replace one disk in isw RAID1 array

Aaron Hanson a.hanson at f5.com
Wed Dec 1 17:20:30 UTC 2010


Hello Martin -
Comments in-line;

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ataraid-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:ataraid-list-
> bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Martin Diaz, Luis
> Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 2:02 AM
> To: ATARAID (eg, Promise Fasttrak, Highpoint 370) related discussions
> Subject: RE: replace one disk in isw RAID1 array
> 
> Dear Hanson
> 
> I could see your problem is generated by a exchange of disk. When you
> install the new disk and the raid-card make the raid, it generate a new
> number of fake raid, completely different to the ancient number.
> 
> I have had that problem and I solved it bootloading the server with a "tools
> distribution-disk" like the fantastic (at last for me) systemrescuecd with the
> option "dodmraid" at prompt boot. When the distribuition has loaded the
> server, already I could type all the differents orders of dmraid system like
> "dmraid -s". So I could see the new number of fakeraid. This number is too
> important to write it because you have to decompress the initrd of your
> server, looking for the old fake-raid number and exchange it.
> 
[Aaron Hanson] 
I think I understand the situation you are describing; the root device cannot be found by the kernel during boot because it includes the name of the RAID, which has changed.  That is not the case for me. As you can see in my earlier note, the name of the RAID set for me is ' isw_bdidaifdia_Raid1'; it is missing one member, but the name has not changed.  It is true that the system is unable to boot after one member has been removed (this is worrisome too). But I'm already doing as you suggested; I'm net-booting to a rescue linux system to inspect the ataraid state and try to fix it.  I have all the typical disk management tools at my disposal, including 'dmraid'.  The final error messages from dmraid that I think are most significant are:

bash (try 'info') lib > dmraid -dR isw_bdidaifdia_Raid1 /dev/sdb
<snip>
ERROR: isw: only one failed disk supported
metadata fmt update failed

Thanks for your response.
-Aaron




More information about the Ataraid-list mailing list