geom_fox vs gmultipath

[John Nielsen]

I was just reading the (pre-) release notes for 7.0 at
http://people.freebsd.org/~bmah/relnotes/CURRENT/relnotes.html and learned
about mjacob's gmultipath(8) implementation, which seems very similar to
phk's older geom_fox(4) but perhaps a bit more polished.

First off, is that a correct assessment? I haven't used either, but
externally gmultipath is distinguished by having its own control utility
(rather than relying on geom(8)), a manpage (and perhaps other features)
more consistent with other geom utilities, and support for predictable
volume names under /dev/multipath/.

Assuming I'm basically on target so far, does geom_fox have any features
that are not in gmultipath? If not, should it be considered deprecated? (or
should gmultipath be considered experimental since it's newer?)

I'm just curious, esp. since I may have a need for one of the two in the
near future.

Thanks,

JN
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[Eric Anderson]

John Nielsen wrote:
> I was just reading the (pre-) release notes for 7.0 at
> http://people.freebsd.org/~bmah/relnotes/CURRENT/relnotes.html and learned
> about mjacob's gmultipath(8) implementation, which seems very similar to
> phk's older geom_fox(4) but perhaps a bit more polished.
>
> First off, is that a correct assessment? I haven't used either, but
> externally gmultipath is distinguished by having its own control utility
> (rather than relying on geom(8)), a manpage (and perhaps other features)
> more consistent with other geom utilities, and support for predictable
> volume names under /dev/multipath/.
>
> Assuming I'm basically on target so far, does geom_fox have any features
> that are not in gmultipath? If not, should it be considered deprecated? (or
> should gmultipath be considered experimental since it's newer?)
>
> I'm just curious, esp. since I may have a need for one of the two in the
> near future.

Your assessments are pretty dead on. geom_fox from what I understood
was more of a proof of concept, and geom_multipath is the 'real deal'.
I played with both, and geom_multipath does well, whereas geom_fox did
have some shortcomings.

From my (maybe limited) experience, you should be able to use
geom_multipath without much issue.

Eric