[DRBD-user] Split-brain fixing without stopping cluster resources.

Lars Ellenberg Lars.Ellenberg at linbit.com
Thu Aug 3 08:58:20 CEST 2006

Note: "permalinks" may not be as permanent as we would like,
direct links of old sources may well be a few messages off.


/ 2006-08-02 21:05:26 +0400
\ Igor Yu. Zhbanov:
> Hello!
> 
> Linux-2.6/DRBD-0.7.20.
> 
> Sometimes split-brain happens. We have two Standalone:Primary/Unknown DRBDs.
> Let's name cluster nodes nodeA and nodeB. Services now run on both nodes and
> cluster IP belongs to node that have sent ARP-notification later. Suppose that
> it is a nodeB. And despite a split-brain nodeB serves clients normally.
> (We have a switch, not a hub.) And now we want to connect DRBD on both nodes
> to each other:
> nodeA# drbdadm secondary all
> nodeB# drbdadm connect all
> nodeA# drbdadm connect all
> 
> But it doesn't work because DRBD on nodeA thinks that it has more actual data.
> And even if we run "drbdadm -- --human primary" on nodeB this doesn't help.
> So, the correct procedure to getting out of split-brain is:
> 1) Stop Heartbeat on both nodes to switch drbd to Standalone:Secondary/Unknown
> 2) On node with actual data run "drbdadm -- --human primary all"
> 3) On both nodes run "drbdadm connect all"
> 4) On node with actual data run "drbdadm secondary all" so Heartbeat can start
>    without complains that DRBD is running already.
> 5) On both nodes run Heartbeat (in desired order).
> 
> Now my questions.
> 1) Is it possible to connect DRBDs without bringing both devices to secondary
>    state? If one DRBD is in primary state and we know for sure that it has
>    actual data, why another DRBD does not agreed with admin's choise? Even if
>    we run "drbdadm -- --human primary all" on (already in Primary state) nodeB.
>    I just don't want to stop cluster services which already serving clients.
>    By the way command "drbdadm -- --human secondary all" return errors.


easy, but involves full sync:

 bad-node# drbdadm secondary all
           drbdadm disconnect all
             (goes StandAlone Secondary/Unknown)
           drbdadm invalidate all
           drbdadm connect all

 good-node# drbdadm connect all
               -> full sync now.

by taking down the bad-node, and carefully modifying the counters and
flags to the right value (for example consistent, crashed primary, but
all counters zero) you could talk drbd into doing a partial sync of all
relevant areas.

> 2) Is it possible to detect situation when DRBD will refuse other node to
>    connect before conectting? I mean by asking DRBD to tell some information
>    about most fresh generation counter or whatever it uses to decide what DRBD
>    will be in primary state. It will be useful when you have both nodes in
>    Standalone state to see in what order synchronization will start or it will
>    not start because of conflict.

only by comparing the "generation counters", e.g.  utilising the
read_gc.pl (from the ./testing/ dir in the drbd source tar-ball)
rules:
  the "higher" counters win.
  highest priority is consistent-flag.
  a node which is currently primary will refuse to become sync-target,
  even if its counters would lose.

this last rule is useful: by making the good-node Primary prior to
connection attempts, you can be sure that its data won't be destroyed by
a sync in the "wrong" direction, so you can safely attempt to connect
"and see what hapens".

-- 
: Lars Ellenberg                                  Tel +43-1-8178292-0  :
: LINBIT Information Technologies GmbH            Fax +43-1-8178292-82 :
: Schoenbrunner Str. 244, A-1120 Vienna/Europe   http://www.linbit.com :
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