Unable to mkfs, it fails with: <device> is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • Unable to create filesystem on newly created volume. Problem persisted past a reboot.
# mke2fs -j -m 1 /dev/sdb1  
mke2fs 1.39 (29-May-2006)  
/dev/sdb1 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!
  • I created a iscsi based LUN in RHEL 6.7,and I can find it by fdisk -l. I use fdisk to format the IPSAN from /dev/sde as /dev/sde1.
  • I am checking the information, then I use pvcreate /dev/sde1 it replies:
Device /dev/sde1 not found (or ignored by filtering)
  • I use mkfs.ext4 /dev/sde1 it replies:
/dev/sde1 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, 5, 6

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