mdadm.conf.5

.\" Copyright Neil Brown and others.
.\"   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
.\"   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
.\"   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
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.\" See file COPYING in distribution for details.
.TH MDADM.CONF 5
.SH NAME
mdadm.conf \- configuration for management of Software RAID with mdadm
.SH SYNOPSIS
/etc/mdadm.conf
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
.I mdadm
is a tool for creating, managing, and monitoring RAID devices using the
.B md
driver in Linux.
.PP
Some common tasks, such as assembling all arrays, can be simplified
by describing the devices and arrays in this configuration file.

.SS SYNTAX
The file should be seen as a collection of words separated by white
space (space, tab, or newline).
Any word that beings with a hash sign (#) starts a comment and that
word together with the remainder of the line is ignored.

Spaces can be included in a word using quotation characters.  Either
single quotes
.RB ( ' )
or double quotes (\fB"\fP)
may be used.  All the characters from one quotation character to
next identical character are protected and will not be used to
separate words to start new quoted strings.  To include a single quote
it must be between double quotes.  To include a double quote it must
be between single quotes.

Any line that starts with white space (space or tab) is treated as
though it were a continuation of the previous line.

Empty lines are ignored, but otherwise each (non continuation) line
must start with a keyword as listed below.  The keywords are case
insensitive and can be abbreviated to 3 characters.

The keywords are:
.TP
.B DEVICE
A
.B device
line lists the devices (whole devices or partitions) that might contain
a component of an MD array.  When looking for the components of an
array,
.I mdadm
will scan these devices (or any devices listed on the command line).

The
.B device
line may contain a number of different devices (separated by spaces)
and each device name can contain wild cards as defined by
.BR glob (7).

Also, there may be several device lines present in the file.

Alternatively, a
.B device
line can contain either or both of the  words
.B containers
and
.BR partitions .
The word
.B containers
will cause
.I mdadm
to look for assembled CONTAINER arrays and included them as a source
for assembling further arrays.

The word
.I partitions
will cause
.I mdadm
to read
.I /proc/partitions
and include all devices and partitions found therein.
.I mdadm
does not use the names from
.I /proc/partitions
but only the major and minor device numbers.  It scans
.I /dev
to find the name that matches the numbers.

If no DEVICE line is present, then "DEVICE partitions containers" is assumed.

For example:
.IP
DEVICE /dev/hda* /dev/hdc*
.br
DEV    /dev/sd*
.br
DEVICE /dev/disk/by-path/pci*
.br
DEVICE partitions

.TP
.B ARRAY
The ARRAY lines identify actual arrays.  The second word on the line
may be the name of the device where the array is normally
assembled, such as
.B /dev/md1
or
.BR /dev/md/backup .
If the name does not start with a slash
.RB (' / '),
it is treated as being in
.BR /dev/md/ .
Alternately the word
.B <ignore>
(complete with angle brackets) can be given in which case any array
which matches the rest of the line will never be automatically assembled.
If no device name is given,
.I mdadm
will use various heuristics to determine an appropriate name.

Subsequent words identify the array, or identify the array as a member
of a group. If multiple identities are given,
then a component device must match ALL identities to be considered a
match.  Each identity word has a tag, and equals sign, and some value.
The tags are:
.RS 4
.TP
.B uuid=
The value should be a 128 bit uuid in hexadecimal, with punctuation
interspersed if desired.  This must match the uuid stored in the
superblock.
.TP
.B name=
The value should be a simple textual name as was given to
.I mdadm
when the array was created.  This must match the name stored in the
superblock on a device for that device to be included in the array.
Not all superblock formats support names.
.TP
.B super\-minor=
The value is an integer which indicates the minor number that was
stored in the superblock when the array was created. When an array is
created as /dev/mdX, then the minor number X is stored.
.TP
.B devices=
The value is a comma separated list of device names or device name
patterns.
Only devices with names which match one entry in the list will be used
to assemble the array.  Note that the devices
listed there must also be listed on a DEVICE line.
.TP
.B level=
The value is a RAID level.  This is not normally used to
identify an array, but is supported so that the output of

.B "mdadm \-\-examine \-\-scan"

can be use directly in the configuration file.
.TP
.B num\-devices=
The value is the number of devices in a complete active array.  As with
.B level=
this is mainly for compatibility with the output of

.BR "mdadm \-\-examine \-\-scan" .

