Veritas Volume Manager
VERITAS Volume Manager software is an advanced,
system-level disk and storage array solution that alleviates downtime
during system maintenance by enabling easy, online disk administration
and configuration. The product also helps ensure data integrity and high
availability by offering fast failure recovery and fault tolerant
features. VERITAS Volume Manager software provides easy-to-use, online
storage management for enterprise computing and emerging Storage Area
Network (SAN) environments. Through the support of RAID redundancy
techniques, VERITAS Volume Manager software helps protect against disk
and hardware failures, while providing the flexibility to extend the
capabilities of existing hardware. By providing a logical volume
management layer, VERITAS Volume Manager overcomes the physical
restriction imposed by hardware disk devices.
The main features of volume manager are following :
1. Allows creation of logical volumes spanning over multiple disks. This overcomes the physical limit of the disk .
2. Provides high availability storage solutions through RAID ,Mirroring of disks .
3. Provides fail over features by providing transferable disk group ownership between systems.
4. Dynamic reconfiguration of disk storage in an online system state. what is veritas volume manager .
Fundas
1.0 Volume Manager Objects
Disks are referred in volume manager by two terms -
device name and disk name . The device name specifies controller ,
target id and slice of the disk . Disk name is the common name given to
the device name as an easy to remember name .
For example device name c2t3d0s2 represents
controller number 2 , target id 3 , disk group 0 and slice 2 and disk01
may be its disk name . While device name is system dependent based on
controller and disk id the disk name is user defined .
A disk group is a collection of volume manager disks
grouped together to hold the data . All the configuration changes made
to a disk group are applied to the disks in that disk group only.
Volume Manager objects cannot span disk groups i.e.
all the operations on a particular disk group remains confined to that
particular group .
Disk groups enable high availability as these can be
shared by two or more hosts but can be accessed by only one host at a
time. In two hosts and a shared storage situation one host can take
over the ownership of the disk groups and drives in case other host
fails.
Adding physical disks to the volume manager results
in creation of public and private region in the disk by the volume
manager .The public region is the disk space available for volume space
and the private region stores the configuration information.
A Volume Manager disks are created from the public
region of a physical disk that is under Volume Manager control. Each
volume manager disk corresponds to one physical disk.
A volume manager disk is given a disk media name when it is added to a disk group which can be default or unique user defined..
Once a volume manager disk is assigned a disk media
name, the disk is no longer referred to by its physical address of
c#t#d#. The physical address of c#t#d# becomes known as the disk access
record.
A subdisk is a subsection of a disk's public region and is the smallest unit of storage in Volume Manager.
A subdisk is defined by an offset and a length in sectors on a volume manager disk.
A volume manager disk can contain multiple subdisks
but subdisks cannot overlap or share the same portions of a volume
manager disk.
volume manager disk space that is not reserved or that
is not part of a subdisk is free space. You can use free space to
create new subdisks.
A subdisk is similar to a partition but with following differences :
The maximum number of partitions to a disk is eight.
There is no theoretical limit to number of subdisks
that can be attached to a single plex, but it has been limited to a
default value of 4096. If required, this default can be changed, using
the vol_subdisk_num tunable parameter.
A plex is a structured or ordered collection of
subdisks that represents one copy of the data in a volume. A plex
consists of one or more subdisks located on one or more physical disks.
A plex is also called a mirror. The terms plex and
mirror can be used interchangeably, even though a plex is only one copy
of the data. The terms "mirrored" or "mirroring" imply two or more
copies of data.
The length of a plex is determined by the last block that can be read or written on the last subdisk in the plex.
The default naming convention for plexes in a volume
is volumename-##. The default plex name consists of the volume name, a
hyphen, and a two-digit number
A volume is composed of one or more plexes not restricted by the physical size of the disk.
A volume can span across multiple disks.
Volume Manager uses the default naming convention
vol## for volumes, where ## represents a two-digit number but can be
user defined as per requirement.
Veritas Kernel modules and Daemons
VERITAS actually utilizes kernel modules, which are
the backbone of the application. You can see some of the driver loads in
/etc/system. You'll see several driver forceloads. This is important to
note because on most systems you'll see "WARNING: Forceload of dev/XXX
Failed!" messages at boot up. Don't worry about these, it just means
that VERITAS is trying to load a driver for a piece of hardware you
don't have.
VERITAS also has several daemons running all the time
to keep watch over your volumes, and to ensure smooth operation.
Generally will see 3 common daemons, which are:
vxiod is the VERITAS IO Manager, which manages reads
and writes to volumes. The vxiod daemons are started at system boot
time. There are typically several vxiod daemons running at all times.
Rebooting after your initial installation starts the vxiod daemon.
The vxiod daemon is a kernel thread and is not visible
through the ps command To find out whether the any vxiod daemons are
running, run the vxiod command. If any vxiod daemons are running, the
following message is displayed:
# vxiod
10 volume I/O daemons running
where 10 is the number of vxiod daemons currently running.
If no vxiod daemons are currently running, start some by entering this command:
# vxiod set 10
where 10 can be substituted by the desired
number of vxiod daemons. It is recommended that at least one vxiod
daemon exist for each CPU in the system.
The Volume Manager configuration daemon (vxconfigd)
maintains Volume Manager disk and disk group configurations. The
vxconfigd daemon communicates configuration changes to the kernel and
modifies configuration information stored on disk. Startup scripts
invoke the vxconfigd daemon during the boot procedure.
To determine whether the volume daemon is enabled
# vxdctl mode
mode: enabled (if vxconfigd running and
If vxconfigd is running, but not enabled then you get the following output
# vxdctl mode
mode: disabled
If the vxconfigd daemon is not running:
# vxdctl mode
mode: not-running
To enable the volume daemon,
# vxdctl enable
To start the vxconfigd daemon, use the following command:
# vxconfigd
Once started, the vxconfigd daemon automatically becomes a background process.
The Vx Hot Swap Manager, which monitor VERITAS Volume Manager for failure events and reacts to disk failures with spares.
By default, vxrelocd sends mail to root with
information about a detected failure and the status of any relocation
and recovery attempts. To send mail to other users, add the user login
name to the vxrelocd startup line in the startup script
/etc/init.d/vxvm-recover and reboot the system.
Using vxdiskadm
2.0 Volume Manager Configuration
Volume configuration consists of adding two or more
disks to form disk group and create volume/s from this disk group.
File system can be created on these volumes or these can be accessed as
raw devices for some database applications. First step in volume manager
configuration consists of adding and initializing disks under volume
manager which creates a public region which is bulk of disk space
available for volume space .Private region which is generally of a few
megabytes stores the disk configuration information .
Most of the volume manager operation related to disks
& volume can be performed by a character based menu utility call
vxdiskadm
Following paragraphs describes the use of vxddiskadm to configure and manage volume manager.
# vxdiskadm
Typing vxdiskadm brings up a menu based utility
(text). The options , their explanation and screen shots are given
below. Most of the options need a disk name , device name or disk group
name and you can have this information by typing list in the vxdiskadm
menu .The list menu option is used to display a list of disks attached
to your system. This also lists removed or failed disks. Most useful to
get a quick view of all disks or list details of a single disk - its
name , volume association and status.
A disk needs to be formatted in order to be included
in volume manager . volume manager will report unformatted disk as
invalid and a will only recognize after formatting
By default all the available disks in the system are
considered for inclusion as volume manager disk however to exclude
certain disks, list the names of the disks to be excluded in the file
/etc/vx/disks.exclude before the initialization or encapsulation.
Similarly, you can exclude all disks on specific controllers from
initialization or encapsulation by listing those controllers in the file
/etc/vx/cntrls.exclude.
? & ?? options provide help about the menu item and menu system.
# vxdiskadm
Volume Manager Support Operations
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk
1 Add or initialize one or more disks
2 Encapsulate one or more disks
3 Remove a disk
4 Remove a disk for replacement
5 Replace a failed or removed disk
6 Mirror volumes on a disk
7 Move volumes from a disk
8 Enable access to (import) a disk group
9 Remove access to (deport) a disk group
10 Enable (online) a disk device
11 Disable (offline) a disk device
12 Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group
13 Turn off the spare flag on a disk
list List disk information
? Display help about menu
?? Display help about the menuing system
q Exit from menus
Select an operation to perform
2.1 Add or initialize one or more disks
The formatted disks can be added or initialized with
volume manager . Disk groups needs to be given for making a new group or
adding disks in existing group. Default disk group is rootdg and if
none is specified the disks are added to volume manager and are kept as
hot spares which can be used in place of a failed disk.
