Subj : abnormal behavior of hard drive
To   : comp.os.linux
From : niy38
Date : Fri Aug 27 2004 07:04 pm

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 box with rh a3, 
2.4.21-15.0.4.EL kernel, with a ST380021A hard
drive(hda). When I use iostat to test, I always
got the following result:


avg-cpu:  %user   %nice    %sys %iowait   %idle
           3.34    0.01    0.69    0.72   95.25

Device:    rrqm/s wrqm/s   r/s   w/s  rsec/s  wsec/s    rkB/s    wkB/s
avgrq-sz avgqu-sz   await
svctm  %util
sda          0.01   0.00  0.00  0.00    0.12    0.00     0.06     0.00
   40.07     0.00   48.97
29.66   0.01
sda1         0.01   0.00  0.00  0.00    0.12    0.00     0.06     0.00
   47.42     0.00   57.08
33.75   0.01
sdb          0.01   0.00  0.00  0.00    0.02    0.00     0.01     0.00
    6.90     0.00   15.86
15.86   0.00
sdb1         0.00   0.00  0.00  0.00    0.00    0.00     0.00     0.00
    8.00     0.00   15.00
15.00   0.00
sdb2         0.00   0.00  0.00  0.00    0.00    0.00     0.00     0.00
    8.00     0.00   30.00
30.00   0.00
hda          5.88   6.20  2.65  1.96   67.72   65.36    33.86    32.68
   28.84     0.18   18.56 2
16.55  99.92
hda1         3.88   5.71  2.27  1.76   49.17   59.74    24.58    29.87
   27.09     0.08   19.23
 1.99   0.80
hda2         0.01   0.00  0.00  0.00    0.03    0.00     0.02     0.00
   12.48     0.00   10.00
10.00   0.00
hda3         1.73   0.44  0.35  0.19   16.58    5.06     8.29     2.53
   40.00     0.01   14.22
 3.24   0.18
hda4         0.21   0.05  0.02  0.02    1.80    0.56     0.90     0.28
   65.67     0.00   14.01
 7.49   0.03


The avgqu-sz of hda is always very long, and util% is always close to
100%, which means device saturation.

Since iostat just read info /proc, so abnormal behavior of the hard
drive may come from:

1) kernel

2) hardware: drive itself, or disk controller, or ide bus or
controller,
   whatever, has problem.

I need help to do further exploration to find what's the real
problem, and how to solve it. Thanks!

.