System shutdown with message "received event "button/power PWRF 00000080 00000001"" in /var/log/acpid or any syslog file

Environment

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (All Versions)
• acpid

Issue

• Server found in "powered down" state
• System shutdown after ACPID Event "button/power PWRF 00000080 00000001"

Resolution

• The "acpid" is Advanced Configuration and Power Interface event daemon which is designed to notify user-space programs of ACPI events.

• There are several potential reasons for ACPI PWRF events, but they all link back to a loss of power on the system:

  • This can happen if someone presses the "Power button" on machine
  • Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) failure
  • Synthetic 'power button' events generated by ACPI for things like thermal failure or power regulation failure

Root Cause

• The server was powered off because "acpid" daemon received a hardware event to shutdown the server
• The events can be verified from the messages logged in /var/log/acpid file

For example:

From: /var/log/acpid 

[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] received event "button/power PWRF 00000080 00000001"   
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] notifying client 5295[68:68]
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] notifying client 22802[0:0]
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] executing action "/bin/ps awwux | /bin/grep gnome-power-manager | /bin/grep -qv grep || /sbin/shutdown -h now" 
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] BEGIN HANDLER MESSAGES
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] END HANDLER MESSAGES
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] action exited with status 0
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] completed event "button/power PWRF 00000080 00000001"
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:22 2013] exiting
[Fri Feb 15 15:13:25 2013] starting up

Diagnostic Steps

• Check shutdown message in /var/log/messages file.

$ grep -i shutdown /var/log/messages
Feb 15 14:00:18 server1 shutdown[17954]: shutting down for system halt

• Check following messages in /var/log/acpid file.

[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] received event "button/power PWRF 00000080 00000001"   
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] notifying client 5295[68:68]
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] notifying client 22802[0:0]
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] executing action "/bin/ps awwux | /bin/grep gnome-power-manager | /bin/grep -qv grep || /sbin/shutdown -h now" 
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] BEGIN HANDLER MESSAGES
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] END HANDLER MESSAGES
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] action exited with status 0
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:18 2013] completed event "button/power PWRF 00000080 00000001"
[Fri Feb 15 14:00:22 2013] exiting
[Fri Feb 15 15:13:25 2013] starting up

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