Failed Drives in Software RAID

[Edward]

Shane Archer wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am trying to set up a software RAID5 on FC3, and having a heckuva time.
> 
> The computer is configured like this:
> 
> /boot and / are on a drive that is plugged into the motherboard's SATA0 
> port.
> Three 160GB WD drives are plugged into a Promise SATA150TX2 controller.
> The motherboard is an Intel SE7520AF2 server board.
> 
> The problem is, whenever I go to create the array, one drive always gets 
> reported as failed. I have done repeated surface scans on the drives 
> (using both fsck and badblocks) and I am quite certain the drives are 
> alright. On top of that, when the array starts building, the system 
> eventually locks up, without fail.
> 
> So the question becomes, where might I best troubleshoot this? Could it 
> be a software problem? A hardware problem? Has anybody had problems with 
> the Promise card in FC3?
> 
> Here's the mdadm command I am using:
> 
> # mdadm -Cv /dev/md0 -l5 -n3 -c128 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd
> 
> And here's the log after running it:
> 
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: md: bind<sdb>
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: md: bind<sdc>
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: md: bind<sdd>
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: raid5: automatically using best 
> checksumming function: pIII_sse
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel:    pIII_sse  :  2896.000 MB/sec
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: raid5: using function: pIII_sse (2896.000 
> MB/sec)
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: md: raid5 personality registered as nr 4
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: raid5: device sdc operational as raid disk 1
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: raid5: device sdb operational as raid disk 0
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: raid5: allocated 3162kB for md0
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: raid5: raid level 5 set md0 active with 2 
> out of 3 devices, algorithm 2
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: RAID5 conf printout:
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel:  --- rd:3 wd:2 fd:1
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel:  disk 0, o:1, dev:sdb
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel:  disk 1, o:1, dev:sdc
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: RAID5 conf printout:
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel:  --- rd:3 wd:2 fd:1
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel:  disk 0, o:1, dev:sdb
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel:  disk 1, o:1, dev:sdc
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel:  disk 2, o:1, dev:sdd
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: .<6>md: syncing RAID array md0
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: md: minimum _guaranteed_ reconstruction 
> speed: 1000 KB/sec/disc.
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: md: minimum _guaranteed_ reconstruction 
> speed: 1000 KB/sec/disc.
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: md: using maximum available idle IO 
> bandwith (but not more than 200000 KB/sec)
> for reconstruction.
> Jan 17 21:57:47 xtreme kernel: md: using 128k window, over a total of 
> 156249856 blocks.
> 
> And here's the output from mdadm -E afterwards:
> 
> # mdadm -E /dev/sdb
> /dev/sdb:
>           Magic : a92b4efc
>         Version : 00.90.01
>            UUID : 43e05773:9c581b8a:23c8cdb0:d71025ac
>   Creation Time : Mon Jan 17 21:57:47 2005
>      Raid Level : raid5
>     Device Size : 156249856 (149.01 GiB 159.100 GB)
>    Raid Devices : 3
>   Total Devices : 3
> Preferred Minor : 0
> 
>     Update Time : Mon Jan 17 21:57:47 2005
>           State : clean
>  Active Devices : 2
> Working Devices : 3
>  Failed Devices : 1
>   Spare Devices : 1
>        Checksum : 11683037 - correct
>          Events : 0.1
> 
>          Layout : left-symmetric
>      Chunk Size : 128K
> 
>       Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
> this     0       8       16        0      active sync   /dev/sdb
>    0     0       8       16        0      active sync   /dev/sdb
>    1     1       8       32        1      active sync   /dev/sdc
>    2     2       0        0        2      faulty removed
>    3     3       8       48        3      spare   /dev/sdd
> 
>  From the output above, it would appear that /dev/sdd is the dead drive. 
> However, if I unplug that drive, reboot the system, and run the same 
> mdadm -Cv command with only two drives, it still reports 1 working, 1 
> failed. So...hardware problem?
> 
> Thanks for any help,
> 
> Shane

A hint: ALWAYS use the hard drive vendor's tools to REALLY check the 
hard disk drive. In your case WDDIAGS. Grab it from their site. It can 
run from a floppy or CD.

Regards,
Ed.

P.S. OR grab the Ultimate Boot CD. It has the WD stuff on it plus a host 
of other useful apps. www.ultimatebootcd.com.