How do you re-mount an ext3 fs readwrite after it gets mounted readonly from a disk error?

Question

Its a relatively common problem when something goes wrong in a SAN for ext3 to detect the disk write errors and remount the filesystem read-only. Thats all well and good, only when the SAN is fixed I can't figure out how to re-re-mount the filesystem read-write without rebooting.

Behold:

[root@localhost ~]# multipath -ll
mpath0 (36001f93000a310000299000200000000) dm-2 XIOTECH,ISE1400
[size=1.1T][features=1 queue_if_no_path][hwhandler=0][rw]
\_ round-robin 0 [prio=2][active]
\_ 1:0:0:1 sdb 8:16  [active][ready]
\_ 2:0:0:1 sdc 8:32  [active][ready]
[root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/mapper/mpath0 /mnt/foo
[root@localhost ~]# touch /mnt/foo/blah

All good, now I yank the LUN out from under it.

[root@localhost ~]# touch /mnt/foo/blah
[root@localhost ~]# touch /mnt/foo/blah
touch: cannot touch `/mnt/foo/blah': Read-only file system
[root@localhost ~]# tail /var/log/messages
Mar 18 13:17:33 localhost multipathd: sdb: tur checker reports path is down
Mar 18 13:17:34 localhost multipathd: sdc: tur checker reports path is down
Mar 18 13:17:35 localhost kernel: Aborting journal on device dm-2.
Mar 18 13:17:35 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device dm-2, logical block 1545
Mar 18 13:17:35 localhost kernel: lost page write due to I/O error on dm-2
Mar 18 13:17:36 localhost kernel: ext3_abort called.
Mar 18 13:17:36 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs error (device dm-2): ext3_journal_start_sb:   Detected aborted journal                      
Mar 18 13:17:36 localhost kernel: Remounting filesystem read-only

It only thinks its read-only, in reality its not even there.

[root@localhost ~]# multipath -ll
sdb: checker msg is "tur checker reports path is down"
sdc: checker msg is "tur checker reports path is down"
mpath0 (36001f93000a310000299000200000000) dm-2 XIOTECH,ISE1400
[size=1.1T][features=0][hwhandler=0][rw]
\_ round-robin 0 [prio=0][enabled]
 \_ 1:0:0:1 sdb 8:16  [failed][faulty]
 \_ 2:0:0:1 sdc 8:32  [failed][faulty]
[root@localhost ~]# ll /mnt/foo/
ls: reading directory /mnt/foo/: Input/output error
total 20
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     0 Mar 18 13:11 bar

How it still remembers that 'bar' file being there... mystery, but not important right now. Now I re-present the LUN:

[root@localhost ~]# tail /var/log/messages
Mar 18 13:23:58 localhost multipathd: sdb: tur checker reports path is up
Mar 18 13:23:58 localhost multipathd: 8:16: reinstated
Mar 18 13:23:58 localhost multipathd: mpath0: queue_if_no_path enabled
Mar 18 13:23:58 localhost multipathd: mpath0: Recovered to normal mode
Mar 18 13:23:58 localhost multipathd: mpath0: remaining active paths: 1
Mar 18 13:23:58 localhost multipathd: dm-2: add map (uevent)
Mar 18 13:23:58 localhost multipathd: dm-2: devmap already registered
Mar 18 13:23:59 localhost multipathd: sdc: tur checker reports path is up
Mar 18 13:23:59 localhost multipathd: 8:32: reinstated
Mar 18 13:23:59 localhost multipathd: mpath0: remaining active paths: 2
Mar 18 13:23:59 localhost multipathd: dm-2: add map (uevent)
Mar 18 13:23:59 localhost multipathd: dm-2: devmap already registered
[root@localhost ~]# multipath -ll
mpath0 (36001f93000a310000299000200000000) dm-2 XIOTECH,ISE1400
[size=1.1T][features=1 queue_if_no_path][hwhandler=0][rw]
\_ round-robin 0 [prio=2][enabled]
 \_ 1:0:0:1 sdb 8:16  [active][ready]
 \_ 2:0:0:1 sdc 8:32  [active][ready]

Great right? It says [rw] right there. Not so fast:

[root@localhost ~]# touch /mnt/foo/blah
touch: cannot touch `/mnt/foo/blah': Read-only file system

OK, doesn't do it automatically, I'll just give it a little push:

[root@localhost ~]# mount -o remount /mnt/foo
mount: block device /dev/mapper/mpath0 is write-protected, mounting read-only

The hell you are:

[root@localhost ~]# mount -o remount,rw /mnt/foo
mount: block device /dev/mapper/mpath0 is write-protected, mounting read-only

Noooooooooo.

I have tried all sorts of different mount/tune2fs/dmsetup commands and I cannot figure out how to get it to un-flag the block device as write-protected. Rebooting will fix it, but I'd much rather do it on-line. An hour of googling has gotten me nowhere either. Save me ServerFault.

Answer 1

Your problem is not the remounting, it's the multipath device which is still read-only.

Answer 2

mount -o remount,rw /mnt/fo

Answer 3

I just recently ran into this problem and solved it by rebooting but after further investigation it appears issuing the following command might fix it.

echo running > /sys/block/device-name/device/state

http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html-single/Storage_Administration_Guide/index.html#task_controlling-scsi-command-timer-onlining-devices

Answer 4

Do you think it's related to

http://www.redhat.com/magazine/026dec06/features/tips_tricks/

see section on Why does the ext3 filesystems on my Storage Area Network (SAN) repeatedly become read-only?

it's quite an old article, and is talking about fibre channel. It may be related to your problem.

Answer 5

I have a similar situation. Fc connection to the disks was los, and now one volume can not be mounted rw. Iwas not able to fsck it as well. df -k, lsof, searching in /proc/mounts showed nothing about the volume beeing mounted or opened. then I've saved the device mapper settings for that volume: dmsetup table volume_map_name >> ~/somefile then I've created an other mapping using the previous file: dmsetup create testmapping ~/somefile

with this I was able to run fsck on it and next I was able to mount it rw.

well, I know this is not THE solution for you as you have mentioned that you prefer not to umount, but it can be a way to have that device accessible rw.

Have you found any other solution?

Answer 6

Linux simply doesn't cope well enough with medium-large scale SANs. You MUST give it some care and fine tune the IO timeouts and multipath timeout handling, they're all pretty much at desktop-ready defaults.

(Remember "rejecting IO to dead device"?)