[Bug 1429327] Re: ISST-LTE: system drops to initramfs after install on multipath disk

Steve Langasek steve.langasek at canonical.com
Wed Mar 18 00:12:51 UTC 2015


Architecturally speaking, I think it's a bug that installing to
multipath results in the boot config pointing to a UUID for the root
device.  In all other cases, we use identifiers for all filesystems
(root or otherwise) which are "guaranteed" to be both stable and unique.
(For LVM, this is the LV path and not the UUID since UUIDs are not
unique in the face of snapshots; otherwise we use the UUID.)

Given that we *know* that the UUID is not unique in the multipath
scenario, and know this at install time, I think it's wrong for us to
configure the system to reference filesystems via this non-unique
identifier.  I would argue instead that:

 - multipath-tools should (if it doesn't already) create a symlink for the device which includes the UUID, but is only ever created once multipath is initialized
 - the fstab and bootloader should be configured to refer to this symlink, not the non-unique UUID

This should address a number of issues with the initramfs, including
allowing event-driven assembly of the multipath devices instead of the
current blocking script approach.

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Title:
  ISST-LTE: system drops to initramfs after install on multipath disk

Status in debian-installer package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  -- Problem Description --
  We try to install Ubuntu version 15.04 build 20150218 on our system which use the ibmveth for the network and bluefin (lpfc) for this disks. 
  The Installation completed and ask to continue and reboot, but then it drops to initramfs....
  (initramfs) cat /proc/modules
  usbhid 63247 0 - Live 0xd000000003520000
  hid 128631 1 usbhid, Live 0xd0000000034a0000
  lpfc 778399 1 - Live 0xd000000002e30000
  dm_multipath 25603 0 - Live 0xd000000002cf0000
  scsi_dh 10388 1 dm_multipath, Live 0xd000000002c10000
  scsi_transport_fc 71871 1 lpfc, Live 0xd000000002890000
  (initramfs) cat /proc/cmdline
  BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinux-3.18.0-13-generic root=/dev/mapper/creeklp1--vg-root ro splash quiet
  Look like it cannot fine the vg-root to boot up. 


    ?????????????????????????? [!!] Partition disks ???????????????????????????
    ?                                                                         ?
    ? Note that all data on the disk you select will be erased, but not       ?
    ? before you have confirmed that you really want to make the changes.     ?
    ?                                                                         ?
    ? Select disk to partition:                                               ?
    ?                                                                         ?
    ?  Multipath mpath0 (WWID 36005076307ffc7b00000000000000717) - 16.1       ?
    ?  Multipath mpath1 (WWID 36005076307ffc7b00000000000000718) - 16.1       ?
    ?  Multipath mpath2 (WWID 36005076307ffc7b00000000000000719) - 16.1   ?   ?
    ?  Multipath mpath3 (WWID 36005076307ffc7b0000000000000071a) - 16.1   ?   ?
    ?  Multipath mpath4 (WWID 36005076307ffc7b0000000000000071b) - 64.4   ?   ?
    ?  SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) - 16.1 GB IBM 2107900                          ?   ?
    ?  SCSI1 (0,5,1) (sdaa) - 16.1 GB IBM 2107900                         ?   ?
    ?  SCSI1 (0,5,2) (sdab) - 16.1 GB IBM 2107900                         ?   ?
    ?  SCSI1 (0,5,3) (sdac) - 16.1 GB IBM 2107900                         ?   ?
    ?  SCSI1 (0,5,4) (sdad) - 64.4 GB IBM 2107900                             ?
    ?                                                                         ?
    ?     <Go Back>                                                           ?
    ?                                                                         ?
    ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

  
  conflicting device node '/dev/mapper/mpath4p1' found, link to '/dev/dm-5' will not be created
  conflicting device node '/dev/mapper/mpath4p2' found, link to '/dev/dm-6' will not be created
  conflicting device node '/dev/mapper/mpath4p3' found, link to '/dev/dm-7' will not be created

    ??????????????????????????? [!] Partition disks ???????????????????????????
    ?                                                                         ?
    ? You may use the whole volume group for guided partitioning, or part     ?
    ? of it. If you use only part of it, or if you add more disks later,      ?
    ? then you will be able to grow logical volumes later using the LVM       ?
    ? tools, so using a smaller part of the volume group at installation      ?
    ? time may offer more flexibility.                                        ?
    ?                                                                         ?
    ? The minimum size of the selected partitioning recipe is 596.0 MB (or    ?
    ? 0%); please note that the packages you choose to install may require    ?
    ? more space than this. The maximum available size is 64.2 GB.            ?
    ?                                                                         ?
    ? Hint: "max" can be used as a shortcut to specify the maximum size, or   ?
    ? enter a percentage (e.g. "20%") to use that percentage of the maximum   ?
    ? size.                                                                   ?
    ?                                                                         ?
    ? 64.2 GB______________________________________________________________   ?
    ?                                                                         ?
    ?     <Go Back>                                            <Continue>     ?
    ?                                                                         ?
    ???????????????

  
     ?????????????????????????? [!!] Partition disks ??????????????????????????
     ?                                                                        ?
     ? If you continue, the changes listed below will be written to the       ?
     ? disks. Otherwise, you will be able to make further changes manually.   ?
     ?                                                                        ?
     ? WARNING: This will destroy all data on any partitions you have         ?
     ? removed as well as on the partitions that are going to be formatted.   ?
     ?                                                                        ?
     ? The partition tables of the following devices are changed:             ?
     ?    LVM VG creeklp1-vg, LV root                                         ?
     ?    LVM VG creeklp1-vg, LV swap_1                                       ?
     ?    Multipath mpath4 (WWID 36005076307ffc7b0000000000000071b)           ?
     ?    SCSI1 (0,5,4) (sdad)                                                ?
     ?    SCSI1 (0,0,4) (sde)                                                 ?
     ?    SCSI1 (0,1,4) (sdj)                                                 ?
     ?    SCSI1 (0,2,4) (sdo)                                                 ?
     ?    SCSI1 (0,3,4) (sdt)                                                 ?
     ?                                                                        ?
     ?     <Yes>                                                     <No>     ?
     ?                                                                        ?
     ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????




     ????????????????????? [!!] Finish the installation ??????????????????????
     ?                                                                       ?
    ??                         Installation complete                         ?
    ?? Installation is complete, so it is time to boot into your new system. ?
    ?? Make sure to remove the installation media (CD-ROM, floppies), so     ?
    ?? that you boot into the new system rather than restarting the          ?
    ?? installation.                                                         ?
    ??                                                                       ?
    ??     <Go Back>                                          <Continue>     ?
     ?                                                                       ?
     ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

  
  creeklp2 is now booting. I made a few changes to the system to accomplish this.

  First I got the machine to boot by doing the following from the
  initramfs:

  1. modprobe scsi_dh_alua
  2. multipath -v0
  3. exit

  Once the machine was booted, I did the following:

  1. Added scsi_dh_alua to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
  2. Ran update-initramfs to update the initramfs with this change
  3. Set GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true in /etc/default/grub
  4. Rebuild grub.cfg by using grub-mkconfig

  I'm still getting a lot of errors booting the system from udev due to
  the fact that udev is spawning a call to multipath for each /dev/sd
  device on the system.

  I decided to change to not use UUID when I saw in the initramfs that
  the /dev/disk/by-uuid symlink was pointing to one of the paths of the
  multipath device rather than the multipath device itself.

  It seems there may be some udev configuration issues here when booting
  from a multipath device.

  Can we get someone from Canonical to take a look at this?

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