I've created a software RAID5 from three physical disks. However, when I try to create a volume group out of the RAID device, I get an error message: [root at netman etc]# vgcreate /dev/vg01 /dev/md4p1 vgcreate -- no valid physical volumes in command line Here's the RAID device information: [root at netman etc]# fdisk -l /dev/md4 Disk /dev/md4: 36.3 GB, 36388339712 bytes 2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 8883872 cylinders Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/md4p1 1 8883872 35535486 8e Linux LVM Full system disk info: [root at netman etc]# fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 9100 MB, 9100369920 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1106 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sda2 14 111 787185 fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sda3 112 175 514080 fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sda4 176 1106 7478257+ fd Linux raid autodetect Disk /dev/sdb: 9100 MB, 9100369920 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1106 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 13 104391 fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sdb2 14 111 787185 fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sdb3 112 175 514080 fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sdb4 176 1106 7478257+ fd Linux raid autodetect Disk /dev/sdc: 18.2 GB, 18200739840 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2212 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 * 1 2212 17767858+ fd Linux raid autodetect Disk /dev/sdd: 18.2 GB, 18200739840 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2212 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdd1 1 2212 17767858+ fd Linux raid autodetect Disk /dev/sde: 18.2 GB, 18200739840 bytes 254 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2221 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16002 * 512 = 8193024 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sde1 * 1 2221 17770189+ fd Linux raid autodetect [root at netman etc]# Cat of mdstat: [root at netman etc]# cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] read_ahead 1024 sectors Event: 6 md4 : active raid5 sde1[2] sdd1[1] sdc1[0] 35535488 blocks level 5, 64k chunk, algorithm 2 [3/3] [UUU] md0 : active raid1 sdb1[1] sda1[0] 104320 blocks [2/2] [UU] md1 : active raid1 sdb2[1] sda2[0] 787072 blocks [2/2] [UU] md2 : active raid1 sdb3[1] sda3[0] 513984 blocks [2/2] [UU] md3 : active raid1 sdb4[1] sda4[0] 7478144 blocks [2/2] [UU] unused devices: <none> Relevant section of /etc/raidtab: [root at netman etc]# more /etc/raidtab raiddev /dev/md4 raid-level 5 nr-raid-disks 3 chunk-size 64k persistent-superblock 1 parity-algorithm left-symmetric nr-spare-disks 0 device /dev/sdc1 raid-disk 0 device /dev/sdd1 raid-disk 1 device /dev/sde1 raid-disk 2 I ran vgcreate in debug mode, however the output was incredible, and from what little I could read, didn't see anything that would point to the error. Any thoughts on what could be wrong? -- -Shawn -Nemo me impune lacessit. Ne Obliviscaris..