Provided by: multipath-tools_0.9.9-1ubuntu3_amd64 bug

NAME

       /etc/multipath.conf, /etc/multipath/conf.d/*.conf - multipath daemon configuration file.

DESCRIPTION

       /etc/multipath.conf  is  the  configuration  file  for  the multipath daemon. It is used to overwrite the
       built-in configuration table of multipathd.  Any line whose first non-white-space character is a  '#'  is
       considered a comment line. Empty lines are ignored.

       Currently  used multipathd configuration can be displayed with the multipath -t or multipathd show config
       command.

       Additional configuration can be made in drop-in files under /etc/multipath/conf.d.  Files ending in .conf
       in this directory are read in alphabetical order, after reading /etc/multipath.conf.  They use  the  same
       syntax  as  /etc/multipath.conf itself, and support all sections and keywords. If a keyword occurs in the
       same section in multiple files, the last occurrence will take precedence over all others.

SYNTAX

       The configuration file contains entries of the form:

              <section> {
                     <attribute> <value>
                     ...
                     <subsection> {
                            <attribute> <value>
                            ...
                     }
              }

       Each section contains one or more attributes or subsections. The recognized keywords  for  attributes  or
       subsections depend on the section in which they occur.

       <attribute>  and <value> must be on a single line.  <attribute> is one of the keywords listed in this man
       page.  <value> is either a simple word (containing no whitespace and none of the characters '"', '#', and
       '!') or one string enclosed in double quotes ("..."). Outside a quoted string, text  starting  with  '#',
       and  '!'  is regarded as a comment and ignored until the end of the line. Inside a quoted string, '#' and
       '!' are normal characters, and whitespace is preserved.  To represent a double quote character  inside  a
       double  quoted string, use two consecutive double quotes ('""'). Thus '2.5" SSD' can be written as "2.5""
       SSD".

       Opening braces ('{') must follow the (sub)section name on the same line. Closing braces ('}')  that  mark
       the  end  of  a (sub)section must be the only non-whitespace character on the line. Whitespace is ignored
       except inside double quotes, thus the indentation shown in the above example is helpful for human readers
       but not mandatory.

       Note on regular expressions: The /etc/multipath.conf syntax allows many attribute values to be  specified
       as  POSIX  Extended  Regular Expressions (see regex(7)). These regular expressions are case-sensitive and
       not anchored, thus the expression "bar" matches "barbie", "rhabarber", and "wunderbar", but not "Barbie".
       To avoid unwanted substring matches, standard regular expression syntax using the special characters  "^"
       and "$" can be used.

       The following section keywords are recognized:

       defaults         This section defines default values for attributes which are used whenever no values are
                        given in the appropriate device or multipath sections.

       blacklist        This  section  defines  which  devices  should  be  excluded from the multipath topology
                        discovery.

       blacklist_exceptions
                        This section defines  which  devices  should  be  included  in  the  multipath  topology
                        discovery, despite being listed in the blacklist section.

       multipaths       This  section  defines  the  multipath  topologies.  They  are  indexed  by a World Wide
                        Identifier(WWID). For details on the WWID generation see section WWID generation  below.
                        Attributes set in this section take precedence over all others.

       devices          This  section  defines  the  device-specific settings. Devices are identified by vendor,
                        product, and revision.

       overrides        This section defines values for attributes  that  should  override  the  device-specific
                        settings for all devices.

defaults section

       The defaults section recognizes the following keywords:

       verbosity        Default  verbosity. Higher values increase the verbosity level. Valid levels are between
                        0 and 6.

                        The default is: 2

       polling_interval Interval between two path  checks  in  seconds.  For  properly  functioning  paths,  the
                        interval  between  checks  will  gradually increase to max_polling_interval.  This value
                        will be overridden by the WatchdogSec setting in the  multipathd.service  definition  if
                        systemd is used.

                        The default is: 5

       max_polling_interval
                        Maximal interval between two path checks in seconds.

                        The default is: 4 * polling_interval

       reassign_maps    Enable  reassigning  of  device-mapper  maps.  With  this  option  multipathd will remap
                        existing device-mapper maps to always point to  multipath  device,  not  the  underlying
                        block devices. Possible values are yes and no.

                        The default is: no

       multipath_dir    (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.

       path_selector    The  default  path  selector  algorithm to use; they are offered by the kernel multipath
                        target:

                        round-robin 0
                                    Loop through every path in the path group, sending the same amount of I/O to
                                    each. Some aspects of  behavior  can  be  controlled  with  the  attributes:
                                    rr_min_io, rr_min_io_rq and rr_weight.

                        queue-length 0
                                    (Since 2.6.31 kernel) Choose the path for the next bunch of I/O based on the
                                    amount of outstanding I/O to the path.

                        service-time 0
                                    (Since 2.6.31 kernel) Choose the path for the next bunch of I/O based on the
                                    amount of outstanding I/O to the path and its relative throughput.

                        historical-service-time 0
                                    (Since  5.8  kernel)  Choose the path for the next bunch of I/O based on the
                                    estimation of future service time based  on  the  history  of  previous  I/O
                                    submitted to each path.

                        The default is: service-time 0

       path_grouping_policy
                        The  default  path  grouping  policy to apply to unspecified multipaths. Possible values
                        are:

                        failover    One path per priority group.

                        multibus    All paths in one priority group.

                        group_by_serial
                                    One priority group per serial number.

                        group_by_prio
                                    One priority group per priority value. Priorities are determined by  callout
                                    programs  specified  as  a global, per-controller or per-multipath option in
                                    the configuration file.

                        group_by_node_name
                                    One priority group per target node name. Target node names  are  fetched  in
                                    /sys/class/fc_transport/target*/node_name.

                        group_by_tpg
                                    One  priority group per ALUA target port group. In order to use this policy,
                                    all paths in the multipath device must have prio set to alua.

                        The default is: failover

       detect_pgpolicy  If set to yes and all path  devices  are  configured  with  either  the  alua  or  sysfs
                        prioritizer,   the   multipath   device   will   automatically   use  the  group_by_prio
                        path_grouping_policy. If set to no, the path_grouping_policy will be selected as usual.

                        The default is: yes

       detect_pgpolicy_use_tpg
                        If both this and detect_pgpolicy are set to yes and all path devices are configured with
                        either the alua or sysfs prioritizer, the multipath device will  automatically  use  the
                        group_by_tpg  path_grouping_policy.  If  set  to  no,  the  path_grouping_policy will be
                        selected by the method described for detect_pgpolicy above.

                        The default is: no

       pg_timeout       (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.

       uid_attrs        Setting this option  activates  merging  uevents  by  WWID,  which  may  improve  uevent
                        processing  efficiency.  Moreover,  it's  an  alternative  method  to configure the udev
                        properties to use for determining unique path identifiers (WWIDs).

                        The value of this option is a space separated list of records  like  "type:ATTR",  where
                        type  is  matched  against  the  beginning of the device node name (e.g. sd:ATTR matches
                        sda), and ATTR is the name of the udev property to use for matching devices.

                        If this option is configured and matches the device node name of a device, it  overrides
                        any other configured  methods for determining the WWID for this device.

                        This option cannot be changed during runtime with the multipathd reconfigure command.

