In linux, how can I determine what processes are using a block device?
Solution 1
Try using fuser
fuser -vam /dev/hdb1
Solution 2
Eddy's fuser -vam /dev/hdb1
example was essentially correct, but it lacked some completeness. In my case, I ran into a similar problem while recovering files from someone off the last drive of a raid1 array where the partition holding the data was in LVM.
In this case, I had started photorec
to examine the drive, seen that there was a volume group, and then closed the terminal running photorec
. Unbeknownst to me, photorec
was still holding on to /dev/mapper/vg0-lv0
. So, in the future, try using fuser
, but on the contents of /dev/mapper/
fuser -vam /dev/mapper/*
This still probably not the best answer, but remember to try to check against any files under /dev/ that might also map in some way to the block device you're trying to use.
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Jason
Updated on September 17, 2022Comments
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Jason over 1 year
I have a disk in a server that I'm migrating to a LVM volume group. Previously, it was using traditional DOS-disk partitioning,
hdb[1-5]
.I've unmounted every filesystem from
hdb
, shut off swap usinghdb
, removed a smaller VG on the device already, and went to repartition it using fdisk, deleted existing partitions, and created 2 partitions, but upon writing it out, linux refused to re-read the partition table. Trying again usinghdparm -z
reports:BLKRRPART failed: Device or resource busy.
I've checked the following places to ensure the device and it's partitions arn't listed anywhere:
- /proc/swaps
- /proc/mdadm
- output from 'pvs' command
- output from 'mount' command
- /etc/mtab
- lsof | grep hdb
But
cat /proc/partitions
still lists the partitioning, andhdparm -z /dev/hdb
still gives me device busy.Is there a something I'm missing, or a secret place I don't yet know about to find what's still holding on to my block device? and more importantly, How can I release it's hold so I can reload the partition table?
FWIW, on this specific case, I can simply reboot the server w/o much worry, but this has plagued me before, and I'm curious if there is a better way.
(Edit: added more precise wording) (Edit: details re repartitioning)
Update: I used
partprobe /dev/hdb
, and it did change things: in /dev /hdb1, /deb/hdb[3-5] are now gone, and partprobe is reportingError: Error informing the kernel about modifications to partition /dev/hdb1 -- Device or resource busy.
<-- specifically about hdb1. hdb1 formerly was a Physical Volume (PV) in a LVM Volume Group (VG), abut i vgremove + pvremoved em before I repartitioned......Update 2: FWIW, I still haven't corrected this problem, fortunatly it's not urgent. I've learned that partprobe is using a newer API call which is why it did seem to do something earlier. I still haven't found an simple and effective way to, given a device, and it's major/minor numbers, figure out which resources (kernel or userspace) are using it. Any ideas?
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Sunny about 14 yearsCheck again with pvdisplay and vgdisplay if this partition is still assigned to any LVM
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3dinfluence about 14 yearsdisregard my answer...I see that you did lsof at the bottom of your list....missed that when I answered the question.
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Jason about 14 yearsmount | grep hdb doesn't list anything; mount | grep /oldmountpoint doesn't doesn't list anything under the old mount point, and only shows the new device @ the old mount point, that I had moved stuff to. I was able to completely unmount it before the repartition, which indicates (to me at least) that there was nothing binding under it, and it wasn't bound elsewhere.
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Jason about 14 yearsI tried fuser on /dev/hdb and /dev/hdb[1-5], and it's still reporting nothing using those devices.
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Jason almost 14 yearsFWIW, I never fully resolved this, but I've since restarted the machine, and that corrected it. Thanks for your help!