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1.\" Copyright Neil Brown and others.
2.\" This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
3.\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
4.\" the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
5.\" (at your option) any later version.
6.\" See file COPYING in distribution for details.
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7.TH MDADM.CONF 5
8.SH NAME
93e790af 9mdadm.conf \- configuration for management of Software RAID with mdadm
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10.SH SYNOPSIS
11/etc/mdadm.conf
12.SH DESCRIPTION
13.PP
51ac42e3 14.I mdadm
11a3e71d 15is a tool for creating, managing, and monitoring RAID devices using the
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16.B md
17driver in Linux.
18.PP
19Some common tasks, such as assembling all arrays, can be simplified
2d465520 20by describing the devices and arrays in this configuration file.
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21
22.SS SYNTAX
23The file should be seen as a collection of words separated by white
24space (space, tab, or newline).
11a3e71d 25Any word that beings with a hash sign (#) starts a comment and that
2d465520 26word together with the remainder of the line is ignored.
56eb10c0 27
2d465520 28Any line that starts with white space (space or tab) is treated as
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29though it were a continuation of the previous line.
30
31Empty lines are ignored, but otherwise each (non continuation) line
2d465520 32must start with a keyword as listed below. The keywords are case
e0d19036 33insensitive and can be abbreviated to 3 characters.
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34
35The keywords are:
36.TP
37.B DEVICE
38A
39.B device
40line lists the devices (whole devices or partitions) that might contain
41a component of an MD array. When looking for the components of an
42array,
51ac42e3 43.I mdadm
2d465520 44will scan these devices (or any devices listed on the command line).
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45
46The
47.B device
48line may contain a number of different devices (separated by spaces)
49and each device name can contain wild cards as defined by
50.BR glob (7).
51
52Also, there may be several device lines present in the file.
53
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54Alternatively, a
55.B device
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N
56line can contain either of both of the words
57.B containers
58and
5787fa49 59.BR partitions .
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N
60The word
61.B containers
62will cause
63.I mdadm
64to look for assembled CONTAINER arrays and included them as a source
65for assembling further arrays.
66.PP
67The word
68.I partitions
69will cause
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70.I mdadm
71to read
72.I /proc/partitions
35cc5be4 73and include all devices and partitions found therein.
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74.I mdadm
75does not use the names from
76.I /proc/partitions
77but only the major and minor device numbers. It scans
78.I /dev
79to find the name that matches the numbers.
80
8fd8d9c4 81If no DEVICE line is present, then "DEVICE partitions containers" is assumed.
a99d6b66 82
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83For example:
84.IP
85DEVICE /dev/hda* /dev/hdc*
86.br
87DEV /dev/sd*
88.br
89DEVICE /dev/discs/disc*/disc
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90.br
91DEVICE partitions
11a3e71d 92
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93.TP
94.B ARRAY
11a3e71d 95The ARRAY lines identify actual arrays. The second word on the line
8fd8d9c4 96may be the name of the device where the array is normally
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97assembled, such as
98.BR /dev/md1 .
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99If no device name is given,
100.I mdadm
101will use various heuristic to determine an appropriate name.
102.PP
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103Subsequent words identify the array, or identify the array as a member
104of a group. If multiple identities are given,
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105then a component device must match ALL identities to be considered a
106match. Each identity word has a tag, and equals sign, and some value.
107The tags are:
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108
109.RS 4
110.TP
111.B uuid=
112The value should be a 128 bit uuid in hexadecimal, with punctuation
113interspersed if desired. This must match the uuid stored in the
114superblock.
115.TP
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116.B name=
117The value should be a simple textual name as was given to
118.I mdadm
119when the array was created. This must match the name stored in the
120superblock on a device for that device to be included in the array.
35cc5be4 121Not all superblock formats support names.
947fd4dd 122.TP
7e23fc43 123.B super\-minor=
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124The value is an integer which indicates the minor number that was
125stored in the superblock when the array was created. When an array is
126created as /dev/mdX, then the minor number X is stored.
