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From: Eric S. <ej...@sh...> - 2011-01-20 02:46:57
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I have a few VMware Server v2 hosts running on CentOS 5.5. I've been using smartctl to monitor the drives of a raid-1 array, which contains the OS, VMware Server, and all VMs. So far so good. These servers also have 2 additional drives, accessed by a VM guest in raw mode. FWIW, the guest machines are unable to run smartctl against the raw drives: # smartctl -a /dev/sdb smartctl version 5.38 [i686-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ Device: VMware, VMware Virtual S Version: 1.0 Device type: disk Local Time is: Wed Jan 19 19:08:41 2011 MST Device does not support SMART Error Counter logging not supported Device does not support Self Test logging </end> It would be nice if this worked, but I figure I can live w/out smart data from those drives, at least until VMware Server more fully supports raw drives. My problem is this. I'm running smartctl on the host machine, on drives /dev/sda and /dev/sdb. I wasn't paying very close attention and failed to realize that /dev/sdb is one of the raw drives used by a guest VM. /dev/sda and /dev/sdc are the raid-1 mirrors, and /dev/sdb and /dev/sdd are the raw disks for the VM guest. I'm a little surprised, but there doesn't appear to be a problem with the VM host running smartctl on a drive that's being accessed as a raw disk by one of the guest VMs. I was a little leery to try this, it's been running daily for 6 weeks now, with no problem other than this from smartctl: /dev/sdb : Usage: Seek_Error_Rate (7) changed to 100, 200, Usage: Temperature_Celsius (194) changed to 108, 107, 108, 107, 106, 107, 108, 107, Currently unreadable (pending) sectors detected: /dev/sdb - 48 Time(s) 24 unreadable sectors detected Q#1: Are the seek errors and unreadable sectors possibly the result of running smartctl on the host while a VM guest is accessing the drive in raw mode? Or are these errors just a drive that's a little faulty? (I have a warranty replacement drive ready to install, but haven't done so yet) Q#2: Does anyone have an opinion as to whether running smartd against drives that are used in raw mode by virtual guests would be a problem for some reason? FWIW, these guest drives are part of a raid-1 mirror, which is controlled by the guest VM. Any insight here is appreciated. I'm not very knowledgeable regarding smart, so I'm relying on the expertise here. TIA. -- -Eric 'shubes' |