Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 5 Aug 2005 19:16:50 GMT
From:      David Kirchner <dpk@dpk.net>
To:        freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   i386/84589: 5.4-STABLE unresponsive during background fsck 2TB partition
Message-ID:  <200508051916.j75JGoUY042428@www.freebsd.org>
Resent-Message-ID: <200508051920.j75JKBsK001965@freefall.freebsd.org>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

>Number:         84589
>Category:       i386
>Synopsis:       5.4-STABLE unresponsive during background fsck 2TB partition
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    freebsd-i386
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Fri Aug 05 19:20:11 GMT 2005
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     David Kirchner
>Release:        FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE as of 20050729
>Organization:
>Environment:
FreeBSD host 5.4-STABLE FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE #0: Thu Aug  4 05:14:16 PDT 2005     root@:/usr/src/sys/i386/compile/STD  i386
kernel config at: http://dpk.net/STD
dmesg at: http://dpk.net/dmesg.fsck_problem
>Description:
After a large filesystem is marked dirty (due to a panic or a ^C'd fsck), and then a reboot, the background fsck starts. Approximately 1-2 minutes later the server slows down. Eventually, within about 5-10 minutes, all disk access attempts cease to function, and the server becomes unresponsive to even hitting return in bash.

You can still ping the server, and if you connect to SSH it will still go through all the motions, right up until it is about to spawn login. This, even though the partition being fsck'd is not in use.

As far as I can tell it will never recover. I've given it over 12 hours. It doesn't panic, unfortunately, or give any indication on the console why it is having trouble.

fsck works fine when you run it from the command line, in the foreground.
>How-To-Repeat:
Install 5.4-STABLE on a multi-TB server, creating a 36GB / partition, and 1 or more 2TB partitions (you will need to use auto-carving). Use softupdates to format the large partitions. Use UFS1.
Leave the large target partition completely empty.
Unmount the target partition.
Start "fsck /dev/whatever", and hit ^C part way through. Verify it says "FILE SYSTEM MARKED DIRTY".
Reboot.
Log in again to monitor the server.
It will eventually stop responding to your commands.
>Fix:
Disable background fsck in /etc/rc.conf:

background_fsck="NO"

It may be that using UFS2 also fixes the problem (but we've had other issues with that, I'll open another PR when I can reproduce that).
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200508051916.j75JGoUY042428>