NAME
mdadm - manage MD devices aka Linux Software RAID
SYNOPSIS
mdadm [mode] <raiddevice> [options] <component-devices>
DESCRIPTION
RAID devices are virtual devices created from two or more real block devices. This allows multiple devices (typically disk drives or partitions thereof) to be combined into a single device to hold (for example) a single filesystem. Some RAID levels include redundancy and so can survive some degree of device failure.
Linux Software RAID devices are implemented through the md (Multiple Devices) device driver.
Currently, Linux supports LINEAR md devices, RAID0 (striping), RAID1 (mirroring), RAID4, RAID5, RAID6, RAID10, MULTIPATH, FAULTY, and CONTAINER.
MULTIPATH is not a Software RAID mechanism, but does involve multiple devices: each device is a path to one common physical storage device. New installations should not use md/multipath as it is not well supported and has no ongoing development. Use the Device Mapper based multipath-tools instead.
FAULTY is also not true RAID, and it only involves one device. It provides a layer over a true device that can be used to inject faults.
CONTAINER is different again. A CONTAINER is a collection of devices that are managed as a set. This is similar to the set of devices connected to a hardware RAID controller. The set of devices may contain a number of different RAID arrays each utilising some (or all) of the blocks from a number of the devices in the set. For example, two devices in a 5-device set might form a RAID1 using the whole devices. The remaining three might have a RAID5 over the first half of each device, and a RAID0 over the second half.
With a CONTAINER, there is one set of metadata that describes all of the arrays in the container. So when mdadm creates a CONTAINER device, the device just represents the metadata. Other normal arrays (RAID1 etc) can be created inside the container.
MODES
mdadm has several major modes of operation:
Assemble | |
Assemble the components of a previously created
array into an active array. Components can be explicitly given
or can be searched for.
mdadm checks that the components
do form a bona fide array, and can, on request, fiddle superblock
information so as to assemble a faulty array.
| |
Build | Build an array that doesnt have per-device metadata (superblocks). For these
sorts of arrays,
mdadm cannot differentiate between initial creation and subsequent assembly
of an array. It also cannot perform any checks that appropriate
components have been requested. Because of this, the
Build mode should only be used together with a complete understanding of
what you are doing.
|
Create | Create a new array with per-device metadata (superblocks).
Appropriate metadata is written to each device, and then the array
comprising those devices is activated. A resync process is started
to make sure that the array is consistent (e.g. both sides of a mirror
contain the same data) but the content of the device is left otherwise
untouched.
The array can be used as soon as it has been created. There is no
need to wait for the initial resync to finish.
|
Follow or Monitor | |
Monitor one or more md devices and act on any state changes. This is
only meaningful for RAID1, 4, 5, 6, 10 or multipath arrays, as
only these have interesting state. RAID0 or Linear never have
missing, spare, or failed drives, so there is nothing to monitor.
| |
Grow | Grow (or shrink) an array, or otherwise reshape it in some way.
Currently supported growth options including changing the active size
of component devices and changing the number of active devices in RAID
levels 1/4/5/6, as well as adding or removing a write-intent bitmap.
|
Incremental Assembly | |
Add a single device to an appropriate array. If the addition of the
device makes the array runnable, the array will be started.
This provides a convenient interface to a
hot-plug system. As each device is detected,
mdadm has a chance to include it in some array as appropriate.
If a CONTAINER is passed to mdadm in this mode, then any arrays within that container will be assembled and started.
| |
Manage | This is for doing things to specific components of an array such as
adding new spares and removing faulty devices.
|
Misc | This is an everything else mode that supports operations on active
arrays, operations on component devices such as erasing old superblocks, and
information gathering operations.
|
Auto-detect | |
This mode does not act on a specific device or array, but rather it requests the Linux Kernel to activate any auto-detected arrays. | |
OPTIONS
Options for selecting a mode are:
-A, --assemble | |
Assemble a pre-existing array.
| |
-B, --build | |
Build a legacy array without superblocks.
| |
-C, --create | |
Create a new array.
| |
-F, --follow, --monitor | |
Select
Monitor mode.
| |
-G, --grow | |
Change the size or shape of an active array.
| |
-I, --incremental | |
Add a single device into an appropriate array, and possibly start the array.
| |
--auto-detect | |
Request that the kernel starts any auto-detected arrays. This can only
work if
md is compiled into the kernel not if it is a module.
Arrays can be auto-detected by the kernel if all the components are in
primary MS-DOS partitions with partition type
FD, and all use v0.90 metadata.
In-kernel autodetect is not recommended for new installations. Using
mdadm to detect and assemble arrays possibly in an
initrd is substantially more flexible and should be preferred.
| |
Options that are not mode-specific are:
-h, --help | |||||||||||
Display general help message or, after one of the above options, a
mode-specific help message.
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--help-options | |||||||||||
Display more detailed help about command line parsing and some commonly
used options.
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-V, --version | |||||||||||
Print version information for mdadm.
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-v, --verbose | |||||||||||
Be more verbose about what is happening. This can be used twice to be
extra-verbose.
The extra verbosity currently only affects
--detail --scan and
--examine --scan.
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-q, --quiet | |||||||||||
Avoid printing purely informative messages. With this,
mdadm will be silent unless there is something really important to report.
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-b, --brief | |||||||||||
Be less verbose. This is used with
--detail and
--examine. Using
--brief with
--verbose gives an intermediate level of verbosity.
| |||||||||||
-f, --force | |||||||||||
Be more forceful about certain operations. See the various modes for
the exact meaning of this option in different contexts.
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-c, --config= | |||||||||||
Specify the config file. Default is to use
/etc/mdadm.conf, or if that is missing then
/etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf. If the config file given is
partitions then nothing will be read, but
mdadm will act as though the config file contained exactly
DEVICE partitions containers and will read
/proc/partitions to find a list of devices to scan, and
/proc/mdstat to find a list of containers to examine.
If the word
none is given for the config file, then
mdadm will act as though the config file were empty.
| |||||||||||
-s, --scan | |||||||||||
Scan config file or
/proc/mdstat for missing information.
In general, this option gives
mdadm permission to get any missing information (like component devices,
array devices, array identities, and alert destination) from the
configuration file (see previous option);
one exception is MISC mode when using
--detail or
--stop, in which case
--scan says to get a list of array devices from
/proc/mdstat.
| |||||||||||
-e , --metadata= | |||||||||||
Declare the style of RAID metadata (superblock) to be used. The
default is 0.90 for
--create, and to guess for other operations.
