MX19.4 to MX21 & mdadm RAID

[Red_Stag]

Dear All,

Am trying to transition from MX19.4 to MX21, am working my way through my list of things. I have noticed that my mdadm RAID-1 in MX21 appears to behave differently. In MX19.4 I would seldom see HDD activity on conky whereas in MX21 I notice constant and persistent HDD activity as is demonstrated by the attached image. You will notice that drive activity is much higher on the RAID than any other drive and this is in a relatively "idle" state. I only have a FireFox running, no other applications and not reading any data from the RAID. "Avery" is a HDD and "Bohr" is a USB HDD drive, the RAID drives are HDD. I haven't noticed anything odd with the data on the RAID, it all seems to be there and I can access it in the ways that I would expect.

I did not update or re-install mdadm in the transition from MX19.4 to MX21 (to my knowledge).

Do people think all is good or is there something odd going on?

Code: Select all

[code]
Snapshot created on: 20220115_1229
System:    Kernel: 5.10.0-10-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-10-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.16.1 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21_x64 Wildflower October 20  2021 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Compaq 8000 Elite CMT PC v: N/A 
           serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 6 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 3647h serial: <filter> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard 
           v: 786G7 v01.14 date: 10/14/2015 
CPU:       Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo E8400 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn 
           family: 6 model-id: 17 (23) stepping: A (10) microcode: A0E cache: L2: 6 MiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 11970 
           Speed: 2841 MHz min/max: 1998/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2841 2: 2861 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: EPT disabled 
           Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 4 Series Integrated Graphics vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 
           v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:2e12 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.16.1 driver: loaded: intel 
           display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") 
           s-diag: 582mm (22.9") 
           Monitor-1: VGA1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 96 size: 510x290mm (20.1x11.4") 
           diag: 587mm (23.1") 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Q45/Q43 (ELK) v: 2.1 Mesa 20.3.5 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 82801JD/DO HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:3a6e class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.0-10-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82567LM-3 Gigabit Network vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: e1000e 
           v: kernel port: 2100 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:10de class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl port: 21e0 
           bus-ID: 20:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24f3 class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
RAID:      Supported mdraid levels: raid1 linear multipath raid0 raid6 raid5 raid4 raid10 
           Device-1: md0 maj-min: 9:0 type: mdraid level: mirror status: active size: 1.82 TiB 
           Info: report: 2/2 UU blocks: 1953383488 chunk-size: N/A super-blocks: 1.2 
           Components: Online: 
           0: sdc maj-min: 8:32 size: 1.82 TiB 
           1: sdd maj-min: 8:48 size: 1.82 TiB 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: raw: 7.97 TiB usable: 6.15 TiB used: 1.65 TiB (26.8%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Silicon Power model: SPCC Solid State Disk 
           size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: SSD 
           serial: <filter> rev: V4.9 temp: 44 C scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM004-2CV104 size: 3.64 TiB 
           block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5425 
           serial: <filter> rev: 0001 temp: 32 C scheme: GPT 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM008-2FR102 size: 1.82 TiB 
           block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 
           serial: <filter> rev: 0001 temp: 35 C 
           ID-4: /dev/sdd maj-min: 8:48 vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM008-2FR102 size: 1.82 TiB 
           block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 
           serial: <filter> rev: 0001 temp: 36 C 
           ID-5: /dev/sde maj-min: 8:64 type: USB vendor: Western Digital 
           model: WD My Passport 0730 size: 465.73 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B 
           logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1008 scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 30.27 GiB size: 29.63 GiB (97.87%) used: 8.95 GiB (30.2%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda5 maj-min: 8:5 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 4.88 GiB used: 1.5 MiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 2002 lib: 991 flatpak: 0 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirror.datamossa.io/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teamviewer.list 
           1: deb http://linux.teamviewer.com/deb stable main
Info:      Processes: 222 Uptime: 4d 10h 38m wakeups: 1 Memory: 7.65 GiB used: 2.58 GiB (33.8%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Shell: quick-system-in default: Bash v: 5.1.4 running-in: quick-system-in 
           inxi: 3.3.06 

[/code]

[Mauser]

If you can believe the Conky, it looks like your RAID 1 is working hard to mirror it self and new copy which will take many hours to complete. If it's still doing this after 24 hours of operation then it's something to look into if it's reporting correctly which is questionable. Anothing thing to point out is it has been my personal experience when running any RAID on Linux is certain drive reporting applications don't report correctly. Is your RAID 1 a hardware RAID or a software RAID?

[Red_Stag]

Dear Mauser,

The Linux RAID that I am using is a software RAID using a package called mdadm available in the MX repositories. I am sorry I dont know the version number that is installed but can have a look when I get back to the PC and supply the same. Have used it for a number of years now and never had issues. I did witness a rebuild at some point in the last few months (while I was running MX19.4) and that generated a lot more read / write activity as displayed on conky and lasted about 24 hours. I take your point that conky may not necessarily be providing accurate reporting. I do find conky useful in that it forewarns me a about certain circumstances which I might otherwise miss. The read / write activity that I see now is much less but has lasted for at least 3 days now. Just seems odd to me.

Kind regards

[Red_Stag]

Dear Mauser,

Just checked and here is the mdadm version data.

$ apt list mdadm
Listing... Done
mdadm/stable,now 4.1-11 amd64 [installed]
mdadm/stable 4.1-11 i386

[Mauser]

Red_Stag , I only use only hardware RAIDs because software RAIDs would never work for me for what I need it for. The sweet setup I had in the past was a RAID 10 that MX Linux would boot from but became too expensive for me when I needed more storage but was great when one of the drives failed since it rebuild itself automatically when I replaced the bad drive.

[Red_Stag]

Dear Mauser,

Yes, understand, the price of hardware RAID has always been prohibitive for me and my applications. Just out of interest I have a multiboot system and rebooted into MX19.4 to take a screenshot of RAID i/o for comparison sake. The image is attached and shows zero i/o activity on the RAID.

Thank you for your comments and time

Kind regards
Red_Stag

[Mauser]

Dear Mauser,

Yes, understand, the price of hardware RAID has always been prohibitive for me and my applications. Just out of interest I have a multiboot system and rebooted into MX19.4 to take a screenshot of RAID i/o for comparison sake. The image is attached and shows zero i/o activity on the RAID.

Thank you for your comments and time

Kind regards
Red_Stag

O.K. Cool. That means the RAID has caught up with mirroring.