I've searched the archives and can't find an answer specific to my question, if the answer is in the archives and someone can rub my nose in it I'd appreciate it.
What I'm seeing in version 2.6.2 of mdadm is left over "failed" devices in the output from examining an individual device.
--->Raid Devices : 12
--->Array Slot : 0 (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, failed, 8, 9, 10, 11, 7)
--->Array State : Uuuuuuuuuuuu 1 failed
The array is actually healthy and repaired but the examine option insists on displaying the status for previously failed devices that have been replaced.
I took a look at the source and didn't see where the entries for previously failed devices were getting cleaned up once the array was repaired. They appear to accumulate forever or at least until they hit the programmatic "max_dev" limit which appears to be 384 or 512 depending on where you look.
6 super1.c getinfo_super1 467 __le32_to_cpu(sb->max_dev) > 512)
d super1.c add_internal_bitmap1 1218 __le32_to_cpu(sb->max_dev) <= 384)) {
e super1.c add_internal_bitmap1 1234 if (1 || __le32_to_cpu(sb->max_dev) <= 384) {
The code looks very similar in older versions (2.3.1) but this behavior escaped our attention because the older version didn't blatantly enumerate "failed" devices in a summary at the bottom of the output.
--->Raid Devices : 12
--->Array Slot : 14 (failed, failed, 2, 3, 4, failed, failed, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 1, 6, 0, 5)
--->Array State : Uuuuuuuuuuuu 4 failed
This might not ordinarily be a concern except that my company is providing a high availability solution which currently employs linux-raid as part of the infrastructure and in the course of testing our product we subject it to an inordinate number of automated hot-plug drive failures and replacements which causes the number of "failed" devices in the array to grow fairly quickly. It appears the only way to clear the "failed" entries is to delete the array and recreate it, basically a complete reinstall of the product.
Is there a reason these old superblock entries are not being cleaned up?
Even if they shouldn't be cleaned up, is there a reason failed devices should appear in the summary once the array is repaired?
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