The default can be overridden by setting the
metadata value for the
CREATE keyword in
mdadm.conf. Options are:
| |||||||||||
--homehost= | |||||||||||
This will override any
HOMEHOST setting in the config file and provides the identity of the host which
should be considered the home for any arrays.
When creating an array, the homehost will be recorded in the metadata. For version-1 superblocks, it will be prefixed to the array name. For version-0.90 superblocks, part of the SHA1 hash of the hostname will be stored in the later half of the UUID. When reporting information about an array, any array which is tagged for the given homehost will be reported as such. When using Auto-Assemble, only arrays tagged for the given homehost will be allowed to use local names (i.e. not ending in _ followed by a digit string). See below under Auto Assembly.
| |||||||||||
For create, build, or grow:
-n, --raid-devices= | |
Specify the number of active devices in the array. This, plus the
number of spare devices (see below) must equal the number of
component-devices (including "missing" devices)
that are listed on the command line for
--create. Setting a value of 1 is probably
a mistake and so requires that
--force be specified first. A value of 1 will then be allowed for linear,
multipath, RAID0 and RAID1. It is never allowed for RAID4, RAID5 or RAID6.
This number can only be changed using
--grow for RAID1, RAID4, RAID5 and RAID6 arrays, and only on kernels which provide
the necessary support.
| |
-x, --spare-devices= | |
Specify the number of spare (eXtra) devices in the initial array.
Spares can also be added
and removed later. The number of component devices listed
on the command line must equal the number of RAID devices plus the
number of spare devices.
| |
-z, --size= | |
Amount (in Kibibytes) of space to use from each drive in RAID levels 1/4/5/6.
This must be a multiple of the chunk size, and must leave about 128Kb
of space at the end of the drive for the RAID superblock.
If this is not specified
(as it normally is not) the smallest drive (or partition) sets the
size, though if there is a variance among the drives of greater than 1%, a warning is
issued.
This value can be set with --grow for RAID level 1/4/5/6. If the array was created with a size smaller than the currently active drives, the extra space can be accessed using --grow. The size can be given as max which means to choose the largest size that fits on all current drives. This value can not be used with CONTAINER metadata such as DDF and IMSM.
| |
-c, --chunk= | |
Specify chunk size of kibibytes. The default is 64.
This is only meaningful for RAID0, RAID4, RAID5, RAID6, and RAID10.
| |
--rounding= | |
Specify rounding factor for a Linear array. The size of each
component will be rounded down to a multiple of this size.
This is a synonym for
--chunk but highlights the different meaning for Linear as compared to other
RAID levels.
| |
-l, --level= | |
Set RAID level. When used with
--create, options are: linear, raid0, 0, stripe, raid1, 1, mirror, raid4, 4,
raid5, 5, raid6, 6, raid10, 10, multipath, mp, faulty, container.
Obviously some of these are synonymous.
When a CONTAINER metadata type is requested, only the container level is permitted, and it does not need to be explicitly given. When used with --build, only linear, stripe, raid0, 0, raid1, multipath, mp, and faulty are valid. Not yet supported with --grow.
| |
-p, --layout= | |
This option configures the fine details of data layout for RAID5, RAID6,
and RAID10 arrays, and controls the failure modes for
faulty. The layout of the RAID5 parity block can be one of left-asymmetric, left-symmetric, right-asymmetric, right-symmetric, la, ra, ls, rs. The default is left-symmetric. It is also possibly to cause RAID5 to use a RAID4-like layout by choosing parity-first, or parity-last. Finally for RAID5 there are DDF-compatible layouts, ddf-zero-restart, ddf-N-restart, and ddf-N-continue. These same layouts are available for RAID6. There are also 4 layouts that will provide an intermediate stage for converting between RAID5 and RAID6. These provide a layout which is identical to the corresponding RAID5 layout on the first N-1 devices, and has the Q syndrome (the second parity block used by RAID6) on the last device. These layouts are: left-symmetric-6, right-symmetric-6, left-asymmetric-6, right-asymmetric-6, and pairty-first-6. When setting the failure mode for level faulty, the options are: write-transient, wt, read-transient, rt, write-persistent, wp, read-persistent, rp, write-all, read-fixable, rf, clear, flush, none. Each failure mode can be followed by a number, which is used as a period between fault generation. Without a number, the fault is generated once on the first relevant request. With a number, the fault will be generated after that many requests, and will continue to be generated every time the period elapses. Multiple failure modes can be current simultaneously by using the --grow option to set subsequent failure modes. "clear" or "none" will remove any pending or periodic failure modes, and "flush" will clear any persistent faults. To set the parity with --grow, the level of the array ("faulty") must be specified before the fault mode is specified. Finally, the layout options for RAID10 are one of n, o or f followed by a small number. The default is n2. The supported options are: n signals near copies. Multiple copies of one data block are at similar offsets in different devices. o signals offset copies. Rather than the chunks being duplicated within a stripe, whole stripes are duplicated but are rotated by one device so duplicate blocks are on different devices. Thus subsequent copies of a block are in the next drive, and are one chunk further down. f signals far copies (multiple copies have very different offsets). See md(4) for more detail about near, offset, and far. The number is the number of copies of each datablock. 2 is normal, 3 can be useful. This number can be at most equal to the number of devices in the array. It does not need to divide evenly into that number (e.g. it is perfectly legal to have an n2 layout for an array with an odd number of devices).
| |
--parity= | |
same as
--layout (thus explaining the p of
-p).
| |
-b, --bitmap= | |
Specify a file to store a write-intent bitmap in. The file should not
exist unless
--force is also given. The same file should be provided
when assembling the array. If the word
internal is given, then the bitmap is stored with the metadata on the array,
and so is replicated on all devices. If the word
none is given with
--grow mode, then any bitmap that is present is removed.
To help catch typing errors, the filename must contain at least one slash (/) if it is a real file (not internal or none). Note: external bitmaps are only known to work on ext2 and ext3. Storing bitmap files on other filesystems may result in serious problems.
| |
--bitmap-chunk= | |
Set the chunksize of the bitmap. Each bit corresponds to that many
Kilobytes of storage.
When using a file based bitmap, the default is to use the smallest
size that is at-least 4 and requires no more than 2^21 chunks.
