[CentOS] File system goes read-only once in a while

[Toby Bluhm]

Mufit Eribol wrote:
> Toby Bluhm wrote:
>> Mufit Eribol wrote:
>>>
>>> I have a LV on RAID mounted as /mnt/raid. Then /mnt/raid/var is 
>>> symlinked to /var. 
>>
>> I was afraid you were going to say that.
>>
>>
>> Go back to single user mode.
>>
>> mkdir /new_var
>> cd /mnt/raid/var
>> tar cf - . | ( cd /new_var ; tar xvf - )
>>
>> Make sure both dirs look the same.
>>
>> Change the link to /new_var. Or remove the old link & mv /new_var /var.
>>
>> reboot.
> Toby, Thank you for this nice tip. It worked perfectly. The server is 
> back in the game again.
> 
> Just for my learning experience, I would appreciate if you clarify one 
> point though. Why are you afraid when you hear /mnt/raid/var symlinked 
> to /var?

Because it can complicate a recovery, as you just experienced.

Why did you feel a need to have /var setup as you did? Did you expect to 
fill it up quickly or a need for speed? You also have /tmp separate - do 
you expect more than usual activity there?

Perhaps a better question would be - What is the purpose of this 
machine? If it's a just a fileserver on a home lan, you don't *need* to 
make it complicated, although learning is fun :-).

Running a very active internet facing box with email, mysql, apache, 
etc. would probably call for a more complicated setup - which would 
actually make recovery & security easier/better.


> 
> Here is my fstab:
> /dev/md2                /                       ext3    defaults        
> 1 1   <--- md2 Software RAID1
> /dev/md1                /boot                   ext3    defaults        
> 1 2   <--- md0 Software RAID1
> /dev/md0                /tmp                    ext3    defaults        
> 1 2   <--- md1 Software RAID1
> tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
> devpts                  /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
> sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
> proc                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
> LABEL=SWAP-sda3         swap                    swap    defaults,pri=1  0 0
> LABEL=SWAP-sdb3         swap                    swap    defaults,pri=1  0 0
> /dev/raid_vg0/raid_lv0  /mnt/raid               ext3    defaults        
> 0 0   <--- Hardware RAID10
> 
> Before, home and var were under /mnt/raid directory and symlinked to 
> /home and /var. Now, both directories were copied to / (md2 software 
> RAID1) as new_home and new_var and /home and /var symlinks are now 
> pointing to these new directories. /mnt/raid (hardware RAID10) which is 
> the main storage of my server is not being used at the moment.

Instead of using links, may as well just mount it where it belongs.

> 
> I am planning to have 2 logical volumes (for home and var separately) 
> instead of 1. Then, they will be mounted as separate partitions as /home 
> and /var to /dev/raid_vg0/raid_lv0 and /dev/raid_vg0/raid_lv1, 
> respectively. Is it a good approach? Please advise.
> 


I'm somewhat simple-minded - I like to keep the system that way :-). I 
split the partitions into 3

   /
   swap
   /home


either on a single disk or mirrored ( swap mirrored too ) - no lvm. For 
data storage I use lvm on raid on a separate mount point. Not saying you 
should do the same - it's just what I do.




-- 
Toby Bluhm
Alltech Medical Systems America, Inc.