ext3 kernel panic

[Jack Neely]

On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 10:22:46AM -0600, Eric Sandeen wrote:
> Jack Neely wrote:
> > Folks,
> > 
> > I have a RHEL 3 production Cyrus IMAP server that has kernel paniced
> > twice in as many weeks with something similar to the below.  The /imap
> > partition (where the IO was in question) is about 98% full with about
> > 6.2G free and is hosted on a fiber connected EMC Clariion lun.
> > Currently running kernel 2.4.21-15.0.4.ELsmp.
> > 
> > I know things are old here, and the machine is on the upgrade list, but
> > I need to do due diligence to figure out how serious this error is.
> > Does anyone have any advice why this is happening?
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Jack Neely
> > 
> 
> That's not only an old distro, but an un-updated installation.  I'd get
> the latest RHEL3 kernel and peruse the changelog, for starters, to see
> if it looks like this might have been fixed (although I don't see
> anything offhand).
> 
> -Eric
> 

I'm caught between a rock and a hard place due to the EMC PowerPath
binary only kernel crack.  Which makes it painful to both me and my
customers to regularly upgrade the kernel.  Not to mention the EMC
supportability matrix of doom.

I have 11 other imap servers configured identically that are not
regularly panicing.  I'm trying to figure out what specifically could be
affecting this one machine or that isn't affecting the others.  The only
change log entry that seems close is:

    - fix O_SYNC EIO error propagation through ext3/jbd (Stephen
      Tweedie)

from kernel-2.4.21-34.EL.  Is that anywhere close?

Jack

-- 
Jack Neely <jjneely at ncsu.edu>
Linux Czar, OIT Campus Linux Services
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
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