Re: AMD64 System Becomes Unresponsive During Software RAID Synchronization
On Sun, Oct 02, 2005 at 03:27:58PM -0400, Eric Sorton wrote:
> I recently purchased an AMD64 system and I am attempting to install
> Debian on it. Key hardware components include:
>
> * CPU: AMD Sempron 64 2600+
> * Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-K8U Socket 754 ULi M1689 ATX
> * Memory: 512MB
> * Hard Disk 1: Samsung SP1614C
> * Hard Disk 2: Seagate ST3160827AS
>
> To get the ULi controller recognized, I have to boot with a 2.6.12
> kernel. I am using the sarge netinstaller provided by Len Sorensen
> and discussed previously on this group.
>
> The system boots the installer fine. I have successfully installed a
> base system to a single hard drive. I would like to setup software
> RAID, but the system becomes unresponsive after the RAID is configured
> during the drive synchronization process.
2.6 kernels currently default to using up to 200M/s for resync. This
causes seriously painful disk access while this is taking place.
I personally always drop it to 10 or 15M/sec so that I can still work on
the system while it syncs the raid. This is done like this:
echo 10000 > /proc/sys/dev/raid/speed_limit_max
System becomes responsive again and the resync only takes about twice as
long or so. It certainly takes longer.
> I installed a base system and then, after the installation was
> complete, activated a single, mirrored software raid using mdadm.
> After the synchronization process has started, I can use the system
> normally. I can cat /proc/mdstat and see how far it has progressed.
> Within a couple of minutes, when I execute cat /proc/mdstat, the
> system doesn't return any data. I cannot stop the cat with either
> control-C or control-Z. I can no longer log into the system either on
> the console or through ssh. I can switch between virtual consoles.
> The machine still reponds to pings. There are no errors on the
> console.
>
> This leaves me with a couple of questions ...
>
> Is anyone successfully using software RAID on an AMD64 system?
> Has anyone installed Linux on this MB? With or without SATA?
> Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be wrong or possible workarounds?
Sure. On SATA I run 2 x 250GB WD drives on a VIA K8T800 (Asus A8V Deluxe).
Len Sorensen
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