Select 1 (Add or initialize one or more disks) from the vxdiskadm main menu. Add or initialize disks
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/AddDisks
Use this operation to add one or more disks to a disk group. You can
add the selected disks to an existing disk group or to a new disk group
that will be created as a part of the operation. The selected disks may
also be added to a disk group as spares. The selected disks may also be
initialized without adding them to a disk group leaving the disks available
for use as replacement disks.
More than one disk or pattern may be entered at the prompt. Here are some
disk selection examples:
all: all disks
c3 c4t2: all disks on both controller 3 and controller 4, target 2
c3t4d0: a single disk
xyz_0 : a single disk (in the enclosure based naming scheme)
xyz_ : all disks on the enclosure whose name is xyz
Select disk devices to add:
[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?]list
- <pattern-list> can be a
single or more disks and/or controllers. If <pattern-list>
consists of multiple items, those items must be separated by white
space.
- list at the prompt displays a list of
the disks available to the system, followed by a prompt at which you
should type the device name of the disk to be added:
- All disks attached to the system are
recognized by the Volume Manager and displayed here.. Error status
indicates disks not recognized by volume manager as part of volume
manager and can be used to add in the volume manager .. Disks with a
name , group and online status are present in volume manager in a valid
volume manager disk group .One or more disks separated by space can be
selected for adding into volume manager.
- You can choose to add this disk to an
existing disk group, a new disk group, or leave the disk available for
use by future add or replacement operations. To create a new disk
group, select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To leave the
disk available for future use, specify a disk group name of "none".
Select disk devices to add:
[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?]list
DEVICE DISK GROUP STATUS
c0t0d0 disk01 rootdg online
c0t1d0 disk02 rootdg online
c0t2d0 disk03 rootdg online
c0t3d0 - - online
c1t0d0 disk10 rootdg online
c1t0d1 - - error
.
.
.
c3t0d0 - - error
c3t1d0 disk33 rootdg online
c3t2d0 disk34 rootdg online
c3t3d0 disk35 rootdg online
Select disk devices to add: [<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?] c1t0d0
Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t0d0
- Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group, a
new disk group, or leave the disk available for use by future
add or replacement operations. To create a new disk group,
select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To leave
the disk available for future use, specify a disk group name
of "none".
Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?] (default: rootdg)
Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
Add disk as a spare disk for rootdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n
The selected disks will be added to the disk group rootdg with
default disk names.
c1t2d0
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
The following disk device has a valid VTOC, but does not appear to have
been initialized for the Volume Manager. If there is data on the disk
that should NOT be destroyed you should encapsulate the existing disk
partitions as volumes instead of adding the disk as a new disk.
Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t2d0
Encapsulate this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) n
c1t2d0
Instead of encapsulating, initialize? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) y
Initializing device c1t2d0.
Adding disk device c1t2d0 to disk group rootdg with disk
name disk39.
Add or initialize other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
2.2 Encapsulate one or more disks
This is used to bring the disk under volume manager ,
which are already present in the system with data but without volume
manager . Data on these disks are not disturbed and if these disks
meets certain volume manager requirements these are added under volume
manager.
- System needs rebooting if
encapsulation is used for disk with mounted filesystem or running
applications . Also the old device names needs to be changed in
applications/scripts to reflect the new volume name.
- vfstab information is updated
automatically but it is worthwhile to check vfstab if changes are
proper as any discrepancy in vfstab may cause system boot failure on
next reboot.
- Encapsulation preserves any existing
data on the disk when the disk is placed under volume manager control.
To reduce the chance of encapsulation failure, make sure that the disk
meets the following requirements:-
- It has a small amount of free space (at the beginning or end of the disk) that does not belong to any partition
- It has two free partitions
- It has an s2 slice that represents the whole disk
Procedure for encapsulating a disk for volume manager use is as follows:
Select menu item 2 (Encapsulate one or more disks) from the vxdiskadm main menu and follow the prompts :-
Encapsulate one or more disks
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/Encapsulate
Use this operation to convert one or more disks to use the Volume Manager.
This adds the disks to a disk group and replaces existing partitions with
volumes. Disk encapsulation requires a reboot for the changes to take effect.
More than one disk or pattern may be entered at the prompt. Here are some
disk selection examples:
all: all disks
c3 c4t2: all disks on both controller 3 and controller 4, target 2
c3t4d0: a single disk
Select disk devices to encapsulate:
[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?] c2t5d0
<pattern-list> can be a single disk, or a
series of disks and/or controllers (with optional targets). If
<pattern-list> consists of multiple items, those items must be
separated by white space.
Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name]
c2t5d0
Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group or to
a new disk group. To create a new disk group, select a disk group
name that does not yet exist.
Which disk group [<group>,list,q,?] (default: rootdg)
Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
The selected disks will be encapsulated and added to the rootdg
disk group with default disk names.
c2t5d0
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
The following disk has been selected for encapsulation. Output format:
[Device_Name]
c2t5d0
Continue with encapsulation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
The disk device c2t5d0 will be encapsulated and added to the disk
group rootdg with the disk name disk01.
The c2t5d0 disk has been configured for encapsulation.
The first stage of encapsulation has completed successfully. You
should now reboot your system at the earliest possible opportunity.
The encapsulation will require two or three reboots which will happen
automatically after the next reboot. To reboot execute the command:
shutdown -g0 -y -i6
This will update the /etc/vfstab file so that volume devices are
used to mount the file systems on this disk device. You will need
to update any other references such as backup scripts, databases,
or manually created swap devices.
Encapsulate other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n
The disk device c2t5d0 will be encapsulated and added to the
disk group rootdg with the disk name disk01.
The encapsulation operation failed with the following error:
It is not possible to encapsulate c2t5d0, for the following reason:
<vxvm:vxslicer: ERROR: Unsupported disk layout.>
Hit RETURN to continue.
- Encapsulation may fail if
there is not enough free space available on the disk to accommodate
volume manager. If this happens, the procedure above will end abruptly
with an error message as above .
This option is used to remove a disk from a disk
group provided there is no active volume using this disk. If there
are some volumes using the disk the those have to be either moved to
some other disk or removed if they are no longer needed.
However since a diskgroup must have at least one disk
you can not remove all the disks from a disk group . To remove all disks
from a diskgroup you have to disable the volume group with the
exception of rootdg disk group which can not be disabled .
Select menu item 3 (Remove a disk) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Remove a disk
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/RemoveDisk
Use this operation to remove a disk from a disk group. This
operation takes, as input, a disk name. This is the same name
that you gave to the disk when you added the disk to the disk
group.
Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk01
Requested operation is to remove disk disk01 from group rootdg.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
Removal of disk disk01 is complete.
Remove another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
2.4 Remove a disk for replacement
This option is used for removing the disk but
retaining the name of the disk so that it can be used by the newly
replaced disk . The replacement disk can be a newly added disk or
already available disk in the other disk groups
Select menu item 4 (Remove a disk for replacement) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Remove a disk for replacement
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/RemoveForReplace
Use this menu operation to remove a physical disk from a disk
group, while retaining the disk name. This changes the state
for the disk name to a removed disk. If there are any
initialized disks that are not part of a disk group, you will be
given the option of using one of these disks as a replacement.
Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk02
Additional screens display if there are volumes
associated with the disk you want to remove. You have to decide if data
is needed or not needed and answer the prompts as asked .
The following devices are available as replacements:
c1t1d0
You can choose one of these disks now, to replace disk02.
Select "none" if you do not wish to select a replacement disk.
Choose a device, or select "none"
[<device>,none,q,?] (default: c1t1d0)
Requested operation is to remove disk disk02 from group rootdg.
The removed disk will be replaced with disk device c1t1d0.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
Removal of disk disk02 completed successfully.
Proceeding to replace disk02 with device c1t1d0.
Disk replacement completed successfully.
Remove another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
2.5 Replace a failed or removed disk
This option is used to replace a failed or removed
disk . The new disk can be initialized or non initialized as this
option does initialization .
Select menu item 5 (Replace a failed or removed disk) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Replace a failed or removed disk
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/ReplaceDisk
Use this menu operation to specify a replacement disk for a disk
that you removed with the "Remove a disk for replacement" menu
operation, or that failed during use. You will be prompted for
a disk name to replace and a disk device to use as a replacement.
You can choose an uninitialized disk, in which case the disk will
be initialized, or you can choose a disk that you have already
initialized using the Add or initialize a disk menu operation.
Select a removed or failed disk [<disk>,list,q,?] disk02
The following devices are available as replacements:
c1t0d0s2 c1t1d0s2
You can choose one of these disks to replace disk02.
