Boot very slow! Stops on /etc/fstab

[7280]

Hi,
I've installed a new linux server, redhat el as 3 upd 8, kernel version 2.4.21-47.0.1.
At every boot it stays about 10-15 minutes at "Updating /etc/fstab". Why it's taking so long?
This is my /etc/fstab. From my point of view it seems ok:
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
LABEL=/opt /opt ext3 defaults 1 2
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
LABEL=/sysmgmt /sysmgmt ext3 defaults 1 2
LABEL=/tmp /tmp ext3 defaults 1 2
LABEL=/usr /usr ext3 defaults 1 2
LABEL=/var /var ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /data ext3 noatime,defaults 0 0

Please help. I'm putting this server in production now!

Thanks in advance.

 

[7280]

Forget to say I'm using Redhat EL AS 3 upd 8, kernel 2.4.9-47.0.1ELsmp.

 

[7280]

A normal boot is taking 20 minutes!!
About 7 minutes before kernel load, then when grub starts boot the kernel it stays 2 minutes at kudzu "Checking new hardware" and 11 minutes at "Updating /etc/fstab".
Any idea?

 

[thedaver]

Is the server hardware particularly low on CPU power? Still shouldn't take that long. How about RAM?

Have you tried booting from a bootable CDROM distribution like Knoppix just to see if it's a hardware problem or a config problem?

Only other thing I can offer is that my older Debian CDROM profile in fstab looks like this:

/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0

I use LILO for my boot loader on this particular machine and haven't used volume/partition labels so there will be a few changes.

Consider dropping out the CDROM lines from your fstab altogether and see if it changes anything.



D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[stevexff]

I'd consider commenting all except the essentials, booting, and then adding them back in until it slows down. A bit crude perhaps, but it might help isolate the problem.

Steve

[small]"Every program can be reduced by one instruction, and every program has at least one bug. Therefore, any program can be reduced to one instruction which doesn't work." (Object:erlDesignPatterns)[/small]

 

[7280]

Hi,
I also thought the problem could be related to cdrom so I commented it out yesterday but after that the boot took 20 minutes!
My fstab is now:
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
LABEL=/opt /opt ext3 defaults 1 2
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
LABEL=/sysmgmt /sysmgmt ext3 defaults 1 2
LABEL=/tmp /tmp ext3 defaults 1 2
LABEL=/usr /usr ext3 defaults 1 2
LABEL=/var /var ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
# Lun FASTT domino data and archives
/dev/sdc1 /data ext3 noatime,defaults 0 0
/dev/sde1 /archive ext3 noatime,defaults 0 0
#/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
#/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0

 

[7280]

It's a new hardware with 2 cpu intel xeon 1.8GHZ dual core (so 4 cpu's) and 5GB ram.
It's an IBM Server X3550.

 

[stevexff]

Shouldn't be a speed problem, then.

While it's waiting, can you see or hear a lot of disk activity? I mean, it's not doing some kind of Linux equivalent of checkdisk on a big disk, is it?

Steve

[small]"Every program can be reduced by one instruction, and every program has at least one bug. Therefore, any program can be reduced to one instruction which doesn't work." (Object:erlDesignPatterns)[/small]

 

[thedaver]

But your last two lines STILL show the CDROMS active in the FSTAB!?!?!?!?!?!!

Also, have you verified that all of the partition labels are valid?

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[gbaughma]

Make sure that you don't have CDRoms in the drive... you may have a bad CD that it's trying to mount as part of the boot process.



Just my 2¢
"Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste." -Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time"
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[7280]

I've deleted/commented the entries but they are added automatically at system startup!!!
There isn't any cd inside.

Thanks again

 

[7280]

As you can see I'm mounting two external LUNS, but if I issue "fdisk -l" I can see other LUNS that i'm not using. Is it possible that the system during startup tries to do something on those luns even if they're not defined in fstab?

Another thing. Why those cdrom entries are added automatically?
First time I deleted them then the 2 entries were added, so I thought it was better to comment them but they were added anyway.

