A.2. The dmsetup Command

The dmsetup command is a command line wrapper for communication with the Device Mapper. For general system information about LVM devices, you may find the info, ls, status, and deps options of the dmsetup command to be useful, as described in the following subsections.
For information about additional options and capabilities of the dmsetup command, see the dmsetup(8) man page.

A.2.1. The dmsetup info Command

The dmsetup info device command provides summary information about Device Mapper devices. If you do not specify a device name, the output is information about all of the currently configured Device Mapper devices. If you specify a device, then this command yields information for that device only.
The dmsetup info command provides information in the following categories:
Name
The name of the device. An LVM device is expressed as the volume group name and the logical volume name separated by a hyphen. A hyphen in the original name is translated to two hyphens. During standard LVM operations, you should not use the name of an LVM device in this format to specify an LVM device directly, but instead you should use the vg/lv alternative.
State
Possible device states are SUSPENDED, ACTIVE, and READ-ONLY. The dmsetup suspend command sets a device state to SUSPENDED. When a device is suspended, all I/O operations to that device stop. The dmsetup resume command restores a device state to ACTIVE.
Read Ahead
The number of data blocks that the system reads ahead for any open file on which read operations are ongoing. By default, the kernel chooses a suitable value automatically. You can change this value with the --readahead option of the dmsetup command.
Tables present
Possible states for this category are LIVE and INACTIVE. An INACTIVE state indicates that a table has been loaded which will be swapped in when a dmsetup resume command restores a device state to ACTIVE, at which point the table's state becomes LIVE. For information, see the dmsetup man page.
Open count
The open reference count indicates how many times the device is opened. A mount command opens a device.
Event number
The current number of events received. Issuing a dmsetup wait n command allows you to wait for the n'th event, blocking the call until it is received.
Major, minor
Major and minor device number.
Number of targets
The number of segments that make up a device. For example, a linear device spanning 3 disks would have 3 targets. A linear device composed of the beginning and end of a disk, but not the middle would have 2 targets.
UUID
UUID of the device.
The following example shows partial output for the dmsetup info command. 
# dmsetup info
Name:              testgfsvg-testgfslv1
State:             ACTIVE
Read Ahead:        256
Tables present:    LIVE
Open count:        0
Event number:      0
Major, minor:      253, 2
Number of targets: 2
UUID: LVM-K528WUGQgPadNXYcFrrf9LnPlUMswgkCkpgPIgYzSvigM7SfeWCypddNSWtNzc2N
...
Name:              VolGroup00-LogVol00
State:             ACTIVE
Read Ahead:        256
Tables present:    LIVE
Open count:        1
Event number:      0
Major, minor:      253, 0
Number of targets: 1
UUID: LVM-tOcS1kqFV9drb0X1Vr8sxeYP0tqcrpdegyqj5lZxe45JMGlmvtqLmbLpBcenh2L3

A.2.2. The dmsetup ls Command

You can list the device names of mapped devices with the dmsetup ls command. You can list devices that have at least one target of a specified type with the dmsetup ls --target target_type command. For other options of the dmsetup ls command, see the dmsetup man page.
The following example shows the command to list the device names of currently configured mapped devices. 
# dmsetup ls
testgfsvg-testgfslv3    (253:4)
testgfsvg-testgfslv2    (253:3)
testgfsvg-testgfslv1    (253:2)
VolGroup00-LogVol01     (253:1)
VolGroup00-LogVol00     (253:0)
The following example shows the command to list the device names of currently configured mirror mappings. 
# dmsetup ls --target mirror
lock_stress-grant--02.1722      (253, 34)
lock_stress-grant--01.1720      (253, 18)
lock_stress-grant--03.1718      (253, 52)
lock_stress-grant--02.1716      (253, 40)
lock_stress-grant--03.1713      (253, 47)
lock_stress-grant--02.1709      (253, 23)
lock_stress-grant--01.1707      (253, 8)
lock_stress-grant--01.1724      (253, 14)
lock_stress-grant--03.1711      (253, 27)
LVM configurations that are stacked on multipath or other device mapper devices can be complex to sort out. The dmsetup ls command provides a --tree option that displays dependencies between devices as a tree, as in the following example. 
# dmsetup ls --tree
vgtest-lvmir (253:13)
 ├─vgtest-lvmir_mimage_1 (253:12)
 │  └─mpathep1 (253:8)
 │     └─mpathe (253:5)
 │        ├─ (8:112)
 │        └─ (8:64)
 ├─vgtest-lvmir_mimage_0 (253:11)
 │  └─mpathcp1 (253:3)
 │     └─mpathc (253:2)
 │        ├─ (8:32)
 │        └─ (8:16)
 └─vgtest-lvmir_mlog (253:4)
    └─mpathfp1 (253:10)
       └─mpathf (253:6)
          ├─ (8:128)
          └─ (8:80)

A.2.3. The dmsetup status Command

The dmsetup status device command provides status information for each target in a specified device. If you do not specify a device name, the output is information about all of the currently configured Device Mapper devices. You can list the status only of devices that have at least one target of a specified type with the dmsetup status --target target_type command.
The following example shows the command to list the status of the targets in all currently configured mapped devices. 
# dmsetup status
testgfsvg-testgfslv3: 0 312352768 linear 
testgfsvg-testgfslv2: 0 312352768 linear 
testgfsvg-testgfslv1: 0 312352768 linear 
testgfsvg-testgfslv1: 312352768 50331648 linear 
VolGroup00-LogVol01: 0 4063232 linear 
VolGroup00-LogVol00: 0 151912448 linear

A.2.4. The dmsetup deps Command

The dmsetup deps device command provides a list of (major, minor) pairs for devices referenced by the mapping table for the specified device. If you do not specify a device name, the output is information about all of the currently configured Device Mapper devices.
The following example shows the command to list the dependencies of all currently configured mapped devices. 
# dmsetup deps
testgfsvg-testgfslv3: 1 dependencies    : (8, 16)
testgfsvg-testgfslv2: 1 dependencies    : (8, 16)
testgfsvg-testgfslv1: 1 dependencies    : (8, 16)
VolGroup00-LogVol01: 1 dependencies     : (8, 2)
VolGroup00-LogVol00: 1 dependencies     : (8, 2)
The following example shows the command to list the dependencies only of the device lock_stress-grant--02.1722: 
# dmsetup deps lock_stress-grant--02.1722
3 dependencies  : (253, 33) (253, 32) (253, 31)