# Drive became read only? **URL:** \ **Category:** SLES Configure-Administer\ **Created:** [April 26, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/drive-became-read-only/25462 "2014-04-26T03:43:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FUBAR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@FUBAR](https://forums.suse.com/u/FUBAR)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/drive-became-read-only/25462/1 "2014-04-26T03:43:04Z")
Hope this is the right place for this. I just had a really weird occurrence on my SLES server. One of the drives (the main one with the OS) kind of became read only. I could still browse and even view files on netware volumes from a Netware Client workstation but could not even view them from the console. I couldn’t even launch terminal. Luckily I was able to access remote manager and reboot the sever. Still had to run to the location because the other drive array in the machine decided it hadn’t been checked in 186 days so a 2 hour check was necessary but that’s another gripe. System came back up and appears to be fine now. Any idea what might have happened here and how to prevent it in the future? ---
**Author:** ![mikewillis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@mikewillis](https://forums.suse.com/u/mikewillis)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 12:56pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/drive-became-read-only/25462/2 "2014-04-26T12:56:09Z")
You say it ‘kind of became read only’ but you don’t mention having tried creating a new file. Did you and if so, what happened? What you describe sounds like the sort of behaviour one might possibly see if a partition became 100% full. There are circumstances under which an volume could get re-mounted as read only in the event of an error. What does the /etc/fstab for the relevant partition look like? What’s the output of ```auto $ dumpe2fs /dev/partitionname ``` (It’ll be long, wrap it in CODE tags for readability, look for the # button in the toolbar.) And the most obvious question, is there anything in the logs that gives a clue as to what happened? Though if it was a lack of free space problem then logs may not have been written of course. (Which is one reason why it’s useful to have syslog also write a copy the log to another machine.) You can disable the fsck on boot checks with tune2fs. Look at -i and -c options. But on a server, I’d leave it alone. (I’ve disabled the checks on my SLED machines and thus far got away with it. I don’t want the support calls from people complaining that they arrived at work, turned on their computer and had to wait while it did fsck because this was the 20th/40th/60th/etc time it had been booted.) ---
**Author:** ![FUBAR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@FUBAR](https://forums.suse.com/u/FUBAR)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/drive-became-read-only/25462/3 "2014-04-26T20:53:57Z")
> [@mikewillis;20863](#): > > You say it ‘kind of became read only’ but you don’t mention having tried creating a new file. Did you and if so, what happened? Well on the console it wasn’t only read only nothing would run and no files could be viewed. On a client I was able to view files on a mapped drive and even managed to copy one to a local drive and delete the file on the mapped drive. I could not rename files, copy them, or move them on the mapped drive. [quote] What you describe sounds like the sort of behaviour one might possibly see if a partition became 100% full. [/quote] This is highly doubtful as there is 1.6TB of space left on the drive at this time. > [@](#): > > There are circumstances under which an volume could get re-mounted as read only in the event of an error. What does the /etc/fstab for the relevant partition look like? What’s the output of [CODE]dump Filesystem volume name: Last mounted on: Filesystem UUID: 6ac7ec0b-60ec-4688-ae5e-8bc809fc085d Filesystem magic number: 0xEF53 Filesystem revision #: 1 (dynamic) Filesystem features: has\_journal ext\_attr resize\_inode dir\_index filetype needs\_recovery sparse\_super large\_file Filesystem flags: signed\_directory\_hash Default mount options: (none) Filesystem state: clean Errors behavior: Continue Filesystem OS type: Linux Inode count: 131072 Block count: 523776 Reserved block count: 26188 Free blocks: 496641 Free inodes: 131027 First block: 0 Block size: 4096 Fragment size: 4096 Reserved GDT blocks: 127 Blocks per group: 32768 Fragments per group: 32768 Inodes per group: 8192 Inode blocks per group: 512 Filesystem created: Wed May 1 19:53:25 2013 Last mount time: Fri Apr 25 20:09:25 2014 Last write time: Fri Apr 25 20:09:25 2014 Mount count: 48 Maximum mount count: -1 Last checked: Wed May 1 19:53:25 2013 Check interval: 0 () Reserved blocks uid: 0 (user root) Reserved blocks gid: 0 (group root) First inode: 11 Inode size: 256 Required extra isize: 28 Desired extra isize: 28 Journal inode: 8 Default directory hash: half\_md4 