.\" the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
.\" (at your option) any later version.
.\" See file COPYING in distribution for details.
-.TH MDADM 8 "" v3.1.4
+.TH MDADM 8 "" v3.2.2
.SH NAME
mdadm \- manage MD devices
.I aka
.B "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, changing the RAID level between 1, 5, and 6, changing
-the chunk size and layout for RAID5 and RAID5, as well as adding or
+of component devices and changing the number of active devices in
+Linear and RAID levels 0/1/4/5/6,
+changing the RAID level between 0, 1, 5, and 6, and between 0 and 10,
+changing the chunk size and layout for RAID 0,4,5,6, as well as adding or
removing a write-intent bitmap.
.TP
recovery operation can be checkpointed and restarted. The different
sub-versions store the superblock at different locations on the
device, either at the end (for 1.0), at the start (for 1.1) or 4K from
-the start (for 1.2). "1" is equivalent to "1.0".
+the start (for 1.2). "1" is equivalent to "1.2" (the commonly
+preferred 1.x format).
'if '{DEFAULT_METADATA}'1.2' "default" is equivalent to "1.2".
.IP ddf
Use the "Industry Standard" DDF (Disk Data Format) format defined by
size, though if there is a variance among the drives of greater than 1%, a warning is
issued.
+A suffix of 'M' or 'G' can be given to indicate Megabytes or
+Gigabytes respectively.
+
+Sometimes a replacement drive can be a little smaller than the
+original drives though this should be minimised by IDEMA standards.
+Such a replacement drive will be rejected by
+.IR md .
+To guard against this it can be useful to set the initial size
+slightly smaller than the smaller device with the aim that it will
+still be larger than any replacement.
+
This value can be set with
.B \-\-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
+for RAID level 1/4/5/6 though
+.B CONTAINER
+based arrays such as those with IMSM metadata may not be able to
+support this.
+If the array was created with a size smaller than the currently
+active drives, the extra space can be accessed using
.BR \-\-grow .
The size can be given as
.B max
which means to choose the largest size that fits on all current drives.
-This value can not be used with
+Before reducing the size of the array (with
+.BR "\-\-grow \-\-size=" )
+you should make sure that space isn't needed. If the device holds a
+filesystem, you would need to resize the filesystem to use less space.
+
+After reducing the array size you should check that the data stored in
+the device is still available. If the device holds a filesystem, then
+an 'fsck' of the filesystem is a minimum requirement. If there are
+problems the array can be made bigger again with no loss with another
+.B "\-\-grow \-\-size="
+command.
+
+This value cannot be used when creating a
.B CONTAINER
-metadata such as DDF and IMSM.
+such as with DDF and IMSM metadata, though it perfectly valid when
+creating an array inside a container.
.TP
-.BR \-Z ", " \-\-array-size=
+.BR \-Z ", " \-\-array\-size=
This is only meaningful with
.B \-\-grow
-and its effect is not persistent: when the array is stopped an
+and its effect is not persistent: when the array is stopped and
restarted the default array size will be restored.
Setting the array-size causes the array to appear smaller to programs
is, it is required that the array size is reduced as appropriate
before the number of devices in the array is reduced.
+Before reducing the size of the array you should make sure that space
+isn't needed. If the device holds a filesystem, you would need to
+resize the filesystem to use less space.
+
+After reducing the array size you should check that the data stored in
+the device is still available. If the device holds a filesystem, then
+an 'fsck' of the filesystem is a minimum requirement. If there are
+problems the array can be made bigger again with no loss with another
+.B "\-\-grow \-\-array\-size="
+command.
+
+A suffix of 'M' or 'G' can be given to indicate Megabytes or
+Gigabytes respectively.
+A value of
+.B max
+restores the apparent size of the array to be whatever the real
+amount of available space is.
+
.TP
.BR \-c ", " \-\-chunk=
Specify chunk size of kibibytes. The default when creating an
default when Building and array with no persistent metadata is 64KB.
This is only meaningful for RAID0, RAID4, RAID5, RAID6, and RAID10.
+RAID4, RAID5, RAID6, and RAID10 require the chunk size to be a power
+of 2. In any case it must be a multiple of 4KB.
+
+A suffix of 'M' or 'G' can be given to indicate Megabytes or
+Gigabytes respectively.
+
.TP
.BR \-\-rounding=
Specify rounding factor for a Linear array. The size of each
bitmap, the chunksize defaults to 64Meg, or larger if necessary to
fit the bitmap into the available space.
+A suffix of 'M' or 'G' can be given to indicate Megabytes or
+Gigabytes respectively.
+
.TP
.BR \-W ", " \-\-write\-mostly
subsequent devices listed in a
actually clean. If that is the case, such as after running
badblocks, this argument can be used to tell mdadm the
facts the operator knows.
