/dev/sdb RAID array doesn't contain a valid partition table after install

Mark_667 · 01-29-2012, 10:42 AM

I've installed (the Debian based) Proxmox 1.9 and found that the installer ignored the RAID array that makes up /dev/sdb. It's in a volume group and still formatted but not in fstab (should it be?) and there's no option to add it in the storage section of the Proxmox GUI.

What do I need to do to allow the system to see it and use it?

fdisk -l says:

Code:

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

Why is this? I've not got any data on there that I need to keep but although I can create a primary partition I can't create a filesystem on it because it's in a RAID array - help!

eehmke · 01-30-2012, 11:30 AM

Is this hardware or software RAID? /dev/sdb should be a disk, not a RAID array. And for a RAID you would need at lease two disks, AFAIK. What does

Code:

cat /proc/mdstat

tell? Don't quite understand the setup.

Mark_667 · 01-30-2012, 12:00 PM

Code:

# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities :
unused devices: <none>
#

The RAID array has 5 drives and is hardware based but appears as one large drive to Linux which is exactly what I want. I just need to figure out what's causing the error in the first post so I can use it.

riturajs · 02-20-2012, 06:31 PM

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table ===means there is no filesystem on the disk hence it can be used.

if its a new RAID array, just format the partition with desired fileysstem ext3 ext4 etc.., that will make the disk usable.