]>
Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
69818a5c N |
1 | Subject: ANNOUNCE: mdadm 3.3.4 - A tool for managing md Soft RAID under Linux |
2 | ||
3 | I am somewhat disappointed to have to announce the availability of | |
4 | mdadm version 3.3.4 | |
5 | ||
6 | It is available at the usual places: | |
7 | http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/raid/mdadm/ | |
8 | and via git at | |
9 | git://github.com/neilbrown/mdadm | |
10 | git://neil.brown.name/mdadm | |
11 | http://git.neil.brown.name/git/mdadm.git | |
12 | ||
13 | In mdadm-3.3 a change was made to how IMSM (Intel Matrix Storage | |
14 | Manager) metadata was handled. Previously an IMSM array would only | |
15 | be assembled if it was attached to an IMSM controller. | |
16 | ||
17 | In 3.3 this was relaxed as there are circumstances where the | |
18 | controller is not properly detected. Unfortunately this has negative | |
19 | consequences which have only just come to light. | |
20 | ||
21 | If you have an IMSM RAID1 configured and then disable RAID in the | |
22 | BIOS, the metadata will remain on the devices. If you then install | |
23 | some other OS on one device and then install Linux on the other, Linux | |
24 | might eventually start noticing the IMSM metadata (depending a bit on whether | |
25 | mdadm is included in the initramfs) and might start up the RAID1. This could | |
26 | copy one device over the other, thus trashing one of the installations. | |
27 | ||
28 | Not good. | |
29 | ||
30 | So with this release IMSM arrays will only be assembled if attached to | |
31 | an IMSM controller, or if "--force" is given to --assemble, or if the | |
32 | environment variable IMSM_NO_PLATFORM is set (used primarily for | |
33 | testing). | |
34 | ||
35 | I strongly recommend upgrading to 3.3.4 if you are using 3.3 or later. | |
36 | ||
37 | NeilBrown 3rd August 2015. |