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52826846 1.\" -*- nroff -*-
e43d0cda
NB
2.\" Copyright Neil Brown and others.
3.\" This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
4.\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
5.\" the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
6.\" (at your option) any later version.
7.\" See file COPYING in distribution for details.
972ee725 8.TH MDADM 8 "" v3.1.4
52826846 9.SH NAME
9a9dab36 10mdadm \- manage MD devices
cd29a5c8 11.I aka
93e790af 12Linux Software RAID
cd29a5c8 13
52826846
NB
14.SH SYNOPSIS
15
e0d19036 16.BI mdadm " [mode] <raiddevice> [options] <component-devices>"
52826846 17
2ae555c3 18.SH DESCRIPTION
52826846 19RAID devices are virtual devices created from two or more
e0fe762a 20real block devices. This allows multiple devices (typically disk
35cc5be4 21drives or partitions thereof) to be combined into a single device to
cd29a5c8 22hold (for example) a single filesystem.
2d465520 23Some RAID levels include redundancy and so can survive some degree of
cd29a5c8
NB
24device failure.
25
2d465520
NB
26Linux Software RAID devices are implemented through the md (Multiple
27Devices) device driver.
cd29a5c8
NB
28
29Currently, Linux supports
30.B LINEAR
31md devices,
32.B RAID0
33(striping),
34.B RAID1
35(mirroring),
d013a55e
NB
36.BR RAID4 ,
37.BR RAID5 ,
98c6faba 38.BR RAID6 ,
1a7dfc35 39.BR RAID10 ,
b5e64645 40.BR MULTIPATH ,
90c8d668 41.BR FAULTY ,
cd29a5c8 42and
90c8d668 43.BR CONTAINER .
d013a55e 44
a9d69660
NB
45.B MULTIPATH
46is not a Software RAID mechanism, but does involve
93e790af 47multiple devices:
d013a55e 48each device is a path to one common physical storage device.
9652457e
N
49New installations should not use md/multipath as it is not well
50supported and has no ongoing development. Use the Device Mapper based
51multipath-tools instead.
d013a55e 52
a9d69660
NB
53.B FAULTY
54is also not true RAID, and it only involves one device. It
b5e64645 55provides a layer over a true device that can be used to inject faults.
52826846 56
4cce4069 57.B CONTAINER
8fd8d9c4
N
58is different again. A
59.B CONTAINER
60is a collection of devices that are
90c8d668
N
61managed as a set. This is similar to the set of devices connected to
62a hardware RAID controller. The set of devices may contain a number
9652457e 63of different RAID arrays each utilising some (or all) of the blocks from a
90c8d668 64number of the devices in the set. For example, two devices in a 5-device set
9652457e 65might form a RAID1 using the whole devices. The remaining three might
90c8d668
N
66have a RAID5 over the first half of each device, and a RAID0 over the
67second half.
68
8fd8d9c4
N
69With a
70.BR CONTAINER ,
71there is one set of metadata that describes all of
72the arrays in the container. So when
73.I mdadm
74creates a
75.B CONTAINER
9652457e
N
76device, the device just represents the metadata. Other normal arrays (RAID1
77etc) can be created inside the container.
52826846
NB
78
79.SH MODES
8382f19b 80mdadm has several major modes of operation:
cd29a5c8
NB
81.TP
82.B Assemble
93e790af 83Assemble the components of a previously created
e0fe762a 84array into an active array. Components can be explicitly given
2ae555c3 85or can be searched for.
51ac42e3 86.I mdadm
cd29a5c8
NB
87checks that the components
88do form a bona fide array, and can, on request, fiddle superblock
89information so as to assemble a faulty array.
90
91.TP
92.B Build
e0fe762a 93Build an array that doesn't have per-device metadata (superblocks). For these
a9d69660
NB
94sorts of arrays,
95.I mdadm
96cannot differentiate between initial creation and subsequent assembly
97of an array. It also cannot perform any checks that appropriate
93e790af 98components have been requested. Because of this, the
a9d69660
NB
99.B Build
100mode should only be used together with a complete understanding of
101what you are doing.
cd29a5c8
NB
102
103.TP
104.B Create
e0fe762a
N
105Create a new array with per-device metadata (superblocks).
106Appropriate metadata is written to each device, and then the array
107comprising those devices is activated. A 'resync' process is started
108to make sure that the array is consistent (e.g. both sides of a mirror
109contain the same data) but the content of the device is left otherwise
110untouched.
111The array can be used as soon as it has been created. There is no
112need to wait for the initial resync to finish.
cd29a5c8 113
cd29a5c8
NB
114.TP
115.B "Follow or Monitor"
5787fa49 116Monitor one or more md devices and act on any state changes. This is
e0fe762a
N
117only meaningful for RAID1, 4, 5, 6, 10 or multipath arrays, as
118only these have interesting state. RAID0 or Linear never have
98c6faba 119missing, spare, or failed drives, so there is nothing to monitor.
5787fa49 120
dd0781e5
NB
121.TP
122.B "Grow"
123Grow (or shrink) an array, or otherwise reshape it in some way.
124Currently supported growth options including changing the active size
93e790af 125of component devices and changing the number of active devices in RAID
f24e2d6c
N
126levels 1/4/5/6, changing the RAID level between 1, 5, and 6, changing
127the chunk size and layout for RAID5 and RAID5, as well as adding or
128removing a write-intent bitmap.
cd29a5c8 129
8382f19b
NB
130.TP
131.B "Incremental Assembly"
132Add a single device to an appropriate array. If the addition of the
133device makes the array runnable, the array will be started.
134This provides a convenient interface to a
135.I hot-plug
136system. As each device is detected,
137.I mdadm
138has a chance to include it in some array as appropriate.
29ba4804
N
139Optionally, when the
140.I \-\-fail
141flag is passed in we will remove the device from any active array
142instead of adding it.
9652457e 143
8fd8d9c4
N
144If a
145.B CONTAINER
146is passed to
147.I mdadm
148in this mode, then any arrays within that container will be assembled
149and started.
8382f19b 150
2ae555c3
NB
151.TP
152.B Manage
153This is for doing things to specific components of an array such as
154adding new spares and removing faulty devices.
155
156.TP
157.B Misc
158This is an 'everything else' mode that supports operations on active
159arrays, operations on component devices such as erasing old superblocks, and
160information gathering operations.
e43d0cda
NB
161.\"This mode allows operations on independent devices such as examine MD
162.\"superblocks, erasing old superblocks and stopping active arrays.
2ae555c3 163
1f48664b
NB
164.TP
165.B Auto-detect
166This mode does not act on a specific device or array, but rather it
167requests the Linux Kernel to activate any auto-detected arrays.
52826846
NB
168.SH OPTIONS
169
2ae555c3 170.SH Options for selecting a mode are:
52826846 171
cd29a5c8 172.TP
7e23fc43 173.BR \-A ", " \-\-assemble
2d465520 174Assemble a pre-existing array.
52826846 175
cd29a5c8 176.TP
7e23fc43 177.BR \-B ", " \-\-build
cd29a5c8 178Build a legacy array without superblocks.
52826846 179
cd29a5c8 180.TP
7e23fc43 181.BR \-C ", " \-\-create
cd29a5c8 182Create a new array.
52826846 183
cd29a5c8 184.TP
7e23fc43 185.BR \-F ", " \-\-follow ", " \-\-monitor
cd29a5c8
NB
186Select
187.B Monitor
188mode.
52826846 189
dd0781e5 190.TP
7e23fc43 191.BR \-G ", " \-\-grow
dd0781e5 192Change the size or shape of an active array.
8382f19b
NB
193
194.TP
1f48664b 195.BR \-I ", " \-\-incremental
29ba4804 196Add/remove a single device to/from an appropriate array, and possibly start the array.
8382f19b 197
1f48664b
NB
198.TP
199.B \-\-auto-detect
200Request that the kernel starts any auto-detected arrays. This can only
201work if
202.I md
203is compiled into the kernel \(em not if it is a module.
204Arrays can be auto-detected by the kernel if all the components are in
205primary MS-DOS partitions with partition type
e0fe762a
N
206.BR FD ,
207and all use v0.90 metadata.
1f48664b
NB
208In-kernel autodetect is not recommended for new installations. Using
209.I mdadm
210to detect and assemble arrays \(em possibly in an
211.I initrd
212\(em is substantially more flexible and should be preferred.
213
2ae555c3
NB
214.P
215If a device is given before any options, or if the first option is
7e23fc43
PS
216.BR \-\-add ,
217.BR \-\-fail ,
2ae555c3 218or
7e23fc43 219.BR \-\-remove ,
e0fe762a 220then the MANAGE mode is assumed.
2ae555c3
NB
221Anything other than these will cause the
222.B Misc
223mode to be assumed.
dd0781e5 224
2ae555c3 225.SH Options that are not mode-specific are:
e793c2e5 226
cd29a5c8 227.TP
7e23fc43 228.BR \-h ", " \-\-help
a9d69660 229Display general help message or, after one of the above options, a
93e790af 230mode-specific help message.
56eedc1a
NB
231
232.TP
7e23fc43 233.B \-\-help\-options
56eedc1a
NB
234Display more detailed help about command line parsing and some commonly
235used options.
52826846 236
cd29a5c8 237.TP
7e23fc43 238.BR \-V ", " \-\-version
9a9dab36 239Print version information for mdadm.
52826846 240
cd29a5c8 241.TP
7e23fc43 242.BR \-v ", " \-\-verbose
22892d56
NB
243Be more verbose about what is happening. This can be used twice to be
244extra-verbose.
a9d69660 245The extra verbosity currently only affects
7e23fc43 246.B \-\-detail \-\-scan
22892d56 247and
7e23fc43 248.BR "\-\-examine \-\-scan" .
52826846 249
dab6685f 250.TP
7e23fc43 251.BR \-q ", " \-\-quiet
dab6685f 252Avoid printing purely informative messages. With this,
51ac42e3 253.I mdadm
dab6685f
NB
254will be silent unless there is something really important to report.
255
e0d19036 256.TP
7e23fc43 257.BR \-f ", " \-\-force
93e790af 258Be more forceful about certain operations. See the various modes for
e0d19036
NB
259the exact meaning of this option in different contexts.
260
261.TP
7e23fc43 262.BR \-c ", " \-\-config=
2ae555c3
NB
263Specify the config file. Default is to use
264.BR /etc/mdadm.conf ,
93e790af 265or if that is missing then
2ae555c3 266.BR /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf .
5787fa49 267If the config file given is
93e790af 268.B "partitions"
5787fa49
NB
269then nothing will be read, but
270.I mdadm
271will act as though the config file contained exactly
8fd8d9c4 272.B "DEVICE partitions containers"
5787fa49
NB
273and will read
274.B /proc/partitions
8fd8d9c4
N
275to find a list of devices to scan, and
276.B /proc/mdstat
277to find a list of containers to examine.
d013a55e 278If the word
93e790af 279.B "none"
d013a55e
NB
280is given for the config file, then
281.I mdadm
282will act as though the config file were empty.
e0d19036
NB
283
284.TP
7e23fc43 285.BR \-s ", " \-\-scan
93e790af 286Scan config file or
e0d19036
NB
287.B /proc/mdstat
288for missing information.
289In general, this option gives
51ac42e3 290.I mdadm
93e790af
SW
291permission to get any missing information (like component devices,
292array devices, array identities, and alert destination) from the
293configuration file (see previous option);
294one exception is MISC mode when using
7e23fc43 295.B \-\-detail
e0d19036 296or
93e790af 297.B \-\-stop,
e0d19036 298in which case
7e23fc43 299.B \-\-scan
e0d19036
NB
300says to get a list of array devices from
301.BR /proc/mdstat .
302
570c0542 303.TP
d16c7af6 304.BR \-e ", " \-\-metadata=
e0fe762a 305Declare the style of RAID metadata (superblock) to be used. The
26f467a9 306default is {DEFAULT_METADATA} for
7e23fc43 307.BR \-\-create ,
53e8b987 308and to guess for other operations.
2790ffe3
GB
309The default can be overridden by setting the
310.B metadata
311value for the
312.B CREATE
313keyword in
314.BR mdadm.conf .
570c0542
NB
315
316Options are:
317.RS
26f467a9 318.ie '{DEFAULT_METADATA}'0.90'
319.IP "0, 0.90, default"
320.el
7d5c3964 321.IP "0, 0.90"
26f467a9 322..
570c0542 323Use the original 0.90 format superblock. This format limits arrays to
93e790af 32428 component devices and limits component devices of levels 1 and
cd19c0cf
JR
325greater to 2 terabytes. It is also possible for there to be confusion
326about whether the superblock applies to a whole device or just the
327last partition, if that partition starts on a 64K boundary.
26f467a9 328.ie '{DEFAULT_METADATA}'0.90'
329.IP "1, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2"
330.el
7d5c3964 331.IP "1, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 default"
26f467a9 332..
cd19c0cf
JR
333Use the new version-1 format superblock. This has fewer restrictions.
334It can easily be moved between hosts with different endian-ness, and a
335recovery operation can be checkpointed and restarted. The different
336sub-versions store the superblock at different locations on the
337device, either at the end (for 1.0), at the start (for 1.1) or 4K from
338the start (for 1.2). "1" is equivalent to "1.0".
26f467a9 339'if '{DEFAULT_METADATA}'1.2' "default" is equivalent to "1.2".
8fd8d9c4 340.IP ddf
e0fe762a
N
341Use the "Industry Standard" DDF (Disk Data Format) format defined by
342SNIA.
343When creating a DDF array a
8fd8d9c4
N
344.B CONTAINER
345will be created, and normal arrays can be created in that container.
