Ubuntu 10 s/w raid5 wont start

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reven

3743 posts

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#64120 8-Jul-2010 10:37

Hi guys,

After upgrading my server from ubuntu 9.1 to 10, my s/w raid 5 wont mount. i believe its has something to do with the command the GUI uses.

I stupidly called my array "The Library" and now i think the space between The and Library is confusing the command the gui uses to start the array.

anyone know how to change the name via a command? or run into a similar problem.

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476 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349073 8-Jul-2010 13:35

A lot of information is missing, for example, which kind of RAID are you using (LVM or MDADM), which error message are you getting...

One possible cause of failure is that the init ramdisk of the new kernel does not include support for the software RAID, so try one of the oldest kernel installed (you should be able to select it in the GRUB boot selection screen).

reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

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#357074 27-Jul-2010 12:57

sorry for the late reply (was busy working on other stuff and didnt have time for the server).

its a mdadm array, here is the output

An error occurred while performing an operation on "The Library" (RAID-5 Array): The operation failed

Error assembling array: mdadm exited with exit code 1: mdadm: unrecognised word on ARRAY line: Library
mdadm: unrecognised word on ARRAY line: Library
mdadm: failed to RUN_ARRAY /dev/md0: Input/output error
mdadm: Not enough devices to start the array.

im 99% sure the problem is with the space between The and Library, just dont know how to get past it or change the raid name.

cheers for any help

Phaedrus

74 posts

Master Geek

#357351 27-Jul-2010 20:22

I'm probably about to demonstrate my ignorance of these things here but it's not clear to me exactly what state your server is in.

If it will boot up but simply doesn't load your RAID array then I guess it may make things a little easier to sort. What do you get when you issue the command cat /proc/mdstat ?

P.

reven

3743 posts

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#357382 27-Jul-2010 21:07

the system boots fine, the raid array isn't in the fstab or anything, just another "drive" i start manually (by going to disk utility and clicking start, haven't figured out how to auto start it).

ubuntu is installed on a separate 750gb drive.

Phaedrus

74 posts

Master Geek

#357402 27-Jul-2010 22:00

I'm guessing by your comment you're using a gui of some sort? Sorry but I'm a command-line kinda guy with these things so bear with me for a bit, also I've never used RAID5 before (at least not software RAID5 such as this) so I'll need to tread carefully! Without any further info I'll assume that your disks are in /dev/sdx...

Can you open a terminal & post the output here of #ls /dev/sd* #cat /proc/mdstat and #mdadm --examine?

Also it would be useful perhaps to check with cfdisk that your disks/partitions that comprise the RAID5 array are all present and correct.

I would have thought that you'd be able to recover things with the mdadm --assemble command but let's see what information you can turn up from the above stuff. Hopefully some guru who really knows what they're talking about will turn up to help as well

.

Cheers, P.

reven

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#357541 28-Jul-2010 08:27

hi, thanks for helping.

here is the output

john@tower:~$ ls /dev/sd*
/dev/sda   /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb   /dev/sdc   /dev/sdd   /dev/sde
/dev/sda1 /dev/sda5 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1
john@tower:~$ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]
md0 : inactive sde1[0]
      1465137358 blocks super 1.2

unused devices: <none>
john@tower:~$ mdadm --examine
mdadm: unrecognised word on ARRAY line: Library
mdadm: unrecognised word on ARRAY line: Library
mdadm: No devices to examine

and heres a screen shot of disk utility

Phaedrus

74 posts

Master Geek

#357761 28-Jul-2010 15:18

Ok, interesting stuff (I've never seen the GUI before)... can you also post the content of your file /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf, and just for completeness, /etc/fstab?

Thanks, P.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

reven

3743 posts

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#357807 28-Jul-2010 16:27

heres the content

fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type> <options>       <dump> <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=48984455-9442-44e5-9f14-4ea7d6722716 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=b1a80d9a-9ed4-499e-a4e0-e72cdf9a5833 none            swap    sw              0       0

mdadm.conf

# mdadm.conf
#
# Please refer to mdadm.conf(5) for information about this file.
#

# by default, scan all partitions (/proc/partitions) for MD superblocks.
# alternatively, specify devices to scan, using wildcards if desired.
DEVICE partitions

# auto-create devices with Debian standard permissions
CREATE owner=root group=disk mode=0660 auto=yes

# automatically tag new arrays as belonging to the local system
HOMEHOST <system>

# instruct the monitoring daemon where to send mail alerts
MAILADDR root

# definitions of existing MD arrays
ARRAY /dev/md/The Library level=raid5 metadata=1.2 num-devices=3 UUID=4405b2ea:fd8cef08:c98a806f:f32984d3 name=:The Library

