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I'm trying to repair a RAID5 array, consisting of 3 2TB disks. After working perfectly for quite some time, the computer (running Debian) suddenly wouldn't boot anymore and got stuck at a GRUB prompt. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the RAID array.

Since it is difficult to give a full account of everything tried already, I will try to describe the current status.

mdadm --detail /dev/md0 outputs:

/dev/md0:
 Version : 1.2
 Creation Time : Sun Mar 22 15:13:25 2015
 Raid Level : raid5
 Used Dev Size : 1953381888 (1862.89 GiB 2000.26 GB)
 Raid Devices : 3
 Total Devices : 2
 Persistence : Superblock is persistent

 Update Time : Sun Mar 22 16:18:56 2015
      State : active, degraded, Not Started 
      Active Devices : 2
      Working Devices : 2
      Failed Devices : 0
      Spare Devices : 0

     Layout : left-symmetric
     Chunk Size : 512K

       Name : ubuntu:0  (local to host ubuntu)
       UUID : ae2b72c0:60444678:25797b77:3695130a
     Events : 57

Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
   0       0        0        0      removed
   1       8       17        1      active sync   /dev/sdb1
   2       8       33        2      active sync   /dev/sdc1

mdadm --examine /dev/sda1 gives:

 mdadm: No md superblock detected on /dev/sda1.

which makes sense, because I reformatted this partition because I believed it to be the faulty one.

mdadm --examine /dev/sdb1 gives:

 /dev/sdb1:
       Magic : a92b4efc
       Version : 1.2
       Feature Map : 0x0
       Array UUID : ae2b72c0:60444678:25797b77:3695130a
       Name : ubuntu:0  (local to host ubuntu)
       Creation Time : Sun Mar 22 15:13:25 2015
       Raid Level : raid5
       Raid Devices : 3

 Avail Dev Size : 3906764800 (1862.89 GiB 2000.26 GB)
 Array Size : 3906763776 (3725.78 GiB 4000.53 GB)
 Used Dev Size : 3906763776 (1862.89 GiB 2000.26 GB)
 Data Offset : 262144 sectors
 Super Offset : 8 sectors
 State : clean
 Device UUID : f1817af9:1d964693:774d5d63:bfa69e3d

 Update Time : Sun Mar 22 16:18:56 2015
 Checksum : ab7c79ae - correct
 Events : 57

 Layout : left-symmetric
 Chunk Size : 512K

 Device Role : Active device 1
 Array State : .AA ('A' == active, '.' == missing)

mdadm --detail /dev/sdc1 gives:

 /dev/sdc1:
    Magic : a92b4efc
    Version : 1.2
    Feature Map : 0x0
    Array UUID : ae2b72c0:60444678:25797b77:3695130a
    Name : ubuntu:0  (local to host ubuntu)
    Creation Time : Sun Mar 22 15:13:25 2015
    Raid Level : raid5
    Raid Devices : 3

    Avail Dev Size : 3906764800 (1862.89 GiB 2000.26 GB)
    Array Size : 3906763776 (3725.78 GiB 4000.53 GB)
    Used Dev Size : 3906763776 (1862.89 GiB 2000.26 GB)
    Data Offset : 262144 sectors
    Super Offset : 8 sectors
    State : clean
    Device UUID : f076b568:007e3f9b:71a19ea2:474e5fe9

    Update Time : Sun Mar 22 16:18:56 2015
    Checksum : db25214 - correct
    Events : 57

    Layout : left-symmetric
    Chunk Size : 512K

    Device Role : Active device 2
    Array State : .AA ('A' == active, '.' == missing)

cat /proc/mdstat:

Personalities : [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] 
md0 : inactive sdb1[1] sdc1[2]
  3906764800 blocks super 1.2

unused devices: <none>

fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
81 heads, 63 sectors/track, 765633 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000d84fa

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            2048  3907029167  1953513560   fd  Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000802d9

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *        2048  3907028991  1953513472   fd  Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdc: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000a8dca

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1            2048  3907028991  1953513472   fd  Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdd: 7756 MB, 7756087296 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 942 cylinders, total 15148608 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x128faec9

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1   *        2048    15148607     7573280    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

And of course I've tried to add the /dev/sda1 again. mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --add /dev/sda1 gives:

mdadm: add new device failed for /dev/sda1 as 3: Invalid argument

If the RAID is fixed I will probably also need getting GRUB up and running again, so it can detect the RAID/LVM and boot again.