346.IP imsm
4cce4069 347Use the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager metadata format. This creates a
8fd8d9c4 348.B CONTAINER
4cce4069
DW
349which is managed in a similar manner to DDF, and is supported by an
350option-rom on some platforms:
351.IP
352.B http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/matrixstorage_sb.htm
353.PP
570c0542
NB
354.RE
355
41a3b72a 356.TP
7e23fc43 357.B \-\-homehost=
35cc5be4 358This will override any
41a3b72a 359.B HOMEHOST
93e790af 360setting in the config file and provides the identity of the host which
41a3b72a
NB
361should be considered the home for any arrays.
362
363When creating an array, the
364.B homehost
e0fe762a 365will be recorded in the metadata. For version-1 superblocks, it will
93e790af 366be prefixed to the array name. For version-0.90 superblocks, part of
41a3b72a
NB
367the SHA1 hash of the hostname will be stored in the later half of the
368UUID.
369
370When reporting information about an array, any array which is tagged
371for the given homehost will be reported as such.
372
373When using Auto-Assemble, only arrays tagged for the given homehost
0ac91628 374will be allowed to use 'local' names (i.e. not ending in '_' followed
e0fe762a
N
375by a digit string). See below under
376.BR "Auto Assembly" .
41a3b72a 377
2ae555c3
NB
378.SH For create, build, or grow:
379
380.TP
7e23fc43 381.BR \-n ", " \-\-raid\-devices=
2ae555c3
NB
382Specify the number of active devices in the array. This, plus the
383number of spare devices (see below) must equal the number of
384.I component-devices
385(including "\fBmissing\fP" devices)
386that are listed on the command line for
e0fe762a 387.BR \-\-create .
2ae555c3
NB
388Setting a value of 1 is probably
389a mistake and so requires that
7e23fc43 390.B \-\-force
2ae555c3 391be specified first. A value of 1 will then be allowed for linear,
e0fe762a 392multipath, RAID0 and RAID1. It is never allowed for RAID4, RAID5 or RAID6.
2ae555c3
NB
393.br
394This number can only be changed using
7e23fc43 395.B \-\-grow
e0fe762a
N
396for RAID1, RAID4, RAID5 and RAID6 arrays, and only on kernels which provide
397the necessary support.
2ae555c3
NB
398
399.TP
7e23fc43 400.BR \-x ", " \-\-spare\-devices=
2ae555c3
NB
401Specify the number of spare (eXtra) devices in the initial array.
402Spares can also be added
403and removed later. The number of component devices listed
e0fe762a 404on the command line must equal the number of RAID devices plus the
2ae555c3
NB
405number of spare devices.
406
2ae555c3 407.TP
7e23fc43 408.BR \-z ", " \-\-size=
e0fe762a 409Amount (in Kibibytes) of space to use from each drive in RAID levels 1/4/5/6.
2ae555c3
NB
410This must be a multiple of the chunk size, and must leave about 128Kb
411of space at the end of the drive for the RAID superblock.
412If this is not specified
413(as it normally is not) the smallest drive (or partition) sets the
414size, though if there is a variance among the drives of greater than 1%, a warning is
415issued.
416
36fad8ec
N
417A suffix of 'M' or 'G' can be given to indicate Megabytes or
418Gigabytes respectively.
419
2ae555c3 420This value can be set with
7e23fc43 421.B \-\-grow
e0fe762a 422for RAID level 1/4/5/6. If the array was created with a size smaller
2ae555c3
NB
423than the currently active drives, the extra space can be accessed
424using
7e23fc43 425.BR \-\-grow .
2ae555c3
NB
426The size can be given as
427.B max
428which means to choose the largest size that fits on all current drives.
52826846 429
8fd8d9c4
N
430This value can not be used with
431.B CONTAINER
432metadata such as DDF and IMSM.
433
f24e2d6c
N
434.TP
435.BR \-Z ", " \-\-array-size=
436This is only meaningful with
437.B \-\-grow
36fad8ec 438and its effect is not persistent: when the array is stopped and
f24e2d6c
N
439restarted the default array size will be restored.
440
441Setting the array-size causes the array to appear smaller to programs
442that access the data. This is particularly needed before reshaping an
443array so that it will be smaller. As the reshape is not reversible,
444but setting the size with
445.B \-\-array-size
446is, it is required that the array size is reduced as appropriate
447before the number of devices in the array is reduced.
448
36fad8ec
N
449A suffix of 'M' or 'G' can be given to indicate Megabytes or
450Gigabytes respectively.
451A value of
452.B max
453restores the apparent size of the array to be whatever the real
454amount of available space is.
455
cd29a5c8 456.TP
7e23fc43 457.BR \-c ", " \-\-chunk=
5f175898
N
458Specify chunk size of kibibytes. The default when creating an
459array is 512KB. To ensure compatibility with earlier versions, the
460default when Building and array with no persistent metadata is 64KB.
e0fe762a 461This is only meaningful for RAID0, RAID4, RAID5, RAID6, and RAID10.
52826846 462
36fad8ec
N
463A suffix of 'M' or 'G' can be given to indicate Megabytes or
464Gigabytes respectively.
465
cd29a5c8 466.TP
7e23fc43 467.BR \-\-rounding=
e0fe762a
N
468Specify rounding factor for a Linear array. The size of each
469component will be rounded down to a multiple of this size.
470This is a synonym for
471.B \-\-chunk
472but highlights the different meaning for Linear as compared to other
5f175898
N
473RAID levels. The default is 64K if a kernel earlier than 2.6.16 is in
474use, and is 0K (i.e. no rounding) in later kernels.
52826846 475
cd29a5c8 476.TP
7e23fc43 477.BR \-l ", " \-\-level=
e0fe762a 478Set RAID level. When used with
7e23fc43 479.BR \-\-create ,
98c6faba 480options are: linear, raid0, 0, stripe, raid1, 1, mirror, raid4, 4,
8fd8d9c4
N
481raid5, 5, raid6, 6, raid10, 10, multipath, mp, faulty, container.
482Obviously some of these are synonymous.
483
484When a
485.B CONTAINER
486metadata type is requested, only the
487.B container
488level is permitted, and it does not need to be explicitly given.
aa88f531
NB
489
490When used with
7e23fc43 491.BR \-\-build ,
a9d69660 492only linear, stripe, raid0, 0, raid1, multipath, mp, and faulty are valid.
52826846 493
fd547b50
N
494Can be used with
495.B \-\-grow
496to change the RAID level in some cases. See LEVEL CHANGES below.
2ae555c3 497
cd29a5c8 498.TP
7e23fc43 499.BR \-p ", " \-\-layout=
f24e2d6c
N
500This option configures the fine details of data layout for RAID5, RAID6,
501and RAID10 arrays, and controls the failure modes for
1a7dfc35
NB
502.IR faulty .
503
e0fe762a 504The layout of the RAID5 parity block can be one of
7e23fc43
PS
505.BR left\-asymmetric ,
506.BR left\-symmetric ,
507.BR right\-asymmetric ,
508.BR right\-symmetric ,
53e8b987
PS
509.BR la ", " ra ", " ls ", " rs .
510The default is
7e23fc43 511.BR left\-symmetric .
52826846 512
cd19c0cf 513It is also possible to cause RAID5 to use a RAID4-like layout by
e0fe762a
N
514choosing
515.BR parity\-first ,
516or
517.BR parity\-last .
518
519Finally for RAID5 there are DDF\-compatible layouts,
520.BR ddf\-zero\-restart ,
521.BR ddf\-N\-restart ,
522and
523.BR ddf\-N\-continue .
524
525These same layouts are available for RAID6. There are also 4 layouts
526that will provide an intermediate stage for converting between RAID5
527and RAID6. These provide a layout which is identical to the
528corresponding RAID5 layout on the first N\-1 devices, and has the 'Q'
529syndrome (the second 'parity' block used by RAID6) on the last device.
530These layouts are:
531.BR left\-symmetric\-6 ,
532.BR right\-symmetric\-6 ,
533.BR left\-asymmetric\-6 ,
534.BR right\-asymmetric\-6 ,
535and
10adfe9a 536.BR parity\-first\-6 .
e0fe762a 537
93e790af
SW
538When setting the failure mode for level
539.I faulty,
1a7dfc35 540the options are:
7e23fc43
PS
541.BR write\-transient ", " wt ,
542.BR read\-transient ", " rt ,
543.BR write\-persistent ", " wp ,
544.BR read\-persistent ", " rp ,
545.BR write\-all ,
546.BR read\-fixable ", " rf ,
53e8b987 547.BR clear ", " flush ", " none .
b5e64645 548
93e790af 549Each failure mode can be followed by a number, which is used as a period
b5e64645
NB
550between fault generation. Without a number, the fault is generated
551once on the first relevant request. With a number, the fault will be
93e790af 552generated after that many requests, and will continue to be generated
b5e64645
NB
553every time the period elapses.
554
555Multiple failure modes can be current simultaneously by using the
7e23fc43 556.B \-\-grow
53e8b987 557option to set subsequent failure modes.
b5e64645
NB
558
559"clear" or "none" will remove any pending or periodic failure modes,
2ae555c3 560and "flush" will clear any persistent faults.
b5e64645 561
6f9a21a7 562Finally, the layout options for RAID10 are one of 'n', 'o' or 'f' followed
93e790af 563by a small number. The default is 'n2'. The supported options are:
1a7dfc35 564
93e790af 565.I 'n'
e0fe762a 566signals 'near' copies. Multiple copies of one data block are at
b578481c
NB
567similar offsets in different devices.
568
93e790af 569.I 'o'
b578481c
NB
570signals 'offset' copies. Rather than the chunks being duplicated
571within a stripe, whole stripes are duplicated but are rotated by one
572device so duplicate blocks are on different devices. Thus subsequent
573copies of a block are in the next drive, and are one chunk further
574down.
575
93e790af 576.I 'f'
1a7dfc35 577signals 'far' copies
93e790af 578(multiple copies have very different offsets).
e0fe762a 579See md(4) for more detail about 'near', 'offset', and 'far'.
1a7dfc35
NB
580
581The number is the number of copies of each datablock. 2 is normal, 3
582can be useful. This number can be at most equal to the number of
583devices in the array. It does not need to divide evenly into that
584number (e.g. it is perfectly legal to have an 'n2' layout for an array
585with an odd number of devices).
586
f24e2d6c
N
587When an array is converted between RAID5 and RAID6 an intermediate
588RAID6 layout is used in which the second parity block (Q) is always on
589the last device. To convert a RAID5 to RAID6 and leave it in this new
590layout (which does not require re-striping) use
591.BR \-\-layout=preserve .
592This will try to avoid any restriping.
593
594The converse of this is
595.B \-\-layout=normalise
596which will change a non-standard RAID6 layout into a more standard
597arrangement.
598
cd29a5c8 599.TP
7e23fc43 600.BR \-\-parity=
53e8b987 601same as
7e23fc43 602.B \-\-layout
53e8b987 603(thus explaining the p of
7e23fc43 604.BR \-p ).
52826846 605
e793c2e5 606.TP
7e23fc43 607.BR \-b ", " \-\-bitmap=
e793c2e5 608Specify a file to store a write-intent bitmap in. The file should not
53e8b987 609exist unless
7e23fc43 610.B \-\-force
53e8b987 611is also given. The same file should be provided
2ae555c3 612when assembling the array. If the word
93e790af 613.B "internal"
2ae555c3
NB
614is given, then the bitmap is stored with the metadata on the array,
615and so is replicated on all devices. If the word
93e790af 616.B "none"
2ae555c3 617is given with
7e23fc43 618.B \-\-grow
2ae555c3 619mode, then any bitmap that is present is removed.
e793c2e5 620
2ae555c3
NB
621To help catch typing errors, the filename must contain at least one
622slash ('/') if it is a real file (not 'internal' or 'none').
623
624Note: external bitmaps are only known to work on ext2 and ext3.
625Storing bitmap files on other filesystems may result in serious problems.
e793c2e5 626
cd29a5c8 627.TP
7e23fc43 628.BR \-\-bitmap\-chunk=
e0fe762a 629Set the chunksize of the bitmap. Each bit corresponds to that many
1bfdbe01
NB
630Kilobytes of storage.
631When using a file based bitmap, the default is to use the smallest
93e790af 632size that is at-least 4 and requires no more than 2^21 chunks.
2ae555c3
NB
633When using an
634.B internal
b8ab2a50
N
635bitmap, the chunksize defaults to 64Meg, or larger if necessary to
636fit the bitmap into the available space.
5787fa49 637
36fad8ec
N
638A suffix of 'M' or 'G' can be given to indicate Megabytes or
639Gigabytes respectively.
640
cd29a5c8 641.TP
7e23fc43 642.BR \-W ", " \-\-write\-mostly
e0fe762a 643subsequent devices listed in a
7e23fc43
PS
644.BR \-\-build ,
645.BR \-\-create ,
2ae555c3 646or
7e23fc43 647.B \-\-add
2ae555c3
NB
648command will be flagged as 'write-mostly'. This is valid for RAID1
649only and means that the 'md' driver will avoid reading from these
650devices if at all possible. This can be useful if mirroring over a
651slow link.
52826846 652
2ae555c3 653.TP
7e23fc43 654.BR \-\-write\-behind=
2ae555c3 655Specify that write-behind mode should be enabled (valid for RAID1
e0fe762a
N
656only). If an argument is specified, it will set the maximum number
657of outstanding writes allowed. The default value is 256.
2ae555c3
NB
658A write-intent bitmap is required in order to use write-behind
659mode, and write-behind is only attempted on drives marked as
660.IR write-mostly .
dd0781e5
NB
661
662.TP
7e23fc43 663.BR \-\-assume\-clean
dd0781e5
NB
664Tell
665.I mdadm
47d79ef8
NB
666that the array pre-existed and is known to be clean. It can be useful
667when trying to recover from a major failure as you can be sure that no
668data will be affected unless you actually write to the array. It can
669also be used when creating a RAID1 or RAID10 if you want to avoid the
b3f1c093 670initial resync, however this practice \(em while normally safe \(em is not
e0fe762a 671recommended. Use this only if you really know what you are doing.
