> So at the end I have the multipath.conf default file installed by vdsm (so without the # PRIVATE line)
> and this in /etc/multipath/conf.d/eql.conf
>
> devices {
>     device {
>         vendor                  "EQLOGIC"
>         product                 "100E-00"

Ben, why is this device missing from multipath builtin devices?

>         path_selector           "round-robin 0"
>         path_grouping_policy    multibus
>         path_checker            tur
>         rr_min_io_rq            10
>         rr_weight               priorities
>         failback                immediate
>         features                "0"

This is never needed, multipath generates this value.

Ben: please correct me if needed

>         no_path_retry            16

I'm don't think that you need this, since you should inherit the value from vdsm
multipath.conf, either from the "defaults" section, or from the
"overrides" section.

You must add no_path_retry here if you want to use another value, and you don't
want to use vdsm default value.

Note that if you use your own value, you need to match it to sanlock io_timeout.
See this document for more info:
https://github.com/oVirt/vdsm/blob/master/doc/io-timeouts.md

>     }

> But still I see this
>
> # multipath -l
> 36090a0c8d04f21111fc4251c7c08d0a3 dm-13 EQLOGIC,100E-00
> size=2.4T features='1 queue_if_no_path' hwhandler='1 alua' wp=rw
> `-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=0 status=active
>   |- 16:0:0:0 sdc 8:32 active undef running
>   `- 18:0:0:0 sde 8:64 active undef running
> 36090a0d88034667163b315f8c906b0ac dm-12 EQLOGIC,100E-00
> size=2.0T features='1 queue_if_no_path' hwhandler='1 alua' wp=rw
> `-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=0 status=active
>   |- 15:0:0:0 sdb 8:16 active undef running
>   `- 17:0:0:0 sdd 8:48 active undef running
>
> that lets me think I'm not using the no_path_retry setting, but queue_if_no_path... I could be wrong anyway..

Not this is expected. What is means, if I understand multipath
behavior correctly,
that the device queue data for no_path_retry * polling_internal seconds when all
paths failed. After that the device will fail all pending and new I/O
until at least
one path is recovered.

> How to verify for sure (without dropping the paths, at least at the moment) from the config?
> Any option with multipath and/or dmsetup commands?

multipath show config -> find your device section, it will show the current
value for no_path_retry.

Nir