For the purposes of this guide, we assume a minimal setup in line with the examples given in the previous sections:

global { 
  usage-count yes; 
}
common {
  protocol C;
}
resource r0 {
  on alice {
    device    /dev/drbd1;
    disk      /dev/sda7;
    address   10.1.1.31:7789;
    meta-disk internal;
  }
  on bob {
    device    /dev/drbd1;
    disk      /dev/sda7;
    address   10.1.1.32:7789;
    meta-disk internal;
  }
}

This example configures DRBD in the following fashion:

This section is allowed only once, preferrably at the very top of the configuration file. Of the few options available in this section, only one is of relevance to most users:

usage-count. The DRBD project keeps statistics about the usage of various DRBD versions. This is done by contacting an HTTP server every time a new DRBD version is installed on a system. This can be disabled by setting usage-count no;. The default is usage-count ask; which will prompt you every time you upgrade DRBD.

	Note
	DRBD's usage statistics are, of course, publicly available: see http://usage.drbd.org.

This section provides a shorthand method to define configuration settings inherited by every resource. You may define any option you can also define on a per-resource basis.

Including a common section is not strictly required, but strongly recommended if you are using more than one resource. Otherwise, the configuration quickly becomes convoluted by repeatedly-used options.

In the example above, we included protocol C; in the common section, so every resource configured (including r0) inherits this option unless it has another protocol option configured explicitly. For other synchronization protocols available, see the section called “Replication modes”.

Any DRBD resource you define must be named by specifying resource name in the configuration file. You may use any arbitrary identifier, however the name must not contain characters other than those found in the US-ASCII character set, and must also not include whitespace.

Every resource configuration must also have two on host sub-sections (one for every cluster node).

All other configuration settings are either inherited from the common section (if it exists), or derived from DRBD's default settings.

In fact, you can use a shorthand notation for the on host sub-sections, too: every option whose values are equal on both hosts may be specified directly in the resource section. Thus, we can further condense this section, in comparison with the example cited above:

resource r0 {
  device    /dev/drbd1;
  disk      /dev/sda7;
  meta-disk internal;
  on alice {
    address   10.1.1.31:7789;
  }
  on bob {
    address   10.1.1.32:7789;
  }
}
      

This notation is available in DRBD versions 8.2.1 and above.