                        The  default  is:  <unset>.  To  enable  uevent  merging,  set  it e.g. to "sd:ID_SERIAL
                        dasd:ID_UID nvme:ID_WWN".

       uid_attribute    The udev attribute providing a unique path identifier (WWID). If uid_attribute is set to
                        the empty string, WWID determination is done using the sysfs method  rather  than  using
                        udev (not recommended in production; see WWID generation below).

                        The default is: ID_SERIAL, for SCSI devices

                        The default is: ID_UID, for DASD devices

                        The default is: ID_WWN, for NVMe devices

       getuid_callout   (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.

       prio             The  name  of  the  path priority routine. The specified routine should return a numeric
                        value specifying the relative priority  of  this  path.  Higher  number  have  a  higher
                        priority.   "none"  is a valid value. Currently the following path priority routines are
                        implemented:

                        const       Return a constant priority of 1.

                        sysfs       Use the sysfs attributes access_state and  preferred_path  to  generate  the
                                    path    priority.   This   prioritizer   accepts   the   optional   prio_arg
                                    exclusive_pref_bit.

                        emc         (Hardware-dependent) Generate the path priority  for  DGC  class  arrays  as
                                    CLARiiON  CX/AX  and  EMC  VNX  families  with  Failover Mode 1 (Passive Not
                                    Ready(PNR)).

                        alua        (Hardware-dependent) Generate the path priority based  on  the  SCSI-3  ALUA
                                    settings. This prioritizer accepts the optional prio_arg exclusive_pref_bit.

                        ontap       (Hardware-dependent)  Generate  the  path  priority for NetApp ONTAP FAS/AFF
                                    Series and rebranded arrays, with ONTAP native mode(not ALUA).

                        rdac        (Hardware-dependent) Generate the path priority for LSI/Engenio/NetApp  RDAC
                                    class as NetApp SANtricity E/EF Series and rebranded arrays, with "Linux DM-
                                    MP (Kernel 3.9 or earlier)" option.

                        hp_sw       (Hardware-dependent)  Generate the path priority for HP/COMPAQ/DEC HSG80 and
                                    MSA/HSV arrays with Active/Standby mode exclusively.

                        hds         (Hardware-dependent) Generate the path priority for Hitachi AMS families  of
                                    arrays other than AMS 2000.

                        random      Generate a random priority between 1 and 10.

                        weightedpath
                                    Generate  the path priority based on the regular expression and the priority
                                    provided as argument. Requires prio_args keyword.

                        path_latency
                                    Generate the path priority based on a latency algorithm.  Requires prio_args
                                    keyword.

                        ana         (Hardware-dependent) Generate the  path  priority  based  on  the  NVMe  ANA
                                    settings.

                        datacore    (Hardware-dependent)  Generate  the  path priority for some DataCore storage
                                    arrays. Requires prio_args keyword.

                        iet         (iSCSI only) Generate path priority for iSCSI targets based on  IP  address.
                                    Requires prio_args keyword.

                        The  default  depends  on  the detect_prio setting: If detect_prio is yes (default), the
                        default priority algorithm is sysfs (except for NetAPP E/EF Series, where it  is  alua).
                        If detect_prio is no, the default priority algorithm is const.

       prio_args        Arguments to pass to to the prio function. This only applies to certain prioritizers:

                        weighted    Needs  a  value  of  the  form  "<hbtl|devname|serial|wwn>  <regex1> <prio1>
                                    <regex2> <prio2> ..."

                                    hbtl    Regex can be of SCSI H:B:T:L format. For example: 1:0:.:. , *:0:0:.

                                    devname Regex can be of device name format. For example: sda , sd.e

                                    serial  Regex can be of serial number format. For example: .*J1FR.*324 . The
                                            serial can be looked up through sysfs or by running multipathd  show
                                            paths format "%z". For example: 0395J1FR904324

                                    wwn     Regex          can          be          of          the         form
                                            "host_wwnn:host_wwpn:target_wwnn:target_wwpn" these  values  can  be
                                            looked  up  through sysfs or by running multipathd show paths format
                                            "%N:%R:%n:%r".                     For                      example:
                                            0x200100e08ba0aea0:0x210100e08ba0aea0:.*:.*                        ,
                                            .*:.*:iqn.2009-10.com.redhat.msp.lab.ask-06:.*

                        path_latency
                                    Needs a value of the form "io_num=<20> base_num=<10>"

                                    io_num  The number of read IOs sent to the current path  continuously,  used
                                            to  calculate  the average path latency.  Valid Values: Integer, [2,
                                            200].

                                    base_num
                                            The base number  value  of  logarithmic  scale,  used  to  partition
                                            different  priority  ranks.  Valid Values: Integer, [2, 10]. And Max
                                            average latency value is 100s, min average  latency  value  is  1us.
                                            For  example:  If base_num=10, the paths will be grouped in priority
                                            groups with path latency <=1us, (1us, 10us], (10us, 100us],  (100us,
                                            1ms],  (1ms,  10ms],  (10ms,  100ms],  (100ms, 1s], (1s, 10s], (10s,
                                            100s], >100s.

                        alua        If exclusive_pref_bit is set, paths with the preferred  path  bit  set  will
                                    always be in their own path group.

                        sysfs       If  exclusive_pref_bit  is  set,  paths with the preferred path bit set will
                                    always be in their own path group.

                        datacore

                                    preferredsds
                                            (Mandatory) The preferred "SDS name".

                                    timeout (Optional) The timeout for the INQUIRY, in ms.

                        iet

                                    preferredip=...
                                            (Mandatory) Th preferred IP address, in dotted decimal notation, for
                                            iSCSI targets.

                        The default is: <unset>

       features         Specify any device-mapper features to be used. Syntax is  num  list  where  num  is  the
                        number, between 0 and 8, of features in list.  Possible values for the feature list are:

                        queue_if_no_path
                                    (Deprecated,  superseded  by  no_path_retry) Queue I/O if no path is active.
                                    Identical to the no_path_retry with queue value. If both  this  feature  and
                                    no_path_retry are set, the latter value takes precedence. See KNOWN ISSUES.

                        pg_init_retries <times>
                                    (Since kernel 2.6.24) Number of times to retry pg_init, it must be between 1
                                    and 50.

                        pg_init_delay_msecs <msecs>
                                    (Since  kernel  2.6.38)  Number  of  msecs  before pg_init retry, it must be
                                    between 0 and 60000.

                        queue_mode <mode>
                                    (Since kernel 4.8) Select the queueing mode per  multipath  device.   <mode>
                                    can  be  bio,  rq  or mq, which corresponds to bio-based, request-based, and
                                    block-multiqueue (blk-mq) request-based, respectively.  Before  kernel  4.20
                                    The  default  depends on the kernel parameter dm_mod.use_blk_mq. It is mq if
                                    the latter is set, and rq otherwise. Since  kernel  4.20,  rq  and  mq  both
                                    correspond  to  block-multiqueue.  Once a multipath device has been created,
                                    its queue_mode cannot be changed.  nvme:tcp  paths  are  only  supported  in
                                    multipath  devices  with queue_mode set to bio. multipath will automatically
                                    set this when creating a device with nvme:tcp paths.

                        The default is: 0

       path_checker     The default method used to determine the path's state.  The  synchronous  checkers  (all
                        except  tur  and  directio)  will cause multipathd to pause most activity, waiting up to
                        checker_timeout seconds for the path to respond.  The  asynchronous  checkers  (tur  and
                        directio)  will not pause multipathd. Instead, multipathd will check for a response once
                        per second, until checker_timeout seconds have elapsed. Possible values are:

                        readsector0 (Deprecated) Read the first sector of the  device.  This  checker  is  being
                                    deprecated, please use tur or directio instead.

