Rebuilding failed Linux software RAID

This post will explain how I have rebuilt a software RAID array after a disk failure

I recently got a notification from the SMART daemon saying this:

<code>This email was generated by the smartd daemon running on:

  host name: gateway.domain.be
 DNS domain: domain.be
 NIS domain: (none)

The following warning/error was logged by the smartd daemon:

Device: /dev/hdd, 131 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors

For details see host's SYSLOG (default: /var/log/messages).

You can also use the smartctl utility for further investigation.
No additional email messages about this problem will be sent.</code>

SMART values for the drives were these:

<code>[root @ SERVEUR](1076)# smartctl -A /dev/hdd1
smartctl version 5.33 [i686-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   095   092   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       4308
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   099   099   040    Old_age   Always       -       1070
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   195   195   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       74
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   069   069   000    Old_age   Always       -       23159
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1055
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   192   192   000    Old_age   Always       -       8
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   200   187   000    Old_age   Always       -       131
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0012   200   187   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x000a   200   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       67
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0009   200   190   051    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0</code>

I removed the drive from the system, leading the RAID array to run degraded.

I got a new notification from the RAID system :

<code>Subject : DegradedArray event on /dev/md0:gateway.domain.be

This is an automatically generated mail message from mdadm
running on gateway.domain.be

A DegradedArray event had been detected on md device /dev/md0.

Faithfully yours, etc.</code>

I did a low level format which fixed the pending sectors (not sure how long the drive will keep working though)..

I was able to put the disk back in and rebuild the RAID array, follow the steps :

When you look at a “normal” array, you see something like this:

<code># cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] 
md0 : active raid1 hdc1[1] hdd1[0]
      58613056 blocks [2/2] [UU]
      
unused devices: </code>

That’s the normal state - what you want it to look like. When a drive has failed and been replaced, it looks like this:

<code># cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md0 : active raid1 hdc1[1]
      58613056 blocks [2/1] [_U]
unused devices: </code>

Notice that it doesn’t list the failed drive parts, and that an underscore appears. This means that only one drive is active in these arrays - we have no mirror.

Another command that will show us the state of the raid drives is “mdadm”

<code>[root @ SERVEUR](1074)# mdadm -D /dev/md0
/dev/md0:
        Version : 00.90.01
  Creation Time : Wed Aug  4 20:44:29 2004
     Raid Level : raid1
     Array Size : 58613056 (55.90 GiB 60.02 GB)
    Device Size : 58613056 (55.90 GiB 60.02 GB)
   Raid Devices : 2
  Total Devices : 1
Preferred Minor : 0
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Fri Oct 15 06:25:45 2004
          State : dirty, no-errors
 Active Devices : 1
Working Devices : 1
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0


    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0      22        1        0      active sync   /dev/hdc1
       1      0       0        0      faulty removed
           UUID : 89e85ea3:9e8f8a62:f38a0ead:f24d72e3
         Events : 0.58886</code>

As this shows, we currently only have one drive working in the array.

Although I already knew that /dev/hdd was the other part of the raid array, you can look at /etc/raidtab to see how the raid was defined:

<code>raiddev             /dev/md0
raid-level                  1
nr-raid-disks               2
chunk-size                  64k
persistent-superblock       1
nr-spare-disks              0
    device          /dev/hdc1
    raid-disk     0
    device          /dev/hdd1
    raid-disk     1</code>

To get the mirrored drives working properly again, we need to run fdisk to see what partition we have on the working drive:

<code>[root @ SERVEUR](1070)# fdisk /dev/hdc

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 7297.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hdc: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdc1   *           1        7297    58613121   fd  Linux raid autodetect</code>

Duplicate that on /dev/hdd.

“fdisk /dev/hdd”, then use “n” to create the partitions, enter 1 and primary, then “t” to change their type to “fd” to match.

Seems like there’s an easier way to duplicate the partition tab (not tested !): sfdisk -d /dev/hdc | sfdisk /dev/hdd

Once this is done, use “raidhotadd”:

# raidhotadd /dev/md0 /dev/hdd1

The rebuilding can be seen in /proc/mdstat:

# cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [raid1] read_ahead 1024 sectors md0 : active raid1 hdb1[0] hda1[1] 58613056 blocks [2/1] [_U] [>....................] recovery = 0.2% (250108/58613056 ) finish=28.8min speed=30032K/sec unused devices:

After it finishes, it will show:

<code>[root @ SERVEUR](1074)# mdadm -D /dev/md0
/dev/md0:
        Version : 00.90.01
  Creation Time : Wed Aug  4 20:44:29 2004
     Raid Level : raid1
     Array Size : 58613056 (55.90 GiB 60.02 GB)
    Device Size : 58613056 (55.90 GiB 60.02 GB)
   Raid Devices : 2
  Total Devices : 2
Preferred Minor : 0
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Thu May 11 22:29:05 2006
          State : clean
 Active Devices : 2
Working Devices : 2
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0


    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0      22        1        0      active sync   /dev/hdc1
       1      22       65        1      active sync   /dev/hdd1
           UUID : 89e85ea3:9e8f8a62:f38a0ead:f24d72e3
         Events : 0.58886</code>

You can restart the raid array (raidstart /dev/md0) and remount the drive if needed (eg : mount /dev/md0 /home)

Link : http://aplawrence.com/Linux/rebuildraid.html

New link (02/2007) : http://www.howtoforge.com/replacing_hard_disks_in_a_raid1_array




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