+.IP
+When an array is resized to a larger size with
+.B "\-\-grow \-\-size="
+the new space is normally resynced in that same way that the whole
+array is resynced at creation. From Linux version 3.0,
+.B \-\-assume\-clean
+can be used with that command to avoid the automatic resync.
.TP
.BR \-\-backup\-file=
being reshaped.
.TP
-.BR \-\-array-size= ", " \-Z
-Set the size of the array which is seen by users of the device such as
-filesystems. This can be less that the real size, but never greater.
-The size set this way does not persist across restarts of the array.
-
-This is most useful when reducing the number of devices in a RAID5 or
-RAID6. Such arrays require the array-size to be reduced before a
-reshape can be performed that reduces the real size.
-
-A value of
-.B max
-restores the apparent size of the array to be whatever the real
-amount of available space is.
+.BR \-\-continue
+This option is complementary to the
+.B \-\-freeze-reshape
+option for assembly. It is needed when
+.B \-\-grow
+operation is interrupted and it is not restarted automatically due to
+.B \-\-freeze-reshape
+usage during array assembly. This option is used together with
+.BR \-G
+, (
+.BR \-\-grow
+) command and device for a pending reshape to be continued.
+All parameters required for reshape continuation will be read from array metadata.
+If initial
+.BR \-\-grow
+command had required
+.BR \-\-backup\-file=
+option to be set, continuation option will require to have exactly the same
+backup file given as well.
+.IP
+Any other parameter passed together with
+.BR \-\-continue
+option will be ignored.
.TP
.BR \-N ", " \-\-name=
non-standard name. Names that are not in 'standard' format are only
allowed in "/dev/md/".
+This is meaningful with
+.B \-\-create
+or
+.BR \-\-build .
+
.ig XX
.\".TP
.\".BR \-\-symlink = no
.\"
.XX
+.TP
+.BR \-a ", " "\-\-add"
+This option can be used in Grow mode in two cases.
+
+If the target array is a Linear array, then
+.B \-\-add
+can be used to add one or more devices to the array. They
+are simply catenated on to the end of the array. Once added, the
+devices cannot be removed.
+
+If the
+.B \-\-raid\-disks
+option is being used to increase the number of devices in an array,
+then
+.B \-\-add
+can be used to add some extra devices to be included in the array.
+In most cases this is not needed as the extra devices can be added as
+spares first, and then the number of raid-disks can be changed.
+However for RAID0, it is not possible to add spares. So to increase
+the number of devices in a RAID0, it is necessary to set the new
+number of devices, and to add the new devices, in the same command.
+
.SH For assemble:
.TP
.BR \-\-backup\-file=
If
.B \-\-backup\-file
-was used when requesting a grow, shrink, RAID level change or other
-reshape, and the system crashed during the critical section, then the
-same
+was used while reshaping an array (e.g. changing number of devices or
+chunk size) and the system crashed during the critical section, then the same
.B \-\-backup\-file
must be presented to
.B \-\-assemble
to allow possibly corrupted data to be restored, and the reshape
to be completed.
+.TP
+.BR \-\-invalid\-backup
+If the file needed for the above option is not available for any
+reason an empty file can be given together with this option to
+indicate that the backup file is invalid. In this case the data that
+was being rearranged at the time of the crash could be irrecoverably
+lost, but the rest of the array may still be recoverable. This option
+should only be used as a last resort if there is no way to recover the
+backup file.
+
+
.TP
.BR \-U ", " \-\-update=
Update the superblock on each device while assembling the array. The
.BR resync ,
.BR byteorder ,
.BR devicesize ,
+.BR no\-bitmap ,
or
.BR super\-minor .
The
.B devicesize
-will rarely be of use. It applies to version 1.1 and 1.2 metadata
+option 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
to determine the maximum usable amount of space on each device and
update the relevant field in the metadata.
-.ig
+The
+.B no\-bitmap
+option can be used when an array has an internal bitmap which is
+corrupt in some way so that assembling the array normally fails. It
+will cause any internal bitmap to be ignored.
+
.TP
-.B \-\-auto\-update\-homehost
-This flag is only meaningful with auto-assembly (see discussion below).
-In that situation, if no suitable arrays are found for this homehost,
-.I mdadm
-will rescan for any arrays at all and will assemble them and update the
-homehost to match the current host.
-..
+.BR \-\-freeze\-reshape
+Option is intended to be used in start-up scripts during initrd boot phase.
+When array under reshape is assembled during initrd phase, this option
+stops reshape after reshape critical section is being restored. This happens
+before file system pivot operation and avoids loss of file system context.
