I've hit a panic bug on stock linux 3.17.3 (which includes the recent commit on BLKDISCARD in md/raid5.c) running in Dom0 under Xen 4.1.0 that I've isolated to a BLKDISCARD system call within mkfs.ext3 and only happens on a raid 5 array (it doesn't happen on a raid 1 array). The system it happens on is remote and I don't have physical access to it, but the system administrator there is fairly helpful. We're in the process of commissioning the system which needs to be done tomorrow (thursday), so I've only got 24 hours in which I can run any tests you may want. If necessary I can arrange remote access, but it's a little complex. We have 3 512GB SSDs on the system, all with a GPT partition table and the same partition layout. All the partitions have optimal alignment according to parted. One of the partitions on each SSD is assembled into a raid 1 array, another partition is assembled into a raid 5 array. Each array is the used as the only physical volume in a LVM volume group. I then create a logical volume on each array and format the logical volume with mkfs.ext3. I ran mkfs.ext3 in verbose mode and also ran strace on it in a separate session (though it was over a network) so it's possible I lost the last few packets of data. /dev/Test/Test - 400MB LV on raid 1 /dev/Master/Test - 400MB LV on raid 5 A) mkfs.ext3 -E nodiscard -v /dev/Test/Test - succeeds B) mkfs.ext3 -v /dev/Test/Test - succeeds C) mkfs.ext3 -E nodiscard -v /dev/Master/Test - succeeds D) mkfs.ext3 -v /dev/Master/Test - panics mkfs.ext3 output from (B) ------------------------- mke2fs 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013) fs_types for mke2fs.conf resolution: 'ext3', 'small' Discarding device blocks: done Discard succeeded and will return 0s - skipping inode table wipe Filesystem label= OS type: Linux Block size=1024 (log=0) Fragment size=1024 (log=0) Stride=4 blocks, Stripe width=4 blocks 51200 inodes, 204800 blocks 10240 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user First data block=1 Maximum filesystem blocks=67371008 25 block groups 8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group 2048 inodes per group Superblock backups stored on blocks: 8193, 24577, 40961, 57345, 73729 Allocating group tables: done Writing inode tables: done Creating journal (4096 blocks): done Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done strace output from (B) around the BLKDISCARD -------------------------------------------- gettimeofday({1418806647, 890754}, NULL) = 0 gettimeofday({1418806647, 890814}, NULL) = 0 ioctl(3, BLKDISCARD, {0, 3000000010}) = 0 write(1, "Discarding device blocks: ", 26) = 26 write(1, " 1024/204800", 13) = 13 write(1, "\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10", 13) = 13 ioctl(3, BLKDISCARD, {100000, 3000000010}) = 0 write(1, " ", 13) = 13 write(1, "\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10\10", 13) = 13 write(1, "done "..., 33) = 33 write(1, "Discard succeeded and will retur"..., 65) = 65 mkfs.ext3 output from (D) ------------------------- mke2fs 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013) fs_types for mke2fs.conf resolution: 'ext3', 'small' <Panic> strace output from (D) around the BLKDISCARD -------------------------------------------- gettimeofday({1418809706, 244197}, NULL) = 0 gettimeofday({1418809706, 244259}, NULL) = 0 ioctl(3, BLKDISCARD, {0, 3000000010} <Panic> I have a photograph of the panic output from a previous session which includes raid5d and blk_finish_plug in the stack trace, unfortunately I don't have the top part of the panic and vger won't accept the attachment. I also have a photograph of the console output from the crash at (D), but in this case it outputs to the console every 180 seconds: INFO: rcu_sched self-detected stall on CPU { 1} sending NMI to all CPUs: xen: vector 0x2 is not implemented thanks, Anthony Wright -- 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