                        tur         Issue a TEST UNIT READY command to the device.

                        emc_clariion
                                    (Hardware-dependent)  Query the DGC/EMC specific EVPD page 0xC0 to determine
                                    the path state for CLARiiON CX/AX and EMC VNX and Unity arrays families.

                        hp_sw       (Hardware-dependent) Check  the  path  state  for  HP/COMPAQ/DEC  HSG80  and
                                    MSA/HSV arrays with Active/Standby mode exclusively.

                        rdac        (Hardware-dependent)  Check the path state for LSI/Engenio/NetApp RDAC class
                                    as NetApp SANtricity E/EF Series, and rebranded arrays.

                        directio    Read the first sector with direct I/O. This  checker  could  cause  spurious
                                    path  failures  under  high  load.  Increasing checker_timeout can help with
                                    this.

                        cciss_tur   (Hardware-dependent) Check the path state for HP/COMPAQ  Smart  Array(CCISS)
                                    controllers.

                        none        Do not check the device, fallback to use the values retrieved from sysfs

                        The default is: tur

       alias_prefix     The user_friendly_names prefix.

                        The default is: mpath

       failback         Tell multipathd how to manage path group failback.  To select immediate or a value, it's
                        mandatory that the device has support for a working prioritizer.

                        immediate   Immediately  failback to the highest priority pathgroup that contains active
                                    paths.

                        manual      Do not perform automatic failback.

                        followover  Used to deal with  multiple  computers  accessing  the  same  Active/Passive
                                    storage  devices.  Only  perform automatic failback when the first path of a
                                    pathgroup becomes active. This  keeps  a  cluster  node  from  automatically
                                    failing back when another node requested the failover.

                        values > 0  Deferred failback (time to defer in seconds).

                        The default is: manual

       rr_min_io        Number  of I/O requests to route to a path before switching to the next in the same path
                        group. This is only for Block I/O(BIO) based multipath and  only  apply  to  round-robin
                        path_selector.

                        The default is: 1000

       rr_min_io_rq     Number  of I/O requests to route to a path before switching to the next in the same path
                        group. This  is  only  for  Request  based  multipath  and  only  apply  to  round-robin
                        path_selector.

                        The default is: 1

       max_fds          Specify  the  maximum  number  of  file  descriptors that can be opened by multipath and
                        multipathd. This is equivalent to ulimit -n. A value of max will set this to the  system
                        limit  from  /proc/sys/fs/nr_open.  If  this is not set, the maximum number of open file
                        descriptors is taken from the calling process. It is usually  1024.  To  be  safe,  this
                        should  be  set  to  the maximum number of paths plus 32, if that number is greater than
                        1024.

                        The default is: max

       rr_weight        If set to priorities the multipath configurator will assign path weights as "path prio *
                        rr_min_io". Possible values are priorities or  uniform  .   Only  apply  to  round-robin
                        path_selector.

                        The default is: uniform

       no_path_retry    Specify what to do when all paths are down. Possible values are:

                        value > 0   Number of retries until disable I/O queueing.

                        fail        For immediate failure (no I/O queueing).

                        queue       For never stop I/O queueing, similar to queue_if_no_path. See KNOWN ISSUES.

                        The default is: fail

       queue_without_daemon
                        If set to no , when multipathd stops, queueing will be turned off for all devices.  This
                        is  useful for devices that set no_path_retry. If a machine is shut down while all paths
                        to a device are down, it is possible to hang waiting for I/O to return from  the  device
                        after  multipathd  has  been  stopped.  Without  multipathd running, access to the paths
                        cannot be restored, and the  kernel  cannot  be  told  to  stop  queueing  I/O.  Setting
                        queue_without_daemon to no , avoids this problem.

                        The default is: no

       checker_timeout  Specify  the  timeout  to  use  for  path  checkers  and prioritizers, in seconds.  Only
                        prioritizers that issue scsi commands use checker_timeout.  If a path does  not  respond
                        to  the  checker  command  after  checker_timeout seconds have elapsed, it is considered
                        down.

                        The default is: in /sys/block/<dev>/device/timeout

       allow_usb_devices
                        If set to no , all USB devices will be skipped during path discovery. If you  intend  to
                        use multipath on USB attached devices, set this to yes.

                        The default is: no

       flush_on_last_del
                        If  set  to always , multipathd will disable queueing when the last path to a device has
                        been deleted. If set to never , multipathd will not disable queueing when the last  path
                        to  a  device  has  been  deleted.  Since  multipath cannot safely remove a device while
                        queueing is enabled, setting this to never means that multipathd will not  automatically
                        remove  an unused multipath device whose paths are all deleted if it is currently set to
                        queue_if_no_path. If set to unused , multipathd will only disable queueing when the last
                        path is removed if nothing currently has the multipath  device  or  any  of  the  kpartx
                        partition devices on top of it open.

                        The default is: unused

       user_friendly_names
                        If  set  to yes , using the bindings file /etc/multipath/bindings to assign a persistent
                        and unique alias to the multipath, in the form of mpath<n>. If set to no use the WWID as
                        the alias. In either case this be will be overridden by  any  specific  aliases  in  the
                        multipaths section.

                        The default is: no

       fast_io_fail_tmo Specify the number of seconds the SCSI layer will wait after a problem has been detected
                        on  a  FC remote port before failing I/O to devices on that remote port.  This should be
                        smaller than dev_loss_tmo. Setting this to off will disable the timeout.

                        The default is: 5

       dev_loss_tmo     Specify the number of seconds the SCSI layer will wait after a connection loss has  been
                        detected  on  a  remote  port  before  removing  it  from the system. This can be set to
                        "infinity", which effectively means 136 years (2^32-1 seconds).  This parameter is  only
                        applied to Fibre Channel and SAS devices.

                        The  value  of dev_loss_tmo is restricted by other settings.  If fast_io_fail_tmo is set
                        to a positive value, multipathd will make sure that the value of dev_loss_tmo is  larger
                        than  no_path_retry  *  polling_interval.   If  fast_io_fail_tmo  is not set, the kernel
                        limits the dev_loss_tmo value to 600 seconds.  In this case, the user has to  make  sure
                        that  no_path_retry  is  smaller  than  dev_loss_tmo  / polling_interval. In particular,
                        no_path_retry must not be set to "queue". See KNOWN ISSUES.

                        When path devices reappear after a connection loss, it is much easier for the kernel  to
                        simply  reactivate  an  inactive  device  than to re-add a previously deleted one. It is
                        therefore recommended to set dev_loss_tmo to  a  large  value  within  the  restrictions
                        mentioned above.

                        Fibre Channel and SAS devices have hardware-dependent defaults, which are left unchanged
                        if dev_loss_tmo is not specified. For a few storage arrays, the multipath-tools built-in
                        settings override the default. Run multipath -T to see the settings for your device.

                        The default is: <hardware dependent>

       eh_deadline      Specify  the  maximum  number  of seconds the SCSI layer will spend doing error handling
                        when scsi devices fail. After this timeout the scsi layer will perform a full HBA reset.
                        Setting  this  may  be  necessary  in  cases  where  the  rport  is   never   lost,   so
                        fast_io_fail_tmo  and dev_loss_tmo will never trigger, but (frequently due to load) scsi
                        commands still hang. Note: when the scsi error  handler  performs  the  HBA  reset,  all
                        target paths on that HBA will be affected. eh_deadline should only be set in cases where
                        all targets on the affected HBAs are multipathed.

