet 255.255.255.0 Gateway 10.0.0.1
I have Srv01 and Srv02 plugged into the CSS 11501 with IP address listed above. They reside in e7 and e8.
I have a cable from e1 to the dell 2708.
I have a laptop with a cable to the dell 2708.
I have configured a vlan (VLAN10) which includes ports e7 and e8 with an IP interface of 10.1.0.1. Status is active (GREEN)
I have configured two services with Srv01 and Srv02 and the status of both are active (Green)
I have created a content rule which includes both srv01 and srv02 with a VIP of 10.1.0.25. Status is active (green)
So I go to one of the web servers that is plugged into e7 or e8 and I can ping 10.1.0.25 sucessfully on both boxes. But I can only ping each servers IP address on its own box. In otherwords I can't ping cross server. When I try to access 10.1.0.25 from the servers the page doesn't come up. I know the VIP works because I can ping it.
I have also configured a VLAN (VLAN5) for e1 which goes to the dell 2708 with an IP of 10.0.0.48. But the status is down.
I am doing something wrong and can't seem to figure it out. any suggestions? I can diagram a picture in visio if you need a visual aid. I might consider Cisco University after all this.

Getting logs for DOS Attack:Sync Attack on cisco CSS 11501 frequently.

Hi ,
Since couple of weeks , i am getting below DOS attack logs on cisco CSS.Can anyone help me out about how can we avoid this? and how to deal with it.
04/23/2011 17:27:28:Enterprise:DOS Attack:SYN Attack -> 10 times
04/23/2011 17:30:15:Enterprise:DOS Attack:SYN Attack -> 10 times
04/24/2011 11:20:32:Enterprise:DOS Attack:SYN Attack -> 11 times
04/24/2011 11:24:48:Enterprise:DOS Attack:SYN Attack -> 12 times
04/24/2011 15:30:42:Enterprise:DOS Attack:SYN Attack -> 10 times
Thanks
Manish

Hi Nicolas,
Why i am asking about DOS attack as i am facing some issues for the 2 VIPs configured in cisco CSS 11501.
Can you help me troubleshooting the issue?
I have coming across some Load Balancing issues for the 2 VIPS configured on Cisco CSS11501.
We have cisco CSS 11501. We have 2 VIPs configured on it for FE and BE servers.Now Client calls to FE VIP and LB forwarding it to server and then FE server calls the BE VIP which goes through the same LB and forward to BE server under the VIP.When we start load test, we have observed after 2 hour test, application team getting HTTP timeout.As this application is used by Call center so getting timeout is bad.
Need to troubleshoot this issue if there is any problem from LB End.
Please find the attached file for VIP configs.

CSS 11501S GSLB DNS

Hi
I am in the process of planning for a GSLB failover solution for a web site. I have attached a very basic diagram showing an example of the topology.
The aim is to have two sites. A primary site and a DR site to be used as a failover solution.
The main site has two web servers that will need to be load balanced and the failover DR site will only have 1 web server.
My initial plan was to use 2 Cisco CSS 11501S devices as I believe this would provide the load balancing and GSLB functionality I require.
To achieve this I was going to use the CSS's as the primary and secondary name servers for the domain. This has raised a few question marksâ¦.
Both of our sites are connected to a private WAN (with private IP ranges). See attached diagram. Our internet access is provide through a third party âFirewall Portâ directly off the WAN. We don't manage the firewall that connects to the internet. This third party firewall provides the NAT for our public facing services (web servers, mail servers, ftp servers etc).
So my questions areâ¦
* Because the CSS's and web servers are located on a private network will the CSS's be able to respond to the DNS requests with the PUBLIC IP address (as seeen from the internet) of the servers as apposed to the private IP address of the servers? If the firewall in front of the CSS's was connected to the internet this could be done via DNS doctoring but our firewall is on a private subnet!
* Is it possible to get the CSS's to respond to DNS requests for other domain devices that do not reside behind the CSS - E.g. a MX record for a mail server that resides on another 'private' network?
*Is there a better way to achieve this?
Any assistance would be much appreciated!!

