第 1 章 Overview of device mapper multipathing


DM Multipath provides redundancy through failover in active/passive configurations and improved performance by spreading I/O across multiple paths in active/active mode.

DM Multipath provides:

Redundancy

DM Multipath can provide failover in an active/passive configuration. In an active/passive configuration, only a subset of the paths is used at any time for I/O. If any element of an I/O path such as the cable, switch, or controller fails, DM Multipath switches to an alternate path. For more information, see:

  • multipath(8) and multipathd(8) man pages on your system
  • /etc/multipath.conf file
注意

The number of paths is dependent on the setup. Usually, DM Multipath setups have 2, 4, or 8 paths to the storage, but this is a common setup and other numbers are possible for the paths.

Improved Performance
DM Multipath can be configured in an active/active mode, where I/O is spread over the paths in a round-robin fashion. In some configurations, DM Multipath can detect loading on the I/O paths and dynamically rebalance the load.

Active/passive configuration provides redundant I/O paths through dual HBAs and SAN switches to a single RAID device, enabling automatic failover when path components fail.

In this configuration, there are two Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) on the server, two SAN switches, and two RAID controllers. Following are the possible failure in this configuration:

  • HBA failure
  • Fibre Channel cable failure
  • SAN switch failure
  • Array controller port failure

With DM Multipath configured, a failure at any of these points causes DM Multipath to switch to the alternate I/O path. The following image describes the configuration with two I/O paths from the server to a RAID device. Here, there is one I/O path that goes through hba1, SAN1, and cntrlr1 and a second I/O path that goes through hba2, SAN2, and cntrlr2.

图 1.1. Active/Passive multipath configuration with one RAID device

Active/Passive multipath configuration with one RAID device
Red Hat logoGithubredditYoutubeTwitter

学习

尝试、购买和销售

社区

关于红帽文档

通过我们的产品和服务,以及可以信赖的内容,帮助红帽用户创新并实现他们的目标。 了解我们当前的更新.

让开源更具包容性

红帽致力于替换我们的代码、文档和 Web 属性中存在问题的语言。欲了解更多详情,请参阅红帽博客.

關於紅帽

我们提供强化的解决方案,使企业能够更轻松地跨平台和环境(从核心数据中心到网络边缘)工作。

Theme

© 2026 Red Hat
返回顶部