When using an
internal bitmap, the chunksize is automatically determined to make best use of
available space.
| |
-W, --write-mostly | |
subsequent devices listed in a
--build, --create, or
--add command will be flagged as write-mostly. This is valid for RAID1
only and means that the md driver will avoid reading from these
devices if at all possible. This can be useful if mirroring over a
slow link.
| |
--write-behind= | |
Specify that write-behind mode should be enabled (valid for RAID1
only). If an argument is specified, it will set the maximum number
of outstanding writes allowed. The default value is 256.
A write-intent bitmap is required in order to use write-behind
mode, and write-behind is only attempted on drives marked as
write-mostly.
| |
--assume-clean | |
Tell
mdadm that the array pre-existed and is known to be clean. It can be useful
when trying to recover from a major failure as you can be sure that no
data will be affected unless you actually write to the array. It can
also be used when creating a RAID1 or RAID10 if you want to avoid the
initial resync, however this practice while normally safe is not
recommended. Use this only if you really know what you are doing.
| |
--backup-file= | |
This is needed when
--grow is used to increase the number of
raid-devices in a RAID5 if there are no spare devices available.
See the GROW MODE section below on RAID-DEVICES CHANGES. The file
should be stored on a separate device, not on the RAID array being
reshaped.
| |
-N, --name= | |
Set a
name for the array. This is currently only effective when creating an
array with a version-1 superblock, or an array in a DDF container.
The name is a simple textual string that can be used to identify array
components when assembling. If name is needed but not specified, it
is taken from the basename of the device that is being created.
e.g. when creating
/dev/md/home the
name will default to
home.
| |
-R, --run | |
Insist that
mdadm run the array, even if some of the components
appear to be active in another array or filesystem. Normally
mdadm will ask for confirmation before including such components in an
array. This option causes that question to be suppressed.
| |
-f, --force | |
Insist that
mdadm accept the geometry and layout specified without question. Normally
mdadm will not allow creation of an array with only one device, and will try
to create a RAID5 array with one missing drive (as this makes the
initial resync work faster). With
--force, mdadm will not try to be so clever.
| |
-a, --auto{=yes,md,mdp,part,p}{NN} | |
Instruct mdadm how to create the device file if needed, possibly allocating
an unused minor number. "md" causes a non-partitionable array
to be used (though since Linux 2.6.28, these array devices are in fact
partitionable). "mdp", "part" or "p" causes a partitionable array (2.6 and
later) to be used. "yes" requires the named md device to have
a standard format, and the type and minor number will be determined
from this. With mdadm 3.0, device creation is normally left up to
udev so this option is unlikely to be needed.
See DEVICE NAMES below.
The argument can also come immediately after "-a". e.g. "-ap". If --auto is not given on the command line or in the config file, then the default will be --auto=yes. If --scan is also given, then any auto= entries in the config file will override the --auto instruction given on the command line. For partitionable arrays, mdadm will create the device file for the whole array and for the first 4 partitions. A different number of partitions can be specified at the end of this option (e.g. --auto=p7). If the device name ends with a digit, the partition names add a p, and a number, e.g. /dev/md/home1p3. If there is no trailing digit, then the partition names just have a number added, e.g. /dev/md/scratch3. If the md device name is in a standard format as described in DEVICE NAMES, then it will be created, if necessary, with the appropriate device number based on that name. If the device name is not in one of these formats, then a unused device number will be allocated. The device number will be considered unused if there is no active array for that number, and there is no entry in /dev for that number and with a non-standard name. Names that are not in standard format are only allowed in "/dev/md/".
| |
For assemble:
-u, --uuid= | |
uuid of array to assemble. Devices which dont have this uuid are
excluded
| |
-m, --super-minor= | |
Minor number of device that array was created for. Devices which
dont have this minor number are excluded. If you create an array as
/dev/md1, then all superblocks will contain the minor number 1, even if
the array is later assembled as /dev/md2.
Giving the literal word "dev" for --super-minor will cause mdadm to use the minor number of the md device that is being assembled. e.g. when assembling /dev/md0, --super-minor=dev will look for super blocks with a minor number of 0. --super-minor is only relevant for v0.90 metadata, and should not normally be used. Using --uuid is much safer.
| |
-N, --name= | |
Specify the name of the array to assemble. This must be the name
that was specified when creating the array. It must either match
the name stored in the superblock exactly, or it must match
with the current
homehost prefixed to the start of the given name.
| |
-f, --force | |
Assemble the array even if the metadata on some devices appears to be
out-of-date. If
mdadm cannot find enough working devices to start the array, but can find
some devices that are recorded as having failed, then it will mark
those devices as working so that the array can be started.
An array which requires
--force to be started may contain data corruption. Use it carefully.
| |
-R, --run | |
Attempt to start the array even if fewer drives were given than were
present last time the array was active. Normally if not all the
expected drives are found and
--scan is not used, then the array will be assembled but not started.
With
--run an attempt will be made to start it anyway.
| |
--no-degraded | |
This is the reverse of
--run in that it inhibits the startup of array unless all expected drives
are present. This is only needed with
--scan, and can be used if the physical connections to devices are
not as reliable as you would like.
| |
-a, --auto{=no,yes,md,mdp,part} | |
See this option under Create and Build options.
| |
-b, --bitmap= | |
Specify the bitmap file that was given when the array was created. If
an array has an
internal bitmap, there is no need to specify this when assembling the array.
| |
--backup-file= | |
If
--backup-file was used to grow the number of raid-devices in a RAID5, and the system
crashed during the critical section, then the same
--backup-file must be presented to
--assemble to allow possibly corrupted data to be restored.