Choose "none" to initialize another disk to replace disk02.
Choose a device, or select "none"
[<device>,none,q,?] (default: c1t0d0s2)
The requested operation is to use the initialized device c1t0d0s2
to replace the removed or failed disk disk02 in disk group rootdg.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
Replacement of disk disk02 in group rootdg with disk device
c1t0d0s2 completed successfully.
2.6 Mirror volumes on a disk
volumes can be mirrored to another disk with available
space however it can not be used to mirror existing mirrors or mirrors
spanning more than one sub disk .
To mirror volumes on a disk, make sure that the target
disk has an equal or greater amount of space as the originating disk
and then do the following
Select menu item 6 (Mirror volumes on a disk) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Mirror volumes on a disk
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/Mirror
This operation can be used to mirror volumes on a disk. These
volumes can be mirrored onto another disk or onto any
available disk space. Volumes will not be mirrored if they are
already mirrored. Also, volumes that are comprised of more than
one subdisk will not be mirrored.
Mirroring volumes from the boot disk will produce a disk that can
be used as an alternate boot disk.
Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk02
You can choose to mirror volumes from disk disk02 onto any
available disk space, or you can choose to mirror onto a specific
disk. To mirror to a specific disk, select the name of that disk.
To mirror to any available disk space, select "any".
Enter destination disk [<disk>,list,q,?] (default: any) disk01
- Be sure to always specify the
destination disk when you are creating an alternate root disk.
Otherwise, the volume manager will select space available in the disk
group which might span disk and will result in boot failure from this
disk.
2.7 Move volumes from a disk
This option is used in case the disk is to be replaced
or removed and has active volumes on the disk. . Also volumes can be
moved to different disk groups for better space , performance etc.
Select menu item 7 (Move volumes from a disk) from the from the from the from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Move volumes from a disk
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/Evacuate
Use this menu operation to move any volumes that are using a
disk onto other disks. Use this menu immediately prior to
removing a disk, either permanently or for replacement. You can
specify a list of disks to move volumes onto, or you can move the
volumes to any available disk space in the same disk group.
NOTE: Simply moving volumes off of a disk, without also removing
the disk, does not prevent volumes from being moved onto
the disk by future operations. For example, using two
consecutive move operations may move volumes from the
second disk to the first.
Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk01
You can now specify a list of disks to move onto. Specify a list
of disk media names (e.g., disk01) all on one line separated by
blanks. If you do not enter any disk media names, then the
volumes will be moved to any available space in the disk group.
Requested operation is to move all volumes from disk disk01 in
group rootdg.
NOTE: This operation can take a long time to complete.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
Move volume vol3 ...
Move volume vol3-bk00 ...
Evacuation of disk disk01 is complete.
Move volumes from another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
2.8 Enable access to (import) a disk group
Used in enabling ownership of the other system to a
disk group which has been deported by the other system. Used in
failover configurations where the ownership of a shared disk/disk group
is transferred to the other system in case of failure of current
system.
Select menu item 8(Enable access to (import) a disk group) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Enable access to (import) a disk group
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/EnableDiskGroup
Use this operation to enable access to a disk group. This can be
used as the final part of moving a disk group from one system to
another. The first part of moving a disk group is to use the
"Remove access to (deport) a disk group" operation on the
original host.
A disk group can be imported from another host that failed without
first deporting the disk group. Be sure that all disks in the disk
group are moved between hosts.
If two hosts share a SCSI bus, be very careful to ensure that the
other host really has failed or has deported the disk group. If
two active hosts import a disk group at the same time, the disk
group will be corrupted and will become unusable.
Select disk group to import [<group>,list,q,?] (default: list)
newdg
The import of newdg was successful.
Select another disk group? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
2.9 Disable access to (deport) a disk group
Disk group is deported if disks groups ownership
needs to be transferred to another system or all the disks in a disk
groups needs to be freed from group. Disks in a disk groups to be
deported should not be active.
Select menu item 9 (Remove access to (deport) a disk
group) from the vxdiskadm main menu. Remove access to (deport) a disk
group
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/DeportDiskGroup
Use this menu operation to remove access to a disk group that is
currently enabled (imported) by this system. Deport a disk
group if you intend to move the disks in a disk group to another
system. Also, deport a disk group if you want to use all of the
disks remaining in a disk group for some new purpose.
You will be prompted for the name of a disk group. You will also
be asked if the disks should be disabled (offlined). For
removable disk devices on some systems, it is important to
disable all access to the disk before removing the disk.
Enter name of disk group [<group>,list,q,?] (default: list) newdg
The requested operation is to disable access to the removable
disk group named newdg. This disk group is stored on the
following disks:
newdg01 on device c1t1d0s2
You can choose to disable access to (also known as "offline")
these disks. This may be necessary to prevent errors if
you actually remove any of the disks from the system.
Disable (offline) the indicated disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
Removal of disk group newdg was successful.
Disable another disk group? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
2.10 Enable (online) a disk device
Disks which are turned offline by volume manager , or
which are to be imported can be enabled by this option. This operation
causes disks to be scanned and find out the disk belonging to a disk
group.
Select menu item 10 (Enable (online) a disk device) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Enable (online) a disk device
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/OnlineDisk
Use this operation to enable access to a disk that was disabled
with the "Disable (offline) a disk device" operation.
You can also use this operation to re-scan a disk that may have
been changed outside of the Volume Manager. For example, if a disk
is shared between two systems, the Volume Manager running on the
other system may have changed the disk. If so, you can use this
operation to re-scan the disk.
NOTE: Many vxdiskadm operations re-scan disks without user
intervention. This will eliminate most needs to online a
disk directly, except when the disk is directly offlined.
Select a disk device to enable [<address>,list,q,?] c1t1d0
Enable another device? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
2.11 Disable (offline) a disk device
This option disables all access to a disk which is
not part of any disk group . This is used to remove disk from volume
group. Some systems do not support disks that can be removed from a
system during normal operation. On such systems, the offline operation
is not very useful.
Select menu item 11 (Disable (offline) a disk device) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Disable (offline) a disk device
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/OfflineDisk
Use this menu operation to disable all access to a disk device
by the Volume Manager. This operation can be applied only to
disks that are not currently in a disk group. Use this operation
if you intend to remove a disk from a system without rebooting.
NOTE: Many systems do not support disks that can be removed from
a system during normal operation. On such systems, the
offline operation is seldom useful.
Select a disk device to disable [<address>,list,q,?] c1t1d0
Disable another device? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
2.12 Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group
This is used to reserve the disk as an automatic replacement disk ( hot-relocation) in case of another disk in the disk group fails. Hot-relocation relocates redundant subdisks to other disks and restores the affected volume manager objects and data. If a disk has already been designated as a spare in the disk group, the subdisks from the failed disk are relocated to the spare disk. Otherwise, any suitable free space in the disk group is used.
Select menu item 12 (Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/MarkSpareDisk
Use this operation to mark a disk as a spare for a disk group.
This operation takes, as input, a disk name. This is the same name
that you gave to the disk when you added the disk to the disk group.
Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk01
Marking of disk01 in rootdg as a spare disk is complete.
Mark another disk as a spare? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
- Any VM disk in this disk group
can now use this disk as a spare in the event of a failure. If a disk
fails, hot-relocation should automatically occur .The failed disk needs
to be replaced.
2.13 Turn off the spare flag on a disk
This is used to remove a VM Disk From the
Hot-Relocation Pool & free hot-relocation spare disks for use as
regular volume manager disks While a disk is designated as a spare, the
space on that disk is not used as free space for the creation of volume
manager objects within its disk group and this option makes this space
available.
Select menu item 13 (Turn off the spare flag on a disk) from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Turn off the spare flag on a disk
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/UnmarkSpareDisk
Use this operation to turn off the spare flag on a disk.
This operation takes, as input, a disk name. This is the same
name that you gave to the disk when you added the disk to the
disk group.
Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk01
Disk disk01 in rootdg no longer marked as a spare disk.
Turn-off spare flag on another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
Cookbooks
Table of Contents
01. Initialize the Volume manager
02. Create Raid 5 volume using vxmake
03. Unencapsulating Your Root Disk
04. Replacing a failed boot disk
Volume Manager Initialization
The vxinstall utility provides a menu driven interface to configure VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM). If you install the VERITAS Volume Manager software package using the operating system's package administration commands, you can run vxinstall to configure VxVM for initial use on your system
# vxinstall
VxVM uses license keys to control access. If you have a SPARCstorage
Array (SSA) controller or a Sun Enterprise Network Array (SENA) controller
attached to your system, then VxVM will grant you a limited use license
automatically. The SSA and/or SENA license grants you unrestricted use
of disks attached to an SSA or SENA controller, but disallows striping,
RAID-5, and DMP on non-SSA and non-SENA disks. If you are not running an
SSA or SENA controller, then you must obtain a license key to operate.