# This file was auto-generated on Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:46:37 +1200
# by mkconf $Id$

Phaedrus

74 posts

Master Geek

#357861 28-Jul-2010 17:44

Ok, I think we're getting somewhere. FYI here's a copy of the important bit from the mdadm.conf file of one of my servers:

# definitions of existing MD arrays
ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=ea046032:b343131f:b40b15d2:ff5aa93a
ARRAY /dev/md1 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=be0aa0f1:4db0e216:5d400fa8:4275a557
ARRAY /dev/md2 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=de076fec:c52952ed:9faa8cde:dbf8c814

Clearly this is a RAID1 device, using two disks(partitions) per device array.

In my case I don't define the mount point (name) until we get to the fstab file.

Before we go much further it's important to know if you have a backup of what's on your RAID array? I say this because I need to re-iterate that I'm no expert on this and what I suggest could be complete crap - resulting in an irrecoverable situation whereby you lose everything!

That said the next thing to check is what you get from ls -la /dev/md* ?

Theoretically you should get '/dev/md/The Library' I guess, this is what I get:

brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 0 2010-07-07 20:16 /dev/md0 (and the same for the other arrays md1 and md2)

I'm in two minds what to suggest from here, let's see what you get from the directory listing before going any further... you won't have done anything irrecoverable yet :-)

P.

reven

3743 posts

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#357914 28-Jul-2010 19:37

thanks for the help :)

no i dont have a backup of my array (has about 3TB of data on it :)), but im at the point where if this doesnt work im just going to format.

heres the output

john@tower:~$ ls -la /dev/md*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 0 2010-07-27 17:18 /dev/md0

Phaedrus

74 posts

Master Geek

#357932 28-Jul-2010 20:25

Excellent, well usual disclaimers, but here's what I'd try first:

nano /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf

change your array line to read:

# definitions of existing MD arrays
ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid5 metadata=1.2 num-devices=3 UUID=4405b2ea:fd8cef08:c98a806f:f32984d3

ctrl-x and save changes.

Then see what happens from there. Perhaps without getting too carried away you could reboot and try #cat /proc/mdstat and #mdadm --examine again. I think at this stage it's still non-destructive what we've done and this should give us an idea how we've done. If this works you'll need to mount the disk array (md0) as something but we'll deal with that quite simply if all else is in order.

Cheers, P.

LennonNZ

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#357938 28-Jul-2010 20:35

I am not an expert on this so it may break things completely......

It looks like the problem is with this line

ARRAY /dev/md/The Library level=raid5 metadata=1.2 num-devices=3 UUID=4405b2ea:fd8cef08:c98a806f:f32984d3 name=:The Library

the problem is with the space as its thinking "Library" is an option which its not..

/dev/md/The Library..

hmm.. I dunno what the fix for this is..

maybe
replace the space with %20 maybe?
/dev/md/The%20LIbrary
or back quote the space...
/dev/md/The\ Library

or just remove the space and see if it works.

/dev/md/TheLibrary

reven

3743 posts

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#357953 28-Jul-2010 21:04

Phaedrus: Excellent, well usual disclaimers, but here's what I'd try first:

nano /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf

change your array line to read:

# definitions of existing MD arrays
ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid5 metadata=1.2 num-devices=3 UUID=4405b2ea:fd8cef08:c98a806f:f32984d3

ctrl-x and save changes.

Then see what happens from there. Perhaps without getting too carried away you could reboot and try #cat /proc/mdstat and #mdadm --examine again. I think at this stage it's still non-destructive what we've done and this should give us an idea how we've done. If this works you'll need to mount the disk array (md0) as something but we'll deal with that quite simply if all else is in order.

Cheers, P.

heres the output after chnageing mdadm.conf and a reboot
john@tower:~$ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]
md0 : inactive sde1[0](S) sdc1[3](S) sdd1[1](S)
4395409088 blocks super 1.2

unused devices: <none>
john@tower:~$ mdadm --examine
mdadm: No devices to examine

disk utility is now telling me the array is "not started, partially assmebled", and its 0.0KB is size

Phaedrus

74 posts

Master Geek

#357971 28-Jul-2010 21:27

Hmm, well mdstat is telling us there's a few more drives there now which is a start I guess. I'm slightly puzzled though - how many drives are meant to be in the RAID array?

We could try asking it to assemble & start but I wonder if it's missing a drive.

Whereabouts are you, I'm thinking it may be easier to discuss over the landline...

P.

reven

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#357976 28-Jul-2010 21:40

there are 3 drives in the array, all 1.5TBs.

im in auckland.

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