NAME
gstripe — control utility for striped devices
SYNOPSIS
gstripe create
[−v] [−s stripesize]
name prov prov [prov [...]]
gstripe destroy [−fv] name
[name [...]]
gstripe label [−hv]
[−s stripesize] name prov
prov [prov [...]]
gstripe stop [−fv] name
[name [...]]
gstripe clear [−v] prov
[prov [...]]
gstripe dump prov [prov [...]]
gstripe list [name [...]]
gstripe load [−v]
gstripe unload [−v]
DESCRIPTION
The gstripe utility is used for setting up stripe on two or more disks. The striped device can be configured using two different methods: ’’manual’’ or ’’automatic’’. When using the ’’manual’’ method, no metadata are stored on the devices, so the striped device has to be configured by hand every time it is needed. The ’’automatic’’ method uses on-disk metadata to detect devices. Once devices are labeled, they will be automatically detected and configured.
The first argument to gstripe indicates an action to be performed:
create
Set up a striped device from the given devices with specified name. This is the ’’manual’’ method. The kernel module geom_stripe.ko will be loaded if it is not loaded already.
label
Set up a striped device from the given devices with the specified name. This is the ’’automatic’’ method, where metadata are stored in every device’s last sector. The kernel module geom_stripe.ko will be loaded if it is not loaded already.
stop
Turn off existing striped device by its name. This command does not touch on-disk metadata!
destroy
Same as stop.
clear
Clear metadata on the given devices.
dump
Dump metadata stored on the given devices.
list
List all or the given currently configured devices.
load
Load geom_stripe.ko kernel module.
unload
Unload geom_stripe.ko kernel module.
Additional options:
−f
Force the removal of the specified striped device.
−h
Hardcode providers’ names in metadata.
−s stripesize
Specifies size of stripe block.
−v
Be more verbose.
SYSCTL VARIABLES
The following sysctl(8) variables can be used to control the behavior of the STRIPE GEOM class. The default value is shown next to each variable.
kern.geom.stripe.debug: 0
Debug level of the STRIPE GEOM class. This can be set to a number between 0 and 3, both included. If set to 0 minimal debug information is printed, and if set to 3 the maximum amount of debug information in printed.
kern.geom.stripe.fast: 1
If set to a non-zero value enable ’’fast mode’’ instead of the normal ’’economic mode’’. Compared to ’’economic mode’’ ’’fast mode’’ uses more memory, but it is much faster for smaller stripe sizes. If enough memory cannot be allocated STRIPE will fall back to ’’economic mode’’.
kern.geom.stripe.maxmem: 1310720
Maximum amount of memory that can be consumed by ’’fast mode’’ (in bytes). This sysctl(8) variable is read-only and can only be set as a tunable in loader.conf(5).
kern.geom.stripe.fast_failed
How many times ’’fast mode’’ failed because of insufficient amount of memory. If this value is big, you should considern increasing kern.geom.stripe.maxmem value.
EXAMPLES
The following example shows how to set up striped device from four disks for automatic configuration, create a file system on it, and mount it:
gstripe label
-v -s 4096 data /dev/da0 /dev/da1 /dev/da2 /dev/da3
newfs /dev/stripe/data
mount /dev/stripe/data /mnt
[...]
umount /mnt
gstripe stop data
gstripe unload
DIAGNOSTICS
Exit status is 0 on success, and 1 if the command fails.
SEE ALSO
geom(4), loader.conf(5), geom(8), mount(8), newfs(8), sysctl(8), umount(8), vinum(8)
HISTORY
The gstripe utility appeared in FreeBSD 5.3.
AUTHORS
Pawel Jakub Dawidek <pjd [AT] FreeBSD.org>
BSD May 21, 2004 BSD