Thanks for the reponse Gilles. When you say
"If you configure the css to answer with the public ip address, you can't access your vip from the internal network anymore."
Do you mean that you will only get the public ip address from a DNS query and therefore this won't work locally?
If I have a host file entry providing the private address resolution for my internal hosts will this work?
"Also, be aware we do not support GSLB on the CSS anymore.
So, if this is a new install, it is better to start with a solution that we support - GSS"
Why is this no longer supported? Are there a lot of problems with GSLB on the CSS? It is pretty hard to justify the cost of a solution including 2 GSS's for GSLB and 1 CSS for server load balancing when comapred to the price of 2 CSS's with the enhanced license for both GSLB and server load balancing.
I have one client that wants to use their existing CSS's for a solution like this and another that is starting from scratch.
Thanks

High CPU utilization on CSS 11501 version sg0750303

Hi everyone,
I have the problem about High CPU utilization on CSS 11501 version sg0750303.
Our customer has used one pair of CSS 11501 (active-standby).
As a matter of convenience, called "Old CSS" after here in this post.
However traffic via Old CSS had been increasing so customer decided to add one more
pair (active-standby) of CSS to separate traffic.
Yesterday we installed new two CSS 11501 version sg0750303 (active-standby).
As a matter of convenience, called "New CSS" after here in this post.
Today, active CSS 11501 and standby CSS 11501 which were installed yesterday (New CSSs)
indicates High CPU utilization.
Active CSS 11501:
Peak CPU utilization: about 85%
Average CPU Utilization: about 60%
Standby CSS 11501:
Peak CPU utilization: about 40%
Average CPU Utilization: unknown
I do not understand why CPU utilization of both New CSSs become high.
The traffic pass through New CSS less than Old CSS, because the traffic is separated into
Old CSS and New CSS.
And CSS's configuration parameters (service, content, access-list) also less than Old CSS,
because real servers are also separated into Old CSS and New CSS.
Old CSS indicated average of CPU utilization about 20% before installing New CSSs yesterday,
in spite of all traffic pass through Old CSS only.
I wrote "New CSS remains High CPU utilization", however end users do not feel the
performance issue (e.g., performance delay, communication failure and so on) and
the traffic pass through New CSS normally.
So I have the question "CSS 11501 sg0750303 remains High CPU utilization on normal situation ?"
And customer uses MTRG to poll SNMP for Old CSSs and New CSSs.
So I have the question "CSS 11501 sg0750303 become High CPU utilization in case of receiving
SNMP polling ?".
Or if this situation is abnormal we need to start investigation.
Would you please let me know how do we investigate this situation.
I found the DDTS CSCek57080 "Performance issue using arrowpoint-cookie with ASR".
Release note of this DDTS says that
A customer was using a CSS pair configuration where arrowpoint-cookie
is being used along with a redundant-index on many content rules. When
the flow rate increased to a few hundred flows/sec, the peer message
queue of the CSS receiving ASR related message began to fill up.
When the peer message queue became over subscribed, the CPU increased
and the CSS became unstable.
New CSSs have configured redunrant-index on two content rules, and end users do not feel the
performance issue (e.g., performance delay, communication failure and so on) and
the traffic pass through New CSS normally.
So I think this DDTS does not related to this case.
Your information would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,

Gilles,
Thank you very much for your cooperation.
I got the capture you instructed us.
The following are additional information from our customer.
At time user traffic path through the active CSS, active CSS indicates;
CPU utilization always range of 30% - 40%
Peak CPU utilization about 60% - 80%
At time there is no user traffic pass through active CSS, active CSS indicates;
CPU utilization always range of 0% - 5%
Attached files are named "Active CSS.log" and "Standby CSS.log".
"Active CSS.log" is captured on active CSS and "Standby CSS.log" is captured on
standby CSS.
I found the following process is using resource by looking the output of
"shell 1 1 spyReport" command.
On active CSS,
tFlowMgrPktR 8ba24070 50 26% ( 1469) 20% ( 26)
On standby CSS,
fmPeerMsgTas 8a511510 50 16% ( 176) 10% ( 7)
Your comment would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,

