disk light remains on

disk light remains on

[debian]

I just began using RAID-1 (in 2.6.12) on a pair of SATA drives, and
now the hard disk drive light comes on during booting--about when the
RAID system is loaded--and stays on.  I didn't see this behavior while
I was running Linux without RAID (in the Debian installer).

Is this observed/expected behavior?

Re: disk light remains on

[Ross Vandegrift]

On Mon, Jan 02, 2006 at 07:32:13PM -0800, debian@good-with-numbers.com wrote:
> I just began using RAID-1 (in 2.6.12) on a pair of SATA drives, and
> now the hard disk drive light comes on during booting--about when the
> RAID system is loaded--and stays on.

Could you "cat /proc/mdstat"?  If this is an initial creation and your
disks are large, it's likely just the initial array build.  If your
array is synced and your disks are still being accessed, are you sure
that there's no processes using your disk?

Sorry - silly things first!

-- 
Ross Vandegrift
ross@lug.udel.edu

"The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who
make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians
have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine
man in the bonds of Hell."
	--St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, Book II, xviii, 37

Re: disk light remains on

[debian]

Thanks for the reply.

On Mon, Jan 02, 2006 at 11:49:14PM -0500, Ross Vandegrift wrote:
>> I just began using RAID-1 (in 2.6.12) on a pair of SATA drives, and
>> now the hard disk drive light comes on during booting--about when the
>> RAID system is loaded--and stays on.
> 
> Could you "cat /proc/mdstat"?  If this is an initial creation and your
> disks are large, it's likely just the initial array build.  If your
> array is synced and your disks are still being accessed, are you sure
> that there's no processes using your disk?

$ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
      244195904 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>


These is a new MD, with new LVM partitions running atop.  It's a new,
minimal system.  Exim, acpid, inetd, mdadm, syslogd, klogd, portmap,
rpc.statd...that's about it.  I've never been sure how to tell which
processes are performing I/O.

Re: disk light remains on

[Ric Wheeler]

debian@good-with-numbers.com wrote:
> Thanks for the reply.
> 
> On Mon, Jan 02, 2006 at 11:49:14PM -0500, Ross Vandegrift wrote:
> 
>>>I just began using RAID-1 (in 2.6.12) on a pair of SATA drives, and
>>>now the hard disk drive light comes on during booting--about when the
>>>RAID system is loaded--and stays on.
>>

There was a bug in libata that did not clear the register that set the 
drive light - you should be able to get rid of this issue with an 
updated kernel or simply ignore it,

ric