                        The default is: <unset>

       max_retries      Specify the maximum number of times the SCSI layer will retry IO commands for some types
                        of  SCSI errors before returning failure. Setting this can be helpful for cases where IO
                        commands hang and timeout. By default, the SCSI layer will retry IOs 5  times.  Reducing
                        this  value  will allow multipath to retry the IO down another path sooner. Valid values
                        are 0 through 5.

                        The default is: <unset>

       bindings_file    (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.

                        The compiled-in value is: /etc/multipath/bindings

       wwids_file       (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.

                        The compiled-in value is: /etc/multipath/wwids

       prkeys_file      (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.

                        The compiled-in value is: /etc/multipath/prkeys

       log_checker_err  If set to once , multipathd logs the first path checker error at logging  level  2.  Any
                        later  errors  are  logged  at  level 3 until the device is restored. If set to always ,
                        multipathd always logs the path checker error at logging level 2.

                        The default is: always

       reservation_key  This is the service action reservation key used by mpathpersist. It must be set for  all
                        multipath  devices  using  persistent  reservations,  and  it  must  be  the same as the
                        RESERVATION KEY field of the PERSISTENT RESERVE OUT parameter  list  which  contains  an
                        8-byte value provided by the application client to the device server to identify the I_T
                        nexus.  If  the --param-aptpl option is used when registering the key with mpathpersist,
                        :aptpl must be appended to the end of the reservation key.

                        Alternatively, this can be set to file, which will store the RESERVATION KEY  registered
                        by  mpathpersist  in  the  prkeys_file.  multipathd  will  then use this key to register
                        additional paths as they appear.  When the registration is removed, the RESERVATION  KEY
                        is  removed  from  the  prkeys_file.  The  prkeys  file will automatically keep track of
                        whether the key was registered with --param-aptpl.

                        The default is: <unset>

       all_tg_pt        Set the 'all targets ports' flag when registering keys with  mpathpersist.  Some  arrays
                        automatically  set  and clear registration keys on all target ports from a host, instead
                        of per target port per host.  The  ALL_TG_PT  flag  must  be  set  to  successfully  use
                        mpathpersist  on  these arrays. Setting this option is identical to calling mpathpersist
                        with --param-alltgpt

                        The default is: no

       retain_attached_hw_handler
                        (Obsolete for kernels >= 4.3) If set to yes and the SCSI layer has  already  attached  a
                        hardware_handler  to  the  device,  multipath  will  not  force  the  device  to use the
                        hardware_handler specified by /etc/multipath.conf. If the SCSI layer has not attached  a
                        hardware handler, multipath will continue to use its configured hardware handler.

                        The default is: yes

                        Important    Note:    Linux    kernel    4.3    or    newer   always   behaves   as   if
                        "retain_attached_hw_handler yes" was set.

       detect_prio      If set to yes , multipath will try to detect if the device supports SCSI-3 ALUA. If  so,
                        the device will automatically use the sysfs prioritizer if the required sysfs attributes
                        access_state and preferred_path are supported, or the alua prioritizer if not. If set to
                        no , the prioritizer will be selected as usual.

                        The default is: yes

       detect_checker   if  set to yes , multipath will try to detect if the device supports SCSI-3 ALUA. If so,
                        the device will automatically use the tur checker. If set to no , the  checker  will  be
                        selected as usual.

                        The default is: yes

       force_sync       If  set  to  yes , multipathd will call the path checkers in sync mode only.  This means
                        that only one checker will run at a time.   This  is  useful  in  the  case  where  many
                        multipathd checkers running in parallel causes significant CPU pressure.

                        The default is: no

       strict_timing    If  set to yes , multipathd will start a new path checker loop after exactly one second,
                        so that each path check will occur at exactly polling_interval seconds. On busy  systems
                        path  checks might take longer than one second; here the missing ticks will be accounted
                        for on the next round.  A warning will be  printed  if  path  checks  take  longer  than
                        polling_interval seconds.

                        The default is: no

       deferred_remove  If  set  to  yes , multipathd will do a deferred remove instead of a regular remove when
                        the last path device has been deleted.  This means that if the multipath device is still
                        in use, it will be freed when the last  user  closes  it.   If  path  is  added  to  the
                        multipath device before the last user closes it, the deferred remove will be canceled.

                        The default is: no

       partition_delimiter
                        This  parameter  controls  how  multipath  chooses  the  names  of  partition devices of
                        multipath maps if a multipath map is renamed (e.g. if a map alias is added or  changed).
                        If  this  parameter  is  set  to  a string other than "/UNSET/" (even the empty string),
                        multipath inserts that string between device name and partition number to construct  the
                        partition  device  name.   Otherwise  (i.e.  if this parameter is unset or has the value
                        "/UNSET/"), the behavior depends on the map name: if it  ends  in  a  digit,  a  "p"  is
                        inserted  between  name  and partition number; otherwise, the partition number is simply
                        appended.  Distributions may use a non-null default value for this option; in this case,
                        the user must set it to "/UNSET/" to obtain the original <unset> behavior. Use multipath
                        -T to check the current settings.

                        The default is: <unset>

       config_dir       (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.

                        The compiled-in value is: /etc/multipath/conf.d

       san_path_err_threshold
                        If set to a value greater than 0, multipathd will watch paths and check how many times a
                        path has been failed due to errors.If the number of failures on  a  particular  path  is
                        greater  than  the  san_path_err_threshold,  then  the  path  will  not  reinstate  till
                        san_path_err_recovery_time.   These   path    failures    should    occur    within    a
                        san_path_err_forget_rate  checks,  if  not  we  will consider the path is good enough to
                        reinstate. See "Shaky paths detection" below.

                        The default is: no

       san_path_err_forget_rate
                        If set to a value greater than 0, multipathd will check whether the  path  failures  has
                        exceeded      the     san_path_err_threshold     within    this    many    checks    i.e
                        san_path_err_forget_rate   .   If   so   we   will   not   reinstate   the   path   till
                        san_path_err_recovery_time. See "Shaky paths detection" below.

                        The default is: no

       san_path_err_recovery_time
                        If  set to a value greater than 0, multipathd will make sure that when path failures has
                        exceeded the san_path_err_threshold within san_path_err_forget_rate then the  path  will
                        be    placed    in    failed    state   for   san_path_err_recovery_time   duration.Once
                        san_path_err_recovery_time  has  timeout   we  will  reinstate   the   failed   path   .
                        san_path_err_recovery_time value should be in secs.  See "Shaky paths detection" below.

                        The default is: no

       marginal_path_double_failed_time
                        One of the four parameters of supporting path check based on accounting IO error such as
                        intermittent     error.    When    a    path    failed    event    occurs    twice    in
                        marginal_path_double_failed_time seconds due to an IO error  and  all  the  other  three
                        parameters  are set, multipathd will fail the path and enqueue this path into a queue of
                        which members are sent a couple of continuous direct reading asynchronous IOs at a fixed
                        sample rate of 10HZ to start IO error accounting process. See  "Shaky  paths  detection"
                        below.

