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Software RAID troubleshoot
Once, after upgrading my desktop slackware64 from 14.1 to 14.2 (with kernel upgrade too),
i be done with system, who,after lilo menu,
write “loading kernel ………………………..”
and then stops completely - nothing more.
Initial configuration was:
Intel DG965SS motherboard, core 2 duo 2.2 gHz E4500 CPU, 8 Gb RAM,
2 x 1000 Gb Seagate SATA HDD ( as sda and sdb)
ST1000DM003-1CH1
, dvd-writer on sata4 port
both seagate discs is partitioned as FD type ( linux autodetect raid) and 4 partitions ( mbr type) -
- 100 Gb root (md1)
- 2 Gb swap (md2)
- 350 Gb /home (md3)
- 550 Gb /Second (md4)
cat /proc/mdstat :
Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid10] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [multipath] md1 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1] 104857536 blocks [2/2] [UU] md2 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1] 2097088 blocks [2/2] [UU] md3 : active raid1 sda3[0] sdb3[1] 367001536 blocks [2/2] [UU] md4 : active raid1 sda4[0] sdb4[1] 502805120 blocks [2/2] [UU] unused devices: <none>
mdadm -Es :
ARRAY /dev/md1 UUID=7cc47bea:832f8260:208cdb8d:9e23b04b ARRAY /dev/md2 UUID=cce81d3a:78965aa5:208cdb8d:9e23b04b ARRAY /dev/md3 UUID=f0bc71fc:8467ef54:208cdb8d:9e23b04b ARRAY /dev/md4 UUID=3f4daae2:cbf37a2a:208cdb8d:9e23b04b
# for p in 1 2 3 4; do mdadm –create /dev/md$p –name=$p –level=1 –raid-devices 2 /dev/sda$p /dev/sdb$p –metadata=0.90; done
My "fall" and "sucess" story
I have slackware64 14.1 system with raid1 on two discs.
no any mdadm.conf configuration, no any initrd -i use “huge” kernel, and all just works right.
Then i do massive system update via slackpkg update-all, including kernel update too.
check lilo.conf, restart - all looks ok. then i decide to upgrade system to 14.2 via the same slackpkg
( looks like live on macos is too boring, too predictable - all work, and so on…:D )
always, i check lilo.conf, check the new kernel is named right, have no old kernel for backup -
only one entry in lilo ( who was not good thing at all! ), and do reboot.
Then all interesting things start!!! :)
I have LiLo menu, kernel start loading. it show lots of “…” but then all stop, and nothing more do. That was indicated some problems with lilo updating, i suppose. I want to boot, and re-run lilo -v As so, i booting from Slackware64 Live CD http://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware-live/ from AlienBob, and try mount my root partition for run lilo again.
But - there was a big problem!
there no my /dev/md1, /dev/md2, /dev/md3 and /dev/md4 after i load via slackware live CD!
and my lilo.conf was that:
# LILO configuration file # generated by 'liloconfig' # # Start LILO global section # Append any additional kernel parameters: append=" vt.default_utf8=1" boot = /dev/sda #compact # faster, but won't work on all systems. # Boot BMP Image. # Bitmap in BMP format: 640x480x8 bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp # Menu colors (foreground, background, shadow, highlighted # foreground, highlighted background, highlighted shadow): bmp-colors = 255,0,255,0,255,0 # Location of the option table: location x, location y, number of # columns, lines per column (max 15), "spill" (this is how many # entries must be in the first column before the next begins to # be used. We don't specify it here, as there's just one column. bmp-table = 60,6,1,16 # Timer location x, timer location y, foreground color, # background color, shadow color. bmp-timer = 65,27,0,255 # Standard menu. # Or, you can comment out the bitmap menu above and # use a boot message with the standard menu: #message = /boot/boot_message.txt # Wait until the timeout to boot (if commented out, boot the # first entry immediately): prompt # Timeout before the first entry boots. # This is given in tenths of a second, so 600 for every minute: timeout = 1200 # Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table: change-rules reset # Normal VGA console vga = normal # Ask for video mode at boot (time out to normal in 30s) #vga = ask # VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k #vga=791 # VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k #vga=790 # VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256 #vga=773 # VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k #vga=788 # VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k #vga=787 # VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256 #vga=771 # VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k #vga=785 # VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k #vga=784 # VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256 #vga=769 # End LILO global section # Linux bootable partition config begins image = /boot/vmlinuz root = /dev/md1 label = Linux read-only # Linux bootable partition config ends
so i do some research, do dmesg |grep md
and from array size found out, what number was my root partition ( it was 100 gb size). it was md126.
i mount it: mount /dev/md126 /mnt/hd
then i run mc, and check, i was really mount there my root partition.
then i do in console chroot /mnt/hd /sbin/lilo -v 3
but - lilo command end with error - it was cannot find root partition - /dev/md1.