I am having an MacBok Pro 13inch,having an Startup Problem, the time i press the power button after few seconds the apple symbol appears w/a loading sign below it

i am having an MacBook Pro 13inch , having an Startup Problem , the time i press the power button after few seconds the apple symbol appears with a loading sign below it and wont go further ahead of it . My data is all in the hard drive .. . I even tried the Internet recovery but no use !!!! but still no respons and the recovery and macintosh hd is now lock! but earlier only the recovery is lock and after both of them is lock. i can reinstall,... and i didnt try to back up any data bec i dont know how? so please help me to resolve my prroblem.?

luoie wrote:
This thing happend,, it say Disk utility stopped repairing "Macintosh HD" disk utility can't repair this disk
Sorry, possibly you need a new hard drive or try reformating. First
you can try something like http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/ it has been known to repair disk that DiskUtility could not. YMMV and they don't give it away.
If Disk Warrior can not repair then you need to Reformate the drive. Make sure you have a back-up in place no matter what.
http://www.apple.com/support/backup/
Disk Utility will tell you something about it's SMART status:

I am having a Startup problem. Someone comes on the screen with Open Firmware to Startup. How can I reset the PRAM myself to solve this problem?

I am having a Startup problem. Someone comes on the screen with Open Firmware to Startup. How can I reset the PRAM myself to solve this problem?

Read these.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330118-263.html

Dual Monitor Startup Problem on MacPro - Solved

I have a model 53135LL/A = mid 2010 MacPro with 8 cores, DUAL monitor cards and monitors, 24GB memory, running Lion 10.7.3. It is important to note that I am also using the Apple bluetooth Magic Mouse and the smaller, bluetooth keyboard (no numeric keypad). This unit was supplied with Lion in December 2011 and has had a startup problem from the beginning as follows:
1 - when starting from a cold start the dual monitor positions are reversed from the correct position
2 - additionally the USB and firewire connected devices (e.g. Wacom tablet, 2 card readers) do not function properly.
The workaround for me has been to start the system, wait for the logon screen, then click restart. Upon restart everything comes up and functions correctly.
Specifics on my setup and starting problems:
1 - My main monitor (Monitor #2) is a large gamut monitor that is located to the right. This monitor is connected to card slot 1 as that is the faster card slot (pcx16). The second monitor (Monitor #1) is an ordinary unit and connected to card slot 2 (pcx4). The monitors are set up as an extended desktop.
2. The Wacom tablet (Intuous 3 wide) is connected to USB port on rear of machine. CF card reader by Delkin is connected to Firewire on rear of machine, and an SD card reader is connected to USB on the rear of the machine.
3. My dock is positioned on the left side of the left monitor. The menu bar is along the top of the left monitor, and all desktop icons are on the left monitor. The right monitor has no items on it.
On a typical cold start, as mentioned above, the apple logo appears on the right and then the logon screen appears on the right.
If I proceed to logon at that point, all the desktop items move to the right monitor and the computer thinks the positions are reversed. In other words, it behaves as though the right monitor (#2) is on the left of the desktop and left monitor (#1) is on the right.
Additionally, the Wacom tablet using either pen or mouse does not map over the full desktop range. If I use either card reader and then eject the card, no further card insertions will be recognized.
To fix this, I simply restart the machine thru the apple menu and everything comes up correctly.
I had discovered, that instead of completing the logon on a bad cold start, I could simply restart from the logon screen and all would work correctly.
On occasion, the logon screen would come up on the left monitor (as it should do) and in that case, if I log on all works correctly.
I have worked with Apple support on the phone, clearing setup ram etc. Have had the unit in to Apple store for hardware check, all OK. Next suggestion was reload OS and start over - no thanks.
SO - Here is the latest.
If I turn off my keyboard and mouse before starting the machine, then wait for the logon screen to appear - It starts correctly, with the logon screen on the left. I can then turn on my keyboard and mouse and all works as it should.
Bottom line - there appears to be a startup issue with Bluetooth devices from a cold start. Note that once the machine has been used for a bit, I can turn it off for short periods of time (e.g. 30 minutes) and it will start correctly even with the mouse and keyboard turned on.

