Package: mdadm Version: 2.5.2-9 Severity: wishlist Greetings,
Using hostname, or using the super-minor, can result in some serious
problems when attempting to assemble arrays. The hostname is a very
poor choice as it's not uncommon for a machine which is being upgraded
(ie: most of the hardware is being swapped out except, perhaps, the
disks or external raid enclosures) to have the same hostname as the
machine being replaced. The super-minor is also a poor choice due to
potential overlaps which can happen pretty easily.
Therefore, I would strongly encourage the use of UUID and thus the use
of the mdadm.conf in the initrd. There is a potential that the
mdadm.conf at the time of initrd creation doesn't match what the
currently running system has. This may or may *not* be incorrect,
however, depending on what the user is doing or what the user intends.
As there would be some danger to having an incorrect mdadm.conf in the
initrd, during initrd creation the contents of the mdadm.conf should
be compared to the currently running system and the user notified if
they differ. Acceptable options would include:
Defer to the mdadm.conf with a strong warning
Fail the initrd creation unless an override is provided
Ignore the mdadm.conf with a strong warning, but provide override
If the mdadm.conf is ignored then we can fall back to the other
options which have been discussed. However, the user may *want* to
change the booting root partition in which case there must exist a way
to override and force mdadm.conf usage even if it differs from the
currently running system. Failing the initrd may be dangerous because
the user may not notice prior to reboot. Deferring to the mdadm.conf
and issuing a warning may result in the warning being missed/ignored
and an incorrect mdadm.conf causing problems during the initrd.
Therefore, the 3rd option would probably be that of least suprise
while still allowing the flexibility for those who know what they're
doing to override the guess-and-pray fallback of hostname/super-minor.
Thanks,
Stephen
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