| |
-U, --update= | |
Update the superblock on each device while assembling the array. The
argument given to this flag can be one of
sparc2.2, summaries, uuid, name, homehost, resync, byteorder, devicesize, or
super-minor. The sparc2.2 option will adjust the superblock of an array what was created on a Sparc machine running a patched 2.2 Linux kernel. This kernel got the alignment of part of the superblock wrong. You can use the --examine --sparc2.2 option to mdadm to see what effect this would have. The super-minor option will update the preferred minor field on each superblock to match the minor number of the array being assembled. This can be useful if --examine reports a different "Preferred Minor" to --detail. In some cases this update will be performed automatically by the kernel driver. In particular the update happens automatically at the first write to an array with redundancy (RAID level 1 or greater) on a 2.6 (or later) kernel. The uuid option will change the uuid of the array. If a UUID is given with the --uuid option that UUID will be used as a new UUID and will NOT be used to help identify the devices in the array. If no --uuid is given, a random UUID is chosen. The name option will change the name of the array as stored in the superblock. This is only supported for version-1 superblocks. The homehost option will change the homehost as recorded in the superblock. For version-0 superblocks, this is the same as updating the UUID. For version-1 superblocks, this involves updating the name. The resync option will cause the array to be marked dirty meaning that any redundancy in the array (e.g. parity for RAID5, copies for RAID1) may be incorrect. This will cause the RAID system to perform a "resync" pass to make sure that all redundant information is correct. The byteorder option allows arrays to be moved between machines with different byte-order. When assembling such an array for the first time after a move, giving --update=byteorder will cause mdadm to expect superblocks to have their byteorder reversed, and will correct that order before assembling the array. This is only valid with original (Version 0.90) superblocks. The summaries option will correct the summaries in the superblock. That is the counts of total, working, active, failed, and spare devices. The devicesize will rarely be of use. It applies to version 1.1 and 1.2 metadata only (where the metadata is at the start of the device) and is only useful when the component device has changed size (typically become larger). The version 1 metadata records the amount of the device that can be used to store data, so if a device in a version 1.1 or 1.2 array becomes larger, the metadata will still be visible, but the extra space will not. In this case it might be useful to assemble the array with --update=devicesize. This will cause mdadm to determine the maximum usable amount of space on each device and update the relevant field in the metadata.
| |
For Manage mode:
-a, --add | |
hot-add listed devices. For arrays with redundancy, the listed
devices become available as spares. If the array is degraded, it will
immediately start recovering data on to one of these spares.
| |
--re-add | re-add a device that was recently removed from an array. This is only
needed for arrays that have be built (i.e. with
--build). For created arrays, devices are always re-added if that is possible.
When re-adding a device, if nothing has changed on the array since the
device was removed, no recovery is performed. Also, if the array has
a write-intent bitmap, then the recovery performed after a re-add will
be limited to those blocks which, according to the bitmap, might have
changed since the device was removed.
|
-r, --remove | |
remove listed devices. They must not be active. i.e. they should
be failed or spare devices. As well as the name of a device file
(e.g.
/dev/sda1) the words
failed and
detached can be given to
--remove. The first causes all failed device to be removed. The second causes
any device which is no longer connected to the system (i.e an open
returns
ENXIO) to be removed. This will only succeed for devices that are spares or
have already been marked as failed.
| |
-f, --fail | |
mark listed devices as faulty.
As well as the name of a device file, the word
detached can be given. This will cause any device that has been detached from
the system to be marked as failed. It can then be removed.
| |
--set-faulty | |
same as
--fail.
| |
--write-mostly | |
Subsequent devices that are added or re-added will have the write-mostly flag set. This is only valid for RAID1 and means that the md driver will avoid reading from these devices if possible. | |
--readwrite | |
Subsequent devices that are added or re-added will have the write-mostly
flag cleared.
| |
If an array is using a write-intent bitmap, then devices which have been removed can be re-added in a way that avoids a full reconstruction but instead just updates the blocks that have changed since the device was removed. For arrays with persistent metadata (superblocks) this is done automatically. For arrays created with --build mdadm needs to be told that this device we removed recently with --re-add.
Devices can only be removed from an array if they are not in active use, i.e. that must be spares or failed devices. To remove an active device, it must first be marked as faulty.
For Misc mode:
-Q, --query | |
Examine a device to see
(1) if it is an md device and (2) if it is a component of an md
array.
Information about what is discovered is presented.
| |
-D, --detail | |
Print details of one or more md devices.
| |
--detail-platform | |
Print details of the platforms RAID capabilities (firmware / hardware
topology) for a given metadata format.
| |
-Y, --export | |
When used with
--detail or
--examine, output will be formatted as
key=value pairs for easy import into the environment.
| |
-E, --examine | |
Print contents of the metadata stored on the named device(s). Note the contrast between --examine and --detail. --examine applies to devices which are components of an array, while --detail applies to a whole array which is currently active. | |
--sparc2.2 | |
If an array was created on a SPARC machine with a 2.2 Linux kernel
patched with RAID support, the superblock will have been created
incorrectly, or at least incompatibly with 2.4 and later kernels.
Using the
--sparc2.2 flag with
--examine will fix the superblock before displaying it. If this appears to do
the right thing, then the array can be successfully assembled using
--assemble --update=sparc2.2.
| |
-X, --examine-bitmap | |
Report information about a bitmap file.
The argument is either an external bitmap file or an array component
in case of an internal bitmap. Note that running this on an array
device (e.g.
/dev/md0) does not report the bitmap for that array.
| |
-R, --run | |
start a partially assembled array. If
--assemble did not find enough devices to fully start the array, it might leaving
it partially assembled. If you wish, you can then use
--run to start the array in degraded mode.
| |
-S, --stop | |
deactivate array, releasing all resources.
| |
-o, --readonly | |
mark array as readonly.
| |
-w, --readwrite | |
mark array as readwrite.
| |
--zero-superblock | |
If the device contains a valid md superblock, the block is
overwritten with zeros. With
--force the block where the superblock would be is overwritten even if it
doesnt appear to be valid.
| |
-t, --test | |
When used with
--detail, the exit status of
mdadm is set to reflect the status of the device. See below in
MISC MODE for details.
| |
-W, --wait | |
For each md device given, wait for any resync, recovery, or reshape
activity to finish before returning.
mdadm will return with success if it actually waited for every device
listed, otherwise it will return failure.
| |
--wait-clean | |
For each md device given, or each device in /proc/mdstat if
--scan is given, arrange for the array to be marked clean as soon as possible.
