RAIDCTL(8) OpenBSD System Manager's Manual RAIDCTL(8)NAME raidctl - configuration utility for the RAIDframe disk driverSYNOPSIS raidctl [-v] [-afFgrR component] [-BGipPsSu] [-cC config_file] [-A [yes | no | root]] [-I serial_number] dev
DESCRIPTION raidctl is the user-land control program for raid(4), the RAIDframe disk device. raidctl is primarily used to dynamically configure and unconfig- ure RAIDframe disk devices. For more information about the RAIDframe disk device, see raid(4). This document assumes the reader has at least rudimentary knowledge of RAID and RAID concepts. The device used by raidctl is specified by dev. dev may be either the full name of the device, e.g. /dev/rraid0c, or just simply raid0 (for /dev/rraid0c). For several commands (-BGipPsSu), raidctl can accept the word all as the dev argument. If all is used, raidctl will execute the requested action for all the configured raid(4) devices. The command-line options for raidctl are as follows: -a component dev Add component as a hot spare for the device dev. -A yes dev Make the RAID set auto-configurable. The RAID set will be auto- matically configured at boot before the root file system is mounted. Note that all components of the set must be of type RAID in the disklabel. -A no dev Turn off auto-configuration for the RAID set. -A root dev Make the RAID set auto-configurable, and also mark the set as be- ing eligible to contain the root partition. A RAID set config- ured this way will override the use of the boot disk as the root device. All components of the set must be of type RAID in the disklabel. Note that the kernel being booted must currently re- side on a non-RAID set and, in order to have the root file system correctly mounted from it, the RAID set must have its `a' parti- tion (aka raid[0..n]a) set up. -B dev Initiate a copyback of reconstructed data from a spare disk to its original disk. This is performed after a component has failed, and the failed drive has been reconstructed onto a spare drive. -c config_file dev Configure the RAIDframe device dev according to the configuration given in config_file. A description of the contents of config_file is given later. -C config_file dev As for -c, but forces the configuration to take place. This is required the first time a RAID set is configured. -f component dev This marks the specified component as having failed, but does not initiate a reconstruction of that component. -F component dev Fails the specified component of the device, and immediately be- gin a reconstruction of the failed disk onto an available hot spare. This is one of the mechanisms used to start the recon- struction process if a component does have a hardware failure. -g component dev Get the component label for the specified component. -G dev Generate the configuration of the RAIDframe device in a format suitable for use with raidctl -c or -C. -i dev Initialize the RAID device. In particular, (re-write) the parity on the selected device. This MUST be done for all RAID sets be- fore the RAID device is labeled and before file systems are cre- ated on the RAID device. -I serial_number dev Initialize the component labels on each component of the device. serial_number is used as one of the keys in determining whether a particular set of components belong to the same RAID set. While not strictly enforced, different serial numbers should be used for different RAID sets. This step MUST be performed when a new RAID set is created. -p dev Check the status of the parity on the RAID set. Displays a sta- tus message, and returns successfully if the parity is up-to- date. -P dev Check the status of the parity on the RAID set, and initialize (re-write) the parity if the parity is not known to be up-to- date. This is normally used after a system crash (and before a fsck(8)) to ensure the integrity of the parity. -r component dev Remove the spare disk specified by component from the set of available spare components. -R component dev Fails the specified component, if necessary, and immediately be- gins a reconstruction back to component. This is useful for re- constructing back onto a component after it has been replaced following a failure. -s dev Display the status of the RAIDframe device for each of the compo- nents and spares. -S dev Check the status of parity re-writing, component reconstruction, and component copyback. The output indicates the amount of progress achieved in each of these areas. -u dev Unconfigure the RAIDframe device. -v Be more verbose. For operations such as reconstructions, parity re-writing, and copybacks, provide a progress indicator. Configuration file The format of the configuration file is complex, and only an abbreviated treatment is given here. In the configuration files, a `#' indicates the beginning of a comment. There are 4 required sections of a configuration file, and 2 optional sections. Each section begins with a `START', followed by the section name, and the configuration parameters assoc
