1 .TH MULTIPATH.CONF 5 "30 November 2006"
3 multipath.conf \- multipath daemon configuration file
6 is the configuration file for the multipath daemon. It is used to
7 overwrite the built-in configuration table of \fBmultipathd\fP.
8 Any line whose first non-white-space character is a '#' is considered
9 a comment line. Empty lines are ignored.
11 The configuration file contains entries of the form:
35 Each \fIsection\fP contains one or more attributes or subsections. The
36 recognized keywords for attributes or subsections depend on the
37 section in which they occor.
39 The following \fIsection\fP keywords are recognized:
42 This section defines default values for attributes which are used
43 whenever no specific setting is given.
46 This section defines which devices should be excluded from the
47 multipath topology discovery.
49 .B blacklist_exceptions
50 This section defines which devices should be included in the
51 multipath topology discovery, despite being listed in the
56 This section defines the multipath topologies. They are indexed by a
57 \fIWorld Wide Identifier\fR(wwid), which is the result of the
58 \fIgetuid_callout\fR program.
61 This section defines the device-specific settings.
64 .SH "defaults section"
67 section recognizes the following keywords:
70 interval between two path checks in seconds; default is
74 directory where udev creates its device nodes; default is
78 The default path selector algorithm to use; they are offered by the
79 kernel multipath target. The only currently implemented is
82 .B path_grouping_policy
83 The default path grouping policy to apply to unspecified
84 multipaths. Possible values are
88 1 path per priority group
91 all paths in 1 priority group
94 1 priority group per serial number
97 1 priority group per priority value. Priorities are determined by
98 callout programs specified as a global, per-controller or
99 per-multipath option in the configuration file.
101 .B group_by_node_name
102 1 priority group per target node name. Target node names are fetched
103 in /sys/class/fc_transport/target*/node_name.
105 Default value is \fImultibus\fR.
109 The default program and args to callout to obtain a unique path
110 identifier. Should be specified with an absolute path. Default value
112 .I /lib/udev/scsi_id -g -u -d /dev/%n
115 The default program and args to callout to obtain a path priority
116 value. The specified program will be executed and should return a
117 numeric value specifying the relative priority of this path. Higher
118 number have a higher priority. A '%n' in the command line will be expanded
119 to the device name, a '%b' will be expanded to the device number in
123 is a valid value. Currently the following path priority programs are
127 .B mpath_prio_emc /dev/%n
128 Generate the path priority for EMC arrays
130 .B mpath_prio_alua /dev/%n
131 Generate the path priority based on the SCSI-3 ALUA settings.
133 .B mpath_prio_netapp /dev/%n
134 Generate the path priority for NetApp arrays.
136 .B mpath_prio_rdac /dev/%n
137 Generate the path priority for LSI/Engenio RDAC controller.
139 .B mpath_prio_hp_sw /dev/%n
140 Generate the path priority for Compaq/HP controller in
143 .B mpath_prio_hds_modular %b
144 Generate the path priority for Hitachi HDS Modular storage arrays.
146 Default value is \fBnone\fR.
150 Specify any device-mapper features to be used. The most common of
152 .I "1 queue_if_no_path"
153 Note that this can also be set via the
158 The default method used to determine the paths' state. Possible values
163 Read the first sector of the device
168 command to the device.
171 Query the EMC Clariion specific EVPD page 0xC0 to determine the path
175 Check the path state for HP storage arrays with Active/Standby firmware.
178 Check the path state for LSI/Engenio RDAC storage controller.
181 Read the first sector with direct I/O.
183 Default value is \fIreadsector0\fR.
187 Tell the daemon to manage path group failback, or not to. 0 or
189 means immediate failback, values >0 means deferred failback (in
192 means no failback. Default value is
196 The number of IO to route to a path before switching to the next in
197 the same path group. Default is
201 If set to \fIpriorities\fR the multipath configurator will assign
202 path weights as "path prio * rr_min_io". Possible values are
210 Specify the number of retries until disable queueing, or
212 for immediate failure (no queueing),
214 for never stop queueing. Default is 0.
216 .B user_friendly_names
219 , using the bindings file
220 .I /var/lib/multipath/bindings
221 to assign a persistent and unique alias to the multipath, in the form of mpath<n>.
224 use the WWID as the alias. In either case this be will
225 be overriden by any specific aliases in the \fImultipaths\fR section.
229 .SH "blacklist section"
232 section is used to exclude specific device from inclusion in the
233 multipath topology. It is most commonly used to exclude local disks or
234 LUNs for the array controller.
236 The following keywords are recognized:
239 The \fIWorld Wide Identification\fR of a device.
242 Regular expression of the device nodes to be excluded.
245 Subsection for the device description. This subsection recognizes the
249 keywords. For a full description of these keywords please see the
252 .SH "blacklist_exceptions section"
254 .I blacklist_exceptions
255 section is used to revert the actions of the
257 section, ie to include specific device in the
258 multipath topology. This allows to selectively include devices which
259 would normally be excluded via the
263 The following keywords are recognized:
266 The \fIWorld Wide Identification\fR of a device.
269 Regular expression of the device nodes to be excluded.
272 Subsection for the device description. This subsection recognizes the
276 keywords. For a full description of these keywords please see the
279 .SH "multipaths section"
280 The only recognized attribute for the
288 subsection recognizes the following attributes:
291 Index of the container. Mandatory for this subsection.
294 (Optional) symbolic name for the multipath map.
296 The following attributes are optional; if not set the default values
304 .B path_grouping_policy
318 .SH "devices section"
319 The only recognized attribute for the
327 subsection recognizes the following attributes:
330 (Mandatory) Vendor identifier
333 (Mandatory) Product identifier
336 Product strings to blacklist for this vendor
339 (Optional) The hardware handler to use for this device type.
340 The following hardware handler are implemented:
344 Hardware handler for EMC storage arrays.
347 The following attributes are optional; if not set the default values
355 .B path_grouping_policy
382 processes being hung and not killable in situations where all the paths to the LUN go offline.
383 It is advisable to use the
393 was developed by Christophe Varoqui, <christophe.varoqui@free.fr> and others.