.TP
.B spares=
The value is a number of spare devices to expect the array to have.
The sole use of this keyword and value is as follows:
.B mdadm \-\-monitor
will report an array if it is found to have fewer than this number of
spares when
.B \-\-monitor
starts or when
.B \-\-oneshot
is used.

.TP
.B spare\-group=
The value is a textual name for a group of arrays.  All arrays with
the same
.B spare\-group
name are considered to be part of the same group.  The significance of
a group of arrays is that
.I mdadm
will, when monitoring the arrays, move a spare drive from one array in
a group to another array in that group if the first array had a failed
or missing drive but no spare.

.TP
.B auto=
This option is rarely needed with mdadm-3.0, particularly if use with
the Linux kernel v2.6.28 or later.
It tells
.I mdadm
whether to use partitionable array or non-partitionable arrays and,
in the absence of
.IR udev ,
how many partition devices to create.  From 2.6.28 all md array
devices are partitionable, hence this option is not needed.

The value of this option can be "yes" or "md" to indicate that a
traditional, non-partitionable md array should be created, or "mdp",
"part" or "partition" to indicate that a partitionable md array (only
available in linux 2.6 and later) should be used.  This later set can
also have a number appended to indicate how many partitions to create
device files for, e.g.
.BR auto=mdp5 .
The default is 4.

.TP
.B bitmap=
The option specifies a file in which a write-intent bitmap should be
found.  When assembling the array,
.I mdadm
will provide this file to the
.B md
driver as the bitmap file.  This has the same function as the
.B \-\-bitmap\-file
option to
.BR \-\-assemble .

.TP
.B metadata=
Specify the metadata format that the array has.  This is mainly
recognised for comparability with the output of
.BR "mdadm \-Es" .

.TP
.B container=
Specify that this array is a member array of some container.  The
value given can be either a path name in /dev, or a UUID of the
container array.

.TP
.B member=
Specify that this array is a member array of some container.  Each
type of container has some way to enumerate member arrays, often a
simple sequence number.  The value identifies which member of a
container the array is.  It will usually accompany a "container=" word.
.RE

.TP
.B MAILADDR
The
.B mailaddr
line gives an E-mail address that alerts should be
sent to when
.I mdadm
is running in
.B \-\-monitor
mode (and was given the
.B \-\-scan
option).  There should only be one
.B MAILADDR
line and it should have only one address.  Any subsequent addresses
are silently ignored.

.TP
.B MAILFROM
The
.B mailfrom
line (which can only be abbreviated to at least 5 characters) gives an
address to appear in the "From" address for alert mails.  This can be
useful if you want to explicitly set a domain, as the default from
address is "root" with no domain.  All words on this line are
catenated with spaces to form the address.

Note that this value cannot be set via the
.I mdadm
commandline.  It is only settable via the config file.

.TP
.B PROGRAM
The
.B program
line gives the name of a program to be run when
.B "mdadm \-\-monitor"
detects potentially interesting events on any of the arrays that it
is monitoring.  This program gets run with two or three arguments, they
being the Event, the md device, and possibly the related component
device.

There should only be one
.B program
line and it should be give only one program.


.TP
.B CREATE
The
.B create
line gives default values to be used when creating arrays and device entries for
arrays.
These include:

.RS 4
.TP
.B owner=
.TP
.B group=
These can give user/group ids or names to use instead of system
defaults (root/wheel or root/disk).
.TP
.B mode=
An octal file mode such as 0660 can be given to override the default
of 0600.
.TP
.B auto=
This corresponds to the
.B \-\-auto
flag to mdadm.  Give
.BR yes ,
.BR md ,
.BR mdp ,
.B part
\(em possibly followed by a number of partitions \(em to indicate how
missing device entries should be created.

