5.5. Multipath Command Output

When you create, modify, or list a multipath device, you get a printout of the current device setup. The format is as follows.

For each multipath device:

 action_if_any: alias (wwid_if_different_from_alias) dm_device_name_if_known vendor,product size=size features='features' hwhandler='hardware_handler' wp=write_permission_if_known

For each path group:

-+- policy='scheduling_policy' prio=prio_if_known status=path_group_status_if_known

For each path:

 `- host:channel:id:lun devnode major:minor path_status dm_status_if_known

For example, the output of a multipath command might appear as follows:

3600d0230000000000e13955cc3757800 dm-1 WINSYS,SF2372
size=269G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=rw
|-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=active
| `- 6:0:0:0 sdb 8:16  active ready  running
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=enabled
  `- 7:0:0:0 sdf 8:80  active ready  running

If the path is up and ready for I/O, the status of the path is ready or active. If the path is down, the status is faulty or failed. The path status is updated periodically by the multipathd daemon based on the polling interval defined in the /etc/multipath.conf file.

The dm status is similar to the path status, but from the kernel's point of view. The dm status has two states: failed, which is analogous to faulty, and active which covers all other path states. Occasionally, the path state and the dm state of a device will temporarily not agree.

Note

When a multipath device is being created or modified, the path group status, the dm device name, the write permissions, and the dm status are not known. Also, the features are not always correct.