Also, quiesce resync so that the monitor for external metadata arrays
(mdmon) has an opportunity to checkpoint the resync position.
mdadm will return with success if the array uses external metadata and we
successfully waited. For native arrays this returns immediately as the
kernel handles both dirty-clean transitions and resync checkpointing in
the kernel at shutdown. No action is taken if safe-mode handling is
disabled.
| |
For Incremental Assembly mode:
--rebuild-map, -r | |
Rebuild the map file
(/var/run/mdadm/map) that
mdadm uses to help track which arrays are currently being assembled.
| |
--run, -R | |
Run any array assembled as soon as a minimal number of devices are
available, rather than waiting until all expected devices are present.
| |
--no-degraded | |
This allows the hot-plug system to prevent arrays from running when it knows
that more disks may arrive later in the discovery process.
| |
--scan, -s | |
Only meaningful with
-R this will scan the
map file for arrays that are being incrementally assembled and will try to
start any that are not already started. If any such array is listed
in
mdadm.conf as requiring an external bitmap, that bitmap will be attached first.
| |
For Monitor mode:
-m, --mail | |
Give a mail address to send alerts to.
| |
-p, --program, --alert | |
Give a program to be run whenever an event is detected.
| |
-y, --syslog | |
Cause all events to be reported through syslog. The messages have
facility of daemon and varying priorities.
| |
-d, --delay | |
Give a delay in seconds.
mdadm polls the md arrays and then waits this many seconds before polling
again. The default is 60 seconds. Since 2.6.16, there is no need to
reduce this as the kernel alerts
mdadm immediately when there is any change.
| |
-f, --daemonise | |
Tell
mdadm to run as a background daemon if it decides to monitor anything. This
causes it to fork and run in the child, and to disconnect from the
terminal. The process id of the child is written to stdout.
This is useful with
--scan which will only continue monitoring if a mail address or alert program
is found in the config file.
| |
-i, --pid-file | |
When
mdadm is running in daemon mode, write the pid of the daemon process to
the specified file, instead of printing it on standard output.
| |
-1, --oneshot | |
Check arrays only once. This will generate
NewArray events and more significantly
DegradedArray and
SparesMissing events. Running
mdadm --monitor --scan -1 from a cron script will ensure regular notification of any degraded arrays.
| |
-t, --test | |
Generate a
TestMessage alert for every array found at startup. This alert gets mailed and
passed to the alert program. This can be used for testing that alert
message do get through successfully.
| |
ASSEMBLE MODE
Usage:
mdadm --assemble md-device options-and-component-devices... Usage: mdadm --assemble --scan md-devices-and-options... Usage: mdadm --assemble --scan options...
| |
In the first usage example (without the --scan) the first device given is the md device. In the second usage example, all devices listed are treated as md devices and assembly is attempted. In the third (where no devices are listed) all md devices that are listed in the configuration file are assembled. If not arrays are described by the configuration file, then any arrays that can be found on unused devices will be assembled.
If precisely one device is listed, but --scan is not given, then mdadm acts as though --scan was given and identity information is extracted from the configuration file.
The identity can be given with the --uuid option, the --name option, or the --super-minor option, will be taken from the md-device record in the config file, or will be taken from the super block of the first component-device listed on the command line.
Devices can be given on the --assemble command line or in the config file. Only devices which have an md superblock which contains the right identity will be considered for any array.
The config file is only used if explicitly named with --config or requested with (a possibly implicit) --scan. In the later case, /etc/mdadm.conf or /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf is used.
If --scan is not given, then the config file will only be used to find the identity of md arrays.
Normally the array will be started after it is assembled. However if --scan is not given and not all expected drives were listed, then the array is not started (to guard against usage errors). To insist that the array be started in this case (as may work for RAID1, 4, 5, 6, or 10), give the --run flag.
If udev is active, mdadm does not create any entries in /dev but leaves that to udev. It does record information in /var/run/mdadm/map which will allow udev to choose the correct name.
If mdadm detects that udev is not configured, it will create the devices in /dev itself.
In Linux kernels prior to version 2.6.28 there were two distinctly different types of md devices that could be created: one that could be partitioned using standard partitioning tools and one that could not. Since 2.6.28 that distinction is no longer relevant as both type of devices can be partitioned. mdadm will normally create the type that originally could not be partitioned as it has a well defined major number (9).
Prior to 2.6.28, it is important that mdadm chooses the correct type of array device to use. This can be controlled with the --auto option. In particular, a value of "mdp" or "part" or "p" tells mdadm to use a partitionable device rather than the default.
In the no-udev case, the value given to --auto can be suffixed by a number. This tells mdadm to create that number of partition devices rather than the default of 4.
The value given to --auto can also be given in the configuration file as a word starting auto= on the ARRAY line for the relevant array.
Auto Assembly
When --assemble is used with --scan and no devices are listed, mdadm will first attempt to assemble all the arrays listed in the config file.
In no array at listed in the config (other than those marked <ignore>) it will look through the available devices for possible arrays and will try to assemble anything that it finds. Arrays which are tagged as belonging to the given homehost will be assembled and started normally. Arrays which do not obviously belong to this host are given names that are expected not to conflict with anything local, and are started "read-auto" so that nothing is written to any device until the array is written to. i.e. automatic resync etc is delayed.
If mdadm finds a consistent set of devices that look like they should comprise an array, and if the superblock is tagged as belonging to the given home host, it will automatically choose a device name and try to assemble the array. If the array uses version-0.90 metadata, then the minor number as recorded in the superblock is used to create a name in /dev/md/ so for example /dev/md/3. If the array uses version-1 metadata, then the name from the superblock is used to similarly create a name in /dev/md/ (the name will have any host prefix stripped first).
BUILD MODE
Usage:
mdadm --build md-device --chunk=X --level=Y --raid-devices=Z devices
| |
The level may raid0, linear, raid1, raid10, multipath, or faulty, or one of their synonyms. All devices must be listed and the array will be started once complete. It will often be appropriate to use --assume-clean with levels raid1 or raid10.
CREATE MODE
Usage: mdadm --create md-device --chunk=X --level=Y | |
--raid-devices=Z devices
| |
The named device will normally not exist when mdadm --create is run, but will be created by udev once the array becomes active.
As devices are added, they are checked to see if they contain RAID superblocks or filesystems. They are also checked to see if the variance in device size exceeds 1%.
If any discrepancy is found, the array will not automatically be run, though the presence of a --run can override this caution.
To create a "degraded" array in which some devices are missing, simply give the word "missing" in place of a device name. This will cause mdadm to leave the corresponding slot in the array empty. For a RAID4 or RAID5 array at most one slot can be "missing"; for a RAID6 array at most two slots. For a RAID1 array, only one real device needs to be given. All of the others can be "missing".
When creating a RAID5 array, mdadm will automatically create a degraded array with an extra spare drive. This is because building the spare into a degraded array is in general faster than resyncing the parity on a non-degraded, but not clean, array. This feature can be overridden with the --force option.
