Why ext3 filesystem went read-only with the message: "ext3_put_super: Couldn't clean up the journal" in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9?

Issue

• Two of our production application servers had the same filesystem go read-only.
• The only messages logged are:

kernel: ext3_abort called.
kernel: EXT3-fs error (device dm-7): ext3_put_super: Couldn't clean up the journal
kernel: kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
kernel: EXT3 FS on dm-7, internal journal
kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.