3.2. Ignoring Local Disks when Generating Multipath Devices

Some machines have local SCSI cards for their internal disks. DM-Multipath is not recommended for these devices. If you set the find_multipaths configuration parameter to yes, you should not have to blacklist these devices. For information on the find_multipaths configuration parameter, see Section 4.3, “Configuration File Defaults”.

If you do not set the find_multipaths configuration parameter to yes, can use the following procedure to modify the multipath configuration file to ignore the local disks when configuring multipath.

Determine which disks are the internal disks and mark them as the ones to blacklist.

In this example, /dev/sda is the internal disk. Note that as originally configured in the default multipath configuration file, executing the multipath -v2 shows the local disk, /dev/sda, in the multipath map.

For further information on the multipath command output, see Section 5.5, “Multipath Command Output”.

[root@rh4cluster1 ~]# multipath -v2
create: SIBM-ESXSST336732LC____F3ET0EP0Q000072428BX1 undef WINSYS,SF2372
size=33 GB features="0" hwhandler="0" wp=undef
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=undef
  |- 0:0:0:0 sda 8:0  [--------- 

device-mapper ioctl cmd 9 failed: Invalid argument
device-mapper ioctl cmd 14 failed: No such device or address
create: 3600a0b80001327d80000006d43621677 undef WINSYS,SF2372
size=12G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=undef
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=undef
  |- 2:0:0:0 sdb 8:16  undef ready  running
  `- 3:0:0:0 sdf 8:80 undef ready  running

create: 3600a0b80001327510000009a436215ec undef WINSYS,SF2372
size=12G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=undef
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=undef
  |- 2:0:0:1 sdc 8:32 undef ready  running
  `- 3:0:0:1 sdg 8:96 undef ready  running

create: 3600a0b80001327d800000070436216b3 undef WINSYS,SF2372
size=12G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=undef
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=undef
  |- 2:0:0:2 sdd 8:48 undef ready  running
  `- 3:0:0:2 sdg 8:112 undef ready  running

create: 3600a0b80001327510000009b4362163e undef WINSYS,SF2372
size=12G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=undef
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=undef
  |- 2:0:0:3 sdd 8:64 undef ready  running
  `- 3:0:0:3 sdg 8:128 undef ready  running

In order to prevent the device mapper from mapping /dev/sda in its multipath maps, edit the blacklist section of the /etc/multipath.conf file to include this device. Although you could blacklist the sda device using a devnode type, that would not be safe procedure since /dev/sda is not guaranteed to be the same on reboot. To blacklist individual devices, you can blacklist using the WWID of that device.
Note that in the output to the multipath -v2 command, the WWID of the /dev/sda device is SIBM-ESXSST336732LC____F3ET0EP0Q000072428BX1. To blacklist this device, include the following in the /etc/multipath.conf file.
```
blacklist {
      wwid SIBM-ESXSST336732LC____F3ET0EP0Q000072428BX1
}
```
After you have updated the /etc/multipath.conf file, you must manually tell the multipathd daemon to reload the file. The following command reloads the updated /etc/multipath.conf file.
```
[root@rh4cluster1 ~]# service multipathd reload
```

Run the following command to remove the multipath device:

[root@rh4cluster1 ~]# multipath -f SIBM-ESXSST336732LC____F3ET0EP0Q000072428BX1

To check whether the device removal worked, you can run the multipath -ll command to display the current multipath configuration. For information on the multipath -ll command, see Section 5.6, “Multipath Queries with multipath Command”.

To check that the blacklisted device was not added back, you can run the multipath command, as in the following example. The multipath command defaults to a verbosity level of v2 if you do not specify specify a -v option.

[root@rh4cluster1 ~]# multipath

create: 3600a0b80001327d80000006d43621677 undef WINSYS,SF2372
size=12G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=undef
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=undef
  |- 2:0:0:0 sdb 8:16  undef ready  running
  `- 3:0:0:0 sdf 8:80 undef ready  running

create: 3600a0b80001327510000009a436215ec undef WINSYS,SF2372
size=12G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=undef
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=undef
  |- 2:0:0:1 sdc 8:32 undef ready  running
  `- 3:0:0:1 sdg 8:96 undef ready  running

create: 3600a0b80001327d800000070436216b3 undef WINSYS,SF2372
size=12G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=undef
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=undef
  |- 2:0:0:2 sdd 8:48 undef ready  running
  `- 3:0:0:2 sdg 8:112 undef ready  running

create: 3600a0b80001327510000009b4362163e undef WINSYS,SF2372
size=12G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=undef
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=undef
  |- 2:0:0:3 sdd 8:64 undef ready  running
  `- 3:0:0:3 sdg 8:128 undef ready  running