When creating an array with version-1 metadata a name for the array is required. If this is not given with the --name option, mdadm will choose a name based on the last component of the name of the device being created. So if /dev/md3 is being created, then the name 3 will be chosen. If /dev/md/home is being created, then the name home will be used.
When creating a partition based array, using mdadm with version-1.x metadata, the partition type should be set to 0xDA (non fs-data). This type selection allows for greater precision since using any other [RAID auto-detect (0xFD) or a GNU/Linux partition (0x83)], might create problems in the event of array recovery through a live cdrom.
A new array will normally get a randomly assigned 128bit UUID which is very likely to be unique. If you have a specific need, you can choose a UUID for the array by giving the --uuid= option. Be warned that creating two arrays with the same UUID is a recipe for disaster. Also, using --uuid= when creating a v0.90 array will silently override any --homehost= setting.
When creating an array within a CONTAINER mdadm can be given either the list of devices to use, or simply the name of the container. The former case gives control over which devices in the container will be used for the array. The latter case allows mdadm to automatically choose which devices to use based on how much spare space is available.
The General Management options that are valid with --create are:
--run | insist on running the array even if some devices look like they might
be in use.
|
--readonly | |
start the array readonly not supported yet.
| |
MANAGE MODE
Usage: mdadm device options... devices... | |
This usage will allow individual devices in an array to be failed, removed or added. It is possible to perform multiple operations with on command. For example: mdadm /dev/md0 -f /dev/hda1 -r /dev/hda1 -a /dev/hda1 will firstly mark /dev/hda1 as faulty in /dev/md0 and will then remove it from the array and finally add it back in as a spare. However only one md array can be affected by a single command.
When a device is added to an active array, mdadm checks to see if it has metadata on it which suggests that it was recently a member of the array. If it does, it tried to "re-add" the device. If there have been no changes since the device was removed, or if the array has a write-intent bitmap which has recorded whatever changes there were, then the device will immediately become a full member of the array and those differences recorded in the bitmap will be resolved.
MISC MODE
Usage: mdadm options ... devices ... | |
MISC mode includes a number of distinct operations that operate on distinct devices. The operations are:
--query | The device is examined to see if it is
(1) an active md array, or
(2) a component of an md array.
The information discovered is reported.
| ||||||||
--detail | |||||||||
The device should be an active md device.
mdadm will display a detailed description of the array.
--brief or
--scan will cause the output to be less detailed and the format to be
suitable for inclusion in
/etc/mdadm.conf. The exit status of
mdadm will normally be 0 unless
mdadm failed to get useful information about the device(s); however, if the
--test option is given, then the exit status will be:
| |||||||||
--detail-platform | |||||||||
Print detail of the platforms RAID capabilities (firmware / hardware
topology). If the metadata is specified with
-e or
--metadata= then the return status will be:
| |||||||||
--examine | |||||||||
The device should be a component of an md array.
mdadm will read the md superblock of the device and display the contents.
If
--brief or
--scan is given, then multiple devices that are components of the one array
are grouped together and reported in a single entry suitable
for inclusion in
/etc/mdadm.conf. Having --scan without listing any devices will cause all devices listed in the config file to be examined.
| |||||||||
--stop | The devices should be active md arrays which will be deactivated, as
long as they are not currently in use.
| ||||||||
--run | This will fully activate a partially assembled md array.
| ||||||||
--readonly | |||||||||
This will mark an active array as read-only, providing that it is
not currently being used.
| |||||||||
--readwrite | |||||||||
This will change a
readonly array back to being read/write.
| |||||||||
--scan | For all operations except
--examine, --scan will cause the operation to be applied to all arrays listed in
/proc/mdstat. For
--examine, --scan causes all devices listed in the config file to be examined.
| ||||||||
MONITOR MODE
Usage:
mdadm --monitor options... devices...
| |
As well as reporting events, mdadm may move a spare drive from one array to another if they are in the same spare-group and if the destination array has a failed drive but no spares.
If any devices are listed on the command line, mdadm will only monitor those devices. Otherwise all arrays listed in the configuration file will be monitored. Further, if --scan is given, then any other md devices that appear in /proc/mdstat will also be monitored.
The result of monitoring the arrays is the generation of events. These events are passed to a separate program (if specified) and may be mailed to a given E-mail address.
When passing events to a program, the program is run once for each event, and is given 2 or 3 command-line arguments: the first is the name of the event (see below), the second is the name of the md device which is affected, and the third is the name of a related device if relevant (such as a component device that has failed).
If --scan is given, then a program or an E-mail address must be specified on the command line or in the config file. If neither are available, then mdadm will not monitor anything. Without --scan, mdadm will continue monitoring as long as something was found to monitor. If no program or email is given, then each event is reported to stdout.
The different events are:
DeviceDisappeared | |
An md array which previously was configured appears to no longer be
configured. (syslog priority: Critical)
If mdadm was told to monitor an array which is RAID0 or Linear, then it will report DeviceDisappeared with the extra information Wrong-Level. This is because RAID0 and Linear do not support the device-failed, hot-spare and resync operations which are monitored.
| |
RebuildStarted | |
An md array started reconstruction. (syslog priority: Warning)
| |
RebuildNN | |
Where
NN is 20, 40, 60, or 80, this indicates that rebuild has passed that many
percentage of the total. (syslog priority: Warning)
| |
RebuildFinished | |
An md array that was rebuilding, isnt any more, either because it
finished normally or was aborted. (syslog priority: Warning)
| |
Fail | An active component device of an array has been marked as
faulty. (syslog priority: Critical)
|
FailSpare | |
A spare component device which was being rebuilt to replace a faulty
device has failed. (syslog priority: Critical)
| |
SpareActive | |
A spare component device which was being rebuilt to replace a faulty
device has been successfully rebuilt and has been made active.
(syslog priority: Info)
| |
NewArray | |
A new md array has been detected in the
/proc/mdstat file. (syslog priority: Info)
| |
DegradedArray | |
A newly noticed array appears to be degraded. This message is not
generated when
mdadm notices a drive failure which causes degradation, but only when
mdadm notices that an array is degraded when it first sees the array.
(syslog priority: Critical)
| |
MoveSpare | |
A spare drive has been moved from one array in a
spare-group to another to allow a failed drive to be replaced.
