This is normal (IMO) for a 2.4 kernel. I think it has been fixed in the 2.6 kernel. But I have never used the newer kernel, so I can't confirm that. It may have been a newer version of mdadm, not the kernel, not sure. My numbers are much worse! I have 14 disks and 1 spare. Raid Devices : 14 Total Devices : 13 Active Devices : 14 Working Devices : 12 Failed Devices : 1 Spare Devices : 1 Number Major Minor RaidDevice State 0 8 49 0 active sync /dev/sdd1 1 8 161 1 active sync /dev/sdk1 2 8 65 2 active sync /dev/sde1 3 8 177 3 active sync /dev/sdl1 4 8 81 4 active sync /dev/sdf1 5 8 193 5 active sync /dev/sdm1 6 8 97 6 active sync /dev/sdg1 7 8 209 7 active sync /dev/sdn1 8 8 113 8 active sync /dev/sdh1 9 8 225 9 active sync /dev/sdo1 10 8 129 10 active sync /dev/sdi1 11 8 241 11 active sync /dev/sdp1 12 8 145 12 active sync /dev/sdj1 13 8 33 13 active sync /dev/sdc1 14 65 1 14 /dev/sdq1 Guy -----Original Message----- From: linux-raid-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:linux-raid-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Fabrice LORRAIN Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 6:22 AM To: linux-raid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: mdadm drives me crazy Hi all, Following a crash of one of our raid5 pool last week I discover that most of our servers shows the same pb. Up to now I didn't find the explanation. So if someone from the list could explain the following output and more particularly why the "failed device" after an mdadm --create with 2.4.x kernel : dd if=/dev/zero of=part[1-5] bs=1k count=20000 losetup /dev/loop[0-5] part[0-5] $ uname -a Linux fabtest1 2.4.27-1-686 #1 Fri Sep 3 06:28:00 UTC 2004 i686 GNU/Linux debian kernel on this box but all the other test I did where with a vanilla kernel. $ sudo mdadm --version mdadm - v1.7.0 - 11 August 2004 The box is i386 with an up to date pre-sarge (debian). (same pb with 0.7.2 on a woody box, with 1.4 woody backport and mdadm 1.8.1 doesn't start the building of the raid pool on an mdadm --create) $ /sbin/lsmod Module Size Used by Not tainted raid5 17320 1 md 60064 1 [raid5] xor 8932 0 [raid5] loop 9112 18 input 3648 0 (autoclean) i810 62432 0 agpgart 46244 6 (autoclean) apm 9868 2 (autoclean) af_packet 13032 1 (autoclean) dm-mod 46808 0 (unused) i810_audio 24444 0 ac97_codec 13300 0 [i810_audio] soundcore 3940 2 [i810_audio] 3c59x 27152 1 rtc 6440 0 (autoclean) ext3 81068 2 (autoclean) jbd 42468 2 (autoclean) [ext3] ide-detect 288 0 (autoclean) (unused) ide-disk 16736 3 (autoclean) piix 9096 1 (autoclean) ide-core 108504 3 (autoclean) [ide-detect ide-disk piix] unix 14928 62 (autoclean) $ sudo mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/loop[0-5] $ sudo mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=5 --raid-devices=6 /dev/loop[0-5] build the array correctly and gives (once the build is finished) : $ cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [raid5] read_ahead 1024 sectors md0 : active raid5 [dev 07:05][5] [dev 07:04][4] [dev 07:03][3] [dev 07:02][2] [dev 07:01][1] [dev 07:00][0] 99520 blocks level 5, 64k chunk, algorithm 2 [6/6] [UUUUUU] $ $ sudo mdadm -D /dev/md0 /dev/md0: Version : 00.90.00 Creation Time : Wed Dec 1 11:39:43 2004 Raid Level : raid5 Array Size : 99520 (97.19 MiB 101.91 MB) Device Size : 19904 (19.44 MiB 20.38 MB) Raid Devices : 6 Total Devices : 7 Preferred Minor : 0 Persistence : Superblock is persistent Update Time : Wed Dec 1 11:40:29 2004 State : dirty Active Devices : 6 Working Devices : 6 Failed Devices : 1 Spare Devices : 0 Layout : left-symmetric Chunk Size : 64K UUID : 604b72e9:86d7ecd6:578bfb8c:ea071bbd Events : 0.1 Number Major Minor RaidDevice State 0 7 0 0 active sync /dev/loop0 1 7 1 1 active sync /dev/loop1 2 7 2 2 active sync /dev/loop2 3 7 3 3 active sync /dev/loop3 4 7 4 4 active sync /dev/loop4 5 7 5 5 active sync /dev/loop5 Why in hell do I get a Failed devices ? And what is the real status of the raid5 pool ? I have this pb with raid5 pool on hd and sd hard drives with <> vanilla 2.4.x kernel. 2.6.x doesn't show this feature. raid1 pool doesn't have this problem either. @+, Fab - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html