xiRAID Classic System and RAID Configuration

Information about the xiRAID system and xiRAID RAIDs configurations is automatically stored in the following locations in the system:

  • the common configurations file /etc/xiraid/raid.conf (xiRAID Classic system configuration);
  • the configuration files of indvidual RAIDs in the /etc/xiraid/raids directory (xiRAID Classic RAIDs configurations);
  • the metadata on the disks included in the created xiRAID Classic RAID device (xiRAID Classic RAIDs configurations).

Additionally, before changing the common configurations file, the system automatically creates a backup file of the common configuration /etc/xiraid/raid.conf.bak. Similar backups are created for configurations in the /etc/xiraid/raids/* folder.

Thus, if necessary, you can restore the previous version of the device configuration.

The common configurations file

The common configurations file stores the most recent changes to the xiRAID Classic system.

The example of the configuration file:

{
    "raid_autostart": 1,
    "drives": {
        "drive-scsi8": "1",
        "drive-scsi7": "2"
    },
    "faulty_count_threshold": 3,
    "scanner_polling_interval": 1,
    "smart_polling_interval": 86400,    
    "led_enabled": 1,
    "timestamp": 1648628802.796359
}

The "raid autostart" object indicates whether RAID autostart is enabled (1) or disabled (0) at the module loading. RAID autostart is disabled for High Availability configuration.

The "drives" object contains the serial numbers of the drives with an error count greater than 0 and their corresponding numbers of errors.

The "faulty_count_threshold" object contains the value of the error threshold value for the drives.

The "scanner_polling_interval" object contains the value of polling interval for xiRAID RAIDs and drives in seconds.

The "smart_polling_interval" object contains the value of S.M.A.R.T. drive health polling interval in seconds.

The "led_enabled" object indicates whether the automatic LED indication of drives in the system is enabled.

The "timestamp" object contains the creation date of this configuration file in timestamp format.

The RAID configuration file

The RAID configuration files store the most recent changes to the xiRAID Classic RAID devices and are used when working with created xiRAID Classic RAID devices.

The example of a RAID configuration file:

{
    "name": "test",
    "uuid": "F4144567-133C-421F-8898-CC11CCC6AF6C",
    "level": "5",
    "synd_cnt": 1,
    "strip_size": 16,
    "block_size": 4096,
    "drives": [
        "drive-scsi2",
        "drive-scsi3",
        "drive-scsi4",
        "drive-scsi6"
    ],
    "size": 30296064,
    "group_size": 4,
    "auto_init": true,
    "auto_recon": true,
    "auto_restripe": true,
    "cpu_allowed": []
    "timestamp": 1702916010.8023913
}

Configurations metadata on disks

Since the common configurations file is stored on the system disk, to protect against system disk failure, the configuration information is also stored on the disks that belong to the xiRAID Classic RAID devices.

Each disk in a RAID contains data that enables a complete copy of this RAID configuration file to be restored. The system reserves the first 96 MiB and the last 96 MiB of each drive in a RAID.