6acad481
ME
672.IP
673When the devices that will be part of a new array were filled
674with zeros before creation the operator knows the array is
675actually clean. If that is the case, such as after running
676badblocks, this argument can be used to tell mdadm the
677facts the operator knows.
dd0781e5 678
2ae555c3 679.TP
7e23fc43 680.BR \-\-backup\-file=
53e8b987 681This is needed when
7e23fc43 682.B \-\-grow
cd19c0cf
JR
683is used to increase the number of raid-devices in a RAID5 or RAID6 if
684there are no spare devices available, or to shrink, change RAID level
685or layout. See the GROW MODE section below on RAID\-DEVICES CHANGES.
686The file must be stored on a separate device, not on the RAID array
687being reshaped.
2ae555c3 688
947fd4dd 689.TP
7e23fc43 690.BR \-N ", " \-\-name=
947fd4dd
NB
691Set a
692.B name
693for the array. This is currently only effective when creating an
e0fe762a
N
694array with a version-1 superblock, or an array in a DDF container.
695The name is a simple textual string that can be used to identify array
696components when assembling. If name is needed but not specified, it
697is taken from the basename of the device that is being created.
698e.g. when creating
699.I /dev/md/home
700the
701.B name
702will default to
703.IR home .
947fd4dd 704
dd0781e5 705.TP
7e23fc43 706.BR \-R ", " \-\-run
dd0781e5
NB
707Insist that
708.I mdadm
709run the array, even if some of the components
710appear to be active in another array or filesystem. Normally
711.I mdadm
712will ask for confirmation before including such components in an
713array. This option causes that question to be suppressed.
714
715.TP
7e23fc43 716.BR \-f ", " \-\-force
dd0781e5
NB
717Insist that
718.I mdadm
719accept the geometry and layout specified without question. Normally
720.I mdadm
721will not allow creation of an array with only one device, and will try
e0fe762a 722to create a RAID5 array with one missing drive (as this makes the
dd0781e5 723initial resync work faster). With
7e23fc43 724.BR \-\-force ,
dd0781e5
NB
725.I mdadm
726will not try to be so clever.
727
728.TP
257c1dc2
N
729.BR \-a ", " "\-\-auto{=yes,md,mdp,part,p}{NN}"
730Instruct mdadm how to create the device file if needed, possibly allocating
48f7b27a 731an unused minor number. "md" causes a non-partitionable array
257c1dc2
N
732to be used (though since Linux 2.6.28, these array devices are in fact
733partitionable). "mdp", "part" or "p" causes a partitionable array (2.6 and
2ae555c3 734later) to be used. "yes" requires the named md device to have
f9c25f1d 735a 'standard' format, and the type and minor number will be determined
257c1dc2
N
736from this. With mdadm 3.0, device creation is normally left up to
737.I udev
738so this option is unlikely to be needed.
739See DEVICE NAMES below.
48f7b27a 740
a9d69660 741The argument can also come immediately after
7e23fc43 742"\-a". e.g. "\-ap".
dd0781e5 743
53e8b987 744If
7e23fc43 745.B \-\-auto
53e8b987 746is not given on the command line or in the config file, then
75723446 747the default will be
7e23fc43 748.BR \-\-auto=yes .
75723446 749
1337546d 750If
7e23fc43 751.B \-\-scan
1337546d
NB
752is also given, then any
753.I auto=
35cc5be4 754entries in the config file will override the
7e23fc43 755.B \-\-auto
1337546d
NB
756instruction given on the command line.
757
dd0781e5
NB
758For partitionable arrays,
759.I mdadm
760will create the device file for the whole array and for the first 4
761partitions. A different number of partitions can be specified at the
762end of this option (e.g.
7e23fc43 763.BR \-\-auto=p7 ).
2ae555c3 764If the device name ends with a digit, the partition names add a 'p',
e0fe762a
N
765and a number, e.g.
766.IR /dev/md/home1p3 .
767If there is no trailing digit, then the partition names just have a
768number added, e.g.
769.IR /dev/md/scratch3 .
dd0781e5 770
48f7b27a
NB
771If the md device name is in a 'standard' format as described in DEVICE
772NAMES, then it will be created, if necessary, with the appropriate
e0fe762a
N
773device number based on that name. If the device name is not in one of these
774formats, then a unused device number will be allocated. The device
48f7b27a
NB
775number will be considered unused if there is no active array for that
776number, and there is no entry in /dev for that number and with a
e0fe762a 777non-standard name. Names that are not in 'standard' format are only
8fd8d9c4
N
778allowed in "/dev/md/".
779
f24e2d6c 780.ig XX
e0fe762a
N
781.\".TP
782.\".BR \-\-symlink = no
783.\"Normally when
784.\".B \-\-auto
785.\"causes
786.\".I mdadm
787.\"to create devices in
788.\".B /dev/md/
789.\"it will also create symlinks from
790.\".B /dev/
791.\"with names starting with
792.\".B md
793.\"or
794.\".BR md_ .
795.\"Use
796.\".B \-\-symlink=no
797.\"to suppress this, or
798.\".B \-\-symlink=yes
799.\"to enforce this even if it is suppressing
800.\".IR mdadm.conf .
801.\"
f24e2d6c 802.XX
38098016 803
52826846
NB
804.SH For assemble:
805
cd29a5c8 806.TP
7e23fc43 807.BR \-u ", " \-\-uuid=
e0fe762a 808uuid of array to assemble. Devices which don't have this uuid are
cd29a5c8
NB
809excluded
810
811.TP
7e23fc43 812.BR \-m ", " \-\-super\-minor=
cd29a5c8
NB
813Minor number of device that array was created for. Devices which
814don't have this minor number are excluded. If you create an array as
2d465520 815/dev/md1, then all superblocks will contain the minor number 1, even if
cd29a5c8
NB
816the array is later assembled as /dev/md2.
817
d013a55e 818Giving the literal word "dev" for
7e23fc43 819.B \-\-super\-minor
d013a55e
NB
820will cause
821.I mdadm
822to use the minor number of the md device that is being assembled.
823e.g. when assembling
824.BR /dev/md0 ,
51ac42e3 825.B \-\-super\-minor=dev
d013a55e
NB
826will look for super blocks with a minor number of 0.
827
e0fe762a
N
828.B \-\-super\-minor
829is only relevant for v0.90 metadata, and should not normally be used.
830Using
831.B \-\-uuid
832is much safer.
833
947fd4dd 834.TP
7e23fc43 835.BR \-N ", " \-\-name=
947fd4dd 836Specify the name of the array to assemble. This must be the name
624920bb 837that was specified when creating the array. It must either match
93e790af 838the name stored in the superblock exactly, or it must match
41a3b72a 839with the current
624920bb 840.I homehost
93e790af 841prefixed to the start of the given name.
947fd4dd 842
cd29a5c8 843.TP
7e23fc43 844.BR \-f ", " \-\-force
e0fe762a
N
845Assemble the array even if the metadata on some devices appears to be
846out-of-date. If
847.I mdadm
848cannot find enough working devices to start the array, but can find
849some devices that are recorded as having failed, then it will mark
850those devices as working so that the array can be started.
851An array which requires
852.B \-\-force
853to be started may contain data corruption. Use it carefully.
52826846 854
cd29a5c8 855.TP
7e23fc43 856.BR \-R ", " \-\-run
b8a8ccf9
NB
857Attempt to start the array even if fewer drives were given than were
858present last time the array was active. Normally if not all the
859expected drives are found and
7e23fc43 860.B \-\-scan
cd29a5c8
NB
861is not used, then the array will be assembled but not started.
862With
7e23fc43 863.B \-\-run
cd29a5c8 864an attempt will be made to start it anyway.
52826846 865
b8a8ccf9 866.TP
7e23fc43 867.B \-\-no\-degraded
b8a8ccf9 868This is the reverse of
7e23fc43 869.B \-\-run
93e790af 870in that it inhibits the startup of array unless all expected drives
b8a8ccf9 871are present. This is only needed with
93e790af
SW
872.B \-\-scan,
873and can be used if the physical connections to devices are
b8a8ccf9
NB
874not as reliable as you would like.
875
dd0781e5 876.TP
7e23fc43 877.BR \-a ", " "\-\-auto{=no,yes,md,mdp,part}"
dd0781e5
NB
878See this option under Create and Build options.
879
e793c2e5 880.TP
7e23fc43 881.BR \-b ", " \-\-bitmap=
2ae555c3
NB
882Specify the bitmap file that was given when the array was created. If
883an array has an
884.B internal
885bitmap, there is no need to specify this when assembling the array.
886
887.TP
7e23fc43 888.BR \-\-backup\-file=
2ae555c3 889If
7e23fc43 890.B \-\-backup\-file
87f26d14
N
891was used while reshaping an array (e.g. changing number of devices or
892chunk size) and the system crashed during the critical section, then the same
7e23fc43 893.B \-\-backup\-file
53e8b987 894must be presented to
7e23fc43 895.B \-\-assemble
cd19c0cf
JR
896to allow possibly corrupted data to be restored, and the reshape
897to be completed.
e793c2e5 898
87f26d14
N
899.TP
900.BR \-\-invalid\-backup
901If the file needed for the above option is not available for any
902reason an empty file can be given together with this option to
903indicate that the backup file is invalid. In this case the data that
904was being rearranged at the time of the crash could be irrecoverably
905lost, but the rest of the array may still be recoverable. This option
906should only be used as a last resort if there is no way to recover the
907backup file.
908
909
5787fa49 910.TP
7e23fc43 911.BR \-U ", " \-\-update=
5787fa49 912Update the superblock on each device while assembling the array. The
feb716e9
NB
913argument given to this flag can be one of
914.BR sparc2.2 ,
915.BR summaries ,
7d99579f 916.BR uuid ,
c4f12c13 917.BR name ,
0237e0ca 918.BR homehost ,
e5329c37 919.BR resync ,
586ed405 920.BR byteorder ,
bee8ec56 921.BR devicesize ,
5a31170d 922.BR no\-bitmap ,
5787fa49 923or
7e23fc43 924.BR super\-minor .
5787fa49
NB
925
926The
927.B sparc2.2
7d99579f 928option will adjust the superblock of an array what was created on a Sparc
5787fa49
NB
929machine running a patched 2.2 Linux kernel. This kernel got the
930alignment of part of the superblock wrong. You can use the
7e23fc43 931.B "\-\-examine \-\-sparc2.2"
5787fa49
NB
932option to
933.I mdadm
934to see what effect this would have.
935
936The
7e23fc43 937.B super\-minor
5787fa49 938option will update the
2ae555c3 939.B "preferred minor"
5787fa49 940field on each superblock to match the minor number of the array being
45c073c9
NB
941assembled.
942This can be useful if
7e23fc43 943.B \-\-examine
45c073c9 944reports a different "Preferred Minor" to
7e23fc43 945.BR \-\-detail .
45c073c9 946In some cases this update will be performed automatically
e0fe762a 947by the kernel driver. In particular the update happens automatically
45c073c9
NB
948at the first write to an array with redundancy (RAID level 1 or
949greater) on a 2.6 (or later) kernel.
5787fa49 950
7d99579f
NB
951The
952.B uuid
953option will change the uuid of the array. If a UUID is given with the
7e23fc43 954.B \-\-uuid
53e8b987 955option that UUID will be used as a new UUID and will
7d99579f
NB
956.B NOT
957be used to help identify the devices in the array.
53e8b987 958If no
7e23fc43 959.B \-\-uuid
53e8b987 960is given, a random UUID is chosen.
7d99579f 961
c4f12c13
NB
962The
963.B name
964option will change the
965.I name
966of the array as stored in the superblock. This is only supported for
967version-1 superblocks.
968
0237e0ca
NB
969The
970.B homehost
971option will change the
972.I homehost
973as recorded in the superblock. For version-0 superblocks, this is the
974same as updating the UUID.
975For version-1 superblocks, this involves updating the name.
976
e5329c37
NB
977The
978.B resync
979option will cause the array to be marked
980.I dirty
e0fe762a
N
981meaning that any redundancy in the array (e.g. parity for RAID5,
982copies for RAID1) may be incorrect. This will cause the RAID system
e5329c37
NB
983to perform a "resync" pass to make sure that all redundant information
984is correct.
985
586ed405
NB
986The
987.B byteorder
988option allows arrays to be moved between machines with different
989byte-order.
2ae555c3 990When assembling such an array for the first time after a move, giving
7e23fc43 991.B "\-\-update=byteorder"
586ed405
NB
992will cause
993.I mdadm
994to expect superblocks to have their byteorder reversed, and will
995correct that order before assembling the array. This is only valid
2ae555c3 996with original (Version 0.90) superblocks.
586ed405 997
feb716e9
NB
998The
999.B summaries
e0fe762a 1000option will correct the summaries in the superblock. That is the
feb716e9 1001counts of total, working, active, failed, and spare devices.
5787fa49 1002
bee8ec56
NB
1003The
1004.B devicesize
5a31170d 1005option will rarely be of use. It applies to version 1.1 and 1.2 metadata
bee8ec56
NB
1006only (where the metadata is at the start of the device) and is only
1007useful when the component device has changed size (typically become
1008larger). The version 1 metadata records the amount of the device that
1009can be used to store data, so if a device in a version 1.1 or 1.2
1010array becomes larger, the metadata will still be visible, but the
1011extra space will not. In this case it might be useful to assemble the
1012array with
7e23fc43 1013.BR \-\-update=devicesize .
bee8ec56
NB
1014This will cause
1015.I mdadm
1016to determine the maximum usable amount of space on each device and
1017update the relevant field in the metadata.