Licensing information:
System host ID: 80f7cd50
Host type: SUNW,Ultra-80
SPARCstorage Array or Sun Enterprise Network Array: No arrays found
No valid licenses found.
VM lite/full license(s) is needed to proceed with vxinstall.
See VERITAS Volume Manager Installation Guide for more details
on obtaining and installing the license keys.
Are you prepared to enter a license key [y,n,q] (default: y)
VERITAS License Manager vxlicinst utility version 3.02.005
Copyright (C) 1996-2004 VERITAS Software Corp. All Rights reserved.
Enter your license key : xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
License key successfully installed for VERITAS Storage Foundation Standard
License key successfully installed for VERITAS Volume Manager
License key successfully installed for VERITAS File System
License key successfully installed for VERITAS SANPoint Control
Do you wish to enter another license key [y,n,q] (default: n) n
Do you want to use enclosure based names for all disks ?
[y,n,q,?] (default: n)
Starting the cache deamon, vxcached.
Do you want to setup a system wide default disk group?
[y,n,q,?] (default: y)
Which disk group [<group>,list,q,?] list
NAME STATE ID
Which disk group [<group>,list,q,?] defdg
The installation is successfully completed.
Cook-book to create a RAID5 Volume using vxmake
Scenario: We have 3 vmdisks named disk01, disk02 and disk03. We have to create a RAID5 volume with 2 column and a stripe width of 32k. Raid 5 layout will have 2 plexes in it. One for striping and the another one for the log. So we have to create two plexes.
01. Create 3 subdisks called disk01-02, disk02-02, disk03-02 (2 column & 1 log)
# vxmake sd disk01-02 disk01,500000,100m
# vxmake sd disk02-02 disk02,500000,100m
# vxmake sd disk03-02 disk03,500000,100m
02. Create a plex called raidplex with 2 subdisks for striping
# vxmake plex raidplex layout=raid5 stwidth=32 ncolumn=2 sd=disk01-02,disk02-01
03. Create one more plex called logplex with one subdisk for log
# vxmake plex logplex sd=disk03-02
04. Create a volume raidvol associating both plexes. Make sure the usage type is raid5
# vxmake -U raid5 vol raidvol plex=raidplex,logplex
05. Initialize the RAID5 volume
# vxvol start raidvol (If facing any problem, ten initialize with b option)
# vxvol init zero reaidvol
06. Building a VxFS Filesystem:
# /usr/lib/fs/vxfs/mkfs -F vxfs -o largefiles /dev/vx/rdsk/exampledg/vol01
version 4 layout
35363560 sectors, 4420445 blocks of size 4096, log size 256 blocks
unlimited inodes, largefiles supported
4420445 data blocks, 4419853 free data blocks
135 allocation units of 32768 blocks, 32768 data blocks
last allocation unit has 29533 data blocks
07. To fsck the Vxfs file system
# fsck -F vxfs -o full,nolog /dev/vx/rdsk/exampledg/vol01
Unencapsulating Your Root Disk
There are two methods for this. The preferable choice is to use the command "vxunroot". If you can�t do this for some reason, or you need to repair a system that has crashed, you can manually un-encapsulate the disk using the following steps:
1. Boot off the cdrom
# boot cdrom -sw
2. Mount the root file system. Your root slice could be different.
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a
3. Edit /a/etc/system
Using "*" comment out the lines between VXVM BEGIN and VXVM END
NOTE: There might be a file /a/etc/system.prevm That could be used. The lines look like the following:
*rootdev:/pseudo/vxio@0:0
*set vxio:vol_rootdev_is_volume=1
4. Edit /a/etc/vfstab
Need to comment out the line that references the Volume Manager volumes.
NOTE: There might be a file /a/etc/vfstab.prevm
4a. Using the information in the vfstab file change the root device to system root disk. ie.
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 / ufs 1 no -
There are lines within the vfstab starting with "NOTE:" that indicates the original boot device. Use this information to recreate the original vfstab file. There are line similar to this:
#NOTE: volume rootvol (/) encapsulated partition c0t0d0s0
4b. Do the same thing for the other encapsulated volumes (ie. /usr , /opt, ..etc)
5. If the install-db file exists, the VxVM daemons will not start on bootup:
# touch /a/etc/vx/reconfig.d/state.d/install-db
6. The root-done file indicates that the root disk has been encapsulated. Remove it now:
# rm /a/etc/vx/reconfig.d/state.d/root-done
7. Unmount /a, and reboot.
Replacing a failed boot device
01. Boot the system from the mirror device "vx-rootmirror":
ok boot vx-rootmirror
02. Check extent of failures. Logs into the system and checks the status of the system. Note that the device c0t0d0s2 is listed as "failed", and the all plexes on that device are listed as DISABLED/NODEVICE".
# vxdisk list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
c0t1d0s2 sliced rootmirror rootdg online
- - rootdisk rootdg failed was:c0t0d0s2
# vxprint -ht
Disk group: rootdg
dg rootdg default default 0 1035555399.1025.pegasus
dm rootdisk - - - - NODEVICE
dm rootmirror c0t1d0s2 sliced 3359 17690400 -
v rootvol - ENABLED ACTIVE 13423200 ROUND - root
pl rootvol-01 rootvol DISABLED NODEVICE 13423200 CONCAT - RW
sd rootdisk-B0 rootvol-01 rootdisk 17690399 1 0 - NDEV
sd rootdisk-02 rootvol-01 rootdisk 0 13423199 1 - NDEV
pl rootvol-02 rootvol ENABLED ACTIVE 13423200 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror-01 rootvol-02 rootmirror 0 13423200 0 c0t1d0 ENA
v swapvol - ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 ROUND - swap
pl swapvol-01 swapvol DISABLED NODEVICE 2100000 CONCAT - WO
sd rootdisk-01 swapvol-01 rootdisk 13423199 2100000 0 - NDEV
pl swapvol-02 swapvol ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror-02 swapvol-02 rootmirror 13423200 2100000 0 c0t1d0 ENA
v var - ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 ROUND - fsgen
pl var-01 var DISABLED NODEVICE 2100000 CONCAT - WO
sd rootdisk-03 var-01 rootdisk 15523199 2100000 0 - NDEV
pl var-02 var ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror-03 var-02 rootmirror 15523200 2100000 0 c0t1d0 ENA
03. Replace failed disk and restore redundancy. The administrator replaces the failed disk with a new disk of the same geometry. Depending on the system model, the disk replacement may require that the system be powered down. Once the operating system can "see" the new disk c0t0d0 via the format command, the administrator tells Veritas volume manager to rescan the system via the "vxdctl enable" command.
# vxdctl enable
# vxdisk list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
c0t0d0s2 sliced - - error
c0t1d0s2 sliced rootmirror rootdg online
- - rootdisk rootdg failed was:c0t0d0s2
Now the administrator can make use of "vxdiskadm" to manage the process of replacing the boot disk volumes.
# vxdiskadm
Volume Manager Support Operations
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk
1 Add or initialize one or more disks
2 Encapsulate one or more disks
3 Remove a disk
4 Remove a disk for replacement
5 Replace a failed or removed disk
6 Mirror volumes on a disk
7 Move volumes from a disk
.........
.........
? Display help about menu
?? Display help about the menuing system
q Exit from menus
Select an operation to perform: 4
Remove a disk for replacement
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/RemoveForReplace
Use this menu operation to remove a physical disk from a disk
group, while retaining the disk name. This changes the state
for the disk name to a "removed" disk. If there are any
initialized disks that are not part of a disk group, you will be
given the option of using one of these disks as a replacement.
Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] list
Disk group: rootdg
DM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATE
dm rootdisk - - - - NODEVICE
dm rootmirror c0t1d0s2 sliced 3359 17690400 -
Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] rootdisk
The following volumes will lose mirrors as a result of this
operation:
rootvol swapvol var
No data on these volumes will be lost.
The requested operation is to remove disk rootdisk from disk group
rootdg. The disk name will be kept, along with any volumes using
the disk, allowing replacement of the disk.
Select "Replace a failed or removed disk" from the main menu
when you wish to replace the disk.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
Removal of disk rootdisk completed successfully.
