Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-11-21 Thread Ciro Iriarte
2007/10/27, Rui Santos [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

 Hi Ciro,

 Try to think of a RAID Array as a single partition. You put a filesystem
 on top of a partition or a RAID Array.

I know it's logically a partition/disk, but the important bit there is
logically, a real partition won't melt down or break into multiple
unusable peaces.

 If the power fails, the -partition- DOES survive. The filesystem may
 have inconsistencies but it is probably recoverable.
 It is the same principle ( almost ) with a Soft-RAID array.

 If you have frequent power loss, IMHO, you should activate RAID
 write-intent bitmapping. The command is mdadm /dev/mdX -Gb internal

That's what i'm talking about, i wonder if that has a performance
penalty. This is the result of the last power outage:

mainwks:~ # cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] [raid0] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [linear]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
  104320 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md1 : active raid1 sda3[0] sdb3[1]
  241987008 blocks [2/2] [UU]
  [==..]  resync = 11.0% (26760192/241987008)
finish=315.0min speed=11384K/sec

I assume that would look really nasty on a big raid5...


 If you are afraid about a RAID's inconsistency by issuing echo check 
 /sys/block/mdX/md/sync_action
 and check for failures wiht cat /sys/block/mdX/md/mismatch_cnt.
 If there are failures, correct it with echo repair 
 /sys/block/mdX/md/sync_action

 You can also put it on a cron script...

 Hope it helps,
 Rui


I will look further on the bitmapping topic.

Thanks a lot
Ciro
-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-11-21 Thread Philippe Landau
Ciro Iriarte wrote:
 I assume that would look really nasty on a big raid5...
A UPS battery costs less then 80 euro.
It gives your computer 3 minutes to shut down properly.

Kind regards Philippe
-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-27 Thread Carlos E. R.

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1


The Friday 2007-10-26 at 23:04 -0300, Ciro Iriarte wrote:


It should.

It might, actually: no filesystem likes a power outage, and no raid will
protect you from that.



I expect it to survive in the sense that i don't have to reinit the
raid losing all the data... A filesysten check procedure requires a
working RAID...


Ah, I see what you mean. I can't certify that. I think it survives, 
though.


- -- 
Cheers,

   Carlos E. R.

-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76

iD8DBQFHIxJutTMYHG2NR9URAunAAJ4rk1BglIkRhZbZiotfou82OZnOYQCeIrWt
qBjYtWxSiDK22X8o0NLc5RA=
=b56v
-END PGP SIGNATURE-

--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-27 Thread Rui Santos
Ciro Iriarte wrote:
 2007/10/26, Greg Freemyer [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 On 10/25/07, Ciro Iriarte [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Anybody has experience with linux Raid5 and power outages?, i
 currently have two 250GB disks in a RAID1 array in my main
 workstation. When there's any power outage the array is rebuilt but
 given it's a mirror it's not a major issue.

 Now i would like to add 4 500GB disks in a secondary array with raid5
 but i'm afraid i would lose the array if there's any outage (have to
 mention a UPS in my letter to Santa)

 Anybody knows if the raid5 (md) would survive this scenario?

 The raid should definately survive, but the portion you are writing at
 the time could easily be corrupt.
 
 I thought that that kind of corruption would trigger the array rebuild
 or logical fail...
 
 Raid5 typically has a 64k per disk data unit, but your issues are
 going to really be at the 4k page level I think.

 In particular, when you write/overwrite a page the kernel has to read
 the original page of data and the checksum page of data.  Update both
 and write them both back out.  There is really no way the OS can
 ensure that both writes actually make it to disk simultaneously.

 So if you have a power outage while writing to a raid5 the odds are
 high that one of the 2 updates failed to make it to disk.  The good
 news, is the array itself should be fine.  It just the single raid5
 stripe that is corrupted.  You likely won't find out about the problem
 until you lose a disk.  But even then it will just be a few pages that
 are impacted.
 
 So?, i will just heal itself?, continue to work with some corrupted
 files (corrupted stripe effect)?

Hi Ciro,

Try to think of a RAID Array as a single partition. You put a filesystem
on top of a partition or a RAID Array.
If the power fails, the -partition- DOES survive. The filesystem may
have inconsistencies but it is probably recoverable.
It is the same principle ( almost ) with a Soft-RAID array.

If you have frequent power loss, IMHO, you should activate RAID
write-intent bitmapping. The command is mdadm /dev/mdX -Gb internal

If you are afraid about a RAID's inconsistency by issuing echo check 
/sys/block/mdX/md/sync_action
and check for failures wiht cat /sys/block/mdX/md/mismatch_cnt.
If there are failures, correct it with echo repair 
/sys/block/mdX/md/sync_action

You can also put it on a cron script...

Hope it helps,
Rui

 
 Greg

 
 Regards,
 Ciro

-- 
Rui Santos
http://www.ruisantos.com/

Veni, vidi, Linux!
-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-27 Thread Per Jessen
Ciro Iriarte wrote:

 2007/10/26, Per Jessen [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 Ciro Iriarte wrote:

  Now i would like to add 4 500GB disks in a secondary array with
  raid5 but i'm afraid i would lose the array if there's any outage
  (have to mention a UPS in my letter to Santa)
 
  Anybody knows if the raid5 (md) would survive this scenario?

 A RAID5 will survive a single-disk failure.  I believe RAID6 can deal
 with a dual-disk failure, but you'll need more disks.


 /Per Jessen, Zürich

 Well, i'm not talking about a phisical failure, but logical failure of
 the array, the kind of failure that would require a rebuild of the
 array...

Ah, then the answer is - maybe, maybe not.  I'm sure it could quite
possibly survive, but I also know for a fact it doesn't always.  



/Per Jessen, Zürich

-- 
http://www.spamchek.com/ - your spam is our business.

--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-27 Thread Per Jessen
Ciro Iriarte wrote:

 I expect it to survive in the sense that i don't have to reinit the
 raid losing all the data... A filesysten check procedure requires a
 working RAID...

Working = fully operational or operating in degraded mode, i.e. being
rebuilt or with one dead disk. 


/Per Jessen, Zürich

-- 
http://www.spamchek.com/ - your spam is our business.

--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-26 Thread Carlos E. R.

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1


The Friday 2007-10-26 at 00:16 -0300, Ciro Iriarte wrote:


Anybody has experience with linux Raid5 and power outages?, i
currently have two 250GB disks in a RAID1 array in my main
workstation. When there's any power outage the array is rebuilt but
given it's a mirror it's not a major issue.

Now i would like to add 4 500GB disks in a secondary array with raid5
but i'm afraid i would lose the array if there's any outage (have to
mention a UPS in my letter to Santa)

Anybody knows if the raid5 (md) would survive this scenario?


It should.

It might, actually: no filesystem likes a power outage, and no raid will 
protect you from that.


- -- 
Cheers,

   Carlos E. R.

-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76

iD8DBQFHIcU6tTMYHG2NR9URAmlMAJkBQPHZPYVf+ep0Ekvv+pTnreqMtwCdELN4
018uZgBrELbLawsNzmkUjXs=
=fW8y
-END PGP SIGNATURE-

--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-26 Thread Per Jessen
Ciro Iriarte wrote:

 Now i would like to add 4 500GB disks in a secondary array with raid5
 but i'm afraid i would lose the array if there's any outage (have to
 mention a UPS in my letter to Santa)
 
 Anybody knows if the raid5 (md) would survive this scenario?

A RAID5 will survive a single-disk failure.  I believe RAID6 can deal
with a dual-disk failure, but you'll need more disks. 


/Per Jessen, Zürich

-- 
http://www.spamchek.com/ - your spam is our business.

--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-26 Thread Greg Freemyer
On 10/25/07, Ciro Iriarte [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Anybody has experience with linux Raid5 and power outages?, i
 currently have two 250GB disks in a RAID1 array in my main
 workstation. When there's any power outage the array is rebuilt but
 given it's a mirror it's not a major issue.

 Now i would like to add 4 500GB disks in a secondary array with raid5
 but i'm afraid i would lose the array if there's any outage (have to
 mention a UPS in my letter to Santa)

 Anybody knows if the raid5 (md) would survive this scenario?


The raid should definately survive, but the portion you are writing at
the time could easily be corrupt.

Raid5 typically has a 64k per disk data unit, but your issues are
going to really be at the 4k page level I think.

In particular, when you write/overwrite a page the kernel has to read
the original page of data and the checksum page of data.  Update both
and write them both back out.  There is really no way the OS can
ensure that both writes actually make it to disk simultaneously.

So if you have a power outage while writing to a raid5 the odds are
high that one of the 2 updates failed to make it to disk.  The good
news, is the array itself should be fine.  It just the single raid5
stripe that is corrupted.  You likely won't find out about the problem
until you lose a disk.  But even then it will just be a few pages that
are impacted.

Greg

-- 
Greg Freemyer
Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer

The Norcross Group
The Intersection of Evidence  Technology
http://www.norcrossgroup.com
-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-26 Thread Ciro Iriarte
2007/10/26, Per Jessen [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 Ciro Iriarte wrote:

  Now i would like to add 4 500GB disks in a secondary array with raid5
  but i'm afraid i would lose the array if there's any outage (have to
  mention a UPS in my letter to Santa)
 
  Anybody knows if the raid5 (md) would survive this scenario?

 A RAID5 will survive a single-disk failure.  I believe RAID6 can deal
 with a dual-disk failure, but you'll need more disks.


 /Per Jessen, Zürich

Well, i'm not talking about a phisical failure, but logical failure of
the array, the kind of failure that would require a rebuild of the
array...

Regards,
Ciro


Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-26 Thread Ciro Iriarte
2007/10/26, Greg Freemyer [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 On 10/25/07, Ciro Iriarte [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  Anybody has experience with linux Raid5 and power outages?, i
  currently have two 250GB disks in a RAID1 array in my main
  workstation. When there's any power outage the array is rebuilt but
  given it's a mirror it's not a major issue.
 
  Now i would like to add 4 500GB disks in a secondary array with raid5
  but i'm afraid i would lose the array if there's any outage (have to
  mention a UPS in my letter to Santa)
 
  Anybody knows if the raid5 (md) would survive this scenario?
 

 The raid should definately survive, but the portion you are writing at
 the time could easily be corrupt.

I thought that that kind of corruption would trigger the array rebuild
or logical fail...


 Raid5 typically has a 64k per disk data unit, but your issues are
 going to really be at the 4k page level I think.

 In particular, when you write/overwrite a page the kernel has to read
 the original page of data and the checksum page of data.  Update both
 and write them both back out.  There is really no way the OS can
 ensure that both writes actually make it to disk simultaneously.

 So if you have a power outage while writing to a raid5 the odds are
 high that one of the 2 updates failed to make it to disk.  The good
 news, is the array itself should be fine.  It just the single raid5
 stripe that is corrupted.  You likely won't find out about the problem
 until you lose a disk.  But even then it will just be a few pages that
 are impacted.

So?, i will just heal itself?, continue to work with some corrupted
files (corrupted stripe effect)?


 Greg


Regards,
Ciro
-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: [opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-26 Thread Ciro Iriarte
2007/10/26, Carlos E. R. [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
 Hash: SHA1


 The Friday 2007-10-26 at 00:16 -0300, Ciro Iriarte wrote:

  Anybody has experience with linux Raid5 and power outages?, i
  currently have two 250GB disks in a RAID1 array in my main
  workstation. When there's any power outage the array is rebuilt but
  given it's a mirror it's not a major issue.
 
  Now i would like to add 4 500GB disks in a secondary array with raid5
  but i'm afraid i would lose the array if there's any outage (have to
  mention a UPS in my letter to Santa)
 
  Anybody knows if the raid5 (md) would survive this scenario?

 It should.

 It might, actually: no filesystem likes a power outage, and no raid will
 protect you from that.

 - --
 Cheers,
 Carlos E. R.
I expect it to survive in the sense that i don't have to reinit the
raid losing all the data... A filesysten check procedure requires a
working RAID...

Ciro
-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



[opensuse] RAID5 Power outages

2007-10-25 Thread Ciro Iriarte
Anybody has experience with linux Raid5 and power outages?, i
currently have two 250GB disks in a RAID1 array in my main
workstation. When there's any power outage the array is rebuilt but
given it's a mirror it's not a major issue.

Now i would like to add 4 500GB disks in a secondary array with raid5
but i'm afraid i would lose the array if there's any outage (have to
mention a UPS in my letter to Santa)

Anybody knows if the raid5 (md) would survive this scenario?

Regards,
Ciro
-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]