Note - The configuration information in the /etc/lvm/md.tab file might differ from the current volumes, hot spares, and state database replicas in use. This file is used manually, by the system administrator, to capture the intended configuration. After you change your Solaris Volume Manager configuration, recreate this file and preserve a backup copy.

Note - If you use the metainit -an command to simulate initializing all of the volumes in the md.tab file, you might see error messages for volumes that have dependencies on other volumes defined in md.tab. These error messages occur because Solaris Volume Manager does not maintain state of the volumes that would have been created when running metainit -an. Each line is evaluated based on the existing configuration, if a configuration exists. Therefore, even if it appears that the metainit -an command would fail, it might succeed without the -n option.

Note - Solaris Volume Manager does not write to or store configuration information in the /etc/lvm/md.tab file. You must manually edit the file and run the metainit, metahs, or metadb commands to create Solaris Volume Manager components.