problem running vgscan..Is it a megaraid issue or an LVM issue ??

Hi,all

I posted this on the megaraid devel list thinking it was a megaraid problem..But maybe it's LVM doing tricks..Here goes:

I've had problems with a volume group not showing up after a reboot..
After booting up the volume group on the megaraid is not detected.Running vgcfgrestore on the individual disks the volume group can bring it back...That is until I run a vgscan resulting in this output:

vgscan -- reading all physical volumes (this may take a while...) vgscan -- found active volume group "vg0"
vgscan -- "/etc/lvmtab" and "/etc/lvmtab.d" successfully created vgscan -- WARNING: This program does not do a VGDA backup of your volume group

SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 0
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 2
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 4
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 6
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 0
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 2
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 4
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 6
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 0
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 2
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 4
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 6
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 0
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 2
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 4
SCSI disk error : host 2 channel 2 id 0 lun 0 return code = 25040001
I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 6

these errors appear on the console after running it along with a lot of:
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer
invalidate: busy buffer

and the volume group vg1 is completely gone..It can be brought up again like this:

vgcfgrestore -v -n vg1 /dev/sdb1
vgcfgrestore -v -n vg1 /dev/sdc
vgchange -ay

and then it's OK until vgscan is run...

setup:

Poweredge 2550

Megaraid (2 adapters)..from dmesg:
megaraid: v1.18 (Release Date: Thu Oct 11 15:02:53 EDT 2001
)<5>megaraid: found 0x101e:0x1960:idx 0:bus 2:slot 0:func 0 scsi1 : Found a MegaRAID controller at 0xf8805000, IRQ: 20 scsi1 : Enabling 64 bit support
megaraid: [161N:3.17] detected 1 logical drives
megaraid: channel[1] is raid.
megaraid: channel[2] is raid.
megaraid: found 0x101e:0x1960:idx 1:bus 4:slot 0:func 0 scsi2 : Found a MegaRAID controller at 0xf8807000, IRQ: 18 scsi2 : Enabling 64 bit support
megaraid: [161N:3.17] detected 1 logical drives
megaraid: channel[1] is raid.
megaraid: channel[2] is raid.
scsi1 : LSI Logic MegaRAID 161N 254 commands 16 targs 5 chans 7 luns scsi2 : LSI Logic MegaRAID 161N 254 commands 16 targs 5 chans 7 luns

running Debian 2.2 with kernel 2.4.17
lvm version 1.0.1

Anyone know what's going on with this ?? It's our main server so it's not possible to boot very often..That's why I'd like to investigate all possible options before trying to debug further..

best regards

Christian

Christian Ejstrup, IT Admin / RF Development Engineer
Texas Instruments A/S, Denmark ,Sofiendalsvej 93,DK-9200 Aalborg SV,Denmark
Phone:+45 96346868, Phone(direct):+45 96346860, GSM:+45 22234304

Christian,

are the Megaraid devices all accessable (driver module loaded/linked in) when vgscan runs on reboot?

If you've got "vg1" online and then run vgscan and loose it again, I need the "vgscan -d" output. Please send it to <[email protected]> directly.

That means that the buffers are still in use when LVM tries to invalidate them. You can ignore these messages. They don't cause any harm to your data. Later LVM driver versions avoid that invalidation.

Regards,
Heinz -- The LVM Guy --

*** Software bugs are stupid.
Nevertheless it needs not so stupid people to solve them ***

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Heinz Mauelshagen Sistina Software Inc.
Senior Consultant/Developer Am Sonnenhang 11
56242 Marienrachdorf Germany
[email protected] +49 2626 141200

                                                       FAX 924446

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Yes I can boot the machine up without running vgscan and everything is OK..So it's not a showstopper but it bugs me because it's not always been like that..Could it be the way the PVs are made ?? That one is /dev/sdb1 and the other /dev/sdc ?? So one is actually on a partition taking up the entire disk and the other is directly on the disk without partition ?? Hope that made sense..hehe..It could maybe explain things as our data is now taking up more thatn just the one PV..

best regards

Christian

Christian Ejstrup, IT Admin / RF Development Engineer
Texas Instruments A/S, Denmark ,Sofiendalsvej 93,DK-9200 Aalborg SV,Denmark
Phone:+45 96346868, Phone(direct):+45 96346860, GSM:+45 22234304

Nope, shouldn't make a difference.

Please remember to send the "vgscan -d" output to me directly <[email protected]>.

Regards,
Heinz    -- The LVM Guy --

*** Software bugs are stupid.
    Nevertheless it needs not so stupid people to solve them ***

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Heinz Mauelshagen                                 Sistina Software Inc.
Senior Consultant/Developer                       Am Sonnenhang 11
                                                  56242 Marienrachdorf
                                                  Germany
[email protected]                           +49 2626 141200
                                                       FAX 924446
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-