Remove another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n
Volume Manager Support Operations
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk
Volume Manager Support Operations
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk
1 Add or initialize one or more disks
2 Encapsulate one or more disks
3 Remove a disk
4 Remove a disk for replacement
5 Replace a failed or removed disk
6 Mirror volumes on a disk
7 Move volumes from a disk
.........
.........
? Display help about menu
?? Display help about the menuing system
q Exit from menus
Select an operation to perform: 5
Replace a failed or removed disk
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/ReplaceDisk
Use this menu operation to specify a replacement disk for a disk
that you removed with the "Remove a disk for replacement" menu
operation, or that failed during use. You will be prompted for
a disk name to replace and a disk device to use as a replacement.
You can choose an uninitialized disk, in which case the disk will
be initialized, or you can choose a disk that you have already
initialized using the Add or initialize a disk menu operation.
Select a removed or failed disk [<disk>,list,q,?] list
Disk group: rootdg
DM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATE
dm rootdisk - - - - REMOVED
Select a removed or failed disk [<disk>,list,q,?] rootdisk
Select disk device to initialize [<address>,list,q,?] list
DEVICE DISK GROUP STATUS
c0t0d0 - - error
c0t1d0 rootmirror rootdg online
Select disk device to initialize [<address>,list,q,?] c0t0d0
The following disk device has a valid VTOC, but does not appear to have
been initialized for the Volume Manager. If there is data on the disk
that should NOT be destroyed you should encapsulate the existing disk
partitions as volumes instead of adding the disk as a new disk.
Output format: [Device_Name]
c0t0d0
Encapsulate this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) n
c0t0d0
Instead of encapsulating, initialize? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) y
The requested operation is to initialize disk device c0t0d0 and
to then use that device to replace the removed or failed disk
rootdisk in disk group rootdg.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
Replacement of disk rootdisk in group rootdg with disk device
c0t0d0 completed successfully.
Replace another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n
Now quit from the vxdiskadm. Having replaced the disk in Veritas volume manager, the disk device is now listed as "online", and VxVM is in the process of attaching the replacement plexes to the original volumes.
# vxdisk list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
c0t0d0s2 sliced rootdisk rootdg online
c0t1d0s2 sliced rootmirror rootdg online
# vxprint -ht
dg rootdg default default 0 1035555399.1025.pegasus
dm rootdisk c0t0d0s2 sliced 3359 17690400 -
dm rootmirror c0t1d0s2 sliced 3359 17690400 -
v rootvol - ENABLED ACTIVE 13423200 ROUND - root
pl rootvol-01 rootvol ENABLED STALE 13423200 CONCAT - WO
sd rootdisk-05 rootvol-01 rootdisk 2100000 13423200 0 c0t0d0 ENA
pl rootvol-02 rootvol ENABLED ACTIVE 13423200 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror-01 rootvol-02 rootmirror 0 13423200 0 c0t1d0 ENA
v swapvol - ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 ROUND - swap
pl swapvol-01 swapvol DISABLED RECOVER 2100000 CONCAT - WO
sd rootdisk-06 swapvol-01 rootdisk 15523200 2100000 0 c0t0d0 ENA
pl swapvol-02 swapvol ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror-02 swapvol-02 rootmirror 13423200 2100000 0 c0t1d0 ENA
v var - ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 ROUND - fsgen
pl var-01 var DISABLED RECOVER 2100000 CONCAT - WO
sd rootdisk-04 var-01 rootdisk 0 2100000 0 c0t0d0 ENA
pl var-02 var ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror-03 var-02 rootmirror 15523200 2100000 0 c0t1d0 ENA
# vxtask list
TASKID PTID TYPE/STATE PCT PROGRESS
161 PARENT/R 0.00% 3/0(1) VXRECOVER rootdisk
162 162 ATCOPY/R 01.22% 0/13423200/163680 PLXATT rootvol rootvol-01
After about an hour, all of the plexes have been synchronized, and full operating system redundancy has been restored:
# vxtask list
TASKID PTID TYPE/STATE PCT PROGRESS
# vxprint -ht
Disk group: rootdg
dg rootdg default default 0 1035555399.1025.pegasus
dm rootdisk c0t0d0s2 sliced 3359 17690400 -
dm rootmirror c0t1d0s2 sliced 3359 17690400 -
v rootvol - ENABLED ACTIVE 13423200 ROUND - root
pl rootvol-01 rootvol ENABLED ACTIVE 13423200 CONCAT - RW
sd rootdisk-05 rootvol-01 rootdisk 2100000 13423200 0 c0t0d0 ENA
pl rootvol-02 rootvol ENABLED ACTIVE 13423200 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror-01 rootvol-02 rootmirror 0 13423200 0 c0t1d0 ENA
v swapvol - ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 ROUND - swap
pl swapvol-01 swapvol ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 CONCAT - RW
sd rootdisk-06 swapvol-01 rootdisk 15523200 2100000 0 c0t0d0 ENA
pl swapvol-02 swapvol ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror-02 swapvol-02 rootmirror 13423200 2100000 0 c0t1d0 ENA
v var - ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 ROUND - fsgen
pl var-01 var ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 CONCAT - RW
sd rootdisk-04 var-01 rootdisk 0 2100000 0 c0t0d0 ENA
pl var-02 var ENABLED ACTIVE 2100000 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror-03 var-02 rootmirror 15523200 2100000 0 c0t1d0 ENA
Using vxassist
Attach:vxassit.pdf
Table of Contents
About Vxassist
1. Creating a Volume
1.1 Creating a Concatenated Volume
1.2 Creating a Striped Volume
1.3 Creating a RAID-5 Volume
2. Extending a Volume
2.1 Extending a volume up to certain length
2.2 Extending by a Given Length
2.3 Extending Volume and Filesystem using vxresize
3. Shrinking a Volume
3.1 Shrinking to a Given Length
3.2 Shrinking by a Given Length
4. Removing a Volume
5. Mirroring a Volume
5.1 Creating & Mirroring a New Volume
5.2 Mirroring an Existing Volume
5.3 Mirroring All Volumes
6. Removing a Mirror
7. Adding a RAID-5 Log
8. Adding a DRL Log
9. Removing a RAID-5 Log
10.Preparing a Volume for Online Backup
11.Displaying Volume Configuration Information
About vxassist
vxassist utility in Veritas Volume Manager is used to create volumes, add mirrors and logs to existing volumes, extend and shrink existing volumes, provides for the migration of data from a specified set of disks, and provides facilities for the on-line backup of existing volumes.
The default behavior of vxassist is to create volumes in the rootdg diskgroup if diskgroup is not specified . The default length is taken as number of blocks but this can be specified in Kilobytes or Megabytes or Gigabytes.
Device Nodes :
Default rootdg disk group.
Block Device Node /dev/vx/dsk/volume_name
Raw Device Node /dev/vx/rdsk/volume_name
Other DiskGroups
Block Device Node /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup_name/volume_name
Raw Device Node /dev/vx/rdsk/diskgroup_name/volume_name
vxassist command syntax:
vxassist <option> <Keyword> volume_name [attributes]
Commonly used options are given below (See man vxassist for complete list of supported options)
-g for specifying diskgroups
-b for background operation
-d file containing defaults for vxassist
if not specified /etc/default/vxassist is used
Keywords used are make, mirror, move, growto,growby,shrintto,
shirnkby ,snapstart , snapshot ,snapwait
Attributes specify volumes layout disks controllar to include exclude etc
1. Creating a Volume
1.1 Creating a Concatenated Volume
By default, vxassist creates a concatenated volume using the space available on a disk or on the number of disks in a diskgroup if the volume size specified is more then the one available on a single disk.
Disks can be specified from a diskgroup for a volume group but if not mentioned available disks are selected by the volume manager.
vxassist make volume_name volume_length
To create a new volume appvol of 100 MB in the default disk group rootdg with available disks
# vxassist make appvol 100m
To create the volume appvol of 100MB on disk03
# vxassist make appvol 100m disk03
1.2 Creating a Striped Volume
A striped volume contains at least one plex that consists of two or more subdisks located on two or more physical disks.
vxassist make volume_name length layout=stripe
To create a striped volume appvol2 with the default stripe unit size on the default number of disks
# vxassist make appvol2 100m layout=stripe
To create a striped volume appvol2 100MB striped volume on three specific disks.