Directory Hash Seed: 49147a20-869b-4999-bb71-2dc7f078f0b9 Journal backup: inode blocks Journal size: 32M Group 0: (Blocks 0-32767) Primary superblock at 0, Group descriptors at 1-1 Reserved GDT blocks at 2-128 Block bitmap at 129 (+129), Inode bitmap at 130 (+130) Inode table at 131-642 (+131) 22246 free blocks, 8165 free inodes, 2 directories Free blocks: 649-6143, 8690-12287, 12396-16383, 19332-19546, 21747-24558, 26630-32767 Free inodes: 20, 24-25, 27-28, 32, 34-8192 Group 1: (Blocks 32768-65535) Backup superblock at 32768, Group descriptors at 32769-32769 Reserved GDT blocks at 32770-32896 Block bitmap at 32897 (+129), Inode bitmap at 32898 (+130) Inode table at 32899-33410 (+131) 32125 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 33411-65535 Free inodes: 8193-16384 Group 2: (Blocks 65536-98303) Block bitmap at 65536 (+0), Inode bitmap at 65537 (+1) Inode table at 65538-66049 (+2) 32254 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 66050-98303 Free inodes: 16385-24576 Group 3: (Blocks 98304-131071) Backup superblock at 98304, Group descriptors at 98305-98305 Reserved GDT blocks at 98306-98432 Block bitmap at 98433 (+129), Inode bitmap at 98434 (+130) Inode table at 98435-98946 (+131) 32125 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 98947-131071 Free inodes: 24577-32768 Group 4: (Blocks 131072-163839) Block bitmap at 131072 (+0), Inode bitmap at 131073 (+1) Inode table at 131074-131585 (+2) 32197 free blocks, 8174 free inodes, 1 directories Free blocks: 131587-145407, 145433-149505, 149507-151551, 151578-159743, 159745-161792, 161795, 161797-163839 Free inodes: 32770, 32787, 32789-40960 Group 5: (Blocks 163840-196607) Backup superblock at 163840, Group descriptors at 163841-163841 Reserved GDT blocks at 163842-163968 Block bitmap at 163969 (+129), Inode bitmap at 163970 (+130) Inode table at 163971-164482 (+131) 32125 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 164483-196607 Free inodes: 40961-49152 Group 6: (Blocks 196608-229375) Block bitmap at 196608 (+0), Inode bitmap at 196609 (+1) Inode table at 196610-197121 (+2) 24053 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 205323-229375 Free inodes: 49153-57344 Group 7: (Blocks 229376-262143) Backup superblock at 229376, Group descriptors at 229377-229377 Reserved GDT blocks at 229378-229504 Block bitmap at 229505 (+129), Inode bitmap at 229506 (+130) Inode table at 229507-230018 (+131) 32125 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 230019-262143 Free inodes: 57345-65536 Group 8: (Blocks 262144-294911) Block bitmap at 262144 (+0), Inode bitmap at 262145 (+1) Inode table at 262146-262657 (+2) 32254 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 262658-294911 Free inodes: 65537-73728 Group 9: (Blocks 294912-327679) Backup superblock at 294912, Group descriptors at 294913-294913 Reserved GDT blocks at 294914-295040 Block bitmap at 295041 (+129), Inode bitmap at 295042 (+130) Inode table at 295043-295554 (+131) 32125 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 295555-327679 Free inodes: 73729-81920 Group 10: (Blocks 327680-360447) Block bitmap at 327680 (+0), Inode bitmap at 327681 (+1) Inode table at 327682-328193 (+2) 32254 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 328194-360447 Free inodes: 81921-90112 Group 11: (Blocks 360448-393215) Block bitmap at 360448 (+0), Inode bitmap at 360449 (+1) Inode table at 360450-360961 (+2) 32254 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 360962-393215 Free inodes: 90113-98304 Group 12: (Blocks 393216-425983) Block bitmap at 393216 (+0), Inode bitmap at 393217 (+1) Inode table at 393218-393729 (+2) 32254 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 393730-425983 Free inodes: 98305-106496 Group 13: (Blocks 425984-458751) Block bitmap at 425984 (+0), Inode bitmap at 425985 (+1) Inode table at 425986-426497 (+2) 32254 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 426498-458751 Free inodes: 106497-114688 Group 14: (Blocks 458752-491519) Block bitmap at 458752 (+0), Inode bitmap at 458753 (+1) Inode table at 458754-459265 (+2) 32254 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 459266-491519 Free inodes: 114689-122880 Group 15: (Blocks 491520-523775) Block bitmap at 491520 (+0), Inode bitmap at 491521 (+1) Inode table at 491522-492033 (+2) 31742 free blocks, 8192 free inodes, 0 directories Free blocks: 492034-523775 Free inodes: 122881-131072 [/CODE] > [@](#): > > And the most obvious question, is there anything in the logs that gives a clue as to what happened? Though if it was a lack of free space problem then logs may not have been written of course. (Which is one reason why it’s useful to have syslog also write a copy the log to another machine.) Nothing I could find in the logs that did get saved. Others either didn’t get saved or are of an unknown format that won’t open. [quote] You can disable the fsck on boot checks with tune2fs. Look at -i and -c options. But on a server, I’d leave it alone. (I’ve disabled the checks on my SLED machines and thus far got away with it. I don’t want the support calls from people complaining that they arrived at work, turned on their computer and had to wait while it did fsck because this was the 20th/40th/60th/etc time it had been booted.)