Home / Failed to create notification semaphore: Invalid argument – LVM error

Failed to create notification semaphore: Invalid argument – LVM error

lvcreate gives the following error about semaphore.

 lvcreate -n test_lv10 -L 1G test_vg_3
Found duplicate PV XfbmuZ2c2MPAb8r0TDIBNrcyUx0yMZpu: using /dev/emcpowerh not /dev/sdb
Failed to create notification semaphore: Invalid argument
Unable to resume test_vg_3-test_lv10 (253:3)
Failed to activate new LV.
Failed to create notification semaphore: Invalid argument
Unable to deactivate test_vg_3-test_lv10 (253:3)
Unable to deactivate failed new LV. Manual intervention required.

The same error is produced if lv is activated or deactivated.

 Resuming vg_test-lv_test (253:3)
Failed to create notification semaphore: Invalid argument
Unable to resume vg_test-lv_test (253:3)
Removing iscsivg-iscsilv (253:2)
Failed to create notification semaphore: Invalid argument
Unable to deactivate iscsivg-iscsilv (253:2)
Leaving critical section (deactivated).

To resolve this error, change the kernel.sem in /etc/sysctl.conf from “1250256001001024” to “250 32000 32 128”. ( Make sure the ‘TAB’ in between is present ).

The kernel.sem is set to a huge value and overflows this parameter. LVM commands may fail due to a lack of semaphore.

Check kernel.sem parameter, if it is set to a very large value or it is set without ‘TAB’, it could be overflowed.

# cat /etc/sysctl.conf | grep kernel.sem
kernel.sem=1250256001001024

# cat /proc/sys/kernel/sem
-388929984 32000 32 128

The default values should be as follows.

# cat /proc/sys/kernel/sem 
250 32000 32 128

Leave a Reply