                        The default is: no

       marginal_path_err_sample_time
                        One of the four parameters of supporting path check based on accounting IO error such as
                        intermittent  error.  If  it  is set to a value no less than 120, when a path fail event
                        occurs twice in marginal_path_double_failed_time second due to an IO  error,  multipathd
                        will fail the path and enqueue this path into a queue of which members are sent a couple
                        of  continuous  direct  reading asynchronous IOs at a fixed sample rate of 10HZ to start
                        the IO accounting process for the path will last for marginal_path_err_sample_time.   If
                        the    rate    of    IO   error   on   a   particular   path   is   greater   than   the
                        marginal_path_err_rate_threshold,   then   the   path    will    not    reinstate    for
                        marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time  seconds  unless there is only one active path. After
                        marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time expires, the path will be requeued for rechecking. If
                        checking result is good enough, the path will be reinstated. See "Shaky paths detection"
                        below.

                        The default is: no

       marginal_path_err_rate_threshold
                        The error rate threshold as a  permillage  (1/1000).  One  of  the  four  parameters  of
                        supporting  path check based on accounting IO error such as intermittent error. Refer to
                        marginal_path_err_sample_time. If the rate of IO errors on a particular path is  greater
                        than     this     parameter,     then     the    path    will    not    reinstate    for
                        marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time seconds unless there is only  one  active  path.  See
                        "Shaky paths detection" below.

                        The default is: no

       marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time
                        One of the four parameters of supporting path check based on accounting IO error such as
                        intermittent  error. Refer to marginal_path_err_sample_time. If this parameter is set to
                        a positive value,  the  failed  path  of   which  the  IO  error  rate  is  larger  than
                        marginal_path_err_rate_threshold     will     be    kept    in    failed    state    for
                        marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time  seconds.   When   marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time
                        seconds  expires,  the  path  will  be requeued for checking. If checking result is good
                        enough, the path will be reinstated, or else it  will  keep  failed.  See  "Shaky  paths
                        detection" below.

                        The default is: no

       delay_watch_checks
                        (Deprecated) This option is deprecated, and mapped to san_path_err_forget_rate.  If this
                        is   set   to   a   value   greater   than  0  and  no  san_path_err  options  are  set,
                        san_path_err_forget_rate  will  be  set  to  the   value   of   delay_watch_checks   and
                        san_path_err_threshold   will  be  set  to  1.   See  the  san_path_err_forget_rate  and
                        san_path_err_threshold options, and "Shaky paths detection" below for more information.

                        The default is: no

       delay_wait_checks
                        (Deprecated) This option is deprecated, and mapped  to  san_path_err_recovery_time.   If
                        this  is  set  to  a  value  greater  than  0  and  no  san_path_err  options  are  set,
                        san_path_err_recovery_time  will  be  set  to  the  value  of  delay_wait_checks   times
                        max_polling_interval.   This   will   give   approximately   the   same   wait  time  as
                        delay_wait_checks previously did.  Also, san_path_err_threshold will be set  to  1.  See
                        the  san_path_err_recovery_time  and  san_path_err_threshold  options,  and "Shaky paths
                        detection" below for more information.

                        The default is: no

       marginal_pathgroups
                        If set to off, the delay_*_checks, marginal_path_*, and san_path_err_* options will keep
                        marginal, or "shaky", paths from being reinstated until they  have  been  monitored  for
                        some time. This can cause situations where all non-marginal paths are down, and no paths
                        are  usable  until  multipathd  detects  this  and  reinstates  a  marginal path. If the
                        multipath device is not configured to queue IO in this case, it can cause IO  errors  to
                        occur,  even  though there are marginal paths available.  However, if this option is set
                        to on, when one of the marginal  path  detecting  methods  determines  that  a  path  is
                        marginal,  it  will  be  reinstated and placed in a separate pathgroup that will only be
                        used after all the non-marginal pathgroups have been  tried  first.  This  prevents  the
                        possibility of IO errors occurring while marginal paths are still usable. After the path
                        has been monitored for the configured time, and is declared healthy, it will be returned
                        to  its  normal  pathgroup.  If this option is set to fpin, multipathd will receive fpin
                        notifications, set path states to "marginal" accordingly, and regroup paths as described
                        for on. This option can't be used in combination with  other  options  for  "Shaky  path
                        detection"  (see  below).  Note:  If  this  is  set  to  fpin,  the  marginal_path_* and
                        san_path_err_* options are implicitly set to no. Also, this option  cannot  be  switched
                        either to or from fpin on a multipathd reconfigure. multipathd must be restarted for the
                        change to take effect.  See "Shaky paths detection" below for more information.

                        The default is: off

       find_multipaths  This  option controls whether multipath and multipathd try to create multipath maps over
                        non-blacklisted devices they encounter. This matters a) when a device is encountered  by
                        multipath -u during udev rule processing (a device is blocked from further processing by
                        higher  layers  -  such as LVM - if and only if it´s considered a valid multipath device
                        path), and b) when multipathd detects a new device. The following values are possible:

                        strict    Both multipath and multipathd treat only such  devices  as  multipath  devices
                                  which  have  been  part of a multipath map previously, and which are therefore
                                  listed in the wwids_file. Users can manually set up multipath maps  using  the
                                  multipathd add map command. Once set up manually, the map is remembered in the
                                  wwids file and will be set up automatically in the future.

                        off       Multipath  behaves  like  strict.  Multipathd behaves like greedy.  no or 0 is
                                  accepted as an alias for off.

                        on        Both multipathd and multipath treat  a  device  as  multipath  device  if  the
                                  conditions  for  strict are met, or if at least two non-blacklisted paths with
                                  the same WWID have been detected. yes or 1 is accepted as an alias for on.

                        greedy    Both multipathd and multipath treat every non-blacklisted device as  multipath
                                  device path.

                        smart     This  differs  from  find_multipaths yes only in the way it treats new devices
                                  for which only one path has been detected yet. When such  a  device  is  first
                                  encountered  in  udev  rules,  it is treated as a multipath device. multipathd
                                  waits whether additional paths with the same WWID appears. If that happens, it
                                  sets up a multipath map. If it doesn´t happen until a timeout expires,  or  if
                                  setting  up the map fails, a new uevent is triggered for the device; at second
                                  encounter in the udev rules, the device will be treated as  non-multipath  and
                                  passed  on  to  upper  layers.   Note:  this  may  cause  delays during device
                                  detection if there are single-path devices which aren´t blacklisted.

                        The default is: strict

       find_multipaths_timeout
                        Timeout, in seconds, to wait for additional paths after  detecting  the  first  one,  if
                        find_multipaths  "smart"  (see  above) is set. If the value is positive, this timeout is
                        used for all unknown, non-blacklisted devices encountered.  If  the  value  is  negative
                        (recommended),  it's  only  applied to "known" devices that have an entry in multipath's
                        hardware table, either in the built-in table or in a device section;  other  ("unknown")
                        devices  will  use a timeout of only 1 second to avoid booting delays. The value 0 means
                        "use the built-in default". If find_multipath has a value other than smart, this  option
                        has no effect.

                        The default is: -10 (10s for known and 1s for unknown hardware)

       uxsock_timeout   CLI  receive  timeout  in  milliseconds.  For  larger systems CLI commands might timeout
                        before the multipathd lock is released and the CLI command can be processed.  This  will
                        result  in  errors like "timeout receiving packet" to be returned from CLI commands.  In
                        these cases it is recommended to increase the CLI timeout to avoid those issues.