1018
5a31170d
N
1019The
1020.B no\-bitmap
1021option can be used when an array has an internal bitmap which is
1022corrupt in some way so that assembling the array normally fails. It
1023will cause any internal bitmap to be ignored.
1024
d1302dd8 1025.ig
41a3b72a 1026.TP
7e23fc43 1027.B \-\-auto\-update\-homehost
93e790af 1028This flag is only meaningful with auto-assembly (see discussion below).
41a3b72a
NB
1029In that situation, if no suitable arrays are found for this homehost,
1030.I mdadm
93e790af 1031will rescan for any arrays at all and will assemble them and update the
41a3b72a 1032homehost to match the current host.
d1302dd8 1033..
41a3b72a 1034
e0d19036 1035.SH For Manage mode:
52826846 1036
3d5279b0
N
1037.TP
1038.BR \-t ", " \-\-test
1039Unless a more serious error occurred,
1040.I mdadm
1041will exit with a status of 2 if no changes were made to the array and
10420 if at least one change was made.
1043This can be useful when an indirect specifier such as
1044.BR missing ,
1045.B detached
1046or
1047.B faulty
1048is used in requesting an operation on the array.
1049.B \-\-test
1050will report failure if these specifiers didn't find any match.
1051
cd29a5c8 1052.TP
7e23fc43 1053.BR \-a ", " \-\-add
3d5279b0
N
1054hot-add listed devices.
1055If a device appears to have recently been part of the array
833bb0f8 1056(possibly it failed or was removed) the device is re\-added as describe
3d5279b0
N
1057in the next point.
1058If that fails or the device was never part of the array, the device is
1059added as a hot-spare.
1060If the array is degraded, it will immediately start to rebuild data
1061onto that spare.
1062
1063Note that this and the following options are only meaningful on array
1064with redundancy. They don't apply to RAID0 or Linear.
52826846 1065
fe80f49b 1066.TP
7e23fc43 1067.BR \-\-re\-add
3d5279b0
N
1068re\-add a device that was previous removed from an array.
1069If the metadata on the device reports that it is a member of the
1070array, and the slot that it used is still vacant, then the device will
1071be added back to the array in the same position. This will normally
1072cause the data for that device to be recovered. However based on the
1073event count on the device, the recovery may only require sections that
1074are flagged a write-intent bitmap to be recovered or may not require
1075any recovery at all.
1076
1077When used on an array that has no metadata (i.e. it was built with
1078.BR \-\-build)
1079it will be assumed that bitmap-based recovery is enough to make the
1080device fully consistent with the array.
fe80f49b 1081
833bb0f8
N
1082When
1083.B \-\-re\-add
1084can be accompanied by
1085.BR \-\-update=devicesize .
1086See the description of this option when used in Assemble mode for an
1087explanation of its use.
1088
a4e13010
N
1089If the device name given is
1090.B missing
1091then mdadm will try to find any device that looks like it should be
1092part of the array but isn't and will try to re\-add all such devices.
1093
cd29a5c8 1094.TP
7e23fc43 1095.BR \-r ", " \-\-remove
2d465520 1096remove listed devices. They must not be active. i.e. they should
b80da661
NB
1097be failed or spare devices. As well as the name of a device file
1098(e.g.
1099.BR /dev/sda1 )
1100the words
1101.B failed
1102and
1103.B detached
1104can be given to
1105.BR \-\-remove .
1106The first causes all failed device to be removed. The second causes
93e790af 1107any device which is no longer connected to the system (i.e an 'open'
b80da661
NB
1108returns
1109.BR ENXIO )
1110to be removed. This will only succeed for devices that are spares or
1111have already been marked as failed.
52826846 1112
cd29a5c8 1113.TP
7e23fc43 1114.BR \-f ", " \-\-fail
cd29a5c8 1115mark listed devices as faulty.
b80da661
NB
1116As well as the name of a device file, the word
1117.B detached
1118can be given. This will cause any device that has been detached from
1119the system to be marked as failed. It can then be removed.
52826846 1120
cd29a5c8 1121.TP
7e23fc43 1122.BR \-\-set\-faulty
53e8b987 1123same as
7e23fc43 1124.BR \-\-fail .
52826846 1125
b3d31955
N
1126.TP
1127.BR \-\-write\-mostly
a4e13010 1128Subsequent devices that are added or re\-added will have the 'write-mostly'
e0fe762a 1129flag set. This is only valid for RAID1 and means that the 'md' driver
b3d31955
N
1130will avoid reading from these devices if possible.
1131.TP
1132.BR \-\-readwrite
a4e13010 1133Subsequent devices that are added or re\-added will have the 'write-mostly'
b3d31955
N
1134flag cleared.
1135
2ae555c3 1136.P
e0fe762a 1137Each of these options requires that the first device listed is the array
93e790af 1138to be acted upon, and the remainder are component devices to be added,
e0fe762a 1139removed, marked as faulty, etc. Several different operations can be
2ae555c3
NB
1140specified for different devices, e.g.
1141.in +5
7e23fc43 1142mdadm /dev/md0 \-\-add /dev/sda1 \-\-fail /dev/sdb1 \-\-remove /dev/sdb1
2ae555c3
NB
1143.in -5
1144Each operation applies to all devices listed until the next
93e790af 1145operation.
2ae555c3
NB
1146
1147If an array is using a write-intent bitmap, then devices which have
a4e13010 1148been removed can be re\-added in a way that avoids a full
93e790af 1149reconstruction but instead just updates the blocks that have changed
2ae555c3
NB
1150since the device was removed. For arrays with persistent metadata
1151(superblocks) this is done automatically. For arrays created with
7e23fc43 1152.B \-\-build
2ae555c3 1153mdadm needs to be told that this device we removed recently with
7e23fc43 1154.BR \-\-re\-add .
2ae555c3
NB
1155
1156Devices can only be removed from an array if they are not in active
93e790af
SW
1157use, i.e. that must be spares or failed devices. To remove an active
1158device, it must first be marked as
1159.B faulty.
2ae555c3
NB
1160
1161.SH For Misc mode:
1162
1163.TP
7e23fc43 1164.BR \-Q ", " \-\-query
2ae555c3
NB
1165Examine a device to see
1166(1) if it is an md device and (2) if it is a component of an md
1167array.
1168Information about what is discovered is presented.
1169
1170.TP
7e23fc43 1171.BR \-D ", " \-\-detail
e0fe762a 1172Print details of one or more md devices.
5787fa49 1173
4cce4069
DW
1174.TP
1175.BR \-\-detail\-platform
e0fe762a 1176Print details of the platform's RAID capabilities (firmware / hardware
4cce4069
DW
1177topology) for a given metadata format.
1178
54bad364
KS
1179.TP
1180.BR \-Y ", " \-\-export
1181When used with
0d726f17
KS
1182.B \-\-detail
1183or
1184.BR \-\-examine ,
54bad364
KS
1185output will be formatted as
1186.B key=value
1187pairs for easy import into the environment.
1188
2ae555c3 1189.TP
7e23fc43 1190.BR \-E ", " \-\-examine
e0fe762a
N
1191Print contents of the metadata stored on the named device(s).
1192Note the contrast between
1193.B \-\-examine
1194and
1195.BR \-\-detail .
1196.B \-\-examine
1197applies to devices which are components of an array, while
1198.B \-\-detail
1199applies to a whole array which is currently active.
5787fa49 1200.TP
7e23fc43 1201.B \-\-sparc2.2
e0fe762a
N
1202If an array was created on a SPARC machine with a 2.2 Linux kernel
1203patched with RAID support, the superblock will have been created
1204incorrectly, or at least incompatibly with 2.4 and later kernels.
1205Using the
7e23fc43 1206.B \-\-sparc2.2
5787fa49 1207flag with
7e23fc43 1208.B \-\-examine
5787fa49
NB
1209will fix the superblock before displaying it. If this appears to do
1210the right thing, then the array can be successfully assembled using
7e23fc43 1211.BR "\-\-assemble \-\-update=sparc2.2" .
5787fa49 1212
2ae555c3 1213.TP
7e23fc43 1214.BR \-X ", " \-\-examine\-bitmap
2ae555c3 1215Report information about a bitmap file.
01d9299c 1216The argument is either an external bitmap file or an array component
e0fe762a
N
1217in case of an internal bitmap. Note that running this on an array
1218device (e.g.
1219.BR /dev/md0 )
1220does not report the bitmap for that array.
e0d19036 1221
cd29a5c8 1222.TP
7e23fc43 1223.BR \-R ", " \-\-run
e0fe762a
N
1224start a partially assembled array. If
1225.B \-\-assemble
1226did not find enough devices to fully start the array, it might leaving
1227it partially assembled. If you wish, you can then use
1228.B \-\-run
1229to start the array in degraded mode.
52826846 1230
cd29a5c8 1231.TP
7e23fc43 1232.BR \-S ", " \-\-stop
cd29a5c8 1233deactivate array, releasing all resources.
52826846 1234
cd29a5c8 1235.TP
7e23fc43 1236.BR \-o ", " \-\-readonly
cd29a5c8 1237mark array as readonly.
52826846 1238
cd29a5c8 1239.TP
7e23fc43 1240.BR \-w ", " \-\-readwrite
cd29a5c8 1241mark array as readwrite.
52826846 1242
e0d19036 1243.TP
7e23fc43 1244.B \-\-zero\-superblock
e0d19036 1245If the device contains a valid md superblock, the block is
35cc5be4 1246overwritten with zeros. With
7e23fc43 1247.B \-\-force
35cc5be4 1248the block where the superblock would be is overwritten even if it
e0d19036 1249doesn't appear to be valid.
52826846 1250
33414a01
DW
1251.TP
1252.B \-\-kill\-subarray=
1253If the device is a container and the argument to \-\-kill\-subarray
1254specifies an inactive subarray in the container, then the subarray is
1255deleted. Deleting all subarrays will leave an 'empty-container' or
1256spare superblock on the drives. See \-\-zero\-superblock for completely
1257removing a superblock. Note that some formats depend on the subarray
1258index for generating a UUID, this command will fail if it would change
1259the UUID of an active subarray.
1260
aa534678
DW
1261.TP
1262.B \-\-update\-subarray=
1263If the device is a container and the argument to \-\-update\-subarray
1264specifies a subarray in the container, then attempt to update the given
1265superblock field in the subarray. See below in
1266.B MISC MODE
1267for details.
1268
feb716e9 1269.TP
7e23fc43 1270.BR \-t ", " \-\-test
feb716e9 1271When used with
7e23fc43 1272.BR \-\-detail ,
feb716e9
NB
1273the exit status of
1274.I mdadm
e0fe762a
N
1275is set to reflect the status of the device. See below in
1276.B MISC MODE
1277for details.
feb716e9 1278
b90c0e9a 1279.TP
7e23fc43 1280.BR \-W ", " \-\-wait
b90c0e9a
NB
1281For each md device given, wait for any resync, recovery, or reshape
1282activity to finish before returning.
1283.I mdadm
1284will return with success if it actually waited for every device
1285listed, otherwise it will return failure.
1286
1770662b
DW
1287.TP
1288.BR \-\-wait\-clean
fabbfd48
DW
1289For each md device given, or each device in /proc/mdstat if
1290.B \-\-scan
1291is given, arrange for the array to be marked clean as soon as possible.
7146ec6a
DW
1292.I mdadm
1293will return with success if the array uses external metadata and we
1294successfully waited. For native arrays this returns immediately as the
6a0ee6a0
DW
1295kernel handles dirty-clean transitions at shutdown. No action is taken
1296if safe-mode handling is disabled.
1770662b 1297
8382f19b
NB
1298.SH For Incremental Assembly mode:
1299.TP
7e23fc43 1300.BR \-\-rebuild\-map ", " \-r
8382f19b
NB
1301Rebuild the map file
1302.RB ( /var/run/mdadm/map )
1303that
1304.I mdadm
1305uses to help track which arrays are currently being assembled.
1306
1307.TP
7e23fc43 1308.BR \-\-run ", " \-R
8382f19b
NB
1309Run any array assembled as soon as a minimal number of devices are
1310available, rather than waiting until all expected devices are present.
1311
1312.TP
7e23fc43 1313.BR \-\-scan ", " \-s
8382f19b 1314Only meaningful with
7e23fc43 1315.B \-R
8382f19b
NB
1316this will scan the
1317.B map
1318file for arrays that are being incrementally assembled and will try to
1319start any that are not already started. If any such array is listed
1320in
1321.B mdadm.conf
1322as requiring an external bitmap, that bitmap will be attached first.
1323
29ba4804
N
1324.TP
1325.BR \-\-fail ", " \-f
1326This allows the hot-plug system to remove devices that have fully disappeared
1327from the kernel. It will first fail and then remove the device from any
1328array it belongs to.
1329The device name given should be a kernel device name such as "sda",
1330not a name in
1331.IR /dev .
1332
210597d1
PC
1333.TP
1334.BR \-\-path=
1335Only used with \-\-fail. Allows the failed device to be automatically replaced
1336by a new device without metadata if it appears at specified path.
1337
e0d19036
NB
1338.SH For Monitor mode:
1339.TP
7e23fc43 1340.BR \-m ", " \-\-mail
e0d19036
NB
1341Give a mail address to send alerts to.
1342
1343.TP
7e23fc43 1344.BR \-p ", " \-\-program ", " \-\-alert
e0d19036
NB
1345Give a program to be run whenever an event is detected.
1346
773135f5 1347.TP
7e23fc43 1348.BR \-y ", " \-\-syslog
773135f5
NB
1349Cause all events to be reported through 'syslog'. The messages have
1350facility of 'daemon' and varying priorities.
1351
e0d19036 1352.TP
7e23fc43 1353.BR \-d ", " \-\-delay
e0d19036 1354Give a delay in seconds.
