Re: [linux-lvm] Pvmove Cannot Be Aborted

["Stuart D. Gathman" <stuart@bmsi.com>]

On Wed, 4 Jul 2007, Jim Schatzman wrote:

> I made the mistake of trying to use pvmove to move any good data from a bad
> disk to a new identical good disk in an LV. Unfortunately, the Pvmove failed
> in midoperation. It cannot now be aborted, presumably because of the bad
> disk.

I've noticed that LVM has big problems handling partially failed drives.
I think this is largely due to the difficulty of testing.  It is simple
enough to simulate completely failed drives.  I've tested this by disconnecting 
the power from a drive while the system is running (I'm sure there are
safer ways.)  However, a partially failed drive (lots of bad sectors) is
another matter.  

I wish there was a SMART command to a drive that would tell it to pretend a
range of sectors is bad until further notice (without actually remapping said
sectors).  This would be a great help is debugging the error handling of things
like LVM.  In fact, maybe there already is such a feature in SMART, and
it just isn't widely known.

-- 
	      Stuart D. Gathman <stuart@bmsi.com>
    Business Management Systems Inc.  Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
"Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis" - background song for
a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?" commercial.