[Bug 1030598] [NEW] boot with degraded RAID5 (not system drive) triggers initramfs and requires user input to proceed

[dov aharonson]

Public bug reported:

I have a remote ubuntu 12.04 with 5 harddrives, the ubuntu system and
swap are installed on drive /dev/sde and in addition I have software
raid5 over sda0, sdb0, sdc0. sdd0 partitions, the raid5 is used as a
physical-volume for LVM.

The system is a headless remote system that must restart/boot
automatically without any user input.

I tried to simulate disk failure on the raid5 by pulling one drive out of the system while it was running.
everything looks ok, I can continue to use the raid5 and it is reported as degraded and send event triggered email.

BUT - when I shut it down and try to boot, it detects the degraded raid5
array and goes into initramfs where I need to respond manually and click
exit in order to let it continue the boot, but as I said it is a remote
unit that should boot/restart automatically.

I already tried the following:
1. I modified /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/mdadm to have the line: BOOT_DEGRADED=true
2. Just to make sure I also ran: sudo dpkg-reconfigure msadm and set the boot degraded option through this tool too.

Is this a bug in ubuntu or am I doing something wrong?
If it is a bug is there a workaround this issue until it will be solved?

I am relatively new to both linux and ubuntu so I realy need your help to resolve this problem.
Appreciate your time and your help

** Affects: util-linux (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1030598

Title:
  boot with degraded RAID5 (not system drive) triggers initramfs and
  requires user input to proceed

Status in “util-linux” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I have a remote ubuntu 12.04 with 5 harddrives, the ubuntu system and
  swap are installed on drive /dev/sde and in addition I have software
  raid5 over sda0, sdb0, sdc0. sdd0 partitions, the raid5 is used as a
  physical-volume for LVM.

  The system is a headless remote system that must restart/boot
  automatically without any user input.

  I tried to simulate disk failure on the raid5 by pulling one drive out of the system while it was running.
  everything looks ok, I can continue to use the raid5 and it is reported as degraded and send event triggered email.

  BUT - when I shut it down and try to boot, it detects the degraded
  raid5 array and goes into initramfs where I need to respond manually
  and click exit in order to let it continue the boot, but as I said it
  is a remote unit that should boot/restart automatically.

  I already tried the following:
  1. I modified /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/mdadm to have the line: BOOT_DEGRADED=true
  2. Just to make sure I also ran: sudo dpkg-reconfigure msadm and set the boot degraded option through this tool too.

  Is this a bug in ubuntu or am I doing something wrong?
  If it is a bug is there a workaround this issue until it will be solved?

  I am relatively new to both linux and ubuntu so I realy need your help to resolve this problem.
  Appreciate your time and your help

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