Dynamic Multi-Pathing 7.3.1 Administrator's Guide - Linux

Multiple paths to disk arrays

Some disk arrays provide multiple ports to access their disk devices. These ports, coupled with the host bus adaptor (HBA) controller and any data bus or I/O processor local to the array, make up multiple hardware paths to access the disk devices. Such disk arrays are called multipathed disk arrays. This type of disk array can be connected to host systems in many different configurations, (such as multiple ports connected to different controllers on a single host, chaining of the ports through a single controller on a host, or ports connected to different hosts simultaneously).