127.TP
128.B devices=
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129The value is a comma separated list of device names or device name
130patterns.
131Only devices with names which match one entry in the list will be used
132to assemble the array. Note that the devices
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133listed there must also be listed on a DEVICE line.
134.TP
135.B level=
136The value is a raid level. This is not normally used to
137identify an array, but is supported so that the output of
138
7e23fc43 139.B "mdadm \-\-examine \-\-scan"
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140
141can be use directly in the configuration file.
142.TP
7e23fc43 143.B num\-devices=
b83d95f3 144The value is the number of devices in a complete active array. As with
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145.B level=
146this is mainly for compatibility with the output of
56eb10c0 147
7e23fc43 148.BR "mdadm \-\-examine \-\-scan" .
e0d19036 149
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150.TP
151.B spares=
152The value is a number of spare devices to expect the array to have.
7e23fc43 153.B mdadm \-\-monitor
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154will report an array if it is found to have fewer than this number of
155spares when
7e23fc43 156.B \-\-monitor
058574b1 157starts or when
7e23fc43 158.B \-\-oneshot
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159is used.
160
e0d19036 161.TP
7e23fc43 162.B spare\-group=
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163The value is a textual name for a group of arrays. All arrays with
164the same
7e23fc43 165.B spare\-group
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166name are considered to be part of the same group. The significance of
167a group of arrays is that
51ac42e3 168.I mdadm
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169will, when monitoring the arrays, move a spare drive from one array in
170a group to another array in that group if the first array had a failed
171or missing drive but no spare.
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172
173.TP
174.B auto=
175This option declares to
51ac42e3 176.I mdadm
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177that it should try to create the device file of the array if it
178doesn't already exist, or exists but with the wrong device number.
179
180The value of this option can be "yes" or "md" to indicate that a
181traditional, non-partitionable md array should be created, or "mdp",
182"part" or "partition" to indicate that a partitionable md array (only
183available in linux 2.6 and later) should be used. This later set can
184also have a number appended to indicate how many partitions to create
185device files for, e.g.
186.BR auto=mdp5 .
187The default is 4.
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188
189.TP
190.B bitmap=
191The option specifies a file in which a write-intent bitmap should be
192found. When assembling the array,
193.I mdadm
194will provide this file to the
195.B md
196driver as the bitmap file. This has the same function as the
7e23fc43 197.B \-\-bitmap\-file
7ef02d01 198option to
7e23fc43 199.BR \-\-assemble .
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200
201.TP
202.B metadata=
203Specify the metadata format that the array has. This is mainly
204recognised for comparability with the output of
7e23fc43 205.BR "mdadm \-Es" .
058574b1 206
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N
207.TP
208.B container=
209Specify that this array is a member array of some container. The
210value given can be either a path name in /dev, or a UUID of the
211container array.
212
213.IP
214.B member=
215Specify that this array is a member array of some container. Each
216type of container has some way to enumerate member arrays, often a
217simple sequence number. The value identifies which member of a
218container the array is. It will usually accompany a 'container=' word.
11a3e71d 219.RE
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220
221.TP
222.B MAILADDR
223The
224.B mailaddr
225line gives an E-mail address that alerts should be
226sent to when
51ac42e3 227.I mdadm
e0d19036 228is running in
7e23fc43 229.B \-\-monitor
e0d19036 230mode (and was given the
7e23fc43 231.B \-\-scan
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232option). There should only be one
233.B MAILADDR
234line and it should have only one address.
235
236
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237.TP
238.B MAILFROM
239The
240.B mailfrom
93e790af 241line (which can only be abbreviated to at least 5 characters) gives an
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242address to appear in the "From" address for alert mails. This can be
243useful if you want to explicitly set a domain, as the default from
244address is "root" with no domain. All words on this line are
245catenated with spaces to form the address.
246
247Note that this value cannot be set via the
248.I mdadm
249commandline. It is only settable via the config file.