51ac42e3 1355.I mdadm
e0d19036 1356polls the md arrays and then waits this many seconds before polling
e0fe762a
N
1357again. The default is 60 seconds. Since 2.6.16, there is no need to
1358reduce this as the kernel alerts
1359.I mdadm
1360immediately when there is any change.
e0d19036 1361
9a36a9b7
ZB
1362.TP
1363.BR \-r ", " \-\-increment
1364Give a percentage increment.
1365.I mdadm
1366will generate RebuildNN events with the given percentage increment.
1367
d013a55e 1368.TP
7e23fc43 1369.BR \-f ", " \-\-daemonise
d013a55e 1370Tell
51ac42e3 1371.I mdadm
d013a55e 1372to run as a background daemon if it decides to monitor anything. This
e0fe762a 1373causes it to fork and run in the child, and to disconnect from the
d013a55e
NB
1374terminal. The process id of the child is written to stdout.
1375This is useful with
7e23fc43 1376.B \-\-scan
d013a55e
NB
1377which will only continue monitoring if a mail address or alert program
1378is found in the config file.
1379
b5e64645 1380.TP
7e23fc43 1381.BR \-i ", " \-\-pid\-file
b5e64645 1382When
51ac42e3 1383.I mdadm
b5e64645
NB
1384is running in daemon mode, write the pid of the daemon process to
1385the specified file, instead of printing it on standard output.
1386
aa88f531 1387.TP
7e23fc43 1388.BR \-1 ", " \-\-oneshot
aa88f531
NB
1389Check arrays only once. This will generate
1390.B NewArray
1391events and more significantly
1392.B DegradedArray
a9d69660
NB
1393and
1394.B SparesMissing
aa88f531
NB
1395events. Running
1396.in +5
7e23fc43 1397.B " mdadm \-\-monitor \-\-scan \-1"
aa88f531
NB
1398.in -5
1399from a cron script will ensure regular notification of any degraded arrays.
1400
98c6faba 1401.TP
7e23fc43 1402.BR \-t ", " \-\-test
98c6faba
NB
1403Generate a
1404.B TestMessage
1405alert for every array found at startup. This alert gets mailed and
1406passed to the alert program. This can be used for testing that alert
a9d69660 1407message do get through successfully.
98c6faba 1408
210597d1
PC
1409.TP
1410.BR \-\-no\-sharing
1411Allows to run monitoring without moving spares between arrays.
1412Only one monitoring process started with
1413.B \-\-scan
1414is allowed.
1415Any subsequent call of
1416.B mdadm \-F \-\-scan
1417must also use
1418.B \-\-no\-sharing
1419option.
1420
e0d19036 1421.SH ASSEMBLE MODE
52826846 1422
cd29a5c8
NB
1423.HP 12
1424Usage:
7e23fc43 1425.B mdadm \-\-assemble
5787fa49
NB
1426.I md-device options-and-component-devices...
1427.HP 12
1428Usage:
7e23fc43 1429.B mdadm \-\-assemble \-\-scan
e0fe762a 1430.I md-devices-and-options...
cd29a5c8
NB
1431.HP 12
1432Usage:
7e23fc43 1433.B mdadm \-\-assemble \-\-scan
e0fe762a 1434.I options...
52826846 1435
cd29a5c8 1436.PP
e0fe762a 1437This usage assembles one or more RAID arrays from pre-existing components.
9a9dab36 1438For each array, mdadm needs to know the md device, the identity of the
e0fe762a 1439array, and a number of component-devices. These can be found in a number of ways.
52826846 1440
5787fa49 1441In the first usage example (without the
7e23fc43 1442.BR \-\-scan )
5787fa49
NB
1443the first device given is the md device.
1444In the second usage example, all devices listed are treated as md
1445devices and assembly is attempted.
1446In the third (where no devices are listed) all md devices that are
e0fe762a
N
1447listed in the configuration file are assembled. If not arrays are
1448described by the configuration file, then any arrays that
1449can be found on unused devices will be assembled.
52826846 1450
d013a55e 1451If precisely one device is listed, but
7e23fc43 1452.B \-\-scan
dd0781e5 1453is not given, then
d013a55e
NB
1454.I mdadm
1455acts as though
7e23fc43 1456.B \-\-scan
93e790af 1457was given and identity information is extracted from the configuration file.
d013a55e 1458
2ae555c3 1459The identity can be given with the
7e23fc43 1460.B \-\-uuid
e0fe762a
N
1461option, the
1462.B \-\-name
1463option, or the
7e23fc43 1464.B \-\-super\-minor
93e790af
SW
1465option, will be taken from the md-device record in the config file, or
1466will be taken from the super block of the first component-device
1467listed on the command line.
52826846 1468
2ae555c3 1469Devices can be given on the
7e23fc43 1470.B \-\-assemble
e0fe762a 1471command line or in the config file. Only devices which have an md
5787fa49
NB
1472superblock which contains the right identity will be considered for
1473any array.
52826846 1474
2ae555c3 1475The config file is only used if explicitly named with
7e23fc43 1476.B \-\-config
d013a55e 1477or requested with (a possibly implicit)
7e23fc43 1478.BR \-\-scan .
52826846 1479In the later case,
9a9dab36 1480.B /etc/mdadm.conf
8fd8d9c4
N
1481or
1482.B /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
52826846
NB
1483is used.
1484
2ae555c3 1485If
7e23fc43 1486.B \-\-scan
cd29a5c8
NB
1487is not given, then the config file will only be used to find the
1488identity of md arrays.
52826846 1489
2d465520 1490Normally the array will be started after it is assembled. However if
7e23fc43 1491.B \-\-scan
e0fe762a
N
1492is not given and not all expected drives were listed, then the array
1493is not started (to guard against usage errors). To insist that the
1494array be started in this case (as may work for RAID1, 4, 5, 6, or 10),
1495give the
7e23fc43 1496.B \-\-run
cd29a5c8 1497flag.
52826846 1498
e0fe762a
N
1499If
1500.I udev
1501is active,
1502.I mdadm
1503does not create any entries in
dd0781e5 1504.B /dev
e0fe762a
N
1505but leaves that to
1506.IR udev .
1507It does record information in
1508.B /var/run/mdadm/map
1509which will allow
1510.I udev
1511to choose the correct name.
dd0781e5 1512
e0fe762a
N
1513If
1514.I mdadm
1515detects that udev is not configured, it will create the devices in
1516.B /dev
1517itself.
dd0781e5 1518
e0fe762a
N
1519In Linux kernels prior to version 2.6.28 there were two distinctly
1520different types of md devices that could be created: one that could be
1521partitioned using standard partitioning tools and one that could not.
1522Since 2.6.28 that distinction is no longer relevant as both type of
1523devices can be partitioned.
1524.I mdadm
1525will normally create the type that originally could not be partitioned
1526as it has a well defined major number (9).
dd0781e5 1527
e0fe762a
N
1528Prior to 2.6.28, it is important that mdadm chooses the correct type
1529of array device to use. This can be controlled with the
1530.B \-\-auto
1531option. In particular, a value of "mdp" or "part" or "p" tells mdadm
1532to use a partitionable device rather than the default.
dd0781e5 1533
e0fe762a
N
1534In the no-udev case, the value given to
1535.B \-\-auto
1536can be suffixed by a number. This tells
1537.I mdadm
1538to create that number of partition devices rather than the default of 4.
dd0781e5 1539
e0fe762a 1540The value given to
7e23fc43 1541.B \-\-auto
e0fe762a
N
1542can also be given in the configuration file as a word starting
1543.B auto=
1544on the ARRAY line for the relevant array.
52826846 1545
41a3b72a
NB
1546.SS Auto Assembly
1547When
7e23fc43 1548.B \-\-assemble
41a3b72a 1549is used with
7e23fc43 1550.B \-\-scan
41a3b72a
NB
1551and no devices are listed,
1552.I mdadm
1553will first attempt to assemble all the arrays listed in the config
1554file.
1555
e0fe762a
N
1556In no array at listed in the config (other than those marked
1557.BR <ignore> )
1558it will look through the available devices for possible arrays and
1559will try to assemble anything that it finds. Arrays which are tagged
1560as belonging to the given homehost will be assembled and started
1561normally. Arrays which do not obviously belong to this host are given
1562names that are expected not to conflict with anything local, and are
1563started "read-auto" so that nothing is written to any device until the
1564array is written to. i.e. automatic resync etc is delayed.
41a3b72a
NB
1565
1566If
1567.I mdadm
1568finds a consistent set of devices that look like they should comprise
1569an array, and if the superblock is tagged as belonging to the given
1570home host, it will automatically choose a device name and try to
1571assemble the array. If the array uses version-0.90 metadata, then the
1572.B minor
1573number as recorded in the superblock is used to create a name in
1574.B /dev/md/
1575so for example
1576.BR /dev/md/3 .
1577If the array uses version-1 metadata, then the
1578.B name
1579from the superblock is used to similarly create a name in
e0fe762a 1580.B /dev/md/
93e790af 1581(the name will have any 'host' prefix stripped first).
41a3b72a 1582
c64ba03a
N
1583This behaviour can be modified by the
1584.I AUTO
1585line in the
1586.I mdadm.conf
1587configuration file. This line can indicate that specific metadata
1588type should, or should not, be automatically assembled. If an array
1589is found which is not listed in
1590.I mdadm.conf
1591and has a metadata format that is denied by the
1592.I AUTO
1593line, then it will not be assembled.
1594The
1595.I AUTO
1596line can also request that all arrays identified as being for this
1597homehost should be assembled regardless of their metadata type.
1598See
1599.IR mdadm.conf (5)
1600for further details.
1601
d1302dd8 1602.ig
41a3b72a
NB
1603If
1604.I mdadm
1605cannot find any array for the given host at all, and if
7e23fc43 1606.B \-\-auto\-update\-homehost
41a3b72a
NB
1607is given, then
1608.I mdadm
1609will search again for any array (not just an array created for this
1610host) and will assemble each assuming
7e23fc43 1611.BR \-\-update=homehost .
41a3b72a
NB
1612This will change the host tag in the superblock so that on the next run,
1613these arrays will be found without the second pass. The intention of
1614this feature is to support transitioning a set of md arrays to using
1615homehost tagging.
1616
1617The reason for requiring arrays to be tagged with the homehost for
1618auto assembly is to guard against problems that can arise when moving
1619devices from one host to another.
d1302dd8 1620..
41a3b72a 1621
cd29a5c8 1622.SH BUILD MODE
52826846 1623
cd29a5c8
NB
1624.HP 12
1625Usage:
7e23fc43 1626.B mdadm \-\-build
93e790af 1627.I md-device
7e23fc43
PS
1628.BI \-\-chunk= X
1629.BI \-\-level= Y
1630.BI \-\-raid\-devices= Z
cd29a5c8
NB
1631.I devices
1632
1633.PP
2ae555c3 1634This usage is similar to
7e23fc43 1635.BR \-\-create .
e0fe762a 1636The difference is that it creates an array without a superblock. With
cd29a5c8 1637these arrays there is no difference between initially creating the array and
52826846
NB
1638subsequently assembling the array, except that hopefully there is useful
1639data there in the second case.
1640
e0fe762a
N
1641The level may raid0, linear, raid1, raid10, multipath, or faulty, or
1642one of their synonyms. All devices must be listed and the array will
1643be started once complete. It will often be appropriate to use
1644.B \-\-assume\-clean
1645with levels raid1 or raid10.
cd29a5c8
NB
1646
1647.SH CREATE MODE
1648
1649.HP 12
1650Usage:
7e23fc43 1651.B mdadm \-\-create
93e790af 1652.I md-device
7e23fc43
PS
1653.BI \-\-chunk= X
1654.BI \-\-level= Y
cd29a5c8 1655.br
7e23fc43 1656.BI \-\-raid\-devices= Z
e0fe762a 1657.I devices
cd29a5c8
NB
1658
1659.PP
1660This usage will initialise a new md array, associate some devices with
1661it, and activate the array.
1662
e0fe762a
N
1663The named device will normally not exist when
1664.I "mdadm \-\-create"
1665is run, but will be created by
1666.I udev
1667once the array becomes active.
dd0781e5 1668
e0fe762a
N
1669As devices are added, they are checked to see if they contain RAID
1670superblocks or filesystems. They are also checked to see if the variance in
cd29a5c8
NB
1671device size exceeds 1%.
1672
1673If any discrepancy is found, the array will not automatically be run, though
2ae555c3 1674the presence of a
7e23fc43 1675.B \-\-run
cd29a5c8
NB
1676can override this caution.
1677
2d465520 1678To create a "degraded" array in which some devices are missing, simply
d013a55e 1679give the word "\fBmissing\fP"
2d465520 1680in place of a device name. This will cause
51ac42e3 1681.I mdadm
2d465520
NB
1682to leave the corresponding slot in the array empty.
1683For a RAID4 or RAID5 array at most one slot can be
98c6faba 1684"\fBmissing\fP"; for a RAID6 array at most two slots.
2d465520
NB
1685For a RAID1 array, only one real device needs to be given. All of the
1686others can be
d013a55e 1687"\fBmissing\fP".
2d465520 1688
feb716e9 1689When creating a RAID5 array,
51ac42e3 1690.I mdadm
feb716e9 1691will automatically create a degraded array with an extra spare drive.
e0fe762a
N
1692This is because building the spare into a degraded array is in general
1693faster than resyncing the parity on a non-degraded, but not clean,
1694array. This feature can be overridden with the
7e23fc43 1695.B \-\-force
feb716e9
NB
1696option.
1697
0ee4da98 1698When creating an array with version-1 metadata a name for the array is
41a3b72a
NB
1699required.
