Hi Phil,

Unfortunately, that does not work :

# mdadm --assemble --force /dev/md127 /dev/sd[fhi]
mdadm: /dev/md127 assembled from 2 drives - not enough to start the
array.
# cat /proc/mdstat 
Personalities : [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] 
md127 : inactive sdf[1](S) sdh[4](S) sdi[2](S)
      5860540680 blocks super 1.2
       
unused devices: <none>
# mdadm -D /dev/md127
/dev/md127:
        Version : 1.2
     Raid Level : raid0
  Total Devices : 3
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

          State : inactive

           Name : abc:xyz  (local to host abc)
           UUID : d707f577:a9e572d5:e5d5f10c:b232f15a
         Events : 9370

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice

       -       8       80        -        /dev/sdf
       -       8      112        -        /dev/sdh
       -       8      128        -        /dev/sdi



I don't think that booting with an alternate boot media will help me out
as kernel and mdadm software are quite recent :

# uname -r
3.14.14-gentoo
# mdadm -V
mdadm - v3.3.1 - 5th June 2014



Thanks again,

Tony

On Fri, 2014-11-14 at 08:42 -0500, Phil Turmel wrote:

On 11/14/2014 08:19 AM, DeadManMoving wrote:

quoted

Hi Phil,

Thank you so much to have taken the time to write back to me.

I already tried --assemble --force, indeed and, that did not work. I
guess it can work if you have a single drive which is out of sync but in
my case, it is a mix of a drive with a problematic superblock (dmesg =
does not have a valid v1.2 superblock, not importing!) plus a drive
which is out of sync (dmesg = kicking non-fresh sdx from array!).

Here is the output of --assemble --force with double verbose :


# mdadm -vv --assemble
--force /dev/md127 /dev/sdf /dev/sdg /dev/sdh /dev/sdi
mdadm: looking for devices for /dev/md127
mdadm: /dev/sdf is busy - skipping
mdadm: /dev/sdh is busy - skipping
mdadm: /dev/sdi is busy - skipping
mdadm: Merging with already-assembled /dev/md/xyz
mdadm: /dev/sdi is identified as a member of /dev/md/xyz, slot 2.
mdadm: /dev/sdh is identified as a member of /dev/md/xyz, slot 3.
mdadm: /dev/sdf is identified as a member of /dev/md/xyz, slot 1.
mdadm: /dev/sdg is identified as a member of /dev/md/xyz, slot 0.
mdadm: /dev/sdf is already in /dev/md/xyz as 1
mdadm: /dev/sdi is already in /dev/md/xyz as 2
mdadm: /dev/sdh is already in /dev/md/xyz as 3
mdadm: failed to add /dev/sdg to /dev/md/xyz: Invalid argument
mdadm: failed to RUN_ARRAY /dev/md/xyz: Input/output error


If i stop the array (which was autostarted) and retry, similar output :


# mdadm -S /dev/md127
mdadm: stopped /dev/md127
# mdadm -vv --assemble
--force /dev/md127 /dev/sdf /dev/sdg /dev/sdh /dev/sdi
mdadm: looking for devices for /dev/md127
mdadm: /dev/sdf is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 1.
mdadm: /dev/sdg is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 0.
mdadm: /dev/sdh is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 3.
mdadm: /dev/sdi is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 2.
mdadm: added /dev/sdf to /dev/md127 as 1
mdadm: added /dev/sdi to /dev/md127 as 2
mdadm: added /dev/sdh to /dev/md127 as 3 (possibly out of date)
mdadm: failed to add /dev/sdg to /dev/md127: Invalid argument
mdadm: failed to RUN_ARRAY /dev/md127: Input/output error


Here is the relevant dmesg output :

[173174.307703]  sdf: unknown partition table
[173174.308374]  sdg: unknown partition table
[173174.308811] md: bind<sdf>
[173174.309385]  sdh: unknown partition table
[173174.309552] md: bind<sdi>
[173174.310411]  sdi: unknown partition table
[173174.310573] md: bind<sdh>
[173174.311299]  sdi: unknown partition table
[173174.311449] md: invalid superblock checksum on sdg
[173174.311450] md: sdg does not have a valid v1.2 superblock, not
importing!
[173174.311460] md: md_import_device returned -22
[173174.311482] md: kicking non-fresh sdh from array!
[173174.311498] md: unbind<sdh>
[173174.311909]  sdh: unknown partition table
[173174.338007] md: export_rdev(sdh)
[173174.338651] md/raid:md127: device sdi operational as raid disk 2
[173174.338652] md/raid:md127: device sdf operational as raid disk 1
[173174.338868] md/raid:md127: allocated 0kB
[173174.338880] md/raid:md127: not enough operational devices (2/4
failed)
[173174.338886] RAID conf printout:
[173174.338887]  --- level:5 rd:4 wd:2
[173174.338887]  disk 1, o:1, dev:sdf
[173174.338888]  disk 2, o:1, dev:sdi
[173174.339013] md/raid:md127: failed to run raid set.
[173174.339014] md: pers->run() failed ...

Hmmm.  Should have worked.  Please show kernel version and mdadm
version.  There have been bugs fixed in this area in the past couple years.

Also try "mdadm --assemble --force /dev/mdX /dev/sd[fhi]", leaving out
the bad disk.

If it still doesn't work, use alternate boot media, like systemrescuecd,
to get a current kernel and mdadm combination and try again.  If that
works, get your critical backups before you do anything else.

Then you can reboot back to your normal kernel and it should assemble
degraded.

Phil