Rebuilding a vinum RAID5 array when a drive has failed

A drive in your vinum RAID5 array has failed...

%> vinum list
D drive6 State: down /dev/twed6s1a A: 114325/114470 MB (99%)
P raid5volume.p0 R5 State: degraded Subdisks: 8 Size: 1020 MB
S raid5volume.p0.s6 State: crashed D: drive6 Size: 145 MB

Go find a replacement drive. Once you have a replacement drive in hand:

* Shutdown PC (my FreeBSD + twe driver get confused with a hot-plug of a drive)
* Remove faulty drive and replace with a good one
* Restart PC

%> vinum list
D drive6 State: referenced unknown A: 0/0 MB
P raid5volume.p0 R5 State: degraded Subdisks: 8 Size: 1020 MB
S raid5volume.p0.s6 State: stale D: drive6 Size: 145 MB

When it says "referenced", this seems to means either:

• You forgot to plug the drive power/data cable in
• Clues to this is that at least one /dev/twedXs1a is missing. Check your /var/log/messages, the drives that vinum has in its list, and what there is in /dev.
  

• This drive is completely blank (to be expected, if you replaced the drive)

Before you partition and label the drive, make sure you're working on the new drive. You don't want to accidentally nuke a remaining good drive.

* Partition (fdisk) the new drive. If you see it already has a partition on it, be careful, and double-check you're working on the right drive!
* Disklabel the new drive

%> vinum printconfig
drive drive6 device unknown

Vinum doesn't know which phsyical drive/device 'drive6' refers to.

* Remove the referenced drive from vinum:

%> vinum rm drive6

The referenced drive6 disappears from vinum's list

%> vinum list
S raid5volume.p0.s6 State: stale D: Size: 145 MB

* Create a text file, e.g. foo.txt, with the single line:

drive drive6 device /dev/twed6s1a

* Load the text configuration file into vinum

%> vinum config foo.txt

%> vinum list
D drive6 State: up /dev/twed6s1a A: 114325/114470 MB (99%)
P raid5volume.p0 R5 State: degraded Subdisks: 8 Size: 1020 MB
S raid5volume.p0.s6 State: stale D: drive6 Size: 145 MB

* Start the plex

%> vinum start raid5volume.p0
Reviving raid5volume.p0.s6 in the background
vinum[870]: reviving raid5volume.p0.s6

* Wait patiently

You can run "vinum list" to see the percentage it is through the rebuild. Eventually, you'll see:

vinum[870]: raid5volume.p0.s6 is up

* Done!

Your array is back.

%> vinum list
V raid5volume State: up Plexes: 1 Size: 1020 MB
P raid5volume.p0 R5 State: up Subdisks: 8 Size: 1020 MB
S raid5volume.p0.s6 State: up D: drive6 Size: 145 MB

%> vinum checkparity -f -v raid5volume.p0
Checking at 1020 MB (99%) raid5volume.p0 has correct parity

Creating a vinum RAID5 volume

8 * 120GB hard drives, on a 3Ware controller (/dev/twe)

----------vinum.conf----------
volume raid5volume

drive drive0 device /dev/twed0s1a
drive drive1 device /dev/twed1s1a
drive drive2 device /dev/twed2s1a
drive drive3 device /dev/twed3s1a
drive drive4 device /dev/twed4s1a
drive drive5 device /dev/twed5s1a
drive drive6 device /dev/twed6s1a
drive drive7 device /dev/twed7s1a

plex org raid5 491k
sd length 114470m drive drive0
sd length 114470m drive drive1
sd length 114470m drive drive2
sd length 114470m drive drive3
sd length 114470m drive drive4
sd length 114470m drive drive5
sd length 114470m drive drive6
sd length 114470m drive drive7
------------------------------

vinum resetconfig
vinum create vinum.conf
vinum init raid5volume.p0
(...wait five and a half hours...)
newfs /dev/vinum/raid5volume
mount /dev/vinum/raid5volume /raid

OGMoose

   The original moose.

Cheeseburger beats grapes

At the place where I get my lunch they also sell fruit, etc. This kid (probably 6-7 years old) was choosing something. His mother says "Pick one piece of fruit", so the kid grabs a bunch of grapes. The mother (slightly flustered/rushed) says "No! One piece!". The kid puts back grapes and grabs a peach. The mother gets impatient "No! Don't bother. Put it back ...". She takes the peach from the kid, and puts it back on the display. "I'll get you a cheeseburger at Macquarie."

Surprisingly, neither the mother or any of her 3 kids (all 4-7 age range) were fat.

A blog!

I hereby welcome myself to 1994.