1700If this is not given with the
7e23fc43 1701.B \-\-name
41a3b72a
NB
1702option,
1703.I mdadm
0ee4da98 1704will choose a name based on the last component of the name of the
41a3b72a
NB
1705device being created. So if
1706.B /dev/md3
1707is being created, then the name
1708.B 3
1709will be chosen.
1710If
1711.B /dev/md/home
1712is being created, then the name
1713.B home
1714will be used.
1715
e0fe762a
N
1716When creating a partition based array, using
1717.I mdadm
1718with version-1.x metadata, the partition type should be set to
e0f31f50 1719.B 0xDA
e0fe762a 1720(non fs-data). This type selection allows for greater precision since
e0f31f50
PC
1721using any other [RAID auto-detect (0xFD) or a GNU/Linux partition (0x83)],
1722might create problems in the event of array recovery through a live cdrom.
1723
3d3dd91e
NB
1724A new array will normally get a randomly assigned 128bit UUID which is
1725very likely to be unique. If you have a specific need, you can choose
1726a UUID for the array by giving the
7e23fc43 1727.B \-\-uuid=
3d3dd91e
NB
1728option. Be warned that creating two arrays with the same UUID is a
1729recipe for disaster. Also, using
7e23fc43 1730.B \-\-uuid=
3d3dd91e 1731when creating a v0.90 array will silently override any
7e23fc43 1732.B \-\-homehost=
3d3dd91e 1733setting.
e43d0cda
NB
1734.\"If the
1735.\".B \-\-size
1736.\"option is given, it is not necessary to list any component-devices in this command.
1737.\"They can be added later, before a
1738.\".B \-\-run.
1739.\"If no
1740.\".B \-\-size
1741.\"is given, the apparent size of the smallest drive given is used.
cd29a5c8 1742
8fd8d9c4
N
1743When creating an array within a
1744.B CONTAINER
1745.I mdadm
1746can be given either the list of devices to use, or simply the name of
1747the container. The former case gives control over which devices in
1748the container will be used for the array. The latter case allows
1749.I mdadm
1750to automatically choose which devices to use based on how much spare
1751space is available.
1752
53e8b987 1753The General Management options that are valid with
7e23fc43 1754.B \-\-create
53e8b987 1755are:
cd29a5c8 1756.TP
7e23fc43 1757.B \-\-run
dd0781e5 1758insist on running the array even if some devices look like they might
cd29a5c8
NB
1759be in use.
1760
1761.TP
7e23fc43 1762.B \-\-readonly
b3f1c093 1763start the array readonly \(em not supported yet.
52826846 1764
e0d19036 1765.SH MANAGE MODE
cd29a5c8
NB
1766.HP 12
1767Usage:
e0d19036
NB
1768.B mdadm
1769.I device
1770.I options... devices...
cd29a5c8
NB
1771.PP
1772
e0d19036
NB
1773This usage will allow individual devices in an array to be failed,
1774removed or added. It is possible to perform multiple operations with
e0fe762a 1775on command. For example:
e0d19036 1776.br
7e23fc43 1777.B " mdadm /dev/md0 \-f /dev/hda1 \-r /dev/hda1 \-a /dev/hda1"
e0d19036
NB
1778.br
1779will firstly mark
1780.B /dev/hda1
1781as faulty in
1782.B /dev/md0
1783and will then remove it from the array and finally add it back
2d465520 1784in as a spare. However only one md array can be affected by a single
2ae555c3 1785command.
e0d19036 1786
e0fe762a
N
1787When a device is added to an active array, mdadm checks to see if it
1788has metadata on it which suggests that it was recently a member of the
a4e13010 1789array. If it does, it tries to "re\-add" the device. If there have
e0fe762a
N
1790been no changes since the device was removed, or if the array has a
1791write-intent bitmap which has recorded whatever changes there were,
1792then the device will immediately become a full member of the array and
1793those differences recorded in the bitmap will be resolved.
1794
e0d19036
NB
1795.SH MISC MODE
1796.HP 12
1797Usage:
9a9dab36 1798.B mdadm
e0d19036 1799.I options ...
e0fe762a 1800.I devices ...
e0d19036 1801.PP
cd29a5c8 1802
b5e64645 1803MISC mode includes a number of distinct operations that
e0d19036
NB
1804operate on distinct devices. The operations are:
1805.TP
962a108f 1806.B \-\-query
e0d19036
NB
1807The device is examined to see if it is
1808(1) an active md array, or
1809(2) a component of an md array.
1810The information discovered is reported.
1811
1812.TP
962a108f 1813.B \-\-detail
2d465520 1814The device should be an active md device.
e0fe762a 1815.B mdadm
2d465520 1816will display a detailed description of the array.
7e23fc43 1817.B \-\-brief
2d465520 1818or
7e23fc43 1819.B \-\-scan
2d465520 1820will cause the output to be less detailed and the format to be
e0d19036 1821suitable for inclusion in
9a9dab36 1822.BR /etc/mdadm.conf .
feb716e9
NB
1823The exit status of
1824.I mdadm
1825will normally be 0 unless
1826.I mdadm
93e790af 1827failed to get useful information about the device(s); however, if the
7e23fc43 1828.B \-\-test
feb716e9
NB
1829option is given, then the exit status will be:
1830.RS
1831.TP
18320
1833The array is functioning normally.
1834.TP
18351
1836The array has at least one failed device.
1837.TP
18382
a77be586 1839The array has multiple failed devices such that it is unusable.
feb716e9
NB
1840.TP
18414
1842There was an error while trying to get information about the device.
1843.RE
cd29a5c8 1844
4cce4069
DW
1845.TP
1846.B \-\-detail\-platform
e0fe762a 1847Print detail of the platform's RAID capabilities (firmware / hardware
4cce4069
DW
1848topology). If the metadata is specified with
1849.B \-e
1850or
1851.B \-\-metadata=
1852then the return status will be:
1853.RS
1854.TP
18550
1856metadata successfully enumerated its platform components on this system
1857.TP
18581
1859metadata is platform independent
1860.TP
18612
1862metadata failed to find its platform components on this system
1863.RE
1864
aa534678
DW
1865.TP
1866.B \-\-update\-subarray=
1867If the device is a container and the argument to \-\-update\-subarray
1868specifies a subarray in the container, then attempt to update the given
1869superblock field in the subarray. Similar to updating an array in
1870"assemble" mode, the field to update is selected by
1871.B \-U
1872or
1873.B \-\-update=
1874option. Currently only
1875.B name
1876is supported.
1877
1878The
1879.B name
1880option updates the subarray name in the metadata, it may not affect the
1881device node name or the device node symlink until the subarray is
1882re\-assembled. If updating
1883.B name
1884would change the UUID of an active subarray this operation is blocked,
1885and the command will end in an error.
1886
e0d19036 1887.TP
962a108f 1888.B \-\-examine
2d465520 1889The device should be a component of an md array.
51ac42e3 1890.I mdadm
2d465520 1891will read the md superblock of the device and display the contents.
e0d19036 1892If
7e23fc43 1893.B \-\-brief
93e790af 1894or
7e23fc43 1895.B \-\-scan
93e790af 1896is given, then multiple devices that are components of the one array
e0d19036
NB
1897are grouped together and reported in a single entry suitable
1898for inclusion in
1899.BR /etc/mdadm.conf .
1900
2d465520 1901Having
7e23fc43 1902.B \-\-scan
e0d19036
NB
1903without listing any devices will cause all devices listed in the
1904config file to be examined.
1905
1906.TP
962a108f 1907.B \-\-stop
98c6faba
NB
1908The devices should be active md arrays which will be deactivated, as
1909long as they are not currently in use.
e0d19036
NB
1910
1911.TP
962a108f 1912.B \-\-run
e0d19036
NB
1913This will fully activate a partially assembled md array.
1914
1915.TP
962a108f 1916.B \-\-readonly
e0d19036
NB
1917This will mark an active array as read-only, providing that it is
1918not currently being used.
1919
1920.TP
962a108f 1921.B \-\-readwrite
e0d19036
NB
1922This will change a
1923.B readonly
1924array back to being read/write.
1925
2d465520 1926.TP
962a108f 1927.B \-\-scan
2d465520 1928For all operations except
7e23fc43
PS
1929.BR \-\-examine ,
1930.B \-\-scan
2d465520
NB
1931will cause the operation to be applied to all arrays listed in
1932.BR /proc/mdstat .
1933For
7e23fc43
PS
1934.BR \-\-examine,
1935.B \-\-scan
2d465520
NB
1936causes all devices listed in the config file to be examined.
1937
a1331cc4
N
1938.TP
1939.BR \-b ", " \-\-brief
1940Be less verbose. This is used with
1941.B \-\-detail
1942and
1943.BR \-\-examine .
1944Using
1945.B \-\-brief
1946with
1947.B \-\-verbose
1948gives an intermediate level of verbosity.
1949
e0d19036
NB
1950.SH MONITOR MODE
1951
cd29a5c8
NB
1952.HP 12
1953Usage:
7e23fc43 1954.B mdadm \-\-monitor
e0d19036
NB
1955.I options... devices...
1956
cd29a5c8 1957.PP
e0d19036 1958This usage causes
51ac42e3 1959.I mdadm
e0d19036
NB
1960to periodically poll a number of md arrays and to report on any events
1961noticed.
51ac42e3 1962.I mdadm
e0d19036
NB
1963will never exit once it decides that there are arrays to be checked,
1964so it should normally be run in the background.
1965
2d465520 1966As well as reporting events,
51ac42e3 1967.I mdadm
2d465520
NB
1968may move a spare drive from one array to another if they are in the
1969same
1970.B spare-group
210597d1
PC
1971or
1972.B domain
a9d69660 1973and if the destination array has a failed drive but no spares.
2d465520 1974
e0d19036 1975If any devices are listed on the command line,
51ac42e3 1976.I mdadm
e0fe762a 1977will only monitor those devices. Otherwise all arrays listed in the
e0d19036 1978configuration file will be monitored. Further, if
7e23fc43 1979.B \-\-scan
e0d19036
NB
1980is given, then any other md devices that appear in
1981.B /proc/mdstat
1982will also be monitored.
1983
1984The result of monitoring the arrays is the generation of events.
bd526cee 1985These events are passed to a separate program (if specified) and may
2d465520 1986be mailed to a given E-mail address.
e0d19036 1987
93e790af
SW
1988When passing events to a program, the program is run once for each event,
1989and is given 2 or 3 command-line arguments: the first is the
1990name of the event (see below), the second is the name of the
bd526cee 1991md device which is affected, and the third is the name of a related
93e790af 1992device if relevant (such as a component device that has failed).
cd29a5c8
NB
1993
1994If
7e23fc43 1995.B \-\-scan
e0d19036
NB
1996is given, then a program or an E-mail address must be specified on the
1997command line or in the config file. If neither are available, then
51ac42e3 1998.I mdadm
e0d19036
NB
1999will not monitor anything.
2000Without
93e790af 2001.B \-\-scan,
51ac42e3 2002.I mdadm
2d465520 2003will continue monitoring as long as something was found to monitor. If
e0d19036
NB
2004no program or email is given, then each event is reported to
2005.BR stdout .
cd29a5c8 2006
e0d19036
NB
2007The different events are:
2008
2009.RS 4
2010.TP
2011.B DeviceDisappeared
2d465520 2012An md array which previously was configured appears to no longer be
773135f5 2013configured. (syslog priority: Critical)
e0d19036 2014
b8f72a62
NB
2015If
2016.I mdadm
2017was told to monitor an array which is RAID0 or Linear, then it will
2018report
2019.B DeviceDisappeared
2020with the extra information
2021.BR Wrong-Level .
2022This is because RAID0 and Linear do not support the device-failed,
2023hot-spare and resync operations which are monitored.
2024
e0d19036
NB
2025.TP
2026.B RebuildStarted
773135f5 2027An md array started reconstruction. (syslog priority: Warning)
e0d19036
NB
2028
2029.TP
2030.BI Rebuild NN
2031Where
2032.I NN
9a36a9b7
ZB
2033is a two-digit number (ie. 05, 48). This indicates that rebuild
2034has passed that many percent of the total. The events are generated
2035with fixed increment since 0. Increment size may be specified with
2036a commandline option (default is 20). (syslog priority: Warning)
e0d19036 2037
98c6faba
NB
2038.TP
2039.B RebuildFinished
2040An md array that was rebuilding, isn't any more, either because it
773135f5 2041finished normally or was aborted. (syslog priority: Warning)
98c6faba 2042
e0d19036
NB
2043.TP
2044.B Fail
773135f5
NB
2045An active component device of an array has been marked as
2046faulty. (syslog priority: Critical)
e0d19036
NB
2047
2048.TP
2049.B FailSpare
2050A spare component device which was being rebuilt to replace a faulty
93e790af 2051device has failed. (syslog priority: Critical)
e0d19036
NB
2052
2053.TP
2054.B SpareActive
2055A spare component device which was being rebuilt to replace a faulty
98b24a2a 2056device has been successfully rebuilt and has been made active.
773135f5 2057(syslog priority: Info)
e0d19036
NB
2058
2059.TP
2060.B NewArray
2061A new md array has been detected in the
2062.B /proc/mdstat
e0fe762a 2063file. (syslog priority: Info)
e0d19036 2064
aa88f531
NB
2065.TP
2066.B DegradedArray
2067A newly noticed array appears to be degraded. This message is not
2068generated when
2069.I mdadm
2070notices a drive failure which causes degradation, but only when
2071.I mdadm
2072notices that an array is degraded when it first sees the array.
93e790af 2073(syslog priority: Critical)
aa88f531 2074
e0d19036
NB
2075.TP
2076.B MoveSpare
2077A spare drive has been moved from one array in a
2078.B spare-group
210597d1
PC
2079or
2080.B domain
e0d19036 2081to another to allow a failed drive to be replaced.