                        The default is: 4000

       retrigger_tries  Sets the number of times multipathd will try to retrigger a uevent to get the WWID.

                        The default is: 3

       retrigger_delay  Sets the amount of time, in seconds, to wait between retriggers.

                        The default is: 10

       missing_uev_wait_timeout
                        Controls how many seconds multipathd will wait, after a new multipath device is created,
                        to receive a change event from udev for the device, before automatically enabling device
                        reloads. Usually multipathd will delay reloads on a device until it  receives  a  change
                        uevent from the initial table load.

                        The default is: 30

       skip_kpartx      If set to yes , kpartx will not automatically create partitions on the device.

                        The default is: no

       disable_changed_wwids
                        (Deprecated) This option is not supported anymore, and will be ignored.

       remove_retries   This  sets how may times multipath will retry removing a device that is in-use.  Between
                        each attempt, multipath will sleep 1 second.

                        The default is: 0

       max_sectors_kb   Sets the max_sectors_kb device parameter on some path devices and the  multipath  device
                        to  the specified value. max_sectors_kb is the largest I/O size, in units of 1024 bytes,
                        that the kernel allows for a single I/O request. For hardware devices like  SCSI  disks,
                        this value is limited by the capabilities of the hardware.  It is crucial that the value
                        of  a  multipath  map is never higher than the minimum value of of all its path devices.
                        This is ensured by the kernel when a multipath  map  is  loaded,  but  manipulating  the
                        values  of  a map or either of its paths while the map is live can cause race conditions
                        and I/O errors. Therefore this value is only enforced by multipathd when a multipath map
                        is first created, or when a path  device  is  added  to  a  map.  In  both  cases,  race
                        conditions are avoided by the kernel.

                        Setting  max_sectors_kb  does  not  guarantee that all path devices will have this value
                        set. It is not an error if the value of a  path  device  is  higher  than  that  of  the
                        containing  multipath map. It is also not an error if the actual limit of a map is lower
                        than the value in /etc/multipath.conf. This can happen if the hardware limits of one  or
                        more path devices are lower than the configured value.

                        Normally  the  kernel  and  its  device  drivers  take care of the maximum I/O size, and
                        administrators do not need to bother about max_sectors_kb.  But  some  hardware  devices
                        may  report  incorrect I/O size limits, or other components in the environment (e.g. the
                        fabric) may impose constraints that the kernel cannot  detect.  In  such  cases  setting
                        max_sectors_kb  makes  sense.  It  should be set when maps are first created, and not be
                        changed thereafter.  If the setting must be changed for a live map,  set  the  value  in
                        /etc/multipath.conf,  run multipathd reconfigure, and use multipathd del path <path> and
                        multipathd add path <path> to delete and re-add the same path device.

                        The default is: <undefined>

       ghost_delay      Sets the number of seconds that multipath will wait after creating a  device  with  only
                        ghost paths before marking it ready for use in systemd. This gives the active paths time
                        to  appear  before  the multipath runs the hardware handler to switch the ghost paths to
                        active ones. Setting this to 0 or no makes multipath immediately mark a device with only
                        ghost paths as ready.

                        The default is: no

       auto_resize      Controls when multipathd will automatically resize a multipath device.  If set to never,
                        multipath devices must always be manually resized by either  running  multipathd  resize
                        map  <name>.   If  set  to  grow_only,  when  multipathd detects that all of a multipath
                        device's paths have increased in size, it will automatically grow the  multipath  device
                        to  the  new  size. If set to grow_shrink, multipathd will also automatically shrink the
                        device once it detects all of its paths have decreased in size.

                        The default is: never

       enable_foreign   Enables or disables foreign libraries (see section FOREIGN MULTIPATH SUPPORT below). The
                        value is a regular expression; foreign libraries are loaded if their name (e.g.  "nvme")
                        matches the expression. By default, no foreign libraries are enabled. Set this to "nvme"
                        to enable NVMe native multipath support, or ".*" to enable all foreign libraries.

                        The default is: "NONE"

       recheck_wwid     If  set  to  yes, when a failed path is restored, its wwid is rechecked. If the wwid has
                        changed, the path is removed from the current multipath device, and re-added  as  a  new
                        path. Multipathd will also recheck a path's wwid if it is manually re-added. This option
                        only  works  for  SCSI  devices  that  are  configured to use the default uid_attribute,
                        ID_SERIAL, or sysfs for getting their wwid.

                        The default is: no

blacklist and blacklist_exceptions sections

       The blacklist section is used to exclude specific  devices  from  the  multipath  topology.  It  is  most
       commonly  used to exclude local disks or non-disk devices (such as LUNs for the storage array controller)
       from being handled by multipath-tools.

       In the blacklist and blacklist_exceptions sections, starting a quoted value with an exclamation mark  "!"
       will  invert the matching of the rest of the regular expression. For instance, "!^sd[a-z]" will match all
       values that do not start with "sd[a-z]". The exclamation mark can be escaped "\!" to match a literal ! at
       the start of a regular expression. Note: The exclamation mark must be inside quotes, otherwise it will be
       treated as starting a comment.

       The blacklist_exceptions section is used to revert the actions of the blacklist section. This allows  one
       to  selectively include ("whitelist") devices which would normally be excluded via the blacklist section.
       A common usage is to blacklist "everything" using a catch-all regular  expression,  and  create  specific
       blacklist_exceptions entries for those devices that should be handled by multipath-tools.

       The following keywords are recognized in both sections. The defaults are empty unless explicitly stated.

       devnode          Regular expression matching the device nodes to be excluded/included.

                        The   default   blacklist   consists   of  the  regular  expression  "!^(sd[a-z]|dasd[a-
                        z]|nvme[0-9])". This causes all device types other than  scsi,  dasd,  and  nvme  to  be
                        excluded from multipath handling by default.

       wwid             Regular expression for the World Wide Identifier of a device to be excluded/included.

       device           Subsection for the device description. This subsection recognizes the vendor and product
                        keywords.  Both are regular expressions. For a full description of these keywords please
                        see the devices section description.

       property         Regular expression for an udev property. All devices that have matching udev  properties
                        will  be  excluded/included.   The  handling of the property keyword is special, because
                        devices must have at least one whitelisted udev property; otherwise they're  treated  as
                        blacklisted,  and  the  message "blacklisted, udev property missing" is displayed in the
                        logs.

                        Note: The behavior of this option has  changed  in  multipath-tools  0.8.2  compared  to
                        previous  versions.  Blacklisting by missing properties is only applied to devices which
                        do have the property specified by uid_attribute (e.g. ID_SERIAL) set. Previously, it was
                        applied to every device, possibly causing devices to be blacklisted because of temporary
                        I/O error conditions.

                        The default blacklist exception  is:  (SCSI_IDENT_|ID_WWN),  causing  well-behaved  SCSI
                        devices  and  devices  that  provide  a  WWN (World Wide Number) to be included, and all
                        others to be excluded.

       protocol         Regular expression for the protocol of a device to be excluded/included.

