On 08/08/2011 10:55 PM, NeilBrown wrote:

On Mon, 8 Aug 2011 22:29:10 -0400 Stephen Muskiewicz [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

This does lead to a question: Do you recommend (and is it safe on CentOS 
5.5?) for me to use the updated (3.2.2 with your patch) version of mdadm 
going forward in place of the CentOS version (2.6.9)?

I wouldn't kept that patch.  It was a little hack to get your array working
again.  I wouldn't recommend using it without expert advice...

Other than that ... 3.2.2 certainly fixes bug and adds features over 2.6.9,
but maybe it adds some bugs too...  I would say that it is safe, but probably
not really necessary.
i.e. up to you :-)

Let me add a reason to stick with 2.6.9:  it has different defaults for
metadata reserved space.  If all hell breaks loose, and you find you need to
do "mdadm --create --assume-clean" or some variant as part of your recovery
efforts, you'll need the older version to get an identical layout.

Phil