EDIT (added smartctl test results)

Output of smartctl tests

smartctl -a /dev/sda:

smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.16.0-30-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Green (AF, SATA 6Gb/s)
Device Model:     WDC WD20EZRX-00D8PB0
Serial Number:    WD-WMC4M0760056
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 003a4a444
Firmware Version: 80.00A80
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Tue Mar 24 22:07:08 2015 UTC
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
                    was completed without error.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      ( 121) The previous self-test completed having
                    the read element of the test failed.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:        (26280) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:            (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time:    (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:    ( 266) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:    (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:          (0x7035) SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       3401
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   172   172   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       4375
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       59
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   087   087   000    Old_age   Always       -       9697
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       59
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       51
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   115   115   000    Old_age   Always       -       255276
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   119   106   000    Old_age   Always       -       28
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       12
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       1
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       1

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       90%      9692         2057

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
Improve this question
1
  • 1
    I wouldn't use RAID5 with 3 drives. Linux md RAID10 can stripe 2 copies of your data across 3 drives, so you get RAID0 read performance (with the "far" layout). Having 2 copies of every block means your redundancy overhead is 50%, instead of 33% for RAID5, though. You'd have 3TB of usable space instead of 4. I think btrfs built-in redundancy mode is supposed to be mostly stable raid1 mode, if you want to risk that. Not posting an answer since roaima already gave the correct one. You might need a kernel command-line option to get your initrd to start your array even though it's degraded.
    – Peter Cordes
    Mar 25, 2015 at 7:55

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

You're missing one of the three drives of the /dev/md0 RAID5 array. Therefore, mdadm will assemble the array but not run it.

-R, --run Attempt to start the array even if fewer drives were given than were present last time the array was active. Normally if not all the expected drives are found and --scan is not used, then the array will be assembled but not started. With --run an attempt will be made to start it anyway.

So, all you should need to do is mdadm --run /dev/md0. If you're cautious you can try mdadm --run --readonly /dev/md0 and follow that by mount -o ro,norecover /dev/md0 /mnt to check it looks ok. (The converse of --readonly is of course, --readwrite.)

Once it's running you can add back a new disk.

I wouldn't recommend adding your existing disk because it's getting SMART disk errors as evidenced by this recent report from your test

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       90%      9692         2057

However, if you really want to try and re-add your existing disk it's probably a very good idea to --zero-superblock on that disk first. But I'd still recommend replacing it.

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6
  • Thanks for your answer, the array will indeed run fine. The LiveCD I used mounts the filesystems and you can see all te files again. However, adding /dev/sda1 gives the same error as when it is not running. I already tried --zero-superblock on it as well, but it didn't change anything. Is there something to the as 3 part to the error message mdadm: add new device failed for /dev/sda1 as 3: Invalid argument? Could it be that it tries to add the drive as a fourth (0,1,2,3) drive?
    – jlmr
    Mar 23, 2015 at 6:47
  • @jimr I can't reproduce the "invalid argument" error here, but TBH I'm using /dev/loop{1,2,3} on top of small (100MB) files rather than three physical disks. At this point I would be inclined to use smartctl -t long /dev/sda, followed later by smartctl -a /dev/sda to see if you've real disk errors.
    – Chris Davies
    Mar 24, 2015 at 0:00
  • I added the smartctl test results in the original question.
    – jlmr
    Mar 25, 2015 at 7:14
  • @jlmr get a new drive, this one is broken
    – frostschutz
    Mar 25, 2015 at 8:58
  • @frostschutz, could you explain what exactly is wrong with the drive? I find it hard to interpret the test-results. It would be nice to understand it, also because of the warranty. The drive is quite new, so perhaps a refund or something can be arranged.
    – jlmr
    Mar 26, 2015 at 16:29

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