                        The protocol  strings  that  multipath  recognizes  are  scsi:fcp,  scsi:spi,  scsi:ssa,
                        scsi:sbp,  scsi:srp,  scsi:iscsi,  scsi:sas, scsi:adt, scsi:ata, scsi:unspec, nvme:pcie,
                        nvme:rdma, nvme:fc, nvme:tcp, nvme:loop, nvme:apple-nvme, nvme:unspec, ccw,  cciss,  and
                        undef.  The protocol that a path is using can be viewed by running multipathd show paths
                        format "%d %P"

       For  every  device,  these  5  blacklist  criteria are evaluated in the order "property, devnode, device,
       protocol, wwid". If a device turns out to be blacklisted by any criterion, it's excluded from handling by
       multipathd, and the later criteria aren't evaluated anymore. For  each  criterion,  the  whitelist  takes
       precedence over the blacklist if a device matches both.

       Note:  Besides  the  blacklist and whitelist, other configuration options such as find_multipaths have an
       impact on whether or not a given device is handled by multipath-tools.

multipaths section

       The multipaths section allows setting attributes of multipath maps. The attributes that are set  via  the
       multipaths  section  (see  list  below)  take precedence over all other configuration settings, including
       those from the overrides section.

       The only recognized attribute for the multipaths section  is  the  multipath  subsection.  If  there  are
       multiple  multipath  subsections  matching  a  given WWID, the contents of these sections are merged, and
       settings from later entries take precedence.

       The multipath subsection recognizes the following attributes:

       wwid             (Mandatory) World Wide Identifier. Detected multipath  maps  are  matched  against  this
                        attribute.  Note that, unlike the wwid attribute in the blacklist section, this is not a
                        regular  expression  or  a  substring;  WWIDs  must  match exactly inside the multipaths
                        section.

       alias            Symbolic name for the multipath map. This takes precedence over a an entry for the  same
                        WWID in the bindings_file.

       The  following  attributes  are  optional;  if  not  set the default values are taken from the overrides,
       devices, or defaults section:

              path_grouping_policy
              path_selector
              prio
              prio_args
              failback
              rr_weight
              no_path_retry
              rr_min_io
              rr_min_io_rq
              flush_on_last_del
              features
              reservation_key
              user_friendly_names
              deferred_remove
              san_path_err_threshold
              san_path_err_forget_rate
              san_path_err_recovery_time
              marginal_path_err_sample_time
              marginal_path_err_rate_threshold
              marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time
              marginal_path_double_failed_time
              delay_watch_checks
              delay_wait_checks
              skip_kpartx
              max_sectors_kb
              ghost_delay

devices section

       Important:
           The built-in hardware device table of multipath-tools is created by members of the Linux community in
           the hope that it will be useful.  The existence of an entry  for  a  given  storage  product  in  the
           hardware  table  does  not  imply  that  the product vendor supports, or has tested, the product with
           multipath-tools in any way.  Always consult the vendor's official documentation  for  support-related
           information.

       multipath-tools  have a built-in device table with reasonable defaults for more than 100 known multipath-
       capable storage devices. The devices section can be  used  to  override  these  settings.  If  there  are
       multiple  matches  for  a  given device, the attributes of all matching entries are applied to it.  If an
       attribute is specified in several matching device  subsections,  later  entries  take  precedence.  Thus,
       entries  in  files under config_dir (in reverse alphabetical order) have the highest precedence, followed
       by entries in /etc/multipath.conf; the built-in hardware  table  has  the  lowest  precedence.  Inside  a
       configuration file, later entries have higher precedence than earlier ones.

       The  only  recognized attribute for the devices section is the device subsection. Devices detected in the
       system are matched against the device entries using the vendor, product, and revision fields,  which  are
       all POSIX Extended regular expressions (see regex(7)).

       The  vendor,  product,  and  revision  fields that multipath or multipathd detect for devices in a system
       depend on the device type. For SCSI devices, they correspond to the respective fields of the SCSI INQUIRY
       page. In general, the command 'multipathd show paths format "%d %s"' command  can  be  used  to  see  the
       detected properties for all devices in the system.

       The device subsection recognizes the following attributes:

       vendor           (Mandatory) Regular expression to match the vendor name.

       product          (Mandatory) Regular expression to match the product name.

       revision         Regular  expression  to  match  the  product  revision.  If  not specified, any revision
                        matches.

       product_blacklist
                        Products with the given vendor matching this string are blacklisted. This is  equivalent
                        to a device entry in the blacklist section with the vendor attribute set to this entry's
                        vendor, and the product attribute set to the value of product_blacklist.

       alias_prefix     The  user_friendly_names  prefix  to  use  for  this device type, instead of the default
                        "mpath".

       vpd_vendor       The vendor specific vpd page information, using the vpd page abbreviation.  The vpd page
                        abbreviation can be found by running sg_vpd -e. multipathd will use this information  to
                        gather  device  specific  information that can be displayed with the %g wildcard for the
                        multipathd show maps format and multipathd show paths format  commands.  Currently  only
                        the hp3par vpd page is supported.

       hardware_handler The  hardware  handler  to use for this device type.  The following hardware handler are
                        implemented:

                        1 emc       (Hardware-dependent) Hardware handler for DGC class arrays as CLARiiON CX/AX
                                    and EMC VNX families with Failover Mode 1 (Passive Not Ready(PNR)).

                        1 rdac      (Hardware-dependent) Hardware handler for LSI/Engenio/NetApp RDAC  class  as
                                    NetApp  SANtricity  E/EF  Series  and  rebranded  arrays,  with "Linux DM-MP
                                    (Kernel 3.9 or earlier)" option.

                        1 hp_sw     (Hardware-dependent) Hardware handler for HP/COMPAQ/DEC  HSG80  and  MSA/HSV
                                    arrays with Active/Standby mode exclusively.

                        1 alua      (Hardware-dependent) Hardware handler for SCSI-3 ALUA compatible arrays.

                        1 ana       (Hardware-dependent) Hardware handler for NVMe ANA compatible arrays.

                        The default is: <unset>

                        Important  Note:  Linux  kernels  4.3 and newer automatically attach a device handler to
                        known devices (which includes all devices supporting SCSI-3 ALUA) and disallow  changing
                        the  handler  afterwards. Setting hardware_handler for such devices on these kernels has
                        no effect.

       The following attributes are optional; if not set the default values are taken from the defaults section:

              path_grouping_policy
              uid_attribute
              path_selector
              path_checker
              prio
              prio_args
              features
              failback
              rr_weight
              no_path_retry
              rr_min_io
              rr_min_io_rq
              fast_io_fail_tmo
              dev_loss_tmo
              eh_deadline
              flush_on_last_del
              user_friendly_names
              retain_attached_hw_handler
              detect_prio
              detect_checker
              deferred_remove
              san_path_err_threshold
              san_path_err_forget_rate
              san_path_err_recovery_time
              marginal_path_err_sample_time
              marginal_path_err_rate_threshold
              marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time
              marginal_path_double_failed_time
              delay_watch_checks
              delay_wait_checks
              skip_kpartx
              max_sectors_kb
              ghost_delay
              all_tg_pt

overrides section

       The overrides section recognizes the following optional attributes; if not set the values are taken  from
       the devices or defaults sections:

              path_grouping_policy
              uid_attribute
              path_selector
              path_checker
              alias_prefix
              features
              prio
              prio_args
              failback
              rr_weight
              no_path_retry
              rr_min_io
              rr_min_io_rq
              flush_on_last_del
              fast_io_fail_tmo
              dev_loss_tmo
              eh_deadline
              user_friendly_names
              retain_attached_hw_handler
              detect_prio
              detect_checker
              deferred_remove
              san_path_err_threshold
              san_path_err_forget_rate
              san_path_err_recovery_time
              marginal_path_err_sample_time
              marginal_path_err_rate_threshold
              marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time
              marginal_path_double_failed_time
              delay_watch_checks
              delay_wait_checks
              skip_kpartx
              max_sectors_kb
              ghost_delay
              all_tg_pt