Thanks

 

[thedaver]

I think "kudzu" is doing an automatic system probe for new hardware and is consequently automounting into fstab those CDROMs that are "new" (i.e. NOT active in fstab now).

As stevexff suggested, try paring down the fstab to the most minimal configuration needed and retry booting. Given what you noted with the prospect of kudzu undermining your efforts, I recommend you disable kudzu for bootup.

"chkconfig --level 345 kudzu off"

AND remove the remote LUNS from your fstab

# Lun FASTT domino data and archives
# /dev/sdc1               /data                   ext3    noatime,defaults 0 0
# /dev/sde1               /archive                ext3    noatime,defaults 0 0

That should provide a reasonable improvement.

Frankly, what I'd suggest first is ONLY disabling 'kudzu' for bootup. I don't regard "plug-and-play" as being well aligned with a server. Normally you don't want your linux server to "get all Windows" will accepting any damned device plugged into it without SOME purposeful input from a human. IMHO.

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[7280]

Hi,
I disabled kudzu at system startup.
I can't disable the remote LUNS because they're needed by domino service, which starts automatically at system startup (I don't want to mount these manually before running domino start).

I was also thinking that the problem could be related to floppy. Now I've installed an application which needs to compile a new module and I found a lot of errors related to the floppy in messages.

Errors are:
Jan 31 12:49:29 bw-clnoteslx1 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module block-major-22
Jan 31 12:49:29 bw-clnoteslx1 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module block-major-22
Jan 31 12:49:30 bw-clnoteslx1 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module block-major-33
Jan 31 12:49:30 bw-clnoteslx1 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module block-major-33
Jan 31 12:49:30 bw-clnoteslx1 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module block-major-34
Jan 31 12:49:30 bw-clnoteslx1 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module block-major-34
Jan 31 12:49:30 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp
Jan 31 12:49:33 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: floppy0: no floppy controllers found
Jan 31 12:49:33 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: init_module: No such device
Jan 31 12:49:33 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters. You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
Jan 31 12:49:33 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: insmod block-major-2 failed
Jan 31 12:49:33 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp
Jan 31 12:49:36 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: floppy0: no floppy controllers found
Jan 31 12:49:36 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: init_module: No such device
Jan 31 12:49:36 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters. You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
Jan 31 12:49:36 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: insmod block-major-2 failed
Jan 31 12:49:36 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp
Jan 31 12:49:39 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: floppy0: no floppy controllers found
Jan 31 12:49:39 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: init_module: No such device
Jan 31 12:49:39 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters. You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
Jan 31 12:49:39 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: insmod block-major-2 failed
Jan 31 12:49:39 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp
Jan 31 12:49:42 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: floppy0: no floppy controllers found
Jan 31 12:49:42 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: init_module: No such device
Jan 31 12:49:42 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters. You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
Jan 31 12:49:42 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: insmod block-major-2 failed
Jan 31 12:49:42 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp
Jan 31 12:49:45 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: floppy0: no floppy controllers found
Jan 31 12:49:45 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: init_module: No such device
Jan 31 12:49:45 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters. You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
Jan 31 12:49:45 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: insmod block-major-2 failed
Jan 31 12:49:45 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp
Jan 31 12:49:48 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: floppy0: no floppy controllers found
Jan 31 12:49:48 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: init_module: No such device
Jan 31 12:49:48 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters. You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
Jan 31 12:49:48 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: insmod block-major-2 failed
Jan 31 12:49:48 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp
Jan 31 12:49:51 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: floppy0: no floppy controllers found
Jan 31 12:49:51 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: init_module: No such device
Jan 31 12:49:51 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters. You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
Jan 31 12:49:51 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: insmod block-major-2 failed
Jan 31 12:49:51 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp
Jan 31 12:49:54 bw-clnoteslx1 kernel: floppy0: no floppy controllers found
Jan 31 12:49:54 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: init_module: No such device
Jan 31 12:49:54 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters. You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
Jan 31 12:49:54 bw-clnoteslx1 insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o: insmod block-major-2 failed