Bug#791794: RAID device not active during boot
On Sat, Jul 11, 2015 at 10:16:15AM +0200, Nagel, Peter (IFP) wrote:
> The problem might be related to
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=789152.
> However, in my case everything seems to be fine as long as all
> harddisks (within the RAID) are working.
> The Problem appears only if during boot one (or more) disk(s) out of
> the RAID device have a problem.
>
> The problem might be related to the fact that jessie comes with a
> new init system which has a stricter handling of failing "auto"
> mounts during boot. If it fails to mount an "auto" mount, systemd
> will drop to an emergency shell rather than continuing the boot -
> see release-notes (section 5.6.1):
> https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#systemd-upgrade-default-init-system
Would a temporary work-around be to use another init system?
>
> For example:
> If you have installed your system to a RAID1 device and the system
> is faced with a power failure which (might at the same time) causes
> a damage to one of your harddisks (out of this RAID1 device) your
> system will (during boot) drop to an emergency shell rather than
> boot from the remaining harddisk(s).
> I found that during boot (for some reason) the RAID device is not
> active anymore and therefore not available within /dev/disk/by-uuid
> (what causes the drop to the emergency shell).
>
> A quickfix (to boot the system) would be, to re-activate the RAID
> device (e.g. /dev/md0) from the emergency shell ...
>
> mdadm --stop /dev/md0
> mdadm --assemble /dev/md0
>
> ... and to exit the shell.
>
> Nevertheless, it would be nice if the system would boot
> automatically (as it is known to happend under wheezy) in order to
> be able to use e.g. a spare disk for data synchronization.
After all, isn't it the whole point of a RAID1 that it can keep going when
one of its hard drives fails?
I currently have this situation on a wheezy system, and it will continue
until I have the replacement physical drive prepared for installation. The
RAID1 is running fine with just one physical drive. It would be
seriously inconvenient to be unable to boot in a straightforward manner.
It's not as if it's being quiet about the matter -- I keep getting
emails elling me that one of the drives is missing.
-- hendrik
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