Root file system is mounted read-only???

[Qcheck]

Recently one of our servers rebooted and the root file system is mounted read only. We can't touch any files in that file system. How can I mount rw?

When I tried # mount -n -o remount /
mount: block device /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 is write-protected, mounting read-only.

O/S is 5.1. Any help?

[Tim Nelson]

how about

mount -o remount,rw /

[Qcheck]

No lick Tim:

# mount -o remount,rw /
mount: block device /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 is write-protected, mounting read-only.

Do u think hard disk is bad?

[Qcheck]

Sorry I meant no Luck.

[Gerardo Arceri · Accepted solution]

try before remounting:
lvchange -pw /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00

Are you sure that /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 is your root filesystem ?

[Modris Bremze]

LVM probably has a good reason for disabling writes to /. If you say the server rebooted - was it unexpectedly? If so, did you look at dmesg or /var/log/messages output for any LVM related errors?

Running fsck on a mounted filesystem is not very safe, it being a read-only filesystem could also make it not very productive. You could try booting OEL installation CD1 in recovery mode and running fsck on your LV then.

[Qcheck]

Thank you Gerardo and Medris. Yes /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 is my / filesystem and when I tried the command, "lvchange -pw /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00", it errors out as w as an invalid argument even though I saw in the man page.

And I don't see any errors in the log files abt lvm, however I will check thoroughly. I couldn't able to right to / file system, that is how I found the issue. Yes, I know I should boot the server in rescue mode but I am working remotely. Notified this to the management in the afternoon. Probably tomorrow they will decide how to follow up.

Thanks again for all your help.

[Qcheck]

This is what I noticed in the log files:

Jun 14 18:11:10 rac3 kernel: SCSI device sda: 859525120 512-byte hdwr sectors (440077 MB)
Jun 14 18:11:10 rac3 kernel: sda: Write Protect is off
Jun 14 18:11:10 rac3 kernel: SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back w/ FUA
Jun 14 19:15:46 rac3 kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x08000002
Jun 14 19:15:46 rac3 kernel: sda: Current: sense key: Hardware Error
Jun 14 19:15:46 rac3 kernel: Add. Sense: Internal target failure
Jun 14 19:15:46 rac3 kernel:
Jun 14 19:15:46 rac3 kernel: Info fld=0x0
Jun 14 19:15:46 rac3 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 356269
Jun 14 19:15:46 rac3 kernel: Aborting journal on device dm-0.
Jun 14 19:15:47 rac3 kernel: ext3_abort called.
Jun 14 19:15:47 rac3 kernel: EXT3-fs error (device dm-0): ext3_journal_start_sb: Detected aborted journal
Jun 14 19:15:47 rac3 kernel: Remounting filesystem read-only

[P Muralidhar Kini]

Hi Pratibha,

>> This is what I noticed in the log files:
This looks like a hardware error on that device.

Regards,
Murali

[AnthonySN]

was there any san lun presented to the server.
we faced a similar issue when the san lun was unpresented and we rebooted the server but there was an entry in the fstab of the san mounted partition hence it would boot and mount the filesystem in readonly.