(syslog priority: Info)
| |
SparesMissing | |
If
mdadm has been told, via the config file, that an array should have a certain
number of spare devices, and
mdadm detects that it has fewer than this number when it first sees the
array, it will report a
SparesMissing message.
(syslog priority: Warning)
| |
TestMessage | |
An array was found at startup, and the --test flag was given. (syslog priority: Info) | |
Only Fail, FailSpare, DegradedArray, SparesMissing and TestMessage cause Email to be sent. All events cause the program to be run. The program is run with two or three arguments: the event name, the array device and possibly a second device.
Each event has an associated array device (e.g. /dev/md1) and possibly a second device. For Fail, FailSpare, and SpareActive the second device is the relevant component device. For MoveSpare the second device is the array that the spare was moved from.
For mdadm to move spares from one array to another, the different arrays need to be labeled with the same spare-group in the configuration file. The spare-group name can be any string; it is only necessary that different spare groups use different names.
When mdadm detects that an array in a spare group has fewer active devices than necessary for the complete array, and has no spare devices, it will look for another array in the same spare group that has a full complement of working drive and a spare. It will then attempt to remove the spare from the second drive and add it to the first. If the removal succeeds but the adding fails, then it is added back to the original array.
GROW MODE
The GROW mode is used for changing the size or shape of an active array. For this to work, the kernel must support the necessary change. Various types of growth are being added during 2.6 development, including restructuring a RAID5 array to have more active devices.
Currently the only support available is to
o | change the "size" attribute for RAID1, RAID5 and RAID6. |
o | increase the "raid-devices" attribute of RAID1, RAID5, and RAID6. |
o | add a write-intent bitmap to any array which supports these bitmaps, or remove a write-intent bitmap from such an array. |
GROW mode is not currently supported for CONTAINERS or arrays inside containers.
SIZE CHANGES
Normally when an array is built the "size" it taken from the smallest of the drives. If all the small drives in an arrays are, one at a time, removed and replaced with larger drives, then you could have an array of large drives with only a small amount used. In this situation, changing the "size" with "GROW" mode will allow the extra space to start being used. If the size is increased in this way, a "resync" process will start to make sure the new parts of the array are synchronised.
Note that when an array changes size, any filesystem that may be stored in the array will not automatically grow to use the space. The filesystem will need to be explicitly told to use the extra space.
Also the size of an array cannot be changed while it has an active bitmap. If an array has a bitmap, it must be removed before the size can be changed. Once the change it complete a new bitmap can be created.
RAID\-DEVICES CHANGES
A RAID1 array can work with any number of devices from 1 upwards (though 1 is not very useful). There may be times which you want to increase or decrease the number of active devices. Note that this is different to hot-add or hot-remove which changes the number of inactive devices.
When reducing the number of devices in a RAID1 array, the slots which are to be removed from the array must already be vacant. That is, the devices which were in those slots must be failed and removed.
When the number of devices is increased, any hot spares that are present will be activated immediately.
Increasing the number of active devices in a RAID5 is much more effort. Every block in the array will need to be read and written back to a new location. From 2.6.17, the Linux Kernel is able to do this safely, including restarting an interrupted "reshape".
When relocating the first few stripes on a RAID5, it is not possible to keep the data on disk completely consistent and crash-proof. To provide the required safety, mdadm disables writes to the array while this "critical section" is reshaped, and takes a backup of the data that is in that section. This backup is normally stored in any spare devices that the array has, however it can also be stored in a separate file specified with the --backup-file option. If this option is used, and the system does crash during the critical period, the same file must be passed to --assemble to restore the backup and reassemble the array.
BITMAP CHANGES
A write-intent bitmap can be added to, or removed from, an active array. Either internal bitmaps, or bitmaps stored in a separate file, can be added. Note that if you add a bitmap stored in a file which is in a filesystem that is on the RAID array being affected, the system will deadlock. The bitmap must be on a separate filesystem.
INCREMENTAL MODE
Usage:
mdadm --incremental [--run] [--quiet] component-device Usage: mdadm --incremental --rebuild Usage: mdadm --incremental --run --scan
| |
If the device passed is a CONTAINER device created by a previous call to mdadm, then rather than trying to add that device to an array, all the arrays described by the metadata of the container will be started.
mdadm performs a number of tests to determine if the device is part of an array, and which array it should be part of. If an appropriate array is found, or can be created, mdadm adds the device to the array and conditionally starts the array.
Note that mdadm will only add devices to an array which were previously working (active or spare) parts of that array. It does not currently support automatic inclusion of a new drive as a spare in some array.
The tests that mdadm makes are as follow:
+ |
Is the device permitted by
mdadm.conf? That is, is it listed in a
DEVICES line in that file. If
DEVICES is absent then the default it to allow any device. Similar if
DEVICES contains the special word
partitions then any device is allowed. Otherwise the device name given to
mdadm must match one of the names or patterns in a
DEVICES line.
|
+ |
Does the device have a valid md superblock. If a specific metadata
version is request with
--metadata or
-e then only that style of metadata is accepted, otherwise
mdadm finds any known version of metadata. If no
md metadata is found, the device is rejected.
mdadm keeps a list of arrays that it has partially assembled in /var/run/mdadm/map (or /var/run/mdadm.map if the directory doesnt exist. Or maybe even /dev/.mdadm.map). If no array exists which matches the metadata on the new device, mdadm must choose a device name and unit number. It does this based on any name given in mdadm.conf or any name information stored in the metadata. If this name suggests a unit number, that number will be used, otherwise a free unit number will be chosen. Normally mdadm will prefer to create a partitionable array, however if the CREATE line in mdadm.conf suggests that a non-partitionable array is preferred, that will be honoured. If the array is not found in the config file and its metadata does not identify it as belonging to the "homehost", then mdadm will choose a name for the array which is certain not to conflict with any array which does belong to this host. It does this be adding an underscore and a small number to the name preferred by the metadata. Once an appropriate array is found or created and the device is added, mdadm must decide if the array is ready to be started. It will normally compare the number of available (non-spare) devices to the number of devices that the metadata suggests need to be active. If there are at least that many, the array will be started. This means that if any devices are missing the array will not be restarted. As an alternative, --run may be passed to mdadm in which case the array will be run as soon as there are enough devices present for the data to be accessible. For a RAID1, that means one device will start the array. For a clean RAID5, the array will be started as soon as all but one drive is present. Note that neither of these approaches is really ideal. If it can be known that all device discovery has completed, then mdadm -IRs can be run which will try to start all arrays that are being incrementally assembled. They are started in "read-auto" mode in which they are read-only until the first write request. This means that no metadata updates are made and no attempt at resync or recovery happens. Further devices that are found before the first write can still be added safely.
|
ENVIRONMENT
This section describes environment variables that affect how mdadm operates.
