Subject:  ANNOUNCE: mdadm 3.1.1 - A tool for managing Soft RAID under Linux

I am pleased to announce the availability of
   mdadm version 3.1.1

It is available at the usual places:
   countrycode=xx.
   http://www.${countrycode}kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/raid/mdadm/
and via git at
   git://neil.brown.name/mdadm
   http://neil.brown.name/git?p=mdadm

This is a bugfix release over 3.1, which was withdrawn due to serious
bugs.  So it might be best to ignore 3.1 and say that this is a significant
feature release over 3.0.x

Significant changes are:
  - RAID level conversion between RAID1, RAID5, and RAID6 are
    possible were the kernel supports it (2.6.32 at least)
  - online chunksize and layout changing for RAID5 and RAID6
    where the kernel supports it.
  - reduce the number of devices in a RAID4/5/6 array.

  - The default metadata is not v1.1.  This metadata is stored at the
    start of the device so is safer in many ways but could interfere with
    boot loaded.  The old default (0.90) is still available and fully
    supported.

  - The default chunksize is now 512K rather than 64K.  This seems more
    appropriate for modern devices.

  - The default bitmap chunksize for internal bitmaps is now at least
    64Meg as fine grained bitmaps tend to impact performance more for
    little extra gain.

This release is believed to be stable and you should feel free to
upgrade to 3.1.1.

NeilBrown 19th November 2009
