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Chapter 4. The DM-Multipath Configuration File

4.1. Configuration File Overview
4.2. Configuration File Blacklist
4.2.1. Blacklisting by WWID
4.2.2. Blacklisting By Device Name
4.2.3. Blacklisting By Device Type
4.2.4. Blacklist Exceptions
4.3. Configuration File Defaults
4.4. Multipaths Device Configuration Attributes
4.5. Configuration File Devices
By default, DM-Multipath provides configuration values for the most common uses of multipathing. In addition, DM-Multipath includes support for the most common storage arrays that support DM-Multipath. The default configuration values and the supported devices can be found in the /usr/share/doc/device-mapper-multipath-0.4.9/multipath.conf.defaults file.
You can override the default configuration values for DM-Multipath by editing the /etc/multipath.conf configuration file. If necessary, you can also add a storage array that is not supported by default to the configuration file. This chapter provides information on parsing and modifying the multipath.conf file. It contains sections on the following topics:
In the multipath configuration file, you need to specify only the sections that you need for your configuration, or that you wish to change from the default values specified in the multipath.conf.defaults file. If there are sections of the file that are not relevant to your environment or for which you do not need to override the default values, you can leave them commented out, as they are in the initial file.
The configuration file allows regular expression description syntax.
An annotated version of the configuration file can be found in /usr/share/doc/device-mapper-multipath-0.4.9/multipath.conf.annotated.

4.1. Configuration File Overview

The multipath configuration file is divided into the following sections:
blacklist
Listing of specific devices that will not be considered for multipath.
blacklist_exceptions
Listing of multipath candidates that would otherwise be blacklisted according to the parameters of the blacklist section.
defaults
General default settings for DM-Multipath.
multipaths
Settings for the characteristics of individual multipath devices. These values overwrite what is specified in the defaults and devices sections of the configuration file.
devices
Settings for the individual storage controllers. These values overwrite what is specified in the defaults section of the configuration file. If you are using a storage array that is not supported by default, you may need to create a devices subsection for your array.
When the system determines the attributes of a multipath device, first it checks the multipath settings, then the per devices settings, then the multipath system defaults.