Re: RAID1 problem - server freezes on md data-check

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>]

On Mon, 11 Jan 2010, George Chelidze wrote:
> > > After more investigation I found that second drive was unable to
> > > negotiate 3.0Gb/s speed and dropped to 1.5Gb/s. 
> > > 
> > > [    3.433967] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
> > > ...
> > > [    4.518560] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
> > > 
> > > 
> > > That's another issue which triggered a question:
> > > 
> > > Will it make RAID more stable if I force both drives to be 1.5Gb/s? For
> > > seagate drives it can be done by setting a jumper, no idea how it's
> > > possible on WD.
> > 
> > If that is about the same model of disk, connected to the same SATA host,
> > you do realise something is broken, don't you?
> 
> $ lsscsi
> [0:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      GB0250EAFYK      HPG1  /dev/sda
> [0:0:1:0]    disk    ATA      GB0250EAFYK      HPG1  /dev/sdb
> [2:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH40L    LA00  /dev/sr0
> 
> And yes, I realize that something is "broken", whether it's hardware or
> some misconfiguration of anything, but I am not good enough in all these
> SATA things. What kind of tests are appropriate for this situation? Do
> you think it's more HDD related problem, or maybe SATA host, or
> something else?

It could be anything.  You could ask for help on the linux-ide ML.  If you
do that, you should provide them with:

1. A succint description of the problem.  Be direct and concise.

2. Full kernel logs showing the boot, and the problem

3. lspci -v and lspci -vvv

4. hdparm -i and hdparm -I output for each device.

5. smartctl -d ata -a  output for each device.

6. Look at your HDs, and make sure any "jumpers" are in the correct
position, and disclose their configuration in the report.

And any extra info they ask of you.  I hope they will be able to help you.

But the usual first suspect are the SATA cables, it is probably worth a try
to replace them before you report any problems to linux-ide, as they might
ask you to do just that...

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh