On Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:19:58 -0600 Jivko Sabev <jsabev@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi, > > The mdadm.conf in the initrd image contains the correct devices. I.e. > the contents of mdadm.conf in initrd are the output of > > mdadm --detail --scan > > ARRAY /dev/md0 metadata=1.2 name=mercury:0 > UUID=60ea870e:029dcf99:eaae356e:f1c12085 > ARRAY /dev/md1 metadata=1.2 name=mercury:1 > UUID=d89a52ed:0247f2e8:5edf5d09:21e7fa48 > > However, the problem remains. That is when booting, the system dumps > into initramfs shell with the raid array in an inactive state. I have > to manually stop the array and then reassemble. > > mdadm --manage --stop /dev/md1 > mdadm --assemble /dev/md1 /dev/sde1 /dev/md0 > > > At the point, I am able to continue booting and everything is fine after. > > Here are the contents of /proc/mdstat from the initrd shell before > reassembling the array. > > md1 : inactive sde1[2](S) > 976639672 blocks super 1.2 > > md0 : active linear sdb1[0] sdc1[1] > 976770537 blocks super 1.2 0k rounding There are two problems here. Firstly, the fact that the array doesn't assemble completely should not cause the boot to fail. A degraded raid1 is perfectly sufficient for booting. What is happening is that the initrd is relying on udev to assemble the array by passing each new device to "mdadm --incremental $DEVNAME". This will assemble the array as soon as all devices are present, but not before. If a device failed before shutdown that will be recorded in the metadata and "mdadm --incremental" will not wait for it. If it disappears during reboot, mdadm will still expect it. To deal with this issue, the initrd should run mdadm --incremental --scan --run which means "look for all arrays that are being incrementally assembled, and start them". This should be called after running "udevadm settle" and before mounting the root filesystem. However fixing this won't fix your problem, it will just change it. The udev rules files which is calling "mdadm --incremental" does so on /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 and /dev/sde1, but apparently not on /dev/md0. If at the initrd shell prompt you run mdadm -I /dev/md0 it should finish assembling md1 for you. For some reason udev isn't doing that. Have a look in /lib/udev/rules.d or /etc/udev/rules.d for a file that runs "mdadm --incremental" or "mdadm -I" and see how it works. Maybe post it. BTW what distro are you using? NeilBrown
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