That was problem, because now /dev/md1 was become as /dev/md126 for whatever reason. Then, i do some reading about RAID subsystems, forums and so on, made some mistakes and experiments, who resulted on these shortcuts:
I made array assembling strings in mdadm.conf:
mdadm -Db /dev/md127 » /mnt/hd/etc/mdadm.conf
mdadm -Db /dev/md126 » /mnt/hd/etc/mdadm.conf mdadm -Db /dev/md125 » /mnt/hd/etc/mdadm.conf mdadm -Db /dev/md124 » /mnt/hd/etc/mdadm.conf
get something like that in end of mdadm.conf:
#ARRAY /dev/md125 metadata=0.90 UUID=7cc47bea:832f8260:208cdb8d:9e23b04b #100 gb partition: \ md1 #ARRAY /dev/md124 metadata=0.90 UUID=f0bc71fc:8467ef54:208cdb8d:9e23b04b # 375 gb partition - \home - md3 #ARRAY /dev/md126 metadata=0.90 UUID=3f4daae2:cbf37a2a:208cdb8d:9e23b04b # 514 Gb partition - second-md4 #ARRAY /dev/md127 metadata=0.90 UUID=cce81d3a:78965aa5:208cdb8d:9e23b04b # 2 Gb partition - swap - md2
then, based on dmesg | grep md and /mnt/hd/etc/fstab i found out which md12x must be md1, md2, md3 and md4, and write it there after £ as shown.
then i edit it to become in right way:
ARRAY /dev/md1 metadata=0.90 UUID=7cc47bea:832f8260:208cdb8d:9e23b04b ARRAY /dev/md2 metadata=0.90 UUID=cce81d3a:78965aa5:208cdb8d:9e23b04b ARRAY /dev/md3 metadata=0.90 UUID=f0bc71fc:8467ef54:208cdb8d:9e23b04b ARRAY /dev/md4 metadata=0.90 UUID=3f4daae2:cbf37a2a:208cdb8d:9e23b04b
also i wrote in mdadm.conf that string, just to be sure, hostname do not affect raid naming:
HOMEHOST <ignore>
then i made mdadm_stop_127.scr script:
#!/bin/sh echo "stopping md127" mdadm --stop /dev/md127 echo "stopping md126" mdadm --stop /dev/md126 echo "stopping md125" mdadm --stop /dev/md125 echo "stopping md124" mdadm --stop /dev/md124 ##mdadm --assemble --scan #-As
copy it to livesystem root, copy my edited mdadm.conf from /mnt/hd/etc/mdadm.conf to livesystem /etc, and umount /dev/md125
and then i run it my mdadm_stop_127.scr
i see, all that arrays be stopped, and then i run:
mdadm -As
then i see
cat /proc/mdstat
i see, all my RAID become as it must be - /dev/md1, md2, md3, and md4!
then i do
mount my root hdd again:
mount /dev/md1 /mnt/hd
and do
chroot /mnt/hd /sbin/lilo -v 3
all looks good. i do restart
shutdown -r now
( or press ctrl +alt+ del)
after restart i see, system start loading, and went after previously dead point. i get to login screen, log in as root, and see, there is md1 ( root) and md2 ( swap), but no md3 and md4 ( instead of it i have these /home and /Second arrays as md125 and md124).
Thats look very strange and unlogical, as all raid arrays var create about same time, and was similar - but half of it get right numbers, and half - not. now i try different thing - disable raid autodetect on kernel, before root fs is mounted, and mdadm.conf is available for md module:
i restart machine, press tab on LiLo prompt, and use kernel parameters:
Linux raid=noautodetect md=1,/dev/sda1,/dev/sdb1
that says kernel not to autodetect raid arrays, but assemble md1 raid ( md=1) from /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 partition, because without root kernel system cant start.
as i load system in that way, all looks right - there was /dev/md1, md2, md3 and md4.
then i just do system restart, without any kernel parameters, and all again going to be right - md1 till md4.
looks like, system writes something in RAID arrays superblock, or metadata, or something like that, about previously gived md name, because, if not, after restart i must get again situation as previously - with md1, md2, md125 and ,d124…
that was, in a most, all of story. yet, there is some another workarounds of that situation.
Workarounds for incorrect raid devices naming
- 1. Using UUID in lilo ( i do not check this), and in fstab for mounting partitions.
do a ls /dev/disk/by-uuid/
or better, go in that location with midnight commander, and youl see, there is a “files” named as numbers - that was the raid array disk uuid - and symlink to /dev/mdx.
/dev/md2 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/md1 / ext4 defaults 1 1 ##/dev/md3 /home ext4 defaults 1 2 /dev/disk/by-uuid/ef92814a-2db1-4d47-8d70-4c5a8d56e287 /home ext4 defaults 1 2 /dev/md4 /Second ext4 defaults 1 2 #/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,owner,ro,comment=x-gvfs-show 0 0 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
take a note! disk UUID by
/dev/disk/by-uuid/
and that one, who you get via mdadm -D mdadm -Db mdadm -Es
differ! in fstab ( lilo too?) you must use UID from /dev/disk/by-uuid/ !
- 2. Using initramd.
# # mkinitrd_command_generator.sh revision 1.45 # # This script will now make a recommendation about the command to use # in case you require an initrd image to boot a kernel that does not # have support for your storage or root filesystem built in # (such as the Slackware 'generic' kernels'). # A suitable 'mkinitrd' command will be:
#/usr/share/mkinitrd/
mkinitrd -c -k 3.2.29 -f ext4 -r /dev/md1 -m mbcache:jbd2:ext4 -R -u -o /boot/initrd.gz
rightly edited mdadm.conf then must be copied in/boot/tree??? before you run this mkinitrd conf.
after you run that mkinitrd, you must update lilo.
Useful commands in this case
mdadm -Es mdadm -As
mdadm -D /dev/md127 mdadm -Db /dev/md127
lsscsi cat /proc/mdstat ls /dev/disk/by-uuid/
dmesg |grep md
chroot /mnt/hd /sbin/lilo -v 3
mdadm –stop /dev/md127
kernel options:
Useful Links:
Sources
Originally written by — John Ciemgals 2016/11/26 04:50
Rewrited with used materials from “Links” and LinuxQuestions.org Slackware forum, especially user bassmadrigal and bormant from linux.org.ru help — John Ciemgals 2016/11/26 09:15