main: factor out code to parse layout for raid10 and faulty.

[thirdparty/mdadm.git] / mdmon.8

.\" See file COPYING in distribution for details.
.TH MDMON 8 "" v3.0-rc1
.SH NAME
mdmon \- monitor MD external metadata arrays

.SH SYNOPSIS

.BI mdmon " CONTAINER [NEWROOT]"

.SH OVERVIEW
The 2.6.27 kernel brings the ability to support external metadata arrays.
External metadata implies that user space handles all updates to the metadata.
The kernel's responsibility is to notify user space when a "metadata event"
occurs, like disk failures and clean-to-dirty transitions.  The kernel, in
important cases, waits for user space to take action on these notifications.

.SH DESCRIPTION
.P
.B Metadata updates:
.P
To service metadata update requests a daemon, mdmon, is introduced.
Mdmon is tasked with polling the sysfs namespace looking for changes in
.BR array_state , 
.BR sync_action ,
and per disk
.BR state
attributes.  When a change is detected it calls a per metadata type
handler to make modifications to the metadata.  The following actions
are taken:
.RS
.TP
.B array_state \- inactive
Clear the dirty bit for the volume and let the array be stopped
.TP
.B array_state \- write pending
Set the dirty bit for the array and then set
.B array_state
to
.BR active .
Writes
are blocked until userspace writes
.BR active.
.TP
.B array_state \- active-idle
The safe mode timer has expired so set array state to clean to block writes to the array
.TP
.B array_state \- clean
Clear the dirty bit for the volume
.TP
.B array_state \- read-only
This is the initial state that all arrays start at.  mdmon takes one of the three actions:
.RS
.TP
1/
Transition the array to read-auto keeping the dirty bit clear if the metadata
handler determines that the array does not need resyncing or other modification
.TP
2/
Transition the array to active if the metadata handler determines a resync or
some other manipulation is necessary
.TP
3/
Leave the array read\-only if the volume is marked to not be monitored; for
example, the metadata version has been set to "external:\-dev/md127" instead of
"external:/dev/md127"
.RE
.TP
.B sync_action \- resync\-to\-idle
Notify the metadata handler that a resync may have completed.  If a resync
process is idled before it completes this event allows the metadata handler to
checkpoint resync.
.TP
.B sync_action \- recover\-to\-idle
A spare may have completed rebuilding so tell the metadata handler about the
state of each disk.  This is the metadata handler’s opportunity to clear any
"out-of-sync" bits and clear the volume’s degraded status.  If a recovery
process is idled before it completes this event allows the metadata handler to
checkpoint recovery.
.TP
.B <disk>/state \- faulty
A disk failure kicks off a series of events.  First, notify the metadata
handler that a disk has failed, and then notify the kernel that it can unblock
writes that were dependent on this disk.  After unblocking the kernel this disk
is set to be removed* from the member array.  Finally the disk is marked failed
in all other member arrays in the container.
.IP
\* Note This behavior differs slightly from native MD arrays where
removal is reserved for a
.B mdadm --remove
event.  In the external metadata case the container holds the final
reference on a block device and a
.B mdadm --remove <container> <victim>
call is still required.
.RE

.P
.B Containers:
.P
External metadata formats, like DDF, differ from the native MD metadata
formats in that they define a set of disks and a series of sub-arrays
within those disks.  MD metadata in comparison defines a 1:1
relationship between a set of block devices and a raid array.  For
example to create 2 arrays at different raid levels on a single
set of disks, MD metadata requires the disks be partitioned and then
each array can created be created with a subset of those partitions.  The
supported external formats perform this disk carving internally.
.P
Container devices simply hold references to all member disks and allow
tools like mdmon to determine which active arrays belong to which
container.  Some array management commands like disk removal and disk
add are now only valid at the container level.  Attempts to perform
these actions on member arrays are blocked with error messages like:
.IP
"mdadm: Cannot remove disks from a \'member\' array, perform this
operation on the parent container"
.P
Containers are identified in /proc/mdstat with a metadata version string
"external:<metadata name>". Member devices are identified by
"external:/<container device>/<member index>", or "external:-<container
device>/<member index>" if the array is to remain readonly.

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
CONTAINER
The
.B container
device to monitor.  It can be a full path like /dev/md/container, a simple md
device name like md127, or /proc/mdstat which tells mdmon to scan for
containers and launch an mdmon instance for each one found.
.TP
[NEWROOT]
In order to support an external metadata raid array as the rootfs mdmon needs
to be started in the initramfs environment.  Once the initramfs environment
mounts the final rootfs mdmon needs to be restarted in the new namespace.  When
NEWROOT is specified mdmon will terminate any mdmon instances that are running
in the current namespace, chroot(2) to NEWROOT, and continue monitoring the
container.