Hi Dan, OK so the container comes up just fine now: # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md/imsm /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde --raid-devices 4 --metadata=imsm mdadm: /dev/sdb appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdb. mdadm: /dev/sdc appears to be part of a raid array: level=raid0 devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdc. mdadm: /dev/sdd appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdd. mdadm: /dev/sde appears to be part of a raid array: level=raid0 devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sde. mdadm: size set to 1953511431K Continue creating array? y mdadm: container /dev/md/imsm prepared. root@Microknoppix:/mnt/external# cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : md126 : inactive sde[3](S) sdd[2](S) sdc[1](S) sdb[0](S) 4420 blocks super external:imsm Upon review it all looks good # mdadm --detail /dev/md/imsm /dev/md/imsm: Version : imsm Raid Level : container Total Devices : 4 Working Devices : 4 Member Arrays : Number Major Minor RaidDevice 0 8 16 - /dev/sdb 1 8 32 - /dev/sdc 2 8 48 - /dev/sdd 3 8 64 - /dev/sde Now when I try all the permutations of disks, they all fail with "mdadm: failed to activate array." ATTEMPT #1 # export IMSM_NO_PLATFORM=1 # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md/imsm /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde --raid-devices 4 --metadata=imsm mdadm: /dev/sdb appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdb. mdadm: /dev/sdc appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdc. mdadm: /dev/sdd appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdd. mdadm: /dev/sde appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sde. mdadm: size set to 1953511431K Continue creating array? y mdadm: container /dev/md/imsm prepared. # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md/Volume0 /dev/sde missing /dev/sdb /dev/sdd --raid-devices 4 --level=5 mdadm: layout defaults to left-symmetric mdadm: layout defaults to left-symmetric mdadm: super1.x cannot open /dev/sde: Device or resource busy mdadm: chunk size defaults to 128K mdadm: /dev/sde appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sde but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: /dev/sdb appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdb but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: /dev/sdd appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdd but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: size set to 1953511424K Continue creating array? y mdadm: Creating array inside imsm container /dev/md/imsm mdadm: failed to activate array. # mdadm --stop /dev/md/imsm mdadm: stopped /dev/md/imsm # cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] unused devices: <none> ATTEMPT #2 # export IMSM_NO_PLATFORM=1 # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md/imsm /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde --raid-devices 4 --metadata=imsm mdadm: /dev/sdb appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdb. mdadm: /dev/sdc appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdc. mdadm: /dev/sdd appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdd. mdadm: /dev/sde appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sde. mdadm: size set to 1953511431K Continue creating array? y mdadm: container /dev/md/imsm prepared. # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md/Volume0 missing /dev/sdc /dev/sdb /dev/sdd --raid-devices 4 --level=5 mdadm: layout defaults to left-symmetric mdadm: layout defaults to left-symmetric mdadm: super1.x cannot open /dev/sdc: Device or resource busy mdadm: chunk size defaults to 128K mdadm: /dev/sdc appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdc but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: /dev/sdb appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdb but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: /dev/sdd appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdd but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: size set to 1953511424K Continue creating array? y mdadm: Creating array inside imsm container /dev/md/imsm mdadm: failed to activate array. # mdadm --stop /dev/md/imsm mdadm: stopped /dev/md/imsm # cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] unused devices: <none> ATTEMPT #3 # export IMSM_NO_PLATFORM=1 # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md/imsm /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde --raid-devices 4 --metadata=imsm mdadm: /dev/sdb appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdb. mdadm: /dev/sdc appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdc. mdadm: /dev/sdd appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdd. mdadm: /dev/sde appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sde. mdadm: size set to 1953511431K Continue creating array? y mdadm: container /dev/md/imsm prepared. # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md/Volume0 /dev/sde /dev/sdc missing /dev/sdd --raid-devices 4 --level=5 mdadm: layout defaults to left-symmetric mdadm: layout defaults to left-symmetric mdadm: super1.x cannot open /dev/sde: Device or resource busy mdadm: chunk size defaults to 128K mdadm: /dev/sde appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sde but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: /dev/sdc appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdc but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: /dev/sdd appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdd but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: