[UCI-Linux] More tales of horror from the linux raid crypt
Dan STROMBERG
STROMBRG at uci.edu
Fri Jun 17 10:29:54 PDT 2005
Sorry to hear this is such a hassle.
I guess the main thing I want to add is "Ultimate Boot CD":
http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/
On Fri, 2005-06-17 at 10:00 -0700, Harry Mangalam wrote:
> short version: test ALL your disks before you use them, especially the
> 'recertified' ones.
>
> long version: An FYI for anyone who uses disks in their computers... and
> definitely for those thinking of setting up either software or hardware raids
>
> I refer you to previous posts to this list about the detailed background, but
> it's briefly alluded to at the end of this list - more failures of the HW
> RAID on a dual opteron running ubuntu linux amd64-k8-SMP.
>
> I pulled the 3ware controller and used the onboard Silicon Image controller to
> run diagnostic SMART tests on all the 'recertified' SD-series disks that came
> back from WD. It's probably possible to use the 3ware controller (someone of
> the linux raid list indicated he did so), but I wanted the 3ware controller
> out of the loop because we suspected it as well. I used the linux command
> 'smartctl -t long /dev/sdx (where x=a-d). smartctl is part of the
> smartmontools package and can be used to test SATA disks as well as PATA
> disks (altho I've been told that the kernel has to be patched to do this -
> I'm using a Ubuntu-supplied kernel which works out-of-the-box). The long test
> lasts about 90 minutes for a 250GB disk and can be performed in parallel on
> each disk.
>
> 5 (FIVE!) of them (out of 9 returned from WD) failed that test - either they
> already had logged errors (SMART devices store their last 5 errors to their
> onboard memory), or they failed the short test (~2 minutes) or they failed
> the long test with unrecoverable errors. They're on their way back to WD for
> other replacements
>
> However, these are a superset of the disks that the 3ware controller failed on
> when being used for an array (see the message below) - I now think that the
> problem is either with the power supply (possible, but unlikely) or the disks
> (definitely), as well as the hotswap cages (definitely). I'm pretty sure
> that the controller is fine - it's been running with 5 disks in RAID5 for
> several days now with no errors or warnings at all.
>
> That makes me extremely suspicious of WD's 'recertified' drives, but that's
> the only avenue we have to get replacements right now. And I'll be dang sure
> to test ALL of them before I store data on them.
>
> I do have to reiterate, now that I've been running bonnie++ on both the SW
> RAID5 (on 4 disks - all that the onboard controller would control) and on the
> 3ware-controlled RAID5 that the SW is slightly faster and actually seems to
> use about as much CPU time as the 3ware in these tests. It's also more
> flexible in terms of how you set up and partition the devices. It's also so
> MUCH cheaper - using the onboard SATA controller and a $20 4 port SATA
> controller, I could control the same number of disks as the 3ware (8) but the
> 3ware costs $500. The big advantage of the 3ware controller is (relative)
> simplicity. Plug in controller, plug in disks, hit power switch, go into
> 3ware BIOS, allocate disks to a RAID unit, boot the OS, make a filesystem on
> the /dev/sdx and mount it. You can set/get some basic configuration and
> information from the 3ware utilities but not to the extent that you can with
> mdadm and the related utils.
>
>
> post below is to a 3ware support tech.
>
> > > As a reminder of the system, it's currently
> > > - dual opteron IWILL DK8X Mobo, Gb ethernet
> > > - Silicon image 4port SATA controller onboard (now disabled),
> > > - 3ware 9500S 8 port card running 8x250GB WD 2500SD disks in RAID5.
> > > - Disks are in 2x 4slot Chenbro hotswap RAID cages.
> > > - running kubuntu Linux in pure 64bit mode (altho bringing up KDE
> > > currently locks the system in some configurations)
> > > - using kernel image 2.6.11-1-amd64-k8-smp as a kubuntu debian install
> > > (NOT custom-compiled)
> > > - OS is running from a separate WD 200GB IDE disk
> > > (which recently bonked at 3 months old, replaced by WD without
> > > complaint.) - on an APC UPS (runnning apcupsd communicating thru a usb
> > > cable)
> > >
> > > The 9500 that you sent to me was put into service as soon as we got
> > > enough SD disks to make a raid5 - 3 of them, on ports 0-2, in the 1st
> > > hotswap cage.
> > >
> > > During that time, the array stayed up and seemed to be stable over about
> > > 1 week of heavy testing. Once we got all the disks replace with SD
> > > disks, I set it up as 8 disks in a RAID5 and things seemed to be fine for
> > > about a day. Then, the disk on port 3 had problems. I replaced it and
> > > again it appeared to go bad. I then disconnected it from the hotswap
> > > cage and connected it directly to the controller. That seemed to solve
> > > that problem, so there definitely is a problem with one hotswap cage -
> > > it's being replaced.
> > >
> > >
> > > However after that incident, there have been 3 more with disks on the
> > > other hotswap cage, on different ports, one of port 6 (4 warnings of:
> > > Sector repair completed: port=6, LBA=0x622CE39, and then the error:
> > > Degraded unit detected: unit=0, port=6. I wasn't sure if it was a
> > > seating error or a real disk error, so I pulled the disk and re-seated it
> > > (and the controller accepted it fine) but then after it rebuilt the
> > > array, it failed again on that port. OK, I replaced the drive. Then
> > > port 7 reported:(0x04:0x0023): Sector repair completed: port=7,
> > > LBA=0x2062320
> > >
> > > I started a series of copy and read/write tests to make sure the array
> > > was stable under load, and then just as the array filled up, it failed
> > > again, this time again on port 3: (0x04:0x0002): Degraded unit detected:
> > > unit=0, port=3 (this port is connected directly to the controller).
> > >
> > > And this morning, I saw that yet another drive looks like it has failed
> > > or at least is unresponsive:(0x04:0x0009): Drive timeout detected: port=5
> > >
> > > Discounting the incidents that seem to be related to the bad hotswap
> > > cage, that's still 4 disks (with MTBF of 1Mhr) that have gone bad in 2
> > > days.
> > >
> > > I then connected all the disks directly to the controller to remove all
> > > hotswap cage influence, and the disk on port 3 almost immediately was
> > > marked bad - I have to say that this again sounds like a controller
> > > problem. An amazing statistical convergence of random disk failures?
> > > Electrical failure (the system is on a relatively good APC UPS (SMART UPS
> > > 1000), so the voltage supply should be good, and no other problems have
> > > been seen. I guess I could throw the Power supply on a scope to see if
> > > it's stable, but there have been no other such glitches (unless it's an
> > > uneven power supply that is causing the disks to die).
> > >
> > > Currently most of the disks that were marked bad by the 3ware controller
> > > are being tested under the onboard silicon image controller in a raid5
> > > config. I'll test over the weekend to see what they do.
>
> At this point I tested the disks using the smartctl, and found out the bad
> ones. The SW RAID stayed up without errors until I brought it down to
> install the 3ware controller.
>
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