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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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NB
54Alternatively, a
55.B device
8fd8d9c4
N
56line can contain either of both of the words
57.B containers
58and
5787fa49 59.BR partitions .
8fd8d9c4
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
11a3e71d 97assembled, such as
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N
98.B /dev/md1
99or
100.BR /dev/md/backup .
101If the name does not start with a slash
102.RB (' / '),
103it is treated as being in
104.BR /dev/md/ .
112cace6
N
105Alternately the word
106.B <ignore>
107(complete with angle brackets) can be given in which case any array
108which matches the rest of the line will never be automatically assembled.
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N
109If no device name is given,
110.I mdadm
db2d001c 111will use various heuristics to determine an appropriate name.
8fd8d9c4 112.PP
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113Subsequent words identify the array, or identify the array as a member
114of a group. If multiple identities are given,
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115then a component device must match ALL identities to be considered a
116match. Each identity word has a tag, and equals sign, and some value.
117The tags are:
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118
119.RS 4
120.TP
121.B uuid=
122The value should be a 128 bit uuid in hexadecimal, with punctuation
123interspersed if desired. This must match the uuid stored in the
124superblock.
125.TP
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NB
126.B name=
127The value should be a simple textual name as was given to
128.I mdadm
129when the array was created. This must match the name stored in the
130superblock on a device for that device to be included in the array.
35cc5be4 131Not all superblock formats support names.
947fd4dd 132.TP
7e23fc43 133.B super\-minor=
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NB
134The value is an integer which indicates the minor number that was
135stored in the superblock when the array was created. When an array is
136created as /dev/mdX, then the minor number X is stored.
137.TP
138.B devices=
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139The value is a comma separated list of device names or device name
140patterns.
141Only devices with names which match one entry in the list will be used
142to assemble the array. Note that the devices
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143listed there must also be listed on a DEVICE line.
144.TP
145.B level=
146The value is a raid level. This is not normally used to
147identify an array, but is supported so that the output of
148
7e23fc43 149.B "mdadm \-\-examine \-\-scan"
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150
151can be use directly in the configuration file.
152.TP
7e23fc43 153.B num\-devices=
b83d95f3 154The value is the number of devices in a complete active array. As with
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155.B level=
156this is mainly for compatibility with the output of
56eb10c0 157
7e23fc43 158.BR "mdadm \-\-examine \-\-scan" .
e0d19036 159
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160.TP
161.B spares=
162The value is a number of spare devices to expect the array to have.
7e23fc43 163.B mdadm \-\-monitor
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NB
164will report an array if it is found to have fewer than this number of
165spares when
7e23fc43 166.B \-\-monitor
058574b1 167starts or when
7e23fc43 168.B \-\-oneshot
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169is used.
170
e0d19036 171.TP
7e23fc43 172.B spare\-group=
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173The value is a textual name for a group of arrays. All arrays with
174the same
7e23fc43 175.B spare\-group
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176name are considered to be part of the same group. The significance of
177a group of arrays is that
51ac42e3 178.I mdadm
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179will, when monitoring the arrays, move a spare drive from one array in
180a group to another array in that group if the first array had a failed
181or missing drive but no spare.
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NB
182
183.TP
184.B auto=
185This option declares to
51ac42e3 186.I mdadm
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187that it should try to create the device file of the array if it
188doesn't already exist, or exists but with the wrong device number.
189
190The value of this option can be "yes" or "md" to indicate that a
191traditional, non-partitionable md array should be created, or "mdp",
192"part" or "partition" to indicate that a partitionable md array (only
193available in linux 2.6 and later) should be used. This later set can
194also have a number appended to indicate how many partitions to create
195device files for, e.g.
196.BR auto=mdp5 .
197The default is 4.
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198
199.TP
200.B bitmap=
201The option specifies a file in which a write-intent bitmap should be
202found. When assembling the array,
203.I mdadm
204will provide this file to the
205.B md
206driver as the bitmap file. This has the same function as the
7e23fc43 207.B \-\-bitmap\-file
7ef02d01 208option to
7e23fc43 209.BR \-\-assemble .
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210
211.TP
212.B metadata=
213Specify the metadata format that the array has. This is mainly
214recognised for comparability with the output of
7e23fc43 215.BR "mdadm \-Es" .
058574b1 216
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N
217.TP
218.B container=
219Specify that this array is a member array of some container. The
220value given can be either a path name in /dev, or a UUID of the
221container array.
222
223.IP
224.B member=
225Specify that this array is a member array of some container. Each
226type of container has some way to enumerate member arrays, often a
227simple sequence number. The value identifies which member of a
228container the array is. It will usually accompany a 'container=' word.
11a3e71d 229.RE
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230
231.TP
232.B MAILADDR
233The
234.B mailaddr
235line gives an E-mail address that alerts should be
236sent to when
51ac42e3 237.I mdadm
e0d19036 238is running in
7e23fc43 239.B \-\-monitor
e0d19036 240mode (and was given the
7e23fc43 241.B \-\-scan
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242option). There should only be one
243.B MAILADDR
244line and it should have only one address.
245
246
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247.TP
248.B MAILFROM
249The
250.B mailfrom
93e790af 251line (which can only be abbreviated to at least 5 characters) gives an
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252address to appear in the "From" address for alert mails. This can be
253useful if you want to explicitly set a domain, as the default from
254address is "root" with no domain. All words on this line are
255catenated with spaces to form the address.
