When creating a RAID5 array, mdadm will automatically create a degraded array

[CharlesA]

Cool. I just looked at what the script is designed to do and it sure seems like it would be a good way to make sure a disk is ok/safe to use. Are you going to make a blog post about it?

[rubylaser]

Cool. I just looked at what the script is designed to do and it sure seems like it would be a good way to make sure a disk is ok/safe to use. Are you going to make a blog post about it?

I will once I get it doing everything I want it to with all the unnecessary options ripped out. It will probably be another week or so before I can release it, because to test the script, I need to let it run. Even on the 160GB disk I'm running it on that can R/W around 120MB/s, it takes some time

[CharlesA]

I will once I get it doing everything I want it to with all the unnecessary options ripped out. It will probably be another week or so before I can release it, because to test the script, I need to let it run. Even on the 160GB disk I'm running it on that can R/W around 120MB/s, it takes some time

Understandable. Looking forward to the end results.

[CharlesA]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I just created a 3 drive RAID 5 with mdadm and it is currently showing 1 as a spare...

mdadm - v3.2.5 - 18th May 2012

mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=5 --raid-devices=3 /dev/sd[bcd]1

root@Loki:~# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
md0 : active (auto-read-only) raid5 sdd1[3](S) sdc1[1] sdb1[0]
      3906763776 blocks super 1.2 level 5, 512k chunk, algorithm 2 [3/2] [UU_]

unused devices: <none>

root@Loki:~# mdadm --detail /dev/md0
/dev/md0:
        Version : 1.2
  Creation Time : Sun Jul 14 16:36:40 2013
     Raid Level : raid5
     Array Size : 3906763776 (3725.78 GiB 4000.53 GB)
  Used Dev Size : 1953381888 (1862.89 GiB 2000.26 GB)
   Raid Devices : 3
  Total Devices : 3
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Sun Jul 14 16:36:40 2013
          State : clean, degraded
 Active Devices : 2
Working Devices : 3
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 1

         Layout : left-symmetric
     Chunk Size : 512K

           Name : Loki:0  (local to host Loki)
           UUID : 7e33c05b:c1160a6a:fba6e791:5a1cae68
         Events : 0

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0       8       17        0      active sync   /dev/sdb1
       1       8       33        1      active sync   /dev/sdc1
       2       0        0        2      removed

       3       8       49        -      spare   /dev/sdd1

Guess it's time to run SMART tests on all three drives, even though they completed badblocks fine.

EDIT: Maybe I am overracting.. I just created the array, so I think it's still syncing.

EDIT2: Nevermind, I forgot to format the array. Now it looks like it is rebuilding now. Recovery at 59000K/sec sounds about right (I guess?).