250
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251.TP
252.B PROGRAM
253The
254.B program
255line gives the name of a program to be run when
7e23fc43 256.B "mdadm \-\-monitor"
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257detects potentially interesting events on any of the arrays that it
258is monitoring. This program gets run with two or three arguments, they
259being the Event, the md device, and possibly the related component
260device.
261
262There should only be one
263.B program
264line and it should be give only one program.
265
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266
267.TP
268.B CREATE
269The
270.B create
058574b1 271line gives default values to be used when creating arrays and device entries for
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272arrays.
273These include:
274
275.RS 4
276.TP
277.B owner=
278.TP
279.B group=
280These can give user/group ids or names to use instead of system
281defaults (root/wheel or root/disk).
282.TP
283.B mode=
284An octal file mode such as 0660 can be given to override the default
285of 0600.
286.TP
287.B auto=
288This corresponds to the
7e23fc43 289.B \-\-auto
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290flag to mdadm. Give
291.BR yes ,
292.BR md ,
293.BR mdp ,
294.B part
b3f1c093 295\(em possibly followed by a number of partitions \(em to indicate how
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296missing device entries should be created.
297
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298.TP
299.B metadata=
300The name of the metadata format to use if none is explicitly given.
301This can be useful to impose a system-wide default of version-1 superblocks.
302
38098016
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303.TP
304.B symlinks=no
305Normally when creating devices in
306.B /dev/md/
307.I mdadm
308will create a matching symlink from
309.B /dev/
310with a name starting
311.B md
312or
313.BR md_ .
314Give
16c4849b 315.B symlinks=no
38098016 316to suppress this symlink creation.
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317.RE
318
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319.TP
320.B HOMEHOST
321The
322.B homehost
323line gives a default value for the
324.B --homehost=
325option to mdadm. There should be exactly one other word on the line.
326It should either exactly
327.B <system>
328or a host name.
329If
330.B <system>
331is given, then the
332.BR gethostname ( 2 )
333systemcall is used to get the host name.
334When arrays are created, this host name will be stored in the
335metadata. When arrays are assembled using auto-assembly, only arrays
336with this host name stored in the metadata will be considered.
5bbb4842 337
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338.SH EXAMPLE
339DEVICE /dev/sd[bcdjkl]1
340.br
341DEVICE /dev/hda1 /dev/hdb1
342
0e69da72 343# /dev/md0 is known by its UUID.
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344.br
345ARRAY /dev/md0 UUID=3aaa0122:29827cfa:5331ad66:ca767371
346.br
347# /dev/md1 contains all devices with a minor number of
348.br
349# 1 in the superblock.
350.br
351ARRAY /dev/md1 superminor=1
352.br
93e790af 353# /dev/md2 is made from precisely these two devices
2d465520 354.br
a9d69660 355ARRAY /dev/md2 devices=/dev/hda1,/dev/hdb1
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356
357# /dev/md4 and /dev/md5 are a spare-group and spares
358.br
359# can be moved between them
360.br
361ARRAY /dev/md4 uuid=b23f3c6d:aec43a9f:fd65db85:369432df
362.br
7e23fc43 363 spare\-group=group1
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364.br
365ARRAY /dev/md5 uuid=19464854:03f71b1b:e0df2edd:246cc977
366.br
7e23fc43 367 spare\-group=group1
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368.br
369# /dev/md/home is created if need to be a partitionable md array
370.br
371# any spare device number is allocated.
372.br
373ARRAY /dev/md/home UUID=9187a482:5dde19d9:eea3cc4a:d646ab8b
374.br
375 auto=part
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376
377MAILADDR root@mydomain.tld
378.br
7e23fc43 379PROGRAM /usr/sbin/handle\-mdadm\-events
5bbb4842 380.br
7e23fc43 381CREATE group=system mode=0640 auto=part\-8
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382.br
383HOMEHOST <system>
e0d19036 384
56eb10c0 385.SH SEE ALSO
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386.BR mdadm (8),
387.BR md (4).
56eb10c0 388