Yes, I did intend to say "mount -o remount,ro /dev/sdb". For years it's been my usual "try to minimise the harm" approach, when dealing with a stuck server due to some mounts not responding. I'm not sure what happens with a modern server where the same volume is mounted in more than one location (hopefully all the mounts end up read-only). But it definitely works with /dev/mapper/$vgname-$lvname for instance if it's only mounted once.