On 2024-01-10, Randall Gellens <obsd.t...@randy.pensive.org> wrote:
> I'm running OpenBSD on a Protectli box as a router/firewall. The disk is
> an SSD. Every now and then I reboot it ("sudo shutdown -r now") just to
> make sure it comes back up. Several times it hung on disk errors that
> the auto 'fsck' can't fix. I was able to manually run 'fsck' and answer
> its prompts to clean up the problems, which sometimes were unreferenced
> inodes or similar things. It deleted some files in /var. The system runs
> OK, so perhaps the files aren't used in my minimal setup.
>
> I have two questions:
>
> (1) In "/etc/rc" I changed [fsck -p "$@"] to [fsck -f "$@"] in an
> attempt to get it to force fix problems, so the system could recover
> without someone manually doing it. That didn't work (it still stopped
> startup with the disk errors), so I tried making it [do_fsck -f -y] but
> that didn't work either. How does one make the system recover (e.g., how
> would an unstaffed/dark computer operations center do it)?
fsck -y is all you can do there.
> (2) Why would the system develop disk problems? Might the SSD be
> failing? Should I proactively replace it? If I do replace it, should I
> start fresh with a clean install versus cloning the current disk?
possibly. SSDs aren't exactly permanent storage either, even if not
failing (read about "bit rot") - magnetic HDDs too, though they're usually
considered to have a bit more longevity than SSDs in that respect.
are temperatures in a safe range?
are your cables good and properly connected?
if replacing, you don't want to start from a clone of a suspicious drive.
you don't know if the data you're reading is good or not. I'd go for a
clean install, move config across, and review those config files.
> By the way, the SSD is a Samsung SSD 870 EVO 500GB (only using a tiny
> bit of it). Micromat's Lifespan says it has 100% life left, and their
> Tech Tools Pro found no bad blocks.
that will most likely be based on erase/write cycles and ignore other
possible effects.
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