Raid 5 setup

[pixelseventy2]

Hi

I am trying to build a raid 5 array with 4 320gb drives (/dev/hde-h). I have the relevant raid autodetect partitions as hde1,f1,g1,h1.

I ran mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=5 --raid-devices=4 /dev/hde1 /dev/hdf1 /dev/hdg1 /dev/hdh1

all appears to be fine, but mdadm --detail /dev/md0 shows:

Number  Major  Minor  RaidDevice  State
   0      33      1       0       active sync    /dev/hde1
   1      33     65       0       active sync    /dev/hdf1
   2      34      1       0       active sync    /dev/hdg1
   3       0      0      -1       removed
   4      34     65       0       spare          /dev/hdh1

why do I have a spare? I am assuming that this will only allow me to create a partition of ~640gb because of the spare 6rive? how can I make hdh1 be an active part of the array and get ~960gb instead?

Thanks

[pixelseventy2]

Checked this morning, after the rebuild had completed, and everything looks as expected. I'm guessing that this is just how it works; build the array then add the parity disk in afterwards. Shame none of the info I read mentioned that anywhere

Thanks anyway

pixel