drbdadm. The high-level administration tool of the DRBD program suite. It obtains all DRBD configuration parameters from the configuration file /etc/drbd.conf. drbdadm acts as a front-end application for both drbdsetup and drbdmeta and hands off instructions to either of the two for actual command execution. drbdadm has a dry-run mode, invoked with the -d option, which exposes the commands issued by the back-end programs.

drbdsetup. The program that allows users to configure the DRBD module that has been loaded into the running kernel. It is the low-level tool within the DRBD program suite. When using this program, all configuration parameters have to be directly handed over on the command line. This allows for maximum flexibility, albeit at the price of reduced ease of use. Most users will use drbdsetup very rarely.

drbdmeta. The program which allows users to create, dump, restore, and modify DRBD's meta data structures. This, too, is a command that most users will use only very rarely.