Hello linux-scsi and linux-raid, I did some further research regarding my problem. It appears to me the fault does not lie with the mpt2sas driver (not that I can definitely exclude it), but with the md implementation. I reproduced what I think is the same issue on a different machine (also running Vmware ESXi 5 and an LSI 9211-8i in IR mode) with a different set of hard-drives of the same model. Using systemrescuecd (2.8.1-beta003) and booting the 64bit 3.4.4 kernel, I issued the following commands: 1) 'hdparm -y /dev/sda' (to put the hard-drive to sleep) 2) 'mdadm --create /dev/md1 --metadata 1.2 --level=mirror --raid-devices=2 --name=test1 /dev/sda missing' 3) 'fdisk -l /dev/md127' (for some reason /proc/mdstat indicates the md is being created as md127) 2) gave me this feedback: ------ mdadm: super1.x cannot open /dev/sda: Device or resource busy mdadm: /dev/sda is not suitable for this array. mdadm: create aborted ------- Even though it says creating aborted it still created md127. And 3) lead to these lines in dmesg: ------- [ 604.838640] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Device not ready [ 604.838645] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE [ 604.838655] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Not Ready [current] [ 604.838663] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Logical unit not ready, initializing command required [ 604.838668] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 20 00 [ 604.838680] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 2048 [ 604.838688] Buffer I/O error on device md127, logical block 0 [ 604.838695] Buffer I/O error on device md127, logical block 1 [ 604.838699] Buffer I/O error on device md127, logical block 2 [ 604.838702] Buffer I/O error on device md127, logical block 3 [ 604.838783] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Device not ready [ 604.838785] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE [ 604.838789] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Not Ready [current] [ 604.838793] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Logical unit not ready, initializing command required [ 604.838797] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 08 00 [ 604.838805] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 2048 [ 604.838808] Buffer I/O error on device md127, logical block 0 [ 604.838983] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Device not ready [ 604.838986] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE [ 604.838989] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Not Ready [current] [ 604.838993] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Logical unit not ready, initializing command required [ 604.838998] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 57 54 65 d8 00 00 08 00 [ 604.839006] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 1465148888 [ 604.839009] Buffer I/O error on device md127, logical block 183143355 [ 604.839087] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Device not ready [ 604.839090] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE [ 604.839093] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Not Ready [current] [ 604.839097] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Logical unit not ready, initializing command required [ 604.839102] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 57 54 65 d8 00 00 08 00 [ 604.839110] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 1465148888 [ 604.839113] Buffer I/O error on device md127, logical block 183143355 [ 604.839271] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Device not ready [ 604.839274] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE [ 604.839278] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Not Ready [current] [ 604.839282] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Logical unit not ready, initializing command required [ 604.839286] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 20 00 [ 604.839321] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 2048 [ 604.839324] Buffer I/O error on device md127, logical block 0 [ 604.839330] Buffer I/O error on device md127, logical block 1 [ 604.840494] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Device not ready [ 604.840497] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE [ 604.840504] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Not Ready [current] [ 604.840512] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Logical unit not ready, initializing command required [ 604.840516] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 08 00 [ 604.840526] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 2048 ------ This excludes hardware-errors (different physical machine and devices) as cause and also ext4 which the other system was using as filesystem. Maybe Neil Brown (who scripts/get_maintainer.pl identified as the maintainer of the md-code) can make bits and pieces of this. It may well be this is the same problem but a different error-path - I don't know. I will try to make the scenario more generic, but I don't have a non-virtual machine to spare atm. Also please do let me know if I'm posting this to the wrong lists (linux-scsi and linux-raid) or if there is anything which might not be helpful with the way I'm reporting this. Regards, Matthias Prager -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-scsi" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
