NeilBrown wrote:

Looks like:

    commit 7bfec5f35c68121e7b1849f3f4166dd96c8da5b3

is at fault.  It causes md to attempt to add spares into the array more often.
Would I be right in guessing that you have one spare in this array?
If you remove the spare, the messages should stop.

Hmmm. The commit message is as follows:

commit 7bfec5f35c68121e7b1849f3f4166dd96c8da5b3
Author: NeilBrown [off-list ref]
Date:   Fri Dec 23 10:17:53 2011 +1100

     md/raid5: If there is a spare and a want_replacement device, start 
replaceme

     When attempting to add a spare to a RAID[456] array, also consider
     adding it as a replacement for a want_replacement device.

     This requires that common md code attempt hot_add even when the array
     is not formally degraded.

     Reviewed-by: Dan Williams [off-list ref]
     Signed-off-by: NeilBrown [off-list ref]


Does this also apply to RAID1 (which is all I've got on this machine: no 
RAID456)?

Jan