256
257Note that this value cannot be set via the
258.I mdadm
259commandline. It is only settable via the config file.
260
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261.TP
262.B PROGRAM
263The
264.B program
265line gives the name of a program to be run when
7e23fc43 266.B "mdadm \-\-monitor"
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267detects potentially interesting events on any of the arrays that it
268is monitoring. This program gets run with two or three arguments, they
269being the Event, the md device, and possibly the related component
270device.
271
272There should only be one
273.B program
274line and it should be give only one program.
275
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276
277.TP
278.B CREATE
279The
280.B create
058574b1 281line gives default values to be used when creating arrays and device entries for
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282arrays.
283These include:
284
285.RS 4
286.TP
287.B owner=
288.TP
289.B group=
290These can give user/group ids or names to use instead of system
291defaults (root/wheel or root/disk).
292.TP
293.B mode=
294An octal file mode such as 0660 can be given to override the default
295of 0600.
296.TP
297.B auto=
298This corresponds to the
7e23fc43 299.B \-\-auto
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300flag to mdadm. Give
301.BR yes ,
302.BR md ,
303.BR mdp ,
304.B part
b3f1c093 305\(em possibly followed by a number of partitions \(em to indicate how
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306missing device entries should be created.
307
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308.TP
309.B metadata=
310The name of the metadata format to use if none is explicitly given.
311This can be useful to impose a system-wide default of version-1 superblocks.
312
38098016
NB
313.TP
314.B symlinks=no
315Normally when creating devices in
316.B /dev/md/
317.I mdadm
318will create a matching symlink from
319.B /dev/
320with a name starting
321.B md
322or
323.BR md_ .
324Give
16c4849b 325.B symlinks=no
38098016 326to suppress this symlink creation.
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327.RE
328
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NB
329.TP
330.B HOMEHOST
331The
332.B homehost
333line gives a default value for the
334.B --homehost=
335option to mdadm. There should be exactly one other word on the line.
336It should either exactly
337.B <system>
338or a host name.
339If
340.B <system>
341is given, then the
342.BR gethostname ( 2 )
343systemcall is used to get the host name.
344When arrays are created, this host name will be stored in the
345metadata. When arrays are assembled using auto-assembly, only arrays
346with this host name stored in the metadata will be considered.
5bbb4842 347
31015d57
N
348.TP
349.B AUTO
350A list of names of metadata format can be given, each preceded by a
351plus or minus sign. Also the word
352.I all
353preceded by plus or minus is allowed and is usually last.
354
355When
356.I mdadm
357is auto-assembling an array, with via
358.I --assemble
359or
360.I --incremental
361and it finds metadata of a given type, it checks that metadata type
362against those listed in this line. The first match wins, where
363.I all
364matches anything.
365If a match is found that was preceded by a plus sign, the auto
366assembly is allowed. If the match was preceded by a minus sign, the
367auto assembly is disallowed. If no match is found, the auto assembly
368is allowed.
369
370This can be used to disable all auto-assembly (so that only arrays
371explicitly listed in mdadm.conf or on the command line are assembled),
372or to disable assembly of certain metadata types which might be
373handled by other software.
374
375The known metadata types are
376.BR 0.90 ,
377.BR 1.x ,
378.BR ddf ,
379.BR imsm .
380
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381.SH EXAMPLE
382DEVICE /dev/sd[bcdjkl]1
383.br
384DEVICE /dev/hda1 /dev/hdb1
385
0e69da72 386# /dev/md0 is known by its UUID.
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387.br
388ARRAY /dev/md0 UUID=3aaa0122:29827cfa:5331ad66:ca767371
389.br
390# /dev/md1 contains all devices with a minor number of
391.br
392# 1 in the superblock.
393.br
394ARRAY /dev/md1 superminor=1
395.br
93e790af 396# /dev/md2 is made from precisely these two devices
2d465520 397.br
a9d69660 398ARRAY /dev/md2 devices=/dev/hda1,/dev/hdb1
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NB
399
400# /dev/md4 and /dev/md5 are a spare-group and spares
401.br
402# can be moved between them
403.br
404ARRAY /dev/md4 uuid=b23f3c6d:aec43a9f:fd65db85:369432df
405.br
7e23fc43 406 spare\-group=group1
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407.br
408ARRAY /dev/md5 uuid=19464854:03f71b1b:e0df2edd:246cc977
409.br
7e23fc43 410 spare\-group=group1
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411.br
412# /dev/md/home is created if need to be a partitionable md array
413.br
414# any spare device number is allocated.
415.br
416ARRAY /dev/md/home UUID=9187a482:5dde19d9:eea3cc4a:d646ab8b
417.br
418 auto=part
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419
420MAILADDR root@mydomain.tld
421.br
7e23fc43 422PROGRAM /usr/sbin/handle\-mdadm\-events
5bbb4842 423.br
7e23fc43 424CREATE group=system mode=0640 auto=part\-8
41a3b72a
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425.br
426HOMEHOST <system>
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N
427.br
428AUTO +1.x -all
e0d19036 429
56eb10c0 430.SH SEE ALSO
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NB
431.BR mdadm (8),
432.BR md (4).
56eb10c0 433