2.2. Consistent Multipath Device Names in a Cluster
When the
user_friendly_names
configuration option is set to yes
, the name of the multipath device is unique to a node, but it is not guaranteed to be the same on all nodes using the multipath device. Similarly, if you set the alias
option for a device in the multipaths
section of the multipath.conf
configuration file, the name is not automatically consistent across all nodes in the cluster. This should not cause any difficulties if you use LVM to create logical devices from the multipath device, but if you require that your multipath device names be consistent in every node it is recommended that you not set the user_friendly_names
option to yes
and that you not configure aliases for the devices. By default, if you do not set user_friendly_names
to yes
or configure an alias for a device, a device name will be the WWID for the device, which is always the same.
If you want the system-defined user-friendly names to be consistent across all nodes in the cluster, however, you can follow this procedure:
- Set up all of the multipath devices on one machine.
- Disable all multipath devices on other machines by running the following commands:
#
systemctl stop multipathd.service
#multipath -F
- Copy the
/etc/multipath/bindings
file from the first machine to all the other machines in the cluster. - Re-enable the
multipathd
daemon on all the other machines in the cluster by running the following command:#
systemctl start multipathd.service
If you add a new device, you will need to repeat this process.
Similarly, if you configure an alias for a device that you would like to be consistent across the nodes in the cluster, you should ensure that the
/etc/multipath.conf
file is the same for each node in the cluster by following the same procedure:
- Configure the aliases for the multipath devices in the
multipath.conf
file on one machine. - Disable all multipath devices on other machines by running the following commands:
#
systemctl stop multipathd.service
#multipath -F
- Copy the
/etc/multipath.conf
file from the first machine to all the other machines in the cluster. - Re-enable the
multipathd
daemon on all the other machines in the cluster by running the following command:#
systemctl start multipathd.service
When you add a new device you will need to repeat this process.