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First you must confirm that your storage device is capable of such functionality. Next, you will need to configure your storage to enable multiple controllers to access the same partition at the same time. This will vary from device to device and instructions are available from the hardware manufacturer. Many storage devices prevent this sort of utility by default.
Using mdadm to Configure RAID-Based and Multipath Storage
The mdadm command may be new to readers of this document. However, like the various tools comprising the raidtools package, mdadm can be used to perform all the necessary functions related to administering multiple-device sets. In this section, we show how mdadm can be used to:
To create a RAID device, edit the /etc/mdadm.conf file to define appropriate DEVICE and ARRAY values:
DEVICE /dev/sd[abcd]1 ARRAY /dev/md0 devices=/dev/sda1,/dev/sdb1,/dev/sdc1,/dev/sdd1
In this example, the DEVICE line is using traditional file name globbing (refer to the glob(7) man page for more information) to define the following SCSI devices:
Personalities : read_ahead not set Event: 0 unused devices: <none>
Next, use the above configuration and the mdadm command to create a RAID 0 array:
mdadm -C /dev/md0 --level=raid0 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 Continue creating array? yes mdadm: array /dev/md0 started.
Once created, the RAID device can be queried at any time to provide status information. The following example shows the output from the command mdadm --detail /dev/md0:
/dev/md0: Version : 00.90.00
Creation Time : Mon Mar 1 13:49:10 2004
Raid Level : raid0
Array Size : 15621632 (14.90 GiB 15.100 GB)
Raid Devices : 4
Total Devices : 4
Preferred Minor : 0
Persistence : Superblock is persistent
Update Time : Mon Mar 1 13:49:10 2004 State : dirty, no-errors
Active Devices : 4
Working Devices : 4
Failed Devices : 0
Spare Devices : 0
Chunk Size : 64K
Number Major Minor RaidDevice State
0 8 1 0 active sync /dev/sda1
1 8 17 1 active sync /dev/sdb1
2 8 33 2 active sync /dev/sdc1
3 8 49 3 active sync /dev/sdd1
UUID : 25c0f2a1:e882dfc0:c0fe135e:6940d932
Events : 0.1
Creating a Multipath Device With mdadm In addition to creating RAID arrays, mdadm can also be used to take advantage of hardware supporting more than one I/O path to individual SCSI LUNs (disk drives). The goal of multipath storage is continued data availability in the event of hardware failure or individual path saturation. Because this configuration contains multiple paths (each acting as an independent virtual controller) accessing a common SCSI LUN (disk drive), the Linux kernel detects each shared drive once "through" each path. In other words, the SCSI LUN (disk drive) known as /dev/sda may also be accessible as /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, and so on, depending on the specific configuration.
In order to provide a single device that can remain accessible if an I/O path fails or becomes saturated, mdadm includes an additional parameter to its --level option. This parameter multipath directs the md layer in the Linux kernel to re-route I/O requests from one pathway to another in the event of an I/O path failure. To create a multipath device, edit the /etc/mdadm.conf file to define values for the DEVICE and ARRAY lines that reflect your hardware configuration.
Note: Unlike the previous RAID example (where each device specified in /etc/mdadm.conf must represent different physical disk drives). Each device in this file refers to the same shared disk drive.
The command used for the creation of a multipath device is similar to that used to create a RAID device; the difference is the replacement of a RAID level parameter with the multipath parameter:
mdadm -C /dev/md0 --level=multipath --raid-devices=4 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 Continue creating array? yes mdadm: array /dev/md0 started.
In this example, the hardware consists of one SCSI LUN presented as four separate SCSI devices, each accessing the same storage by a different pathway. Once the multipath device /dev/md0 is created, all I/O operations referencing /dev/md0 will be directed to /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdc1, or /dev/sdd1 (depending on which path is currently active and operational). The configuration of /dev/md0 can be examined more closely using the command mdadm --detail /dev/md0 to verify that it is, in fact, a multipath device:
/dev/md0: Version : 00.90.00
Creation Time : Tue Mar 2 10:56:37 2004
Raid Level : multipath
Array Size : 3905408 (3.72 GiB 3.100 GB)
Raid Devices : 1
Total Devices : 4
Preferred Minor : 0
Persistence : Superblock is persistent
Update Time : Tue Mar 2 10:56:37 2004 State : dirty, no-errors
Active Devices : 1
Working Devices : 4
Failed Devices : 0
Spare Devices : 3
Number Major Minor RaidDevice State
0 8 49 0 active sync /dev/sdd1
1 8 17 1 spare /dev/sdb1
2 8 33 2 spare /dev/sdc1
3 8 1 3 spare /dev/sda1
UUID : 4b564608:fa01c716:550bd8ff:735d92dc
Events : 0.1
Another feature of mdadm is the ability to force a device (be it a member of a RAID array or a path in a multipath configuration) to be removed from an operating configuration. In the following example, /dev/sda1 is flagged as being faulty, is then removed, and finally is added back into the configuration. For a multipath configuration, these actions would not impact any I/O activity taking place at the time:
# mdadm /dev/md0 -f /dev/sda1 mdadm: set /dev/sda1 faulty in /dev/md0 # mdadm /dev/md0 -r /dev/sda1 mdadm: hot removed /dev/sda1 # mdadm /dev/md0 -a /dev/sda1 mdadm: hot added /dev/sda1
