Release mdadm-3.3.4mdadm-3.3.4

Important bugfix release.

Signed-off-by: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.com>

1 files changed, 37 insertions, 0 deletions

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+Subject: ANNOUNCE: mdadm 3.3.4 - A tool for managing md Soft RAID under Linux
+
+I am somewhat disappointed to have to announce the availability of
+   mdadm version 3.3.4
+
+It is available at the usual places:
+   http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/raid/mdadm/
+and via git at
+   git://github.com/neilbrown/mdadm
+   git://neil.brown.name/mdadm
+   http://git.neil.brown.name/git/mdadm.git
+
+In mdadm-3.3 a change was made to how IMSM (Intel Matrix Storage
+Manager) metadata was handled.  Previously an IMSM array would only
+be assembled if it was attached to an IMSM controller.
+
+In 3.3 this was relaxed as there are circumstances where the
+controller is not properly detected.  Unfortunately this has negative
+consequences which have only just come to light.
+
+If you have an IMSM RAID1 configured and then disable RAID in the
+BIOS, the metadata will remain on the devices.  If you then install
+some other OS on one device and then install Linux on the other, Linux
+might eventually start noticing the IMSM metadata (depending a bit on whether
+mdadm is included in the initramfs) and might start up the RAID1.  This could
+copy one device over the other, thus trashing one of the installations.
+
+Not good.
+
+So with this release IMSM arrays will only be assembled if attached to
+an IMSM controller, or if "--force" is given to --assemble, or if the
+environment variable IMSM_NO_PLATFORM is set (used primarily for
+testing).
+
+I strongly recommend upgrading to 3.3.4 if you are using 3.3 or later.
+
+NeilBrown 3rd August 2015.