# vxassist make appvol2 100m layout=stripe disk04 disk05 disk06
1.3 Creating a RAID-5 Volume
A RAID-5 volume contains a RAID-5 plex that consists of two or more subdisks located on two or more physical disks. Only one RAID-5 plex can exist per volume. A RAID-5 volume may also contain one or more RAID-5 log plexes, which are used to log information about data and parity being written to the volume.
vxassist make volume_name length layout=raid5
To create the RAID-5 volume appvol4 with the default stripe unit size on the default number of disks with RAID-5 log,
# vxassist make appvol4 100m layout=raid5.
2. Extending a Volume
Caution : If you plan to use volume size change (grow or shrink ) on a volume with data make sure you have the good backup of the volume available before carrying out such operation .
2.1 Extending a volume up to certain length
vxassist growto volume_name length
To extend vol3 upto 8000 sectors, type:
# vxassist growto vol3 8000
2.2 Extending by a Given Length
vxassist growby volume_name length
To extend volapp by 1000 sectors, type:
# vxassist growby volapp 1000
After Extending the volume, extend the file system using fsadm command
fsadm -F vxfs -b <size> <filesystem name>
2.3 Extending the Volume and file system using vxresize
vxresize -F <fs_type> -g <disk_group> volume_name size
To extend the file system size by 20GB
# vxresize -F vxfs -g appdg appvol 20g
To add 10GB to an existing file system
# vxresize -F vxfs -g appdg appvol +10g
3. Shrinking a Volume
Caution - Do not shrink a volume below the size of the file system. If you have a VxFS file system, you can shrink the file system and then shrink the volume. If you do not shrink the file system first, you risk unrecoverable data loss.
Always make sure you have a good backup of the data volume to be shirnked.
3.1 Shrinking to a Given Length
vxassist shrinkto volume_name length
Make sure you do not shrink the volume below the current size of the file system or database using the volume. This command can be safely used on empty volumes.
To shrink volcat to 1300 sectors, type:
# vxassist shrinkto volcat 1300
3.2 Shrinking by a Given Length
vxassist shrinkby volume_name length
To shrink volcat by 8000 sectors, type:
# vxassist shrinkby volapp2 8000
4. Removing a Volume
Removing a volume requires removing all references to the volumes to be removed like unmounting the volume if mounted and removing its reference from /etc/vfstab .
An active volume has to be stopped first to stop all the activities to the volume only then it can be removed
Stopping Volume
vxvol stop volume_name
To stop appvol1
# vxvol stop appvol1
Removing Volume
vxedit -rf rm volume_name
or
vxassist remove volume volume_name
To remove the volume appvol1
# vxedit -rf rm appvol11
or
# vxassist -g dg01 remove volume appvol1
5. Mirroring a Volume
Mirroring allow data to be written simultaneously to two disks so that in case of failure of one disk data is available from the other mirrored disk. Boot disks can be mirriored to provide alternate booting disk .
5.1 Creating & Mirroring a New Volume
vxassist make volume_name length layout=mirror
To create the mirrored volume, appvol22 of 100mb
# vxassist make appvol22 100m layout=mirror
To create a volume with Dirty Region Logging enabled
# vxassist make volume_name length layout=mirror,log
5.2 Mirroring an Existing Volume
vxassist mirror volume_name
Creating a mirror of volume vol44
# vxassist mirror vol44
5.3 Mirroring All Volumes
To mirror all existing volumes to available disk space
# /etc/vx/bin/vxmirror -a
6. Removing a Mirror
Removing a mirror involves first dissociating the plex from its volume and then removing the plex and any associated subdisks completely.The last valid mirror plex associated with a volume cannot be removed.
Dissociate and remove the plex from its volume as follows:
# vxplex -o rm dis plex_name
vxprint -h shows the volume and associated plexes :
Disk group: rootdg TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0 v volm fsgen ENABLED 10240 - ACTIVE - - pl volm-01 volm ENABLED 10240 - ACTIVE - - sd disk01-02 volm-01 - 10240 0 - - - pl volm-02 volm ENABLED 10240 - ACTIVE - - sd disk02-03 volm-02 - 10240 0 - - -
To disassociate and remove volmir-02 from volmir, type:
# vxplex -o rm dis volm-02
The output of vxprint -h for volm now shows volume volm with only one plex::
Disk group: rootdg TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0 v volm fsgen ENABLED 10240 - ACTIVE - - pl volm-01 volmir ENABLED 10240 - ACTIVE - - sd disk01-02 volmir-01 - 10240 0 - - -
7. Adding a RAID-5 Log
A RAID-5 log maintains a copy of the data and parity being written to the volume at any given time. If a system failure occurs, VxVM can replay the RAID-5 log to resynchronize the volume. This copies the data and parity that was being written at the time of failure from the log to the appropriate areas of the RAID-5 volume.
RAID-5 log plexes are used to log information about data and parity being written to the raid volume. A log plex is created for the volume by default when a raid volume is created but additional ones can be added by following command .
vxassist addlog name_of_raid5_vol
8. Adding a DRL Log
Dirty region logging (DRL) is used with mirrored volume layouts. DRL keeps track of the regions that have changed due to I/O writes to a mirrored volume. Prior to every write, a bitmap is written to a log to record the area of the disk that is being changed. In case of system failure, DRL uses this information to recover only the portions of the volume that need to be recovered.
To put Dirty Region Logging into effect for a volume, a log subdisk must be added to that volume and the volume must be mirrored. Only one log subdisk can exist per plex.
To create a log for the mirrored volume vol03:
# vxassist addlog vol03
When vxassist is used to add a log subdisk to a volume, a log plex is also created to contain the log subdisk, by default.
Once created, the plex containing a log subdisk can be treated as a regular plex. Data subdisks can be added to the log plex. The log plex and log subdisk can be removed using the same procedures used to remove ordinary plexes and subdisks.
9. Removing a RAID-5 Log
Removing a RAID-5 log involves first dissociating the log from its volume and then removing the log and any associated subdisks completely.
a. Dissociate the log from its volume as follows:
# vxplex -o rm dis plex_name
b. To identify the log plex, use the command:
# vxprint -ht raid5_volume_name
c. To disassociate the log plex volrd-02 from volrd, type:
#vxplex -o rm dis volrd-02
The output of vxprint -h for volrd now shows:
Disk group: rootdg
TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0
v volrd raid5 ENABLED 32 - ACTIVE - -
pl volrd-01 volrd ENABLED 32 - ACTIVE - -
sd disk01-02 volrd-01 - 32 0 - - -
sd disk02-03 volrd-01 - 32 0 - - -
10. Preparing a Volume for Online Backup
Volume manager provides an easy way to take backup of the online data by creating an offline snapshot mirror of the volume.
The vxassist snapstart operation creates a write-only backup mirror, which is attached to and synchronized with the volume to be backed up and later detached and made offline by vxassist snapshot command . The snapshot volume can be used by backup utilities while the original volume continues to be available for applications and users.
The volume backup method described here does not apply to RAID-5 volumes.
Backing up a volume with vxassist involves the following procedure
A. Create a snapshot mirror
snapstart starts creating a online snapshot mirror of the volume using the available disk space . The snapshot is completed with vxassist snapshot command when offline snapshot volume is created with a userdefined name .
vxassist snapstart volume_name
To create a snapshot mirror of a volume called vol8, type
# vxassist snapstart vol8
B. Create a snapshot volume
vxassist snapshot volume_name new_volume_name
To create a snapshot volume of vol8, type:
# vxassist snapshot vol8 snapvol8
You can now back up the snapshot volume by whatever means you prefer. To avoid wasting space, you can then remove the snapshot volume, which occupies as much space as the original volume
11 Displaying Volume Configuration Information
The vxprint command can be used to display information about how a volume is configured.
Display the volume, mirror, and subdisk record information for all volumes as follows:
# vxprint -ht
Disk group: rootdg
DG NAME NCONFIG NLOG MINORS GROUP-ID
DM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATE
V NAME USETYPE KSTATE STATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX
PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODE
SD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFS LENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE
dg rootdg 759096729.1025.tweety
dm disk10 c1t0d0s2 sliced 559 1044400 -
dm disk20 c2t0d0s2 sliced 559 1044400 -
v pubs fsgen ENABLED ACTIVE 2288 SELECT -
pl pubs-01 pubs ENABLED ACTIVE 2288 CONCAT - RW
sd disk10-01 pubs-01 disk10 0 2288 0 c0t0d0 ENA
v vol8 fsgen ENABLED ACTIVE 20480 SELECT -
pl vol8-01 vol8 ENABLED ACTIVE 20480 CONCAT - RW
sd disk10-02 vol8-0 disk10 2288 20480 0 c0t1d0 ENA
where dg is a disk group, dm is a disk, v is a volume, pl is a plex, and sd is a subdisk. The top few lines indicate the headers that match each type of output line that follows. Each volume is listed along with its associated plex(es) and subdisk(s).
