# why file system became corrupted

**URL:** <https://forums.suse.com/t/why-file-system-became-corrupted/27386>\
**Category:** SLES Hardware\
**Created:** [August 28, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/why-file-system-became-corrupted/27386 "2015-08-28T15:28:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sharfuddin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@sharfuddin](https://forums.suse.com/u/sharfuddin)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/why-file-system-became-corrupted/27386/1 "2015-08-28T15:28:58Z")

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OS: SLES 11 SP 3 + online updates.

Customer started noticing the following error:  
Jul 22 13:45:30 node1 kernel: [23580.074503] EXT3-fs error (device dm-3): ext3\_lookup: deleted inode referenced: 1352479

and then on 20th Aug, it was noticed 32 errors in b/w 08:47:11 and 08:47:14  
Aug 20 08:47:11 node1 kernel: [2510147.739895] EXT3-fs error (device dm-3): ext3\_lookup: deleted inode referenced: 1352539  
.  
.  
.  
Aug 20 08:47:14 node1 kernel: [2510150.315486] EXT3-fs error (device dm-3): ext3\_lookup: deleted inode referenced: 1352539

They also noticed that Application(SAP) using this file system became unfunctional, then a reboot and running the fsck.ext3 was issued to repair the file system.

Now question here is why it got corrupted ? and what should one do to avoid such errors in future.

Regards,

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**Author:** ![Jens-U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d78d45/32.png) [@Jens-U](https://forums.suse.com/u/Jens-U)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/why-file-system-became-corrupted/27386/2 "2015-08-28T16:06:06Z")

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Hi sharfuddin,

> ext3\_lookup: deleted inode referenced:  
> Now question here is why it got corrupted ? and what should one do to avoid such errors in future.

in addition to file system implementation bugs (we all know these don’t exist 😉 ), this type of error is typical for system crashes or defective disk hardware.

Have a look at the server syslog, searching for errors indicating problems when accessing disks (i.e. “kernel.\*scsi:” messages). Also, on more complicated setups like SANs, have a look at the storage back-end system and the connecting network.

Generally, with stable storage environments these errors are pretty rare. Nevertheless it is a good idea to have a file system check every year or two - typically requiring a reboot, though, to make sure the file systems aren’t accessed and are unmounted at the time of checking.

If this re-occurs in rather short time frames, i.e. weeks, I’d suspect the storage hardware to be less reliable than required.

Regards,  
Jens

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**Author:** ![maikcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@maikcat](https://forums.suse.com/u/maikcat)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 8:22am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/why-file-system-became-corrupted/27386/3 "2015-09-17T08:22:33Z")

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can you post the output of lsblk in this system? just curious…

Michael