       The overrides section also recognizes the optional protocol subsection, and can contain multiple protocol
       subsections. Path devices are matched against the protocol subsection using the mandatory type attribute.
       Attributes in a matching protocol subsection take precedence over attributes in the rest of the overrides
       section. If there are multiple matching protocol subsections, later entries take precedence.

       protocol subsection
              The protocol subsection recognizes the following mandatory attribute:

              type   The  protocol  string  of  the  path  device.  The  possible values are scsi:fcp, scsi:spi,
                     scsi:ssa,  scsi:sbp,  scsi:srp,  scsi:iscsi,  scsi:sas,  scsi:adt,  scsi:ata,  scsi:unspec,
                     nvme:pcie,  nvme:rdma,  nvme:fc,  nvme:tcp,  nvme:loop,  nvme:apple-nvme, nvme:unspec, ccw,
                     cciss, and undef. This is not a regular expression. the path device  protocol  string  must
                     match  exactly.  The protocol that a path is using can be viewed by running multipathd show
                     paths format "%d %P"

              The following attributes are optional;  if  not  set,  the  default  values  are  taken  from  the
              overrides, devices, or defaults section:

                     fast_io_fail_tmo
                     dev_loss_tmo
                     eh_deadline

WWID generation

       Multipath  uses  a  World  Wide Identification (WWID) to determine which paths belong to the same device.
       Each path presenting the same WWID is assumed to point to the same device.

       The WWID is generated by four methods (in the order of preference):

       uid_attrs        The WWID is derived from udev attributes by matching the device node name; cf  uid_attrs
                        above.

       uid_attribute    Use the value of the specified udev attribute; cf uid_attribute above.

       sysfs            Try  to  determine the WWID from sysfs attributes.  For SCSI devices, this means reading
                        the Vital Product Data (VPD) page "Device Identification" (0x83).

       The default settings (using udev and uid_attribute configured from the built-in  hardware  table)  should
       work fine in most scenarios. Users who want to enable uevent merging must set uid_attrs.

Shaky paths detection

       A  common  problem  in  SAN  setups is the occurrence of intermittent errors: a path is unreachable, then
       reachable again for a short time, disappears again, and so forth.  This  happens  typically  on  unstable
       interconnects.  It is undesirable to switch pathgroups unnecessarily on such frequent, unreliable events.
       multipathd supports three different methods for detecting this situation and dealing with it. All methods
       share the same basic mode of operation: If a path is found to be "shaky" or "flipping", and appears to be
       in healthy status, it is not reinstated (put back to use) immediately.  Instead,  it  is  placed  in  the
       "delayed" state and watched for some time, and only reinstated if the healthy state appears to be stable.
       If  the  marginal_pathgroups option is set, the path will reinstated immediately, but placed in a special
       pathgroup for marginal paths. Marginal pathgroups will not be used until all other pathgroups  have  been
       tried.  At  the  time  when  the  path  would  normally  be reinstated, it will be returned to its normal
       pathgroup. The logic of determining "shaky" condition, as well as the logic when  to  reinstate,  differs
       between the three methods.

       "delay_checks" failure tracking
               (Deprecated)  This  method  is  deprecated  and  mapped  to  the  "san_path_err" method.  See the
               delay_watch_checks and delay_wait_checks options above for more information.

       "marginal_path" failure tracking
               If a second failure event (good->bad transition) occurs  within  marginal_path_double_failed_time
               seconds  after a failure, high-frequency monitoring is started for the affected path: I/O is sent
               at a rate of 10 per second. This is done for marginal_path_err_sample_time seconds.  During  this
               period,    the    path   is   not   reinstated.   If   the   rate   of   errors   remains   below
               marginal_path_err_rate_threshold during the monitoring period, the path is reinstated. Otherwise,
               it is kept in  failed  state  for  marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time,  and  after  that,  it  is
               monitored again. For this method, time intervals are measured in seconds.

       "san_path_err" failure tracking
               multipathd  counts  path  failures  for  each path. Once the number of failures exceeds the value
               given by san_path_err_threshold,  the  path  is  not  reinstated  for  san_path_err_recovery_time
               seconds.    While    counting   failures,   multipathd   "forgets"   one   past   failure   every
               "san_path_err_forget_rate" ticks; thus if errors don't occur more often then once in  the  forget
               rate  interval,  the failure count doesn't increase and the threshold is never reached. Ticks are
               the  time  between  path  checks  by  multipathd,  which  is  variable  and  controlled  by   the
               polling_interval and max_polling_interval parameters.

               This  algorithm  is superseded by the "marginal_path" failure tracking, but remains supported for
               backward compatibility.

       "FPIN" failure tracking
               Fibre channel fabrics can notify hosts about fabric-level issues such as  integrity  failures  or
               congestion  with  so-called Fabric Performance Impact Notifications (FPINs).On receiving the fpin
               notifications through ELS multipathd will move the affected path and port states to marginal.

       See the documentation of the individual options above for details.  It is  strongly  discouraged  to  use
       more  than  one  of  these  methods  for  any given multipath map, because the two concurrent methods may
       interact in unpredictable ways. If the "marginal_path" method is active,  the  "san_path_err"  parameters
       are implicitly set to 0.

FOREIGN MULTIPATH SUPPORT

       multipath  and multipathd can load "foreign" libraries to add support for other multipathing technologies
       besides the Linux device mapper.  Currently this support is  limited  to  printing  detected  information
       about  multipath setup. In topology output, the names of foreign maps are prefixed by the foreign library
       name in square brackets, as in this example:

       # multipath -ll
       uuid.fedcba98-3579-4567-8765-123456789abc [nvme]:nvme4n9 NVMe,Some NVMe controller,FFFFFFFF
       size=167772160 features='n/a' hwhandler='ANA' wp=rw
       |-+- policy='n/a' prio=50 status=optimized
       | `- 4:38:1    nvme4c38n1 0:0     n/a   optimized    live
       `-+- policy='n/a' prio=50 status=optimized
         `- 4:39:1    nvme4c39n1 0:0     n/a   optimized    live

       The "nvme" foreign library provides support for NVMe native multipathing in the kernel. It is part of the
       standard multipath package.

KNOWN ISSUES

       The usage of queue_if_no_path option can lead to D  state  processes  being  hung  and  not  killable  in
       situations  where  all  the  paths to the LUN go offline. It is advisable to use the no_path_retry option
       instead.

       The use of queue_if_no_path or no_path_retry might lead to a deadlock if the dev_loss_tmo setting results
       in a device being removed while I/O is still queued. The multipath daemon will  update  the  dev_loss_tmo
       setting accordingly to avoid this deadlock. Hence if both values are specified the order of precedence is
       no_path_retry, queue_if_no_path, dev_loss_tmo.

SEE ALSO

       udev(8), dmsetup(8), multipath(8), multipathc(8), multipathd(8).

AUTHORS

       multipath-tools was developed by Christophe Varoqui, <christophe.varoqui@opensvc.com> and others.

Linux                                              2024-04-25                                  MULTIPATH.CONF(5)