Display volume-related information for a specific volume as follows:
# vxprint -t volume_name
To display information about vol8, type:
# vxprint -t tmpvol1
Disk group: tmpdg
V NAME RVG/VSET/CO KSTATE STATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX UTYPE
v tmpvol1 - ENABLED ACTIVE 2097152 SELECT - fsgen
Veritas Commands Reference
Commands_ref.pdf
Table of Contents
01. Disk group related tasks
02. Disk related tasks
03. Sub-Disk related tasks
04. Plex related tasks
05. Volume related tasks
06. vxprint
07. vxedit
08. Other Useful commands
Disk group related tasks
vxdiskadd or vxdiskadm
vxdiskadd and vxdiskadm are interactive programs. It may ask you series of questions. Answer to these questions according to your requirement.
# vxdiskadd [ all | c0t0d0 c0t1d0]
OR
# vxdiskadm
To add disk c1t1d0 to a diskgroup
# vxdiskadd c1t1d0 ( answer the questions appropriately)
or
# vxdiskadm
To find out maximum size that a volume could be created in the disk group in Megabytes (free space in a DG)
# vxassist -g appdg maxsize
Maximum volume size: 31170560 (15220MB)
To list the available diskgroups
# vxdg list
NAME STATE ID
tmpdg enabled,cds 1144189106.24.ultra5
testdg enabled,cds 1144135936.13.ultra5
To remove disk disk01 from diskgroup dg01
# vxdg –g dg01 rmdisk disk01
To get tha detailed information about dg01 diskgroup
# vxdg list dg01
To display free space available in each disk in a disk group “dg01”
# vxdg -g tmpdg free
DISK DEVICE TAG OFFSET LENGTH FLAGS
tmpdg01 c1t2d0s2 c1t2d0 4194304 31171664 -
tmpdg02 c1t3d0s2 c1t3d0 0 35365968 -
The actual space available is LENGTH in 512b
To deport a diskgroup dg01
# vxdg deport dg01
To import a diskgroup dg01
# vxdg import dg01
To import a diskgroup with a newname
# vxdg -n <new_dgname> import <old_dgname>
To destroy a diskgroup dg01
# vxdg destroy dg01
Disk related tasks
To display the disks information
# vxdisk list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
c0t0d0s2 auto:none - - online invalid
c1t2d0s2 auto:cdsdisk tmpdg01 tmpdg online
c1t3d0s2 auto:cdsdisk tmpdg02 tmpdg online
c1t4d0s2 auto:none - - online invalid
c1t5d0s2 auto:cdsdisk testdg01 testdg online
c1t10d0s2 auto:none - - online invalid
c1t11d0s2 auto:none - - online invalid
c1t12d0s2 auto:none - - online invalid
To remove the disk c1t1d0 from volume manager control
# vxdisk rm c1t1d0
To make a disk as spare for hot relocation spare
# vxedit set spare=on disk03
To remove a spare disk disk03 from a hot relocation spare
# vxedit set spare=off disk03
To rename disk01 to disk03
# vxedit rename disk01 disk03
To make disk01 offline
# vxdisk offline disk01
To display detailed disk information about disk01
# vxdisk -g tmpdg list testdg01
VxVM vxdisk ERROR V-5-1-558 Disk testdg01: Disk not in the configuration
ultra5 [/tmpfs] # vxdisk -g tmpdg list tmpdg01
Device: c1t2d0s2
devicetag: c1t2d0
type: auto
hostid: ultra5
disk: name=tmpdg01 id=1144189105.22.ultra5
group: name=tmpdg id=1144189106.24.ultra5
info: format=cdsdisk,privoffset=256,pubslice=2,privslice=2
flags: online ready private autoconfig autoimport imported
pubpaths: block=/dev/vx/dmp/c1t2d0s2 char=/dev/vx/rdmp/c1t2d0s2
version: 3.1
iosize: min=512 (bytes) max=2048 (blocks)
public: slice=2 offset=2304 len=35365968 disk_offset=0
private: slice=2 offset=256 len=2048 disk_offset=0
update: time=1144283192 seqno=0.7
ssb: actual_seqno=0.0
headers: 0 240
configs: count=1 len=1280
logs: count=1 len=192
Defined regions:
config priv 000048-000239[000192]: copy=01 offset=000000 enabled
config priv 000256-001343[001088]: copy=01 offset=000192 enabled
log priv 001344-001535[000192]: copy=01 offset=000000 enabled
lockrgn priv 001536-001679[000144]: part=00 offset=000000
Multipathing information:
numpaths: 1
c1t2d0s2 state=enabled
To find out the free space in a particular disk "tmpdg02"
# vxdg -g tmpdg free tmpdg01
DISK DEVICE TAG OFFSET LENGTH FLAGS
tmpdg01 c1t2d0s2 c1t2d0 4194304 31171664 -
The actual space available is LENGTH in 512b
To display multipath to a VM Disk
# vxdisk path
SUBPATH DANAME DMNAME GROUP STATE
c1t0d0s2 c1t0d0s2 mydg01 mydg ENABLED
c4t0d0s2 c1t0d0s2 mydg01 mydg ENABLED
c1t1d0s2 c1t1d0s2 mydg02 mydg ENABLED
c4t1d0s2 c1t1d0s2 mydg02 mydg ENABLED
vxdisk list command also shows the multipathing information
Sub-Disk related tasks
To create a subdisk disk01-01 on disk disk01 of size 500MB
# vxmake sd disk01-01 disk01,0,500m
Note: If a second subdisk is created on the same vmdisk, the offset value 0 can not be
given. It will overlap with the existing subdisk. We can find out the free offset value
by giving the command vxdg –g (group-name) free which is used to find out the free
disk space in diskgroups
To associate subdisks disk01-01, disk02-01 to an existing plex plex01
# vxsd assoc plex01 disk01-01 disk02-01
To dissociate subdisk disk01-01 from a plex
# vxsd dis disk01-01
To remove a subdisk sd01
# vxedit rm sd01
To move data from subdisk sd01 to subdisk sd02
# vxsd mv sd01 sd02
To join two subdisks sd01 and sd02 and make it as single subdisk sd03
# vxsd join sd01 sd02 sd03
To split subdisk sd01 into two subdisks called sd04 sd05
# vxsd –s size split sd01 sd04 sd04 (-s zize - size of the first subdisk to be created)
Note:- if sub disk sd01 is associated with a plex before split , after split,
both subdisks will be associated with the same plex. become
To display detailed information about all subdisks
# vxprint –ls
Plex related tasks
To create a plex and associate subdisks disk01-01 and disk03-01 to the plex
# vxmake plex plex01 sd=disk01-01,disk03-01
To create a striped plex plex01
# vxmake plex plex01 layout=stripe stwidth=32 ncolumn=2 sd=disk01-01,disk02-01
To create a RAID5 plex called plex01
# vxmake plex plex01 layout=raid5 stwidth=32 ncolumn=2 sd=disk01-01, disk02-01, disk03-01
To associate (attach) a plex to an existing volume
# vxplex att vol01 plex01
To create a new volume and associate plex to that volume
# vxmake –U fsgen vol vol01 plex=plex01,plex02
To Dissociate a plex from a volume
# vxplex dis plex02
To temporarily detach a plex from a volume
# vxplex det plex02
To remove a plex
# vxedit -r rm plex02
To dissociate and remove a plex from a volume (removing mirror)
# vxplex –o rm dis plex02
To display detailed information about all plexes
# vxprint –lp
To display detailed information about a specific plex
# vxprint –l plex01
To make a plex called plex01 to clean state from stale state
# vxmend fix clean plex01
To make a plex from the disabled state to stale state
# vxmend on plex01
Volume related tasks
To create a volume vol01 with attached plexes plex01 & plex02
# vxmake –U fsgen vol vol01 plex=plex01,plex02
Note:- -U Usage type. It should be “fsgen”, if file system to be created on that volume
To enable (start) a volume
# vxvol start vol01
To disable (stop) a volume
# vxvol stop vol01
To stop all enabled volumes
# vxvol stopall
To set the state of the volume vol01 to CLEAN
# vxvol init clean vol01
To display detailed information about all volumes
# vxprint –lv
To start a volume vol01, vol02 which can not be enabled
# vxrecover –s vol01 vol02
To increase or decrease the size of the volume & file system to 500MB
# vxresize vol01 500m
To list all the tasks currently running on the system
# vxtask list
To remove the volume appvol1
# vxedit -g appvg -rf rm appvol1
vxprint
vxprint command is used to display the various information about disk, diskgroups, subdisk, plex, volume and etc... It displays the informatin from Veritas volume manager configuration.