+Losing file system context would cause reshape to be broken.
+
+Reshape can be continued later using
+.B\-\-continue
+option for grow command.
.SH For Manage mode:
.BR \-a ", " \-\-add
hot-add listed devices.
If a device appears to have recently been part of the array
-(possibly it failed or was removed) the device is re-added as describe
+(possibly it failed or was removed) the device is re\-added as describe
in the next point.
If that fails or the device was never part of the array, the device is
added as a hot-spare.
it will be assumed that bitmap-based recovery is enough to make the
device fully consistent with the array.
+When
+.B \-\-re\-add
+can be accompanied by
+.BR \-\-update=devicesize .
+See the description of this option when used in Assemble mode for an
+explanation of its use.
+
If the device name given is
.B missing
then mdadm will try to find any device that looks like it should be
not a name in
.IR /dev .
+.TP
+.BR \-\-path=
+Only used with \-\-fail. The 'path' given will be recorded so that if
+a new device appears at the same location it can be automatically
+added to the same array. This allows the failed device to be
+automatically replaced by a new device without metadata if it appears
+at specified path. This option is normally only set by a
+.I udev
+script.
+
.SH For Monitor mode:
.TP
.BR \-m ", " \-\-mail
passed to the alert program. This can be used for testing that alert
message do get through successfully.
+.TP
+.BR \-\-no\-sharing
+This inhibits the functionality for moving spares between arrays.
+Only one monitoring process started with
+.B \-\-scan
+but without this flag is allowed, otherwise the two could interfere
+with each other.
+
.SH ASSEMBLE MODE
.HP 12
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
+listed in the configuration file are assembled. If no arrays are
described by the configuration file, then any arrays that
can be found on unused devices will be assembled.
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
+If no arrays are listed in the config (other than those marked
.BR <ignore> )
it will look through the available devices for possible arrays and
will try to assemble anything that it finds. Arrays which are tagged
.IR mdadm.conf (5)
for further details.
-.ig
-If
-.I mdadm
-cannot find any array for the given host at all, and if
-.B \-\-auto\-update\-homehost
-is given, then
-.I mdadm
-will search again for any array (not just an array created for this
-host) and will assemble each assuming
-.BR \-\-update=homehost .
-This will change the host tag in the superblock so that on the next run,
-these arrays will be found without the second pass. The intention of
-this feature is to support transitioning a set of md arrays to using
-homehost tagging.
-
-The reason for requiring arrays to be tagged with the homehost for
-auto assembly is to guard against problems that can arise when moving
-devices from one host to another.
-..
+Note: Auto assembly cannot be used for assembling and activating some
+arrays which are undergoing reshape. In particular as the
+.B backup\-file
+cannot be given, any reshape which requires a backup-file to continue
+cannot be started by auto assembly. An array which is growing to more
+devices and has passed the critical section can be assembled using
+auto-assembly.
.SH BUILD MODE
.B \-\-scan
will cause the output to be less detailed and the format to be
suitable for inclusion in
-.BR /etc/mdadm.conf .
+.BR mdadm.conf .
The exit status of
.I mdadm
will normally be 0 unless
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
-.BR /etc/mdadm.conf .
+.BR mdadm.conf .
Having
.B \-\-scan
may move a spare drive from one array to another if they are in the
same
.B spare-group
+or
+.B domain
and if the destination array has a failed drive but no spares.
If any devices are listed on the command line,
.B MoveSpare
A spare drive has been moved from one array in a
.B spare-group
+or
+.B domain
to another to allow a failed drive to be replaced.
(syslog priority: Info)
to move spares from one array to another, the different arrays need to
be labeled with the same
.B spare-group
+or the spares must be allowed to migrate through matching POLICY domains
in the configuration file. The
.B spare-group
name can be any string; it is only necessary that different spare
If the removal succeeds but the adding fails, then it is added back to
the original array.
+If the spare group for a degraded array is not defined,
+.I mdadm
+will look at the rules of spare migration specified by POLICY lines in
+.B mdadm.conf
+and then follow similar steps as above if a matching spare is found.
+
.SH 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.
+Various types of growth are being added during 2.6 development.
-Currently the only support available is to
+Currently the supported changes include
+.IP \(bu 4
+change the "size" attribute for RAID1, RAID4, RAID5 and RAID6.
.IP \(bu 4
-change the "size" attribute
-for RAID1, RAID5 and RAID6.
+increase or decrease the "raid\-devices" attribute of RAID0, RAID1, RAID4,
+RAID5, and RAID6.
.IP \(bu 4
-increase or decrease the "raid\-devices" attribute of RAID1, RAID5,
-and RAID6.
-.IP \bu 4
-change the chunk-size and layout of RAID5 and RAID6.