773135f5 2082(syslog priority: Info)
e0d19036 2083
b8f72a62
NB
2084.TP
2085.B SparesMissing
2086If
2087.I mdadm
2088has been told, via the config file, that an array should have a certain
2089number of spare devices, and
2090.I mdadm
93e790af 2091detects that it has fewer than this number when it first sees the
b8f72a62
NB
2092array, it will report a
2093.B SparesMissing
2094message.
d1732eeb 2095(syslog priority: Warning)
b8f72a62 2096
98c6faba
NB
2097.TP
2098.B TestMessage
2099An array was found at startup, and the
7e23fc43 2100.B \-\-test
98c6faba 2101flag was given.
773135f5 2102(syslog priority: Info)
e0d19036
NB
2103.RE
2104
2105Only
93e790af
SW
2106.B Fail,
2107.B FailSpare,
2108.B DegradedArray,
2109.B SparesMissing
e0d19036 2110and
98c6faba 2111.B TestMessage
e0d19036 2112cause Email to be sent. All events cause the program to be run.
93e790af 2113The program is run with two or three arguments: the event
e0d19036
NB
2114name, the array device and possibly a second device.
2115
2116Each event has an associated array device (e.g.
2117.BR /dev/md1 )
2118and possibly a second device. For
2119.BR Fail ,
2120.BR FailSpare ,
2121and
2122.B SpareActive
2123the second device is the relevant component device.
2124For
2125.B MoveSpare
2126the second device is the array that the spare was moved from.
2127
2128For
51ac42e3 2129.I mdadm
e0d19036 2130to move spares from one array to another, the different arrays need to
93e790af 2131be labeled with the same
e0d19036 2132.B spare-group
210597d1 2133or the spares must be allowed to migrate through matching POLICY domains
e0d19036
NB
2134in the configuration file. The
2135.B spare-group
93e790af 2136name can be any string; it is only necessary that different spare
2d465520 2137groups use different names.
e0d19036
NB
2138
2139When
51ac42e3 2140.I mdadm
93e790af 2141detects that an array in a spare group has fewer active
e0d19036
NB
2142devices than necessary for the complete array, and has no spare
2143devices, it will look for another array in the same spare group that
2144has a full complement of working drive and a spare. It will then
2145attempt to remove the spare from the second drive and add it to the
2146first.
2147If the removal succeeds but the adding fails, then it is added back to
2148the original array.
2149
210597d1
PC
2150If the spare group for a degraded array is not defined,
2151.I mdadm
2152will look at the rules of spare migration specified by POLICY lines in
2153.B /etc/mdadm.conf
2154and then follow similar steps as above if a matching spare is found.
2155
dd0781e5
NB
2156.SH GROW MODE
2157The GROW mode is used for changing the size or shape of an active
2158array.
2159For this to work, the kernel must support the necessary change.
2ae555c3 2160Various types of growth are being added during 2.6 development,
e0fe762a 2161including restructuring a RAID5 array to have more active devices.
dd0781e5 2162
dfd4d8ee
NB
2163Currently the only support available is to
2164.IP \(bu 4
2165change the "size" attribute
2166for RAID1, RAID5 and RAID6.
2167.IP \(bu 4
f24e2d6c
N
2168increase or decrease the "raid\-devices" attribute of RAID1, RAID5,
2169and RAID6.
2170.IP \bu 4
2171change the chunk-size and layout of RAID5 and RAID6.
2172.IP \bu 4
2173convert between RAID1 and RAID5, and between RAID5 and RAID6.
dfd4d8ee 2174.IP \(bu 4
93e790af 2175add a write-intent bitmap to any array which supports these bitmaps, or
2ae555c3 2176remove a write-intent bitmap from such an array.
dfd4d8ee 2177.PP
dd0781e5 2178
8fd8d9c4
N
2179GROW mode is not currently supported for
2180.B CONTAINERS
2181or arrays inside containers.
2182
2ae555c3 2183.SS SIZE CHANGES
fe80f49b 2184Normally when an array is built the "size" it taken from the smallest
dd0781e5
NB
2185of the drives. If all the small drives in an arrays are, one at a
2186time, removed and replaced with larger drives, then you could have an
2187array of large drives with only a small amount used. In this
2188situation, changing the "size" with "GROW" mode will allow the extra
2189space to start being used. If the size is increased in this way, a
2190"resync" process will start to make sure the new parts of the array
2191are synchronised.
2192
2193Note that when an array changes size, any filesystem that may be
2194stored in the array will not automatically grow to use the space. The
2195filesystem will need to be explicitly told to use the extra space.
2196
e0fe762a
N
2197Also the size of an array cannot be changed while it has an active
2198bitmap. If an array has a bitmap, it must be removed before the size
2199can be changed. Once the change it complete a new bitmap can be created.
2200
2201.SS RAID\-DEVICES CHANGES
2ae555c3 2202
dd0781e5
NB
2203A RAID1 array can work with any number of devices from 1 upwards
2204(though 1 is not very useful). There may be times which you want to
2205increase or decrease the number of active devices. Note that this is
2206different to hot-add or hot-remove which changes the number of
2207inactive devices.
2208
2209When reducing the number of devices in a RAID1 array, the slots which
2210are to be removed from the array must already be vacant. That is, the
93e790af 2211devices which were in those slots must be failed and removed.
dd0781e5
NB
2212
2213When the number of devices is increased, any hot spares that are
a9d69660 2214present will be activated immediately.
dd0781e5 2215
f24e2d6c 2216Changing the number of active devices in a RAID5 or RAID6 is much more
2ae555c3 2217effort. Every block in the array will need to be read and written
f24e2d6c 2218back to a new location. From 2.6.17, the Linux Kernel is able to
ca4f89a3
N
2219increase the number of devices in a RAID5 safely, including restarting
2220an interrupted "reshape". From 2.6.31, the Linux Kernel is able to
f24e2d6c
N
2221increase or decrease the number of devices in a RAID5 or RAID6.
2222
2223When decreasing the number of devices, the size of the array will also
2224decrease. If there was data in the array, it could get destroyed and
2225this is not reversible. To help prevent accidents,
2226.I mdadm
2227requires that the size of the array be decreased first with
2228.BR "mdadm --grow --array-size" .
2229This is a reversible change which simply makes the end of the array
2230inaccessible. The integrity of any data can then be checked before
2231the non-reversible reduction in the number of devices is request.
2ae555c3 2232
cd19c0cf
JR
2233When relocating the first few stripes on a RAID5 or RAID6, it is not
2234possible to keep the data on disk completely consistent and
2235crash-proof. To provide the required safety, mdadm disables writes to
2236the array while this "critical section" is reshaped, and takes a
2237backup of the data that is in that section. For grows, this backup may be
2238stored in any spare devices that the array has, however it can also be
2239stored in a separate file specified with the
7e23fc43 2240.B \-\-backup\-file
cd19c0cf
JR
2241option, and is required to be specified for shrinks, RAID level
2242changes and layout changes. If this option is used, and the system
2243does crash during the critical period, the same file must be passed to
7e23fc43 2244.B \-\-assemble
cd19c0cf
JR
2245to restore the backup and reassemble the array. When shrinking rather
2246than growing the array, the reshape is done from the end towards the
2247beginning, so the "critical section" is at the end of the reshape.
2ae555c3 2248
f24e2d6c
N
2249.SS LEVEL CHANGES
2250
2251Changing the RAID level of any array happens instantaneously. However
cd19c0cf 2252in the RAID5 to RAID6 case this requires a non-standard layout of the
f24e2d6c 2253RAID6 data, and in the RAID6 to RAID5 case that non-standard layout is
cd19c0cf 2254required before the change can be accomplished. So while the level
f24e2d6c 2255change is instant, the accompanying layout change can take quite a
cd19c0cf
JR
2256long time. A
2257.B \-\-backup\-file
2258is required. If the array is not simultaneously being grown or
2259shrunk, so that the array size will remain the same - for example,
2260reshaping a 3-drive RAID5 into a 4-drive RAID6 - the backup file will
2261be used not just for a "cricital section" but throughout the reshape
2262operation, as described below under LAYOUT CHANGES.
f24e2d6c
N
2263
2264.SS CHUNK-SIZE AND LAYOUT CHANGES
2265
2266Changing the chunk-size of layout without also changing the number of
2267devices as the same time will involve re-writing all blocks in-place.
2268To ensure against data loss in the case of a crash, a
2269.B --backup-file
2270must be provided for these changes. Small sections of the array will
cd19c0cf
JR
2271be copied to the backup file while they are being rearranged. This
2272means that all the data is copied twice, once to the backup and once
2273to the new layout on the array, so this type of reshape will go very
2274slowly.
f24e2d6c
N
2275
2276If the reshape is interrupted for any reason, this backup file must be
cd19c0cf 2277made available to
f24e2d6c
N
2278.B "mdadm --assemble"
2279so the array can be reassembled. Consequently the file cannot be
2280stored on the device being reshaped.
2281
2282
2ae555c3
NB
2283.SS BITMAP CHANGES
2284
2285A write-intent bitmap can be added to, or removed from, an active
93e790af 2286array. Either internal bitmaps, or bitmaps stored in a separate file,
fe80f49b 2287can be added. Note that if you add a bitmap stored in a file which is
e0fe762a 2288in a filesystem that is on the RAID array being affected, the system
fe80f49b
NB
2289will deadlock. The bitmap must be on a separate filesystem.
2290
8382f19b
NB
2291.SH INCREMENTAL MODE
2292
2293.HP 12
2294Usage:
7e23fc43
PS
2295.B mdadm \-\-incremental
2296.RB [ \-\-run ]
2297.RB [ \-\-quiet ]
8382f19b
NB
2298.I component-device
2299.HP 12
2300Usage:
29ba4804
N
2301.B mdadm \-\-incremental \-\-fail
2302.I component-device
2303.HP 12
2304Usage:
7e6140e6 2305.B mdadm \-\-incremental \-\-rebuild\-map
8382f19b
NB
2306.HP 12
2307Usage:
7e23fc43 2308.B mdadm \-\-incremental \-\-run \-\-scan
8382f19b 2309
8382f19b
NB
2310.PP
2311This mode is designed to be used in conjunction with a device
2312discovery system. As devices are found in a system, they can be
2313passed to
7e23fc43 2314.B "mdadm \-\-incremental"
8382f19b
NB
2315to be conditionally added to an appropriate array.
2316
29ba4804
N
2317Conversely, it can also be used with the
2318.B \-\-fail
2319flag to do just the opposite and find whatever array a particular device
2320is part of and remove the device from that array.
2321
8fd8d9c4
N
2322If the device passed is a
2323.B CONTAINER
2324device created by a previous call to
2325.IR mdadm ,
2326then rather than trying to add that device to an array, all the arrays
2327described by the metadata of the container will be started.
2328
8382f19b
NB
2329.I mdadm
2330performs a number of tests to determine if the device is part of an
93e790af 2331array, and which array it should be part of. If an appropriate array
8382f19b
NB
2332is found, or can be created,
2333.I mdadm
2334adds the device to the array and conditionally starts the array.
2335
2336Note that
2337.I mdadm
210597d1
PC
2338will always add devices to an array which were previously working
2339(active or spare) parts of that array. The support for automatic
2340inclusion of a new drive as a spare in some array requires
2341a configuration through POLICY in config file.
8382f19b 2342
8382f19b
NB
2343The tests that
2344.I mdadm
2345makes are as follow:
2346.IP +
2347Is the device permitted by
2348.BR mdadm.conf ?
2349That is, is it listed in a
2350.B DEVICES
2351line in that file. If
2352.B DEVICES
2353is absent then the default it to allow any device. Similar if
2354.B DEVICES
2355contains the special word
2356.B partitions
2357then any device is allowed. Otherwise the device name given to
2358.I mdadm
2359must match one of the names or patterns in a
2360.B DEVICES
2361line.
2362
2363.IP +
2364Does the device have a valid md superblock. If a specific metadata
2365version is request with
7e23fc43 2366.B \-\-metadata
8382f19b 2367or
7e23fc43 2368.B \-e
8382f19b
NB
2369then only that style of metadata is accepted, otherwise
2370.I mdadm
2371finds any known version of metadata. If no
2372.I md
210597d1
PC
2373metadata is found, the device may be still added to an array
2374as a spare if POLICY allows.
8382f19b 2375
d1302dd8 2376.ig
8382f19b
NB
2377.IP +
2378Does the metadata match an expected array?
2379The metadata can match in two ways. Either there is an array listed
2380in
2381.B mdadm.conf
2382which identifies the array (either by UUID, by name, by device list,
93e790af 2383or by minor-number), or the array was created with a
8382f19b 2384.B homehost
93e790af 2385specified and that
8382f19b 2386.B homehost
93e790af 2387matches the one in
8382f19b
NB
2388.B mdadm.conf
2389or on the command line.
2390If
2391.I mdadm
2392is not able to positively identify the array as belonging to the
2393current host, the device will be rejected.
d1302dd8 2394..
8382f19b 2395
8382f19b 2396.I mdadm
93e790af 2397keeps a list of arrays that it has partially assembled in
8382f19b
NB
2398.B /var/run/mdadm/map
2399(or
2400.B /var/run/mdadm.map
e0fe762a
N
2401if the directory doesn't exist. Or maybe even
2402.BR /dev/.mdadm.map ).
2403If no array exists which matches
8382f19b
NB
2404the metadata on the new device,
2405.I mdadm
2406must choose a device name and unit number. It does this based on any
2407name given in
2408.B mdadm.conf
2409or any name information stored in the metadata. If this name
2410suggests a unit number, that number will be used, otherwise a free
2411unit number will be chosen. Normally
2412.I mdadm
2413will prefer to create a partitionable array, however if the
2414.B CREATE
2415line in
2416.B mdadm.conf
2417suggests that a non-partitionable array is preferred, that will be
2418honoured.
