non-responsive FreeBSD-9.0 after dump command

Dale Scott dalescott at shaw.ca
Thu Jan 19 00:10:05 UTC 2012


I'm getting a non-responsive system after issuing dump on a relatively fresh install of FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE. The system is a VirtualBox 4.1.2 vm, with a 20GB GPT system drive and a 20GB MBR backup drive. Since it was created, the ports tree has been updated and apache22, mysql55-server and python/django installed (and a number of minor utilities). Everything seems to work ok, except for dump:

# mount
/dev/ada0p2 on / (ufs, local, journaled soft-updates)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, multilabel)
/dev/ad1as1d on /backup (ufs, local, soft-updates)
#
# cd /backup
# dump -0aLf 20120118.dump /

There is no output after hitting <enter>, and afterwards the system is generally unresponsive. A command (e.g., whoami) typed into the VirtualBox server console and an ssh terminal is echo'd, but that's all. I had started "top" in a seperate ssh terminal before issuing the dump command, and it shows mksnap_ffs running with 98%-100% WCPU for about 55 minutes, at which point "top" stops updating. I gave up after 70 minutes and yanked the virtual power cord.

I then created a new FBSD-9.0 VM (system install from dvd only, and also create/fdisk/label/mount a new virtual backup drive). On this vm, dump works as expected! I moved the virtual backup drive from new to old, and also re-partitioned/re-labled the backup drive on the problem system, but no effect. FWIW, fdisk reports that on both system disks (non-working and working), the chunks do not start on track boundaries (I used "auto" installing the systems).

Does any of this make any sense to anyone? Any ideas on how to correct the situation? I don't mind re-configure the new vm like the old, but not knowing what went wrong concerns me (and if it's just going to happen again). My basic intent is to get version 2 of a live server working first as a vm, then restore a dump onto real hardware.

Thanks in advance for any and all assistance,
Dale

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