Re: MD/RAID time out writing superblock

[Mark Lord <liml@rtr.ca>]

Andrei Tanas wrote:
>>>>> The drive might take a longer time like this when doing error handling
>>>>> (sector remapping, etc), but then I would expect to see your remapped
>>>>> sector count grow.
>>>> Yes, this is a possibility and according to the spec, libata EH should
>>>> be retrying flushes a few times before giving up but I'm not sure
>>>> whether keeping retrying for several minutes is a good idea either.
>>>> Is it?
>>> ..
>>>
>>> Libata will retry only when the FLUSH returns an error,
>>> and the next FLUSH will continue after the point where
>>> the first attempt failed.
>>>
>>> But if the drive can still auto-relocate sectors, then the
>>> first FLUSH won't actually fail.. it will simply take longer
>>> than normal.
>>>
>>> A couple of those, and we're into the tens of seconds range
>>> for time.
>>>
>>> Still, it would be good to actually produce an error like that
>>> to examine under controlled circumstances.
>>>
>>> Hmm.. I had a drive here that gave symptoms like that.
>>> Eventually, I discovered that drive had run out of relocatable
>>> sectors, too.  Mmm.. I'll see if I can get it back (loaned it out)
>>> and perhaps we can recreate this specific scenario on it..
>> ..
>>
>> I checked today, and that drive is no longer available.
> 
> Mine errored out again with exactly the same symptoms, this time after only
> few days and with the "tunable" set to 2 sec. I got a warranty replacement
> but haven't shipped this one yet. Let me know if you want it.
..

Not me.  But perhaps Tejun ?