[Bug 1190295] [NEW] latest 10.04 kernel update breaks software RAID + LVM

[bl8n8r]

Public bug reported:

Been running 10.04 LTS on 8 similar AMD Opteron x86_64 servers for
several years.  The servers have been kept up-to-date with patches as
they come out.  These servers have been running 2.6.x kernels. Each
server has some form of Linux software RAID running on it as well as
3Ware hardware RAID card using SATA disks.  Software RAID is configured
as RAID1 for all but one server running software RAID10.  All servers
had software raid configured to use single partitions on each disk of
types of 0xFD (Linux Software Raid Autodetect).  All servers were
configured with LVM over the top of /dev/md0.

In past year, mysterious problems have been happening with software RAID
after applying system patches.  Upon reboot, server is unable to mount
LVM partitions on Linux software RAID and boot is interrupted with
"Continue to wait; or Press S to skip mounting or M for manual recovery"
requiring intervention from an operator.

Upon pressing 'M' and logging in as root, the LVM slices on the software
RAID partition are not mounted and sometimes appear to be missing from
LVM.  Oftentimes pvs, vgs and lvs will complain about "leaking memory".
Germane to the issue, LVM will sometimes show the problem partitions as
"Active" while other times during the login, they will simply be gone.
With LVM  and /dev/md0 unstable, there is no way to discern the true
state of the partitons in question.  Starting the system from alternate
boot media such as CDROM or USB drive, sometimes shows the software RAID
and LVM in proper state which leads to suspicion of a kernel update on
the afflicted system.  Historically and subjectively, best practice in
this instance seems to be booting from live media and starting the array
degraded mode, and backing up the array.

** Affects: partman-base (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1190295

Title:
  latest 10.04 kernel update breaks software RAID + LVM

Status in “partman-base” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Been running 10.04 LTS on 8 similar AMD Opteron x86_64 servers for
  several years.  The servers have been kept up-to-date with patches as
  they come out.  These servers have been running 2.6.x kernels. Each
  server has some form of Linux software RAID running on it as well as
  3Ware hardware RAID card using SATA disks.  Software RAID is
  configured as RAID1 for all but one server running software RAID10.
  All servers had software raid configured to use single partitions on
  each disk of types of 0xFD (Linux Software Raid Autodetect).  All
  servers were configured with LVM over the top of /dev/md0.

  In past year, mysterious problems have been happening with software
  RAID after applying system patches.  Upon reboot, server is unable to
  mount LVM partitions on Linux software RAID and boot is interrupted
  with "Continue to wait; or Press S to skip mounting or M for manual
  recovery" requiring intervention from an operator.

  Upon pressing 'M' and logging in as root, the LVM slices on the
  software RAID partition are not mounted and sometimes appear to be
  missing from LVM.  Oftentimes pvs, vgs and lvs will complain about
  "leaking memory". Germane to the issue, LVM will sometimes show the
  problem partitions as "Active" while other times during the login,
  they will simply be gone.  With LVM  and /dev/md0 unstable, there is
  no way to discern the true state of the partitons in question.
  Starting the system from alternate boot media such as CDROM or USB
  drive, sometimes shows the software RAID and LVM in proper state which
  leads to suspicion of a kernel update on the afflicted system.
  Historically and subjectively, best practice in this instance seems to
  be booting from live media and starting the array degraded mode, and
  backing up the array.

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