size set to 1953511424K Continue creating array? y mdadm: Creating array inside imsm container /dev/md/imsm mdadm: failed to activate array. # mdadm --stop /dev/md/imsm mdadm: stopped /dev/md/imsm # cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] unused devices: <none> ATTEMPT #4 # export IMSM_NO_PLATFORM=1 # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md/imsm /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde --raid-devices 4 --metadata=imsm mdadm: /dev/sdb appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdb. mdadm: /dev/sdc appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdc. mdadm: /dev/sdd appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sdd. mdadm: /dev/sde appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: metadata will over-write last partition on /dev/sde. mdadm: size set to 1953511431K Continue creating array? y mdadm: container /dev/md/imsm prepared. # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md/Volume0 /dev/sde /dev/sdc /dev/sdb missing --raid-devices 4 --level=5 mdadm: layout defaults to left-symmetric mdadm: layout defaults to left-symmetric mdadm: super1.x cannot open /dev/sde: Device or resource busy mdadm: chunk size defaults to 128K mdadm: /dev/sde appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sde but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: /dev/sdc appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdc but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: /dev/sdb appears to be part of a raid array: level=container devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdb but will be lost or meaningless after creating array mdadm: size set to 1953511424K Continue creating array? y mdadm: Creating array inside imsm container /dev/md/imsm mdadm: failed to activate array. Also noticed this in dmesg, all the attemps generate the same output but heres the dmesg output related to attempt #4: [292271.903919] md: md127 stopped. [292271.903938] md: unbind<sde> [292271.914179] md: export_rdev(sde) [292271.914424] md: unbind<sdd> [292271.927499] md: export_rdev(sdd) [292271.927728] md: unbind<sdc> [292271.940823] md: export_rdev(sdc) [292271.940979] md: unbind<sdb> [292271.954153] md: export_rdev(sdb) [292289.371545] md: bind<sdb> [292289.371731] md: bind<sdc> [292289.371877] md: bind<sdd> [292289.372024] md: bind<sde> [292295.910881] md: bind<sde> [292295.911130] md: bind<sdc> [292295.911314] md: bind<sdb> [292295.923942] bio: create slab <bio-1> at 1 [292295.923965] md/raid:md126: not clean -- starting background reconstruction [292295.924000] md/raid:md126: device sdb operational as raid disk 2 [292295.924005] md/raid:md126: device sdc operational as raid disk 1 [292295.924009] md/raid:md126: device sde operational as raid disk 0 [292295.925149] md/raid:md126: allocated 4250kB [292295.927268] md/raid:md126: cannot start dirty degraded array. [292295.929666] RAID conf printout: [292295.929677] --- level:5 rd:4 wd:3 [292295.929683] disk 0, o:1, dev:sde [292295.929688] disk 1, o:1, dev:sdc [292295.929693] disk 2, o:1, dev:sdb [292295.930898] md/raid:md126: failed to run raid set. [292295.930902] md: pers->run() failed ... [292295.931079] md: md126 stopped. [292295.931096] md: unbind<sdb> [292295.944228] md: export_rdev(sdb) [292295.944267] md: unbind<sdc> [292295.958126] md: export_rdev(sdc) [292295.958167] md: unbind<sde> [292295.970902] md: export_rdev(sde) [292296.219837] device-mapper: table: 252:1: raid45: unknown target type [292296.219845] device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table [292296.291542] device-mapper: table: 252:1: raid45: unknown target type [292296.291548] device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table [292296.310926] quiet_error: 1116 callbacks suppressed [292296.310934] Buffer I/O error on device dm-0, logical block 3907022720 [292296.310940] Buffer I/O error on device dm-0, logical block 3907022721 [292296.310944] Buffer I/O error on device dm-0, logical block 3907022722 [292296.310949] Buffer I/O error on device dm-0, logical block 3907022723 [292296.310953] Buffer I/O error on device dm-0, logical block 3907022724 [292296.310958] Buffer I/O error on device dm-0, logical block 3907022725 [292296.310962] Buffer I/O error on device dm-0, logical block 3907022726 [292296.310966] Buffer I/O error on device dm-0, logical block 3907022727 [292296.310973] Buffer I/O error on device dm-0, logical block 3907022720 [292296.310977] Buffer I/O error on device dm-0, logical block 3907022721 [292296.319968] device-mapper: table: 252:1: raid45: unknown target type [292296.319975] device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table Any ideas from here? Am I up the creek without a paddle? :( thanks to everyone for all your help so far chris On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 4:05 PM, Dan Williams <djbw@xxxxxx> wrote: > > > On 1/13/13 11:00 AM, "chris" <tknchris@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >>Neil/Dave, >> >>Is it not possible to create imsm container with missing disk? >>If not, Is there any way to recreate the array with all disks but >>prevent any kind of sync which may overwrite array data? > > The example was in that link I sent: > > mdadm --create /dev/md/imsm /dev/sd[bde] -e imsm > mdadm --create /dev/md/vol0 /dev/sde missing /dev/sdb /dev/sdd -n 4 -l 5 > > The first command marks all devices as spares. The second creates the > degraded array. > > You probably want at least sdb and sdd in there since they have a copy of > the metadata. > > -- > Dan > -- 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