kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer - on 5.3-RELEASE-p5

[Zoltan Frombach]

Hello All,

I have a pretty stable FreeBSD 5.3-p5 production server which worked just 
fine - until today. I host over 100+ web sites on it (Apache + PHP4 + 
MySQL), email, ftp, etc. There was a time when it was up for over 6 months 
without a reboot. So it is stable. But today I had a strange problem with 
this server. I could ping it, but nothing else worked. I had to reboot it by 
plugging the power. After it came back, this is what I've found in the log 
file (and nothing else).

Apr 29 02:10:14 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1a, blkno: 328636, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:10:24 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1e, blkno: 329842, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:10:24 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 330511, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:10:24 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 331470, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:10:24 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 332030, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:10:49 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 332257, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:10:49 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1a, blkno: 332309, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:11:14 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 332252, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1a, blkno: 332301, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 332260, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1a, blkno: 332307, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 332229, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 328470, size: 16384
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 328967, size: 16384
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 329231, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 329479, size: 16384
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 329673, size: 16384
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 332224, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 329234, size: 16384
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 316002, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 332185, size: 16384
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 331763, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 318855, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1a, blkno: 319335, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319135, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319196, size: 16384
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319146, size: 16384
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319243, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319191, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319235, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319183, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319232, size: 12288
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319276, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319189, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319327, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319186, size: 12288
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319206, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 319256, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 301096, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 301145, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 301468, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 301887, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 302503, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 302557, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 302509, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 302554, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1a, blkno: 302635, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 153651, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 163264, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1e, blkno: 302910, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 154346, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 305352, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 305806, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 306642, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 307015, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 305471, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1a, blkno: 305759, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 307088, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 307046, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 307085, size: 12288
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 307045, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 307092, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 293203, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 307060, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1a, blkno: 320047, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 320630, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 320861, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 320842, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 320863, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 320902, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 231845, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 267922, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 232017, size: 4096
Apr 29 02:33:35 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 231686, size: 8192
Apr 29 02:34:18 www kernel: swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: device: 
ad0s1f, blkno: 267959, size: 4096

It works just fine since the reboot. Not even fsck was needed (file system 
didn't get dirty by plugging the power???)...

I've never seen this error message before. This could be an indication of 
what? A dying IDE hard drive???

I happen to have an identical hard drive around here, unused. If I hook it 
up as a slave (IDE) drive, is there a way I can mirror the dying drive to 
the spare one (with all partitions, etc, intact)?

Any help/comments would be appreciated. Please CC me, as I am not a 
subscriber of this list. Thanks!!!

Zoltan