From my mailbag:
We have 5 Dell server collocated running CentOS 4.x and 5.x server operating system. Sometime my file system (ext3) goes read-only. I’d like to know what could be causing such a problem?
My guess:
a) Hardware problem / hard disk problem, check harddisk for errors.
b) High disk I/O aka busy I/O retry error can mark low level disk call as failed. This will force ext3 to go into read only mode.
c) High disk I/O on SAN
d) SAN is not configured properly for the path failover.
In all sort of problems ext3 goes read-only to protect the filesystem and further damage. If you are using VMWARE, check out official webpage to download SCSI patches or workaround for vmware problems.
So what could be causing the file system on Linux go read-only?
Apart from above generic problem, any other error can trigger filesystem on Linux go read only. I hope our reader / seasoned Linux admin can help to answer this question. Please share the experiences and advice in the comments.
REFERENCE
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-filesytem-goes-read-only.html
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=51306