-.IP \bu 4
-convert between RAID1 and RAID5, and between RAID5 and RAID6.
+change the chunk-size and layout of RAID0, RAID4, RAID5 and RAID6.
+.IP \(bu 4
+convert between RAID1 and RAID5, between RAID5 and RAID6, between
+RAID0, RAID4, and RAID5, and between RAID0 and RAID10 (in the near-2 mode).
.IP \(bu 4
add a write-intent bitmap to any array which supports these bitmaps, or
remove a write-intent bitmap from such an array.
.PP
-GROW mode is not currently supported for
-.B CONTAINERS
-or arrays inside containers.
+Using GROW on containers is currently supported only for Intel's IMSM
+container format. The number of devices in a container can be
+increased - which affects all arrays in the container - or an array
+in a container can be converted between levels where those levels are
+supported by the container, and the conversion is on of those listed
+above. Resizing arrays in an IMSM container with
+.B "--grow --size"
+is not yet supported.
+
+Grow functionality (e.g. expand a number of raid devices) for Intel's
+IMSM container format has an experimental status. It is guarded by the
+.B MDADM_EXPERIMENTAL
+environment variable which must be set to '1' for a GROW command to
+succeed.
+This is for the following reasons:
+
+.IP 1.
+Intel's native IMSM check-pointing is not fully tested yet.
+This can causes IMSM incompatibility during the grow process: an array
+which is growing cannot roam between Microsoft Windows(R) and Linux
+systems.
+
+.IP 2.
+Interrupting a grow operation is not recommended, because it
+has not been fully tested for Intel's IMSM container format yet.
+
+.PP
+Note: Intel's native checkpointing doesn't use
+.B --backup-file
+option and it is transparent for assembly feature.
.SS SIZE CHANGES
-Normally when an array is built the "size" it taken from the smallest
+Normally when an array is built the "size" is 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
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.
+stored in the array will not automatically grow or shrink to use or
+vacate the space. The
+filesystem will need to be explicitly told to use the extra space
+after growing, or to reduce its size
+.B prior
+to shrinking the array.
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.
+can be changed. Once the change is complete a new bitmap can be created.
.SS RAID\-DEVICES CHANGES
an interrupted "reshape". From 2.6.31, the Linux Kernel is able to
increase or decrease the number of devices in a RAID5 or RAID6.
+From 2.6.35, the Linux Kernel is able to convert a RAID0 in to a RAID4
+or RAID5.
+.I mdadm
+uses this functionality and the ability to add
+devices to a RAID4 to allow devices to be added to a RAID0. When
+requested to do this,
+.I mdadm
+will convert the RAID0 to a RAID4, add the necessary disks and make
+the reshape happen, and then convert the RAID4 back to RAID0.
+
When decreasing the number of devices, the size of the array will also
decrease. If there was data in the array, it could get destroyed and
-this is not reversible. To help prevent accidents,
+this is not reversible, so you should firstly shrink the filesystem on
+the array to fit within the new size. To help prevent accidents,
.I mdadm
requires that the size of the array be decreased first with
.BR "mdadm --grow --array-size" .
Note that
.I 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.
+will normally only add devices to an array which were previously working
+(active or spare) parts of that array. The support for automatic
+inclusion of a new drive as a spare in some array requires
+a configuration through POLICY in config file.
The tests that
.I mdadm
line.
.IP +
-Does the device have a valid md superblock. If a specific metadata
-version is request with
+Does the device have a valid md superblock? If a specific metadata
+version is requested with
.B \-\-metadata
or
.B \-e
.I mdadm
finds any known version of metadata. If no
.I md
-metadata is found, the device is rejected.
+metadata is found, the device may be still added to an array
+as a spare if POLICY allows.
.ig
.IP +
current host, the device will be rejected.
..
+.PP
.I mdadm
keeps a list of arrays that it has partially assembled in
.B /var/run/mdadm/map
Any devices which are components of /dev/md4 will be marked as faulty
and then remove from the array.
-.B " mdadm --grow /dev/md4 --level=6 --backup-file=/root/backup-md4
+.B " mdadm --grow /dev/md4 --level=6 --backup-file=/root/backup-md4"
.br
The array
.B /dev/md4
.I 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.
+in
+.BR mdadm.conf ,
+then it will leave off the suffix if possible.
Also if the homehost is specified as
.B <ignore>
.I mdadm
For further information on mdadm usage, MD and the various levels of
RAID, see:
.IP
-.B http://linux\-raid.osdl.org/
+.B http://raid.wiki.kernel.org/
.PP
(based upon Jakob \(/Ostergaard's Software\-RAID.HOWTO)
.\".PP
projects / thirdparty / mdadm.git / blobdiff