Hi,
before I start: I am a bit unsure if this is the correct place for this
issue. If not, please be kind and tell me :)
I created an RAID1 array which was running fine. This array is currently
in "degraded" state because one device failed. The device which failed
just vanished and couldn't be removed from the array before being
replaced with a new device. After rebooting I tried to add the new
device by:
# mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --add /dev/nvme1n1p2
which fails with "mdadm: add new device failed for /dev/nvme1n1p2 as 2:
Invalid argument". Output of dmesg is:
md: nvme1n1p2 does not have a valid v1.2 superblock, not importing!
md: md_import_device returned -22
I am a bit confused by this message as I assumed that the raid subsystem
should create the suberblock on the new device. After searching WWW I
found that a lot of people have the same problem and come up with ...
interesting ... solutions which I am currently not willed to test
because I didn't understood the problem yet. So, maybe someone can
direct me to understand what is going on:
1. What exactly does this error message mean? I think replacing a failed
drive with a new one is what RAID is for? So this shouldn't be an issue
at all?
2. During my search I got the feeling that the problem is that the
failed drive is somehow still "present" in the raid. Thus the add is
handled as a "re add" which fails because there is no md superblock on
the new device. Is my conclusion correct?
3. If 2. is correct how do I remove the failed but not really present
device? Commands like "mdadm ... --remove failed" did not help.
4. I already replaced old devices in this RAID successfully before. What
may have changed that this issue happens?
regards
Daniel
Some technical details which might be useful:
-------------------- 8< --------------------
# mdadm --detail /dev/md1
/dev/md1:
Version : 1.2
Creation Time : Tue Apr 29 16:38:51 2025
Raid Level : raid1
Array Size : 997973312 (951.74 GiB 1021.92 GB)
Used Dev Size : 997973312 (951.74 GiB 1021.92 GB)
Raid Devices : 2
Total Devices : 1
Persistence : Superblock is persistent
Intent Bitmap : Internal
Update Time : Tue May 6 11:47:38 2025
State : clean, degraded
Active Devices : 1
Working Devices : 1
Failed Devices : 0
Spare Devices : 0
Consistency Policy : bitmap
Name : rescue:1
UUID : 7b7a8b41:e9cfa3ad:f1224061:1d0e7936
Events : 28548
Number Major Minor RaidDevice State
- 0 0 0 removed
3 259 3 1 active sync /dev/nvme0n1p2
-------------------- 8< --------------------
# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md1 : active raid1 nvme0n1p2[3]
997973312 blocks super 1.2 [2/1] [_U]
bitmap: 7/8 pages [28KB], 65536KB chunk
unused devices: <none>
-------------------- 8< --------------------
# uname -a
Linux example.org 6.14.4-1-default #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Apr 25
09:13:41 UTC 2025 (584fafa) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