vxprint [-aAbcCdfGhHlLmnpPqQrstvVx] [-g diskgroup] [name...]
where:
-d Display only disk media records
-G Display only disk group records
-g diskgroup Display records from the specified disk group
-p Display only the plex records
-s Display only subdisk records
-h List hierarchies below selected records
-l Display all information from each selected record
To display all the available diskgroups
# vxprint -G
TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0
dg dg01 dg01 - - - - - -
dg dg02 dg02 - - - - - -
To display details about a diskgroup
# vxprint -g dg01
TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0
dg dg01 dg01 - - - - - -
dm disk01 c1t2d0s2 - 35365968 - - - -
dm disk02 c1t3d0s2 - 35365968 - - - -
v vol01 fsgen DISABLED 2097152 - ACTIVE - -
pl vol01-01 vol01 DISABLED 2097152 - ACTIVE - -
sd sd01 vol01-01 ENABLED 2097152 0 - - -
TO display short note of volume vol1
# vxprint -g dg01 -v vol01
TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0
v vol01 fsgen DISABLED 2097152 - ACTIVE - -
To get the detailed output about a volume
# vxprint -g dg01 -lv vol01
Volume: vol01
info: len=2097152
type: usetype=fsgen
state: state=ACTIVE kernel=DISABLED cdsrecovery=0/0 (clean)
assoc: plexes=vol01-01
policies: read=SELECT (round-robin) exceptions=NO_OP
flags: closed writeback
logging: type=REGION loglen=0 serial=0/0 mapalign=0 maplen=0 (disabled)
apprecov: seqno=0/0
recovery: mode=default
recov_id=0
device: minor=34000 bdev=272/34000 cdev=272/34000 path=/dev/vx/dsk/dg01/vol01
perms: user=root group=root mode=0600
guid: {5d61a4fe-1dd2-11b2-8e6d-080020b5a36b}
vxedit
The vxedit utility can be used to rename/remove the disks, subdisks, plex and volume information from the veritas configuration.
vxedit [-dpPsvV ] [-g diskgroup] rename oldname newname
vxedit [-dfpPrsvV ] [-g diskgroup] rm name...
vxedit [-dfGpPrsvV ] [-e pattern] [-g diskgroup] set
attribute=value... [name...]
where:
-d for disk operation
-p for plex operation
-s for subdisk operation
-v for volume operation
-G for Disk group operation
-f Force an operation
-r Operate recursively on records associated with the selected records
For selected volume records, this affects associated plex, subdisk,
and subvolumes records. For selected plex records, this affects
associated subdisk and subvolume records
To remove appvol1 including the associated plex and subdisks
# vxedit -g appvg -rf rm appvol1
Note: if the above command tried with out the '-r' option, it will fail saying there are associated plexes.
# vxedit -g dg01 -f rm vol01
VxVM vxedit ERROR V-5-1-1189 Volume vol01 has associated plexes
To remove a plex plex01 along with associated sub-disks
# vxedit -g appvg -rf rm plex01
To rename a plex name from plex-old to plex-new
# vxedit -g dg01 -p rename plex-old plex-new
Some use ful commands
vxtask:vxtask command is used to administer operations on VxVM tasks that are running on the system. Operations include listing tasks, modifying the state of a task (pausing, resuming, aborting) and modifying the rate of progress of a task.
vxtask abort taskid
vxtask [-ahlpqr ] [-g dg_name [-g dg_name...]] [[-G
dg_name] -v volume [-v volume...]] [-i taskid] list
[taskid...]
vxtask pause taskid
vxtask resume taskid
To list all tasks currently running on the system
# vxtask list
To print tasks hierarchically, with child tasks following the parent tasks
# vxtask -h list
LINUX Vxdisk command tips
[root@system7044 root]# vxdisk list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
sda auto:sliced rootdisk rootdg online
sdb auto:sliced appdg01 appdg online
[root@system7044 root]# vxdisk list sda
Device: sda
devicetag: sda
type: auto
hostid: system7044
disk: name=rootdisk id=1188098145.7.system7044
group: name=rootdg id=1188098145.9.sytem7044
info: format=sliced,privoffset=1,pubslice=3,privslice=6
flags: online ready private autoconfig autoimport imported
pubpaths: block=/dev/vx/dmp/sda3 char=/dev/vx/rdmp/sda3
privpaths: block=/dev/vx/dmp/sda6 char=/dev/vx/rdmp/sda6
version: 2.1
iosize: min=512 (bytes) max=256 (blocks)
public: slice=3 offset=0 len=71665902 disk_offset=63
private: slice=6 offset=1 len=2047 disk_offset=71663917
update: time=1188098305 seqno=0.8
ssb: actual_seqno=0.0
headers: 0 248
configs: count=1 len=1481
logs: count=1 len=224
Defined regions:
config priv 000017-000247[000231]: copy=01 offset=000000 enabled
config priv 000249-001498[001250]: copy=01 offset=000231 enabled
log priv 001499-001722[000224]: copy=01 offset=000000 enabled
Multipathing information:
numpaths: 2
sda state=enabled
sdc state=enabled
Tips
01. To exclude disks from Volume Manager control
Create a file called /etc/vx/disks.exclude and place the disk name into this file
# cat /etc/vx/disks.exclude
c1t1d0
c1t2d0
02. To exclude controllers from Volume Manager control
Create a file called /etc/vx/cntrls.exclude and place the disk name into this file
# cat /etc/vx/cntrls.exclude
c1
c5
03. To make the new disks detected under Veritas
Make sure the new disks are labled
vxdctl enable
vxdisk scandisks new
VCS
Service Group: It is a logical grouping of resources and resource dependencies.
Types of Service Groups:
01. Failover Service Groups
02. Parallel Service Groups
03. Hybrid Service Groups
04. ClusterService Group
The ClusterService group is a special purpose service group, which contains resources required by VCS components. The group contains resources for Cluster Manager (Web Console), Notification, and the wide-area connector (WAC) process used in global clusters.
The ClusterService group can fail over to any node despite restrictions such as “frozen.” It is the first service group to come online and cannot be autodisabled. The group comes online on the first node that goes in the running state. The VCS engine discourages taking the group offline manually.
High-Availability Daemon (HAD)
The high-availability daemon, or HAD, is the main VCS daemon running on each system. It is responsible for building the running cluster configuration from the configuration files, distributing the information when new nodes join the cluster, responding to operator input, and taking corrective action when something fails. It is typically known as the VCS engine. The engine uses agents to monitor and manage resources. HAD operates as a replicated state machine (RSM). This means HAD running on each node has a completely synchronized view of the resource status on each node
Group Membership Services/Atomic Broadcast (GAB)
The Group Membership Services/Atomic Broadcast protocol (GAB) is responsible for cluster membership and cluster communications.
Netbackup
Adding New media volumes
01. On the LHS pane, epand Media and device management
02. Click on Media and expand it
03. Top menu bar, Actions --> New --> Volumes
04. Choose the number of Volumes, type the Media ID (if you are importing from other servers)
05. Click OK
Importing Netbackup tape From another netbackup server
01. Login to the Netbackup Administration Console. This administration control software can be installed on a windows PC and accessed from the PC. In Solaris, this can be accessed using the following command.
/opt/openv/netbackup/bin/jnbSA
02. To import, Click catalog on the LHS Pan
03. Click Actions --> Intiate Import
04. Click the appropriate Media ID to import
05. Click OK to continue
steps 06 through 10 are optional if you do not have automated tape library.
06. Load the media on the tape drive if not already loaded
07. On the LHS pan, Click on Device Monitor
08. On the top RHS, Select the appropriate Tape drive
08. On the top menu bar, Click Actions --> UP Drive, Operator Control
09. On the bottom RHS, select the appopriate media to import. Right click and select "assign request"
10. This will start the "initiate import" process. This may take up to five minutes. Once, this is completed, we need to do the actual import and update the catalog.
To start the actual import continue doing the follows.
11. On the LHS side, Click on Catalog again
12. On the RHS side, select the right date range and click search now.
13. On the bottom RHS, the new media will appear now.
14. Select the new media to import on the bottom side.
15. Right click and select Import or Actions --> Import
16. Continue steps 6 thru 10 if automatic tape library is not present.