.TP
.B metadata=
The name of the metadata format to use if none is explicitly given.
This can be useful to impose a system-wide default of version-1 superblocks.

.TP
.B symlinks=no
Normally when creating devices in
.B /dev/md/
.I mdadm
will create a matching symlink from
.B /dev/
with a name starting
.B md
or
.BR md_ .
Give
.B symlinks=no
to suppress this symlink creation.

.TP
.B names=yes
Since Linux 2.6.29 it has been possible to create
.B md
devices with a name like
.B md_home
rather than just a number, like
.BR md3 .
.I mdadm
will use the numeric alternative by default as other tools that interact
with md arrays may expect only numbers.
If
.B names=yes
is given in
.I mdadm.conf
then
.I mdadm
will use a name when appropriate.
If
.B names=no
is given, then non-numeric
.I md
device names will not be used even if the default changes in a future
release of
.IR mdadm .
.RE

.TP
.B HOMEHOST
The
.B homehost
line gives a default value for the
.B \-\-homehost=
option to mdadm.  There should normally be only one other word on the line.
It should either be a host name, or one of the special words
.BR <system>,
.B <none>
and
.BR <ignore> .
If
.B <system>
is given, then the
.BR gethostname ( 2 )
systemcall is used to get the host name.  This is the default.

If
.B <ignore>
is given, then a flag is set so that when arrays are being
auto-assembled the checking of the recorded
.I homehost
is disabled.
If
.B <ignore>
is given it is also possible to give an explicit name which will be
used when creating arrays.  This is the only case when there can be
more that one other word on the
.B HOMEHOST
line.  If there are other words, or other
.B HOMEHOST
lines, they are silently ignored.

If
.B <none>
is given, then the default of using
.BR gethostname ( 2 )
is over-ridden and no homehost name is assumed.

When arrays are created, this host name will be stored in the
metadata.  When arrays are assembled using auto-assembly, arrays which
do not record the correct homehost name in their metadata will be
assembled using a "foreign" name.  A "foreign" name alway ends with a
digit string preceded by an underscore to differentiate it
from any possible local name. e.g.
.B /dev/md/1_1
or
.BR /dev/md/home_0 .
.TP
.B AUTO
A list of names of metadata format can be given, each preceded by a
plus or minus sign.  Also the word
.I homehost
is allowed as is
.I all
preceded by plus or minus sign.
.I all
is usually last.

When
.I mdadm
is auto-assembling an array, either via
.I \-\-assemble
or
.I \-\-incremental
and it finds metadata of a given type, it checks that metadata type
against those listed in this line.  The first match wins, where
.I all
matches anything.
If a match is found that was preceded by a plus sign, the auto
assembly is allowed.  If the match was preceded by a minus sign, the
auto assembly is disallowed.  If no match is found, the auto assembly
is allowed.

If the metadata indicates that the array was created for
.I this
host, and the word
.I homehost
appears before any other match, then the array is treated as a valid
candidate for auto-assembly.

This can be used to disable all auto-assembly (so that only arrays
explicitly listed in mdadm.conf or on the command line are assembled),
or to disable assembly of certain metadata types which might be
handled by other software.  It can also be used to disable assembly of
all foreign arrays - normally such arrays are assembled but given a
non-deterministic name in
.BR /dev/md/ .

The known metadata types are
.BR 0.90 ,
.BR 1.x ,
.BR ddf ,
.BR imsm .

.B AUTO
should be given at most once.  Subsequent lines are silently ignored.
Thus an earlier config file in a config directory will over-ride
the setting in a later config file.

