Chapter 5. Managing Multipath I/O for Devices / 5.8. Configuring Multipath I/O for the Root Device
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Configuring Multipath I/O for the Root Device

[Important]Important

In the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 initial release and earlier, the root partition (/) on multipath is supported only if the /boot partition is on a separate, non-multipathed partition. Otherwise, no boot loader is written.

DM-MP is now available and supported for /boot and /root in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 and later if all online updates have been applied. More specifically, you need mkinitrd 1.2-106.61 and multipath-tools 0.4.7-34.23 or later.

To enable multipathing on the existing root device:

  1. Install Linux with only a single path active, preferably one where the by-id symlinks are listed in the partitioner.

  2. Mount the devices by using the /dev/disk/by-id path used during the install.

  3. After installation, add dm-multipath to /etc/sysconfig/kernel:INITRD_MODULES.

  4. Re-run /sbin/mkinitrd to update the initrd image.

  5. Reboot the server.

To disable multipathing on the root device:

SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server Storage Administration Guide 10
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