From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Mar 29 14:11:25 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F34624C2 for ; Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:11:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from roberthuff@rcn.com) Received: from smtp.rcn.com (smtp.rcn.com [69.168.97.78]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B1C857E9 for ; Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:11:24 +0000 (UTC) X_CMAE_Category: 0,0 Undefined,Undefined X-CNFS-Analysis: v=2.0 cv=EehKsYaC c=1 sm=0 a=0NJkuBbZY5VCdgJ+v5fl0w==:17 a=AaUjGI9IrlcA:10 a=kj9zAlcOel0A:10 a=OA2lqS22AAAA:8 a=sIt-5M63AAAA:8 a=uvmE88imp50A:10 a=eWo606DVfAH8x3mw-NwA:9 a=CjuIK1q_8ugA:10 a=0NJkuBbZY5VCdgJ+v5fl0w==:117 X-CM-Score: 0 X-Scanned-by: Cloudmark Authority Engine Authentication-Results: smtp02.rcn.cmh.synacor.com header.from=roberthuff@rcn.com; sender-id=neutral Authentication-Results: smtp02.rcn.cmh.synacor.com smtp.mail=roberthuff@rcn.com; spf=neutral; sender-id=neutral Received-SPF: neutral (smtp02.rcn.cmh.synacor.com: 209.6.84.183 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of rcn.com) Received: from [209.6.84.183] ([209.6.84.183:31828] helo=jerusalem.litteratus.org.litteratus.org) by smtp.rcn.com (envelope-from ) (ecelerity 2.2.3.49 r(42060/42061)) with ESMTP id FF/6B-28841-601A5515; Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:11:18 -0400 From: Robert Huff MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <20821.41221.631111.321717@jerusalem.litteratus.org> Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:11:17 -0400 To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: dump locking up system X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.4 (patch 22) "Instant Classic" XEmacs Lucid X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:11:25 -0000 (While the system involved is -CURRENT, this doesn't seem to have anything CURRENT-related.) On a system running: FreeBSD 10.0-CURRENT #0: Sun Dec 30 12:52:09 EST 2012 amd64 running dump causes the system to lock up ... sometimes. Specifics: I have a cron job which runs at 0200 local; it dumps three filesystems - /, /var, and /usr - to an external hard drive attached by eSATA. (Dump is incremental Tuesday through Sunday, full on Monday.) After some time of working transparently, this now semi- reliably causes the system to lock up requiring power-off to fix. a) According to dumpdates, the dump of / always completes. Only dumping /var or /usr cause the lock-up. b) There's nothing else in cron running about that time. c) "Top" doesn't show any suspicious processes or activity. d) When doing "fsck" on re-boot, the only thing suspicious is a file - caught in fsck phase 1 - large enough to be the usused space on the disk. e) The dump is run in snapshot mode; this has not previously been a problem. f) The exact command used is: dump $DUMP_LEVEL -D $DUMPDATES_FILE -C $DUMP_CACHE -b 64 -Lau -f $DUMP_DATE.var.dump /var where all of the $VARs are appropriately defined elsewhere. g) When run outside the cron environment, the script always runs to completion. Two possibilities come to mind: some kind of hardware failure, or a subtle corruption of the file system. Please - someone out there hav a better idea. ResEpoectfully, Robert Huff