[/QUOTE] Yea I don’t know if I really want to disable it. I will check it out. It would be nice if it was an opt in kind of thing where it would cancel if you didn’t press a key in x number of seconds especially when rebooting from remote. You don’t know if its doing an extended check or your server is toast. There was only one strange thing I noticed when I was getting ready to reboot. From remote manager the cpu usage was reporting at 100% but it really didn’t look like any of the info was accurate and I couldn’t bring up the system monitor from the console to check. ---
**Author:** ![smflood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forums.suse.com/smflood/32/10576_2.png) [@smflood](https://forums.suse.com/u/smflood)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/drive-became-read-only/25462/4 "2014-04-27T00:28:59Z")
FUBAR Wrote in message: [color=blue] > Hope this is the right place for this. I just had a really weird > occurrence on my SLES server. One of the drives (the main one with the > OS) kind of became read only. I could still browse and even view files > on netware volumes from a Netware Client workstation but could not even > view them from the console. I couldn’t even launch terminal. Luckily I > was able to access remote manager and reboot the sever. Still had to > run to the location because the other drive array in the machine decided > it hadn’t been checked in 186 days so a 2 hour check was necessary but > that’s another gripe. System came back up and appears to be fine now. > Any idea what might have happened here and how to prevent it in the > future?[/color] You’ve posted this in a SLES forum referencing SLES but you’ve also mentioned NetWare volumes and Client so is this server perhaps running Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES)? Perhaps you could post the output from “cat /etc/\*release” to clarify and let us know SLES/OES release(s). ## HTH. Simon SUSE Knowledge Partner ----Android NewsGroup Reader---- [http://www.piaohong.tk/newsgroup](http://www.piaohong.tk/newsgroup) ---
**Author:** ![FUBAR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@FUBAR](https://forums.suse.com/u/FUBAR)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/drive-became-read-only/25462/5 "2014-04-27T01:52:33Z")
[QUOTE=smflood;20869]FUBAR Wrote in message: [color=blue] > Hope this is the right place for this. I just had a really weird > occurrence on my SLES server. One of the drives (the main one with the > OS) kind of became read only. I could still browse and even view files > on netware volumes from a Netware Client workstation but could not even > view them from the console. I couldn’t even launch terminal. Luckily I > was able to access remote manager and reboot the sever. Still had to > run to the location because the other drive array in the machine decided > it hadn’t been checked in 186 days so a 2 hour check was necessary but > that’s another gripe. System came back up and appears to be fine now. > Any idea what might have happened here and how to prevent it in the > future?[/color] You’ve posted this in a SLES forum referencing SLES but you’ve also mentioned NetWare volumes and Client so is this server perhaps running Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES)? Perhaps you could post the output from “cat /etc/\*release” to clarify and let us know SLES/OES release(s). ## HTH. Simon SUSE Knowledge Partner ----Android NewsGroup Reader---- [http://www.piaohong.tk/newsgroup](http://www.piaohong.tk/newsgroup)[/QUOTE] ` LSB_VERSION="core-2.0-noarch:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-noarch:core-2.0-x86_64:core-3.2-x86_64:core-4.0-x86_64" Novell Open Enterprise Server 11 (x86_64) VERSION = 11.1 PATCHLEVEL = 1 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x86_64) VERSION = 11 PATCHLEVEL = 2` While I originally noticed the issue on mapped drives the problem affected everything on the drive not just the Novell shares. ---
**Author:** ![KEVIN1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KEVIN1](https://forums.suse.com/u/KEVIN1)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/drive-became-read-only/25462/6 "2014-04-27T20:15:05Z")
Simon Flood wrote: [color=blue] > could post the output from “cat /etc/\*release”[/color] As you know, OES is an add-on to a SLES system. Some issues on an OES system have little to do with OES itself. Unfortunately, many forum members seeking assistance are unable to distinguish the difference, hence Simon’s query. In this case, it would appear that you chose the correct forum. – Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface, show your appreciation and click on the star below…