.TP
.B POLICY
This is used to specify what automatic behavior is allowed on devices
newly appearing in the system and provides a way of marking spares that can
be moved to other arrays as well as the migration domains.
.I Domain
can be defined through
.I policy
line by specifying a domain name for a number of paths from
.BR /dev/disk/by-path/ .
A device may belong to several domains. The domain of an array is a union
of domains of all devices in that array.  A spare can be automatically
moved from one array to another if the set of the destination array's
.I domains
contains all the
.I domains
of the new disk or if both arrays have the same
.IR spare-group .

To update hot plug configuration it is necessary to execute
.B mdadm \-\-udev\-rules
command after changing the config file

Key words used in the
.I POLICY
line and supported values are:

.RS 7
.TP
.B domain=
any arbitrary string
.TP
.B metadata=
0.9 1.x ddf or imsm
.TP
.B path=
file glob matching anything from
.B /dev/disk/by-path
.TP
.B type=
either
.B disk
or
.BR part .
.TP
.B action=
include, re-add, spare, spare-same-slot, or force-spare
.TP
.B auto=
yes, no, or homehost.

.P
The
.I action
item determines the automatic behavior allowed for devices matching the
.I path
and
.I type
in the same line.  If a device matches several lines with different
.I  actions
then the most permissive will apply. The ordering of policy lines
is irrelevant to the end result.
.TP
.B include
allows adding a disk to an array if metadata on that disk matches that array
.TP
.B re\-add
will include the device in the array if it appears to be a current member
or a member that was recently removed and the array has a
write-intent-bitmap to allow the
.B re\-add
functionality.
.TP
.B spare
as above and additionally: if the device is bare it can
become a spare if there is any array that it is a candidate for based
on domains and metadata.
.TP
.B spare\-same\-slot
as above and additionally if given slot was used by an array that went
degraded recently and the device plugged in has no metadata then it will
be automatically added to that array (or it's container)
.TP
.B force\-spare
as above and the disk will become a spare in remaining cases
.RE

.SH EXAMPLE
DEVICE /dev/sd[bcdjkl]1
.br
DEVICE /dev/hda1 /dev/hdb1

# /dev/md0 is known by its UUID.
.br
ARRAY /dev/md0 UUID=3aaa0122:29827cfa:5331ad66:ca767371
.br
# /dev/md1 contains all devices with a minor number of
.br
#   1 in the superblock.
.br
ARRAY /dev/md1 superminor=1
.br
# /dev/md2 is made from precisely these two devices
.br
ARRAY /dev/md2 devices=/dev/hda1,/dev/hdb1

# /dev/md4 and /dev/md5 are a spare-group and spares
.br
#  can be moved between them
.br
ARRAY /dev/md4 uuid=b23f3c6d:aec43a9f:fd65db85:369432df
.br
           spare\-group=group1
.br
ARRAY /dev/md5 uuid=19464854:03f71b1b:e0df2edd:246cc977
.br
           spare\-group=group1
.br
# /dev/md/home is created if need to be a partitionable md array
.br
# any spare device number is allocated.
.br
ARRAY /dev/md/home UUID=9187a482:5dde19d9:eea3cc4a:d646ab8b
.br
           auto=part
.br
# The name of this array contains a space.
.br
ARRAY /dev/md9 name='Data Storage'
.sp
POLICY domain=domain1 metadata=imsm path=pci-0000:00:1f.2-scsi-*
.br
           action=spare
.br
POLICY domain=domain1 metadata=imsm path=pci-0000:04:00.0-scsi-[01]*
.br
           action=include
.br
# One domain comprising of devices attached to specified paths is defined.
.br
# Bare device matching first path will be made an imsm spare on hot plug.
.br
# If more than one array is created on devices belonging to domain1 and
.br
# one of them becomes degraded, then any imsm spare matching any path for
.br
# given domain name can be migrated.
.br
MAILADDR root@mydomain.tld
.br
PROGRAM /usr/sbin/handle\-mdadm\-events
.br
CREATE group=system mode=0640 auto=part\-8
.br
HOMEHOST <system>
.br
AUTO +1.x homehost \-all

.SH SEE ALSO
.BR mdadm (8),
.BR md (4).