Search

Chapter 1. Device Mapper Multipathing

download PDF
Device mapper multipathing (DM Multipath) allows you to configure multiple I/O paths between server nodes and storage arrays into a single device. These I/O paths are physical SAN connections that can include separate cables, switches, and controllers. Multipathing aggregates the I/O paths, creating a new device that consists of the aggregated paths.
This chapter provides a summary of the features of DM-Multipath that were added subsequent to the initial release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Following that, this chapter provides a high level overview of DM Multipath and its components, as well as an overview of DM-Multipath setup.

1.1. New and Changed Features

This section lists features of the DM Multipath that are new since the initial release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

1.1.1. New and Changed Features for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 includes the following documentation and feature updates and changes.
In addition, small technical corrections and clarifications have been made throughout the document.

1.1.2. New and Changed Features for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 includes the following documentation and feature updates and changes.
  • This document includes a new section, Section 5.1, “Automatic Configuration File Generation with Multipath Helper”. The Multipath Helper application gives you options to create multipath configurations with custom aliases, device blacklists, and settings for the characteristics of individual multipath devices.
  • The defaults section of the multipath.conf configuration file supports the new config_dir, new_bindings_in_boot, ignore_new_boot_devs, retrigger_tries, and retrigger_delays parameters. The defaults section of the multipath.conf file is documented in Table 4.1, “Multipath Configuration Defaults”.
  • The defaults, devices, and multipaths sections of the multipath.conf configuration file now support the delay_watch_checks and delay_wait_checks configuration parameters. For information on the configuration parameters, see Chapter 4, The DM Multipath Configuration File.
In addition, small technical corrections and clarifications have been made throughout the document.

1.1.3. New and Changed Features for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 includes the following documentation and feature updates and changes.
  • The multipathd command supports new format commands that show the status of multipath devices and paths in "raw" format versions. In raw format, no headers are printed and the fields are not padded to align the columns with the headers. Instead, the fields print exactly as specified in the format string. For information on the multipathd commands, see Section 5.11, “The multipathd Commands”.
  • As of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3, if you specify prio "alua exclusive_pref_bit" in your device configuration, multipath will create a path group that contains only the path with the pref bit set and will give that path group the highest priority. For information on the configuration parameters, see Chapter 4, The DM Multipath Configuration File.
  • The defaults, devices, and multipaths sections of the multipath.conf configuration file now support the skip_kpartx configuration parameter. For information on the configuration parameters, see Chapter 4, The DM Multipath Configuration File.
In addition, small technical corrections and clarifications have been made throughout the document.

1.1.4. New and Changed Features for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 includes the following documentation and feature updates and changes.
  • The defaults, devices, and multipaths sections of the multipath.conf configuration file support the max_sectors_kb configuration parameter. For information on the configuration parameters, see Chapter 4, The DM Multipath Configuration File.
  • The defaults and devices sections of the multipath.conf configuration file support the detect_path_checker configuration parameter. For information on the configuration parameters, see Chapter 4, The DM Multipath Configuration File.
  • The defaults section of the multipath.conf configuration file supports the remove_retries and detect_path_checker parameters. The defaults section of the multipath.conf file is documented in Table 4.1, “Multipath Configuration Defaults”.

1.1.5. New and Changed Features for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 includes the following documentation and feature updates and changes.

1.1.6. New and Changed Features for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 includes the following documentation and feature updates and changes.
Red Hat logoGithubRedditYoutubeTwitter

Learn

Try, buy, & sell

Communities

About Red Hat Documentation

We help Red Hat users innovate and achieve their goals with our products and services with content they can trust.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. For more details, see the Red Hat Blog.

About Red Hat

We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.

© 2024 Red Hat, Inc.