2419
e0fe762a
N
2420If the array is not found in the config file and its metadata does not
2421identify it as belonging to the "homehost", then
2422.I mdadm
2423will choose a name for the array which is certain not to conflict with
2424any array which does belong to this host. It does this be adding an
2425underscore and a small number to the name preferred by the metadata.
2426
8382f19b
NB
2427Once an appropriate array is found or created and the device is added,
2428.I mdadm
2429must decide if the array is ready to be started. It will
2430normally compare the number of available (non-spare) devices to the
2431number of devices that the metadata suggests need to be active. If
2432there are at least that many, the array will be started. This means
2433that if any devices are missing the array will not be restarted.
2434
2435As an alternative,
7e23fc43 2436.B \-\-run
8382f19b 2437may be passed to
51ac42e3 2438.I mdadm
8382f19b 2439in which case the array will be run as soon as there are enough
e0fe762a
N
2440devices present for the data to be accessible. For a RAID1, that
2441means one device will start the array. For a clean RAID5, the array
8382f19b
NB
2442will be started as soon as all but one drive is present.
2443
93e790af 2444Note that neither of these approaches is really ideal. If it can
8382f19b
NB
2445be known that all device discovery has completed, then
2446.br
7e23fc43 2447.B " mdadm \-IRs"
8382f19b
NB
2448.br
2449can be run which will try to start all arrays that are being
2450incrementally assembled. They are started in "read-auto" mode in
2451which they are read-only until the first write request. This means
2452that no metadata updates are made and no attempt at resync or recovery
2453happens. Further devices that are found before the first write can
2454still be added safely.
2455
5545fa6d
DW
2456.SH ENVIRONMENT
2457This section describes environment variables that affect how mdadm
2458operates.
2459
2460.TP
2461.B MDADM_NO_MDMON
2462Setting this value to 1 will prevent mdadm from automatically launching
2463mdmon. This variable is intended primarily for debugging mdadm/mdmon.
2464
8fd8d9c4
N
2465.TP
2466.B MDADM_NO_UDEV
2467Normally,
2468.I mdadm
2469does not create any device nodes in /dev, but leaves that task to
2470.IR udev .
2471If
2472.I udev
2473appears not to be configured, or if this environment variable is set
2474to '1', the
2475.I mdadm
2476will create and devices that are needed.
2477
2d465520
NB
2478.SH EXAMPLES
2479
7e23fc43 2480.B " mdadm \-\-query /dev/name-of-device"
2d465520 2481.br
e0fe762a 2482This will find out if a given device is a RAID array, or is part of
5787fa49 2483one, and will provide brief information about the device.
2d465520 2484
7e23fc43 2485.B " mdadm \-\-assemble \-\-scan"
2d465520 2486.br
93e790af 2487This will assemble and start all arrays listed in the standard config
5787fa49 2488file. This command will typically go in a system startup file.
2d465520 2489
7e23fc43 2490.B " mdadm \-\-stop \-\-scan"
5787fa49 2491.br
93e790af 2492This will shut down all arrays that can be shut down (i.e. are not
19f8b8fc 2493currently in use). This will typically go in a system shutdown script.
2d465520 2494
7e23fc43 2495.B " mdadm \-\-follow \-\-scan \-\-delay=120"
2d465520 2496.br
5787fa49
NB
2497If (and only if) there is an Email address or program given in the
2498standard config file, then
2499monitor the status of all arrays listed in that file by
2500polling them ever 2 minutes.
2d465520 2501
7e23fc43 2502.B " mdadm \-\-create /dev/md0 \-\-level=1 \-\-raid\-devices=2 /dev/hd[ac]1"
2d465520 2503.br
5787fa49 2504Create /dev/md0 as a RAID1 array consisting of /dev/hda1 and /dev/hdc1.
2d465520 2505
2d465520 2506.br
7e23fc43 2507.B " echo 'DEVICE /dev/hd*[0\-9] /dev/sd*[0\-9]' > mdadm.conf"
2d465520 2508.br
7e23fc43 2509.B " mdadm \-\-detail \-\-scan >> mdadm.conf"
2d465520 2510.br
5787fa49
NB
2511This will create a prototype config file that describes currently
2512active arrays that are known to be made from partitions of IDE or SCSI drives.
2d465520
NB
2513This file should be reviewed before being used as it may
2514contain unwanted detail.
2515
7e23fc43 2516.B " echo 'DEVICE /dev/hd[a\-z] /dev/sd*[a\-z]' > mdadm.conf"
2d465520 2517.br
7e23fc43 2518.B " mdadm \-\-examine \-\-scan \-\-config=mdadm.conf >> mdadm.conf"
93e790af
SW
2519.br
2520This will find arrays which could be assembled from existing IDE and
2521SCSI whole drives (not partitions), and store the information in the
5787fa49 2522format of a config file.
2d465520
NB
2523This file is very likely to contain unwanted detail, particularly
2524the
2525.B devices=
5787fa49
NB
2526entries. It should be reviewed and edited before being used as an
2527actual config file.
2d465520 2528
7e23fc43 2529.B " mdadm \-\-examine \-\-brief \-\-scan \-\-config=partitions"
2d465520 2530.br
7e23fc43 2531.B " mdadm \-Ebsc partitions"
5787fa49
NB
2532.br
2533Create a list of devices by reading
2534.BR /proc/partitions ,
2535scan these for RAID superblocks, and printout a brief listing of all
93e790af 2536that were found.
2d465520 2537
7e23fc43 2538.B " mdadm \-Ac partitions \-m 0 /dev/md0"
2d465520 2539.br
5787fa49
NB
2540Scan all partitions and devices listed in
2541.BR /proc/partitions
2542and assemble
2543.B /dev/md0
2544out of all such devices with a RAID superblock with a minor number of 0.
2d465520 2545
7e23fc43 2546.B " mdadm \-\-monitor \-\-scan \-\-daemonise > /var/run/mdadm"
d013a55e
NB
2547.br
2548If config file contains a mail address or alert program, run mdadm in
2549the background in monitor mode monitoring all md devices. Also write
2550pid of mdadm daemon to
2551.BR /var/run/mdadm .
2552
7e23fc43 2553.B " mdadm \-Iq /dev/somedevice"
8382f19b
NB
2554.br
2555Try to incorporate newly discovered device into some array as
2556appropriate.
2557
7e6140e6 2558.B " mdadm \-\-incremental \-\-rebuild\-map \-\-run \-\-scan"
8382f19b
NB
2559.br
2560Rebuild the array map from any current arrays, and then start any that
2561can be started.
2562
b80da661
NB
2563.B " mdadm /dev/md4 --fail detached --remove detached"
2564.br
2565Any devices which are components of /dev/md4 will be marked as faulty
2566and then remove from the array.
2567
f24e2d6c
N
2568.B " mdadm --grow /dev/md4 --level=6 --backup-file=/root/backup-md4
2569.br
2570The array
2571.B /dev/md4
2572which is currently a RAID5 array will be converted to RAID6. There
2573should normally already be a spare drive attached to the array as a
2574RAID6 needs one more drive than a matching RAID5.
2575
8fd8d9c4
N
2576.B " mdadm --create /dev/md/ddf --metadata=ddf --raid-disks 6 /dev/sd[a-f]"
2577.br
2578Create a DDF array over 6 devices.
2579
2580.B " mdadm --create /dev/md/home -n3 -l5 -z 30000000 /dev/md/ddf"
2581.br
e0fe762a 2582Create a RAID5 array over any 3 devices in the given DDF set. Use
8fd8d9c4
N
2583only 30 gigabytes of each device.
2584
2585.B " mdadm -A /dev/md/ddf1 /dev/sd[a-f]"
2586.br
2587Assemble a pre-exist ddf array.
2588
2589.B " mdadm -I /dev/md/ddf1"
2590.br
2591Assemble all arrays contained in the ddf array, assigning names as
2592appropriate.
2593
7e23fc43 2594.B " mdadm \-\-create \-\-help"
2d465520 2595.br
2ae555c3 2596Provide help about the Create mode.
2d465520 2597
7e23fc43 2598.B " mdadm \-\-config \-\-help"
5787fa49
NB
2599.br
2600Provide help about the format of the config file.
2d465520 2601
7e23fc43 2602.B " mdadm \-\-help"
5787fa49
NB
2603.br
2604Provide general help.
cd29a5c8 2605
cd29a5c8
NB
2606.SH FILES
2607
2608.SS /proc/mdstat
2609
2ae555c3
NB
2610If you're using the
2611.B /proc
cd29a5c8
NB
2612filesystem,
2613.B /proc/mdstat
2d465520 2614lists all active md devices with information about them.
51ac42e3 2615.I mdadm
2d465520 2616uses this to find arrays when
7e23fc43 2617.B \-\-scan
2d465520
NB
2618is given in Misc mode, and to monitor array reconstruction
2619on Monitor mode.
2620
9a9dab36 2621.SS /etc/mdadm.conf
cd29a5c8 2622
11a3e71d
NB
2623The config file lists which devices may be scanned to see if
2624they contain MD super block, and gives identifying information
2625(e.g. UUID) about known MD arrays. See
2626.BR mdadm.conf (5)
2627for more details.
cd29a5c8 2628
8382f19b
NB
2629.SS /var/run/mdadm/map
2630When
7e23fc43 2631.B \-\-incremental
93e790af 2632mode is used, this file gets a list of arrays currently being created.
8382f19b
NB
2633If
2634.B /var/run/mdadm
2635does not exist as a directory, then
2636.B /var/run/mdadm.map
e0fe762a
N
2637is used instead. If
2638.B /var/run
2639is not available (as may be the case during early boot),
2640.B /dev/.mdadm.map
2641is used on the basis that
2642.B /dev
2643is usually available very early in boot.
8382f19b 2644
48f7b27a
NB
2645.SH DEVICE NAMES
2646
48f7b27a 2647.I mdadm
8fd8d9c4
N
2648understand two sorts of names for array devices.
2649
2650The first is the so-called 'standard' format name, which matches the
2651names used by the kernel and which appear in
2652.IR /proc/mdstat .
2653
2654The second sort can be freely chosen, but must reside in
2655.IR /dev/md/ .
2656When giving a device name to
2657.I mdadm
2658to create or assemble an array, either full path name such as
2659.I /dev/md0
2660or
2661.I /dev/md/home
2662can be given, or just the suffix of the second sort of name, such as
2663.I home
2664can be given.
2665
2666When
2667.I mdadm
e0fe762a
N
2668chooses device names during auto-assembly or incremental assembly, it
2669will sometimes add a small sequence number to the end of the name to
2670avoid conflicted between multiple arrays that have the same name. If
8fd8d9c4
N
2671.I mdadm
2672can reasonably determine that the array really is meant for this host,
2673either by a hostname in the metadata, or by the presence of the array
e0fe762a
N
2674in /etc/mdadm.conf, then it will leave off the suffix if possible.
2675Also if the homehost is specified as
2676.B <ignore>
2677.I mdadm
2678will only use a suffix if a different array of the same name already
2679exists or is listed in the config file.
48f7b27a
NB
2680
2681The standard names for non-partitioned arrays (the only sort of md
8fd8d9c4 2682array available in 2.4 and earlier) are of the form
48f7b27a
NB
2683.IP
2684/dev/mdNN
48f7b27a
NB
2685.PP
2686where NN is a number.
2687The standard names for partitionable arrays (as available from 2.6
8fd8d9c4 2688onwards) are of the form
48f7b27a 2689.IP
48f7b27a
NB
2690/dev/md_dNN
2691.PP
2692Partition numbers should be indicated by added "pMM" to these, thus "/dev/md/d1p2".
8fd8d9c4
N
2693.PP
2694From kernel version, 2.6.28 the "non-partitioned array" can actually
2695be partitioned. So the "md_dNN" names are no longer needed, and
2696partitions such as "/dev/mdNNpXX" are possible.
52826846 2697
2d465520 2698.SH NOTE
51ac42e3 2699.I mdadm
2d465520 2700was previously known as
51ac42e3 2701.IR mdctl .
a9d69660 2702.P
51ac42e3 2703.I mdadm
a9d69660 2704is completely separate from the
51ac42e3 2705.I raidtools
a9d69660
NB
2706package, and does not use the
2707.I /etc/raidtab
2708configuration file at all.
2709
52826846 2710.SH SEE ALSO
75f74377 2711For further information on mdadm usage, MD and the various levels of
3cdfb6a7 2712RAID, see:
3cdfb6a7 2713.IP
11cd8b79 2714.B http://linux\-raid.osdl.org/
75f74377
DG
2715.PP
2716(based upon Jakob \(/Ostergaard's Software\-RAID.HOWTO)
e43d0cda
NB
2717.\".PP
2718.\"for new releases of the RAID driver check out:
2719.\"
2720.\".IP
e0fe762a 2721.\".UR ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/mingo/raid-patches
e43d0cda
NB
2722.\"ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/mingo/raid-patches
2723.\".UE
2724.\".PP
2725.\"or
2726.\".IP
2727.\".UR http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/patches/linux-stable/
2728.\"http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/patches/linux-stable/
2729.\".UE
cd29a5c8 2730.PP
2ae555c3 2731The latest version of
a9d69660
NB
2732.I mdadm
2733should always be available from
cd29a5c8 2734.IP
11cd8b79
N
2735.B http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/raid/mdadm/
2736.PP
2737Related man pages:
cd29a5c8 2738.PP
e0fe762a 2739.IR mdmon (8),
a9d69660
NB
2740.IR mdadm.conf (5),
2741.IR md (4).
56eb10c0 2742.PP
52826846
NB
2743.IR raidtab (5),
2744.IR raid0run (8),
2745.IR raidstop (8),
a9d69660 2746.IR mkraid (8).