solstice disksuite 4.1 user's guide

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2550 Garcia Avenue

Moun tain View, CA 94043

U.S.A.

Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 Users Guide

Part No : 802-4215-10

Revision A, October 1996

A Sun Microsystems, Inc. Business


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1996 Sun Microsyst ems, Inc. 2550 Garcia Avenu e, Mounta in View, California 94043-1100 U.S.A.

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Solstice Backup, SPARCstorage, SunNet Manager, Online:DiskSuite, Au toClient, NFS, and Solstice DiskSuite are tra dem arks

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v

Contents

Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix

Find ing Solstice DiskSuite 4. 1 Infor mat ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxiii

Getting Started With DiskSuite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxiv

DiskSuite Task Summa ry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix

1. Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Planning Your Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

w How to Determine DiskSuite Use in Your Environment 3

Creating Initial State Database Replicas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Preliminary Information for Creating State Database Replicas 4

w How to Decide Which Method to Use for Creating InitialState Database Replicas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

w How to Create Initial State Database Replicas From Scratch

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

w How to Create Initial State Database Replicas From Scratch

(Command Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9


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w How to Create Initial State Database Replicas on Existing

Unu sed Slices (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

w How to Create State Database Replic

From the swap Partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Where to Go From Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2. Creating DiskSuite Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Overview of Creating DiskSuite Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Prerequisites for Creating DiskSuite Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Creating Add itional State Database Replicas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Preliminary Informa tion for Creating Ad ditional State Database

Replicas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

w How to Create Ad d itional State Database Replicas

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

w How to Create Ad d itional State Database Replicas(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Creating Stripes and Concatenations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Preliminary Informa tion for Creating Stripes and

Concatenations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

w How to Create a Striped Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool) . 22

w How to Create a Striped Metadevice (Command Line) 24

w How to Create a Concatenation (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . 26

w How to Create a Concatenat ion (Command Line) . . . . 27

Creating Mirrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Preliminary Information for Creating Mirrors. . . . . . . . . . . 29

w How to Create a Mirror From Unu sed Slices (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30


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Contents vii

w How to Create a Mirror From Un used Slices (Comman d

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

w How to Create a Mirror From a File System Tha t Can Be

Unmounted (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

w How to Create a Mirror From a File System Tha t Can Be

Unmounted (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36w How to Create a Mirror From a File System That Can not Be

Unmounted (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

w How to Create a Mirror From a File System That Can not Be

Unmounted (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

w SPARC: How to Create a Mirror From root (/) (Comma nd

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

w x86: How to Create a Mirror From root (/) (Comman d

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Creating RAID5 Metadevices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Preliminary Information for Creating RAID5 Metadevices 52

w How to Create a RAID5 Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool) . 53

w How to Create a RAID5 Metadevice (Command Line) 55

Creating Trans Metadevices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Preliminary Information for Creating Trans Metadevices . 56

w How to Create a Trans Metad evice for a File System Tha t Can

Be Unmounted (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

w How to Create a Trans Metad evice for a File System Tha t Can

Be Unmounted (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

w How to Create a Trans Metadevice for a File System That

Cannot Be Unmounted (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

w How to Create a Trans Metadevice for a File System That

Cannot Be Unmounted (Command Line). . . . . . . . . . . . 62


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w How to Crea te a Trans Metadevice Using Mirrors (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

w How to Create a Trans Metadevice Using Mirrors

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Creating H ot Spare Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Preliminary Information for Creating Hot Spare Pools . . . 65

w How to Create a Hot Spare Pool (DiskSuite Tool). . . . . 66

w How to Create a Hot Spare Pool (Command Line) . . . . 67

w How to Associate a Hot Spare Pool (DiskSuite Tool) . . 68

w How to Associate a Hot Spare Pool (Command Line) . 69

w How to Ad d a H ot Spare Slice to a Hot Spare Pool (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

w How to Add a H ot Spare Slice to a Hot Spare Pool

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

w How to Change the Associated Hot Spa re Pool (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

w How to Change the Associated H ot Spare Pool (Comman d

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Creating Disksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Preliminary Information for Creating Disksets . . . . . . . . . . 75

w How to Create a Diskset (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . . 76

w How to Add Drives to a Diskset (Command Line) . . . . 79

Creating DiskSuite Objects in a Diskset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

w How to Create a DiskSuite Object in a D iskset (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

w How to Create a DiskSuite Object in a Diskset (Command

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81


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Creating File Systems on Metadevices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Preliminary Inform ation for Creating File Systems on

Metadevices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

w How to Create a File System on a Metad evice (File System

Manager). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

w How to Create a File System on a Metadevice (Comma ndLine) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

3. Maintaining DiskSuite Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Overview of Maintaining DiskSuite Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Prerequisites for Maintaining DiskSuite Objects . . . . . . . . . 89

Checking Status of DiskSuite Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Using DiskSuite Tool to Check Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Using the Command Line to Check Status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

w How to Check the Status of State Database Replicas

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

w How to Check the Status of State Database Replicas

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

w How to Check the Status of Metadevices and Hot Spare

Pools (DiskSuite Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

w How to Check the Status of Metadevices and Hot Spare

Pools (Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

w How to Check the Status of a Diskset (Command Line) 110

Replacing an d Enabling Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Preliminary Inform ation for Enabling State Database

Replicas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

w How to Enable a State Database Replica (DiskSuite Tool)112


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Preliminary Inform ation for Recreating a Stripe or

Concatena tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

w How to Recreate a Stripe or Concatenation After Slice Failure

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

w How to Recreate a Stripe or Concatena tion After Slice Failure

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Overv iew of Replacing and Enabling Slices in Mirrors and

RAID5 Metad evices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Preliminary Inform ation For Replacing an d Enabling Slices in

Mirrors and RAID5 Metadevices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

w How to Enable a Slice in a Submirror (DiskSuite Tool) 121

w How to Enable a Slice in a Submirror (Command Line) 122

w How to Replace a Slice in a Submirror (DiskSuite Tool) 122

wHow to Replace a Slice in a Submirror (Comman d Line) 123

w How to Replace a Subm irror (DiskSuite Tool). . . . . . . . 124

w How to Replace a Submirror (Command Line) . . . . . . . 125

w How to Enable a Slice in a RAID5 Metad evice (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

w How to Enable a Slice in a RAID5 Metadevice (Command

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

w How to Replace a RAID5 Slice (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . 127

w How to Replace a RAID5 Slice (Command Line) . . . . . 128

Preliminary Information for Replacing Hot Spare Pools . . 130

w How to Replace a Hot Spare in a H ot Spa re Pool (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

w How to Replace a Hot Spare in a H ot Spare Pool (Comm and

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131


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w How to Enable a Hot Spare (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . 132

w How to Enable a Hot Spare (Command Line) . . . . . . . . 133

Repairing Trans Metadevice Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

File System Pan ics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Trans Metadevice Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

w How t o Recover a Trans Metad evice With a File System Panic

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

w How to Recover a Trans Metadevice With Hard Errors

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Expan d ing Slices and Metad evices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Preliminary Inform ation for Expand ing Slices and

Metad evices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

w How to Expan d a Slice Contain ing Existing Data (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

w How to Expand a Slice Containing Existing Data (Com mand

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

w How to Expan d an Existing Con cat/ Stripe (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

w How to Expand an Existing Stripe (Command Line) . . 144

w How to Expand a Mirror (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . 146

w How to Expand a Mirror (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . . 147

w How to Expand a RAID5 Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool) 148

w How