# Kernel panic when rsyncing files to zfs pool. Root is on ZFS. Enters `mountroot'.



## rusma (Oct 4, 2012)

Hello.

*The Problem*
I am experiencing kernel panics and freezes on my FreeBSD 9.0 Release ZFS file server when I rsync or copy files to the pool where I store my critical data (i.e. not the root pool). This started after I installed a new pool of disks some weeks ago. 

*Root is on ZFS*
I have root (i.e. FreeBSD installation) on a mirrored zfs pool on two old 80G IDE disks set to 4K sector size (http://www.aisecure.net/2012/01/16/rootzfs/) with swap as a "zfs partition" in that same pool. 

*History*
My new data pool since some weeks ago (I call it `tank') is 8 * 2TB SATA HDDs set to 4K sector size in raidz2, which makes about 10T of storage. 

*What happens after*
Because of the freezing sometimes I end up with mountroot shell because of unclean shutdowns. So I have reinstalled several times because I just cold not figure what to do on this. 

*Typical Chain of Events*
I am thinking this is a memory problem. I have 10G DDR2 RAM in this box ... A likely scenario is this:

I observe in top(1) that the system with tank exported uses about 500M of ram. 
When I import tank, the system chews another 500M of ram. 
When I try to scp some 20G~50G large gzipped tarballs over to the root pool, I observe in top(1) that the system chews memory until it stops at about 7.5G. `zpool status' works ok, all is well. 
When I try to rsync the archives over to tank, e.g. with parameter `--progress' on rsync, tank seems to freeze. I.e. rsync freezes, ls also freezes when I try to list files in tank, zpool status is not able to show info on either of the pools (it freezes, does not start to show anything), worst of all: I can not reboot, because the system is not able to execute the shutdown process fully, i.e. console just says something like `Shutdown is eminent. It was initiated by user rasmus', it never gets to spin down disks or anything of the sort. So I just hard reset the system ... 
booting is going well sometimes, other times I get mountroot shell ... the times I am not, I try to scrub the pools, then the system runs into a reboot panic loop that can be ended by booting into LiveCD mode from a memstick and import the zroot then reboot, probably ending the scrub(s). If that does not work I just reinstall.

*Other thoughts*
Another possibillity would be that there are something wrong with the root disks, so that FreeBSD was never correctly installed, therefore it acts abnormal. 

I suppose there are some options to /boot/loader.conf or the kernel config that can be added to make some sense out of this. 

Does anyone care to help out?

/Rasmus

Edit: I made some headers to this post so it is easier to sort out important info + changed the title, since the old one do not make sense now.


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## phoenix (Oct 5, 2012)

FreeBSD version?  32-bit or 64-bit?  Amount of RAM?


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## rusma (Oct 5, 2012)

phoenix said:
			
		

> FreeBSD version?  32-bit or 64-bit?  Amount of RAM?



9.0 Release amd64 (i.e. 64-bit), and it has 10GB (6+4) of RAM.


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## SNK (Oct 5, 2012)

Here my system freezes when I build a lot of ports with devel/poudriere. It might also be ZFS related.


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## rusma (Oct 5, 2012)

SNK said:
			
		

> Here my system freezes when I build a lot of ports with devel/poudriere. It might also be ZFS related.



Hey, does it crash in any way similar to what I have described?


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