MDADM_NO_MDMON | |
Setting this value to 1 will prevent mdadm from automatically launching
mdmon. This variable is intended primarily for debugging mdadm/mdmon.
| |
MDADM_NO_UDEV | |
Normally,
mdadm does not create any device nodes in /dev, but leaves that task to
udev. If
udev appears not to be configured, or if this environment variable is set
to 1, the
mdadm will create and devices that are needed.
| |
EXAMPLES
mdadm --query /dev/name-of-device This will find out if a given device is a RAID array, or is part of one, and will provide brief information about the device.
mdadm --assemble --scan This will assemble and start all arrays listed in the standard config file. This command will typically go in a system startup file.
mdadm --stop --scan This will shut down all arrays that can be shut down (i.e. are not currently in use). This will typically go in a system shutdown script.
mdadm --follow --scan --delay=120 If (and only if) there is an Email address or program given in the standard config file, then monitor the status of all arrays listed in that file by polling them ever 2 minutes.
mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/hd[ac]1 Create /dev/md0 as a RAID1 array consisting of /dev/hda1 and /dev/hdc1.
echo DEVICE /dev/hd*[0-9] /dev/sd*[0-9] > mdadm.conf mdadm --detail --scan >> mdadm.conf This will create a prototype config file that describes currently active arrays that are known to be made from partitions of IDE or SCSI drives. This file should be reviewed before being used as it may contain unwanted detail.
echo DEVICE /dev/hd[a-z] /dev/sd*[a-z] > mdadm.conf mdadm --examine --scan --config=mdadm.conf >> mdadm.conf This will find arrays which could be assembled from existing IDE and SCSI whole drives (not partitions), and store the information in the format of a config file. This file is very likely to contain unwanted detail, particularly the devices= entries. It should be reviewed and edited before being used as an actual config file.
mdadm --examine --brief --scan --config=partitions mdadm -Ebsc partitions Create a list of devices by reading /proc/partitions, scan these for RAID superblocks, and printout a brief listing of all that were found.
mdadm -Ac partitions -m 0 /dev/md0 Scan all partitions and devices listed in /proc/partitions and assemble /dev/md0 out of all such devices with a RAID superblock with a minor number of 0.
mdadm --monitor --scan --daemonise > /var/run/mdadm If config file contains a mail address or alert program, run mdadm in the background in monitor mode monitoring all md devices. Also write pid of mdadm daemon to /var/run/mdadm.
mdadm -Iq /dev/somedevice Try to incorporate newly discovered device into some array as appropriate.
mdadm --incremental --rebuild --run --scan Rebuild the array map from any current arrays, and then start any that can be started.
mdadm /dev/md4 --fail detached --remove detached Any devices which are components of /dev/md4 will be marked as faulty and then remove from the array.
mdadm --create /dev/md/ddf --metadata=ddf --raid-disks 6 /dev/sd[a-f] Create a DDF array over 6 devices.
mdadm --create /dev/md/home -n3 -l5 -z 30000000 /dev/md/ddf Create a RAID5 array over any 3 devices in the given DDF set. Use only 30 gigabytes of each device.
mdadm -A /dev/md/ddf1 /dev/sd[a-f] Assemble a pre-exist ddf array.
mdadm -I /dev/md/ddf1 Assemble all arrays contained in the ddf array, assigning names as appropriate.
mdadm --create --help Provide help about the Create mode.
mdadm --config --help Provide help about the format of the config file.
mdadm --help Provide general help.
FILES
/proc/mdstat
If youre using the /proc filesystem, /proc/mdstat lists all active md devices with information about them. mdadm uses this to find arrays when --scan is given in Misc mode, and to monitor array reconstruction on Monitor mode.
/etc/mdadm.conf
The config file lists which devices may be scanned to see if they contain MD super block, and gives identifying information (e.g. UUID) about known MD arrays. See mdadm.conf(5) for more details.
/var/run/mdadm/map
When --incremental mode is used, this file gets a list of arrays currently being created. If /var/run/mdadm does not exist as a directory, then /var/run/mdadm.map is used instead. If /var/run is not available (as may be the case during early boot), /dev/.mdadm.map is used on the basis that /dev is usually available very early in boot.
DEVICE NAMES
mdadm understand two sorts of names for array devices.
The first is the so-called standard format name, which matches the names used by the kernel and which appear in /proc/mdstat.
The second sort can be freely chosen, but must reside in /dev/md/. When giving a device name to mdadm to create or assemble an array, either full path name such as /dev/md0 or /dev/md/home can be given, or just the suffix of the second sort of name, such as home can be given.
When mdadm chooses device names during auto-assembly or incremental assembly, it will sometimes add a small sequence number to the end of the name to avoid conflicted between multiple arrays that have the same name. If mdadm can reasonably determine that the array really is meant for this host, either by a hostname in the metadata, or by the presence of the array in /etc/mdadm.conf, then it will leave off the suffix if possible. Also if the homehost is specified as <ignore> mdadm will only use a suffix if a different array of the same name already exists or is listed in the config file.
The standard names for non-partitioned arrays (the only sort of md array available in 2.4 and earlier) are of the form
/dev/mdNN | |
where NN is a number. The standard names for partitionable arrays (as available from 2.6 onwards) are of the form | |
/dev/md_dNN | |
From kernel version, 2.6.28 the "non-partitioned array" can actually be partitioned. So the "md_dNN" names are no longer needed, and partitions such as "/dev/mdNNpXX" are possible.
NOTE
mdadm was previously known as mdctl.
mdadm is completely separate from the raidtools package, and does not use the /etc/raidtab configuration file at all.
SEE ALSO
For further information on mdadm usage, MD and the various levels of RAID, see:
http://linux-raid.osdl.org/ | |
(based upon Jakob \(/Ostergaards Software-RAID.HOWTO) | |
The latest version of mdadm should always be available from | |
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/raid/mdadm/ | |