lvremove fails with "can't remove open logical volume" on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Issue

  • Sometimes the lvremove fails with 'Can't remove open logical volume "VolumeName"'

    # lvremove /dev/VG0/LV4 
  Can't remove open logical volume "LV4"

  • The 'mount' command shows it is unmounted

  • The 'lsof' command shows no files open from the snapshot mount point
  • The 'dmsetup info -c' command shows the LV is still opened.
  • FS was unmounted with 'umount -l'

Resolution

  • Stop the third-party process.
  • If lazy unmount was used on the FS (i.e. umount -l) then only a reboot will release the opened file(s).

Root Cause

  • The Backup exec daemon (beremote) was holding the snapshots opened leading lvremove to fail.

Diagnostic Steps

  1. check the major and the minor for the volume.

    # dmsetup_info_-c | grep LV4
VG0-LV4 252   4 L--w    1    1      0 LVM-oLlI7fxWpX5fIx8M2mNFCQVyMsAoSmgHPvdQfEY39C95xWHtVcaEQ9nlcucj0Rtl

  2. check which process is referencing the device.

    # lsof | grep 253,3
beremote   2308        0   10r      BLK              252,4             8880186 /tmp/filexVRTwQ(deleted)

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