mkaito wrote:
That's how dwm behaves. I believe dwm's multihead support is rather lackluster out of the box. You might want to check out some of the patches they have, and ask around in the dwm hackers thread.
I currently have dwm simply draw status on all monitors, but I'm investigating separate status bars per monitor. We'll see where that takes me. Dwm is a tinker's WM!
i found the patch , thanks!

After a startup problem with my macbook pro i put it as slave and formatted the internal Hard drive. Now i want to install OS X Mavericks from USB

After a startup problem with my macbook pro i put it as slave and formatted the internal Hard drive. Now i want to install OS X Mavericks from USB
How can i do that?

What did you "put as slave?" What Mac model do you have, exactly?

Can anyone diagnose my startup problem from this screen pattern?

After failing to startup my Mac on about 8 consecutive attempts today, I finally got it to boot up, and now I'm afraid to turn it off for fear that I won't be able to re-boot.
Here's a photo of what kept happening:
http://www.doctorkeys.com/startup-problem-screen.html
This screen came up immediately, along with the spinning cog and the apple logo, both rather faint. But then those two disappeared, and all that was left was the gray screen with the pattern as shown in the photo. And that's as far as I got each time.
The display itself seems to be fine, because even when I couldn't use it with the Mac Pro, I was able to hook it up to my MacBook Pro and it worked fine.
Can anybody tell me what's happening?
Thanks,
Bruce Siegel
Message was edited by: Bruce Siegel

Hi-
To be honest, though, I was hoping that the pattern in the photo was so specific and common that someone would look at it and say, "Oh, of course! I've seen THAT one before. Do this and your problem is solved."
I have seen graphics cards produce that type of screen as a result of a few of situations.
One, if the card is miss seated.
One other is if a capacitor on the card has failed, while VRAM failure is another cause.
The first case is easy to fix; remove and reseat.
The second and third require replacement of the failed graphics card.
Cleaning the gold contacts with 99% isopropyl alcohol and thoroughly dusting the card while it is out is a good idea.
I have been able to replace a bad capacitor to restore a card, but luck was a big part of determining which one it was....

Startup problem with Lion OS 10.7.3

Just recently, I've been experiencing a startup problem with Lion. I don't usually have any issues running my Mac, so I'm at a loss why this is happening now.
I have an Intel Mac Pro running 10.7.3. I usually leaving my Mac running all the time and only restart when the need arises. In addition to being my main computer, this mac alsocontrols a MacMini that serves as a music server thru screen sharing.
This past weekend, I restarted my Mac and could not get past the grey screen. The mac chimes, the apple logo appears with the spinning gear, the blue screen briefly appears, but instead of progressing to the desktop it reverts to the grey screen with a repeating cycle of the spinning gear appearing (spins for a while, stops, disappears, reppears spinning, stops, disappears, over and over) - never progressing beyond that stage.
I decided to reinstall the system and things have been fine for the past few days. Today, restarting again resulting in the same problem.
I've tried several things without success. I disconnected all peripherals, reset the PRAM/SMC, ran Disk Utility from a install volume and ran repair and permissions (no problems reported). Tried safe mode startup - a progress bar appeared but never fully progressed and could not get to the desktop.
Recent changes included updating the OS to 10.7.3 and Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 - no recent hardware changes. No bluetooth devices connected.
Any thoughts? Thanks -

Thanks -
I've reinstalled the OS today and am back up and running.
But, since this is twice this has happened within the past week, I'm worried about might be causing this issue - besides bad luck. My Mac is usually rock solid - can't remember the last time I've had to reinstall the OS in the past few generations of OS X.

CSS 11501 StartUp Problem

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