When opening a vdev whose path is unknown, vdev_geom must find a geom
provider with a label whose guids match the desired vdev. However, due to
partitioning, it is possible that two non-synonomous providers will share
some labels. For example, if the first partition starts at the beginning of
the drive, then ada0 and ada0p1 will share the first label. More troubling,
if the last partition runs to the end of the drive, then ada0p3 and ada0
will share the last label. If vdev_geom opens ada0 when it should've opened
ada0p3, then the pool won't be readable. If it opens ada0 when it should've
opened ada0p1, then it will corrupt some other partition when it writes the
3rd and 4th labels.
The easiest way to reproduce this problem is to install a mirrored root pool
with the default partition layout, then swap the positions of the two boot
drives and reboot. Whether the bug manifests depends on the order in which
geom lists its providers, which is arbitrary.
Fix this situation by modifying the search algorithm to prefer geom
providers that have all four labels intact. If no such provider exists, then
open whichever provider has the most.
Reviewed by: mav
MFC after: 3 weeks
Sponsored by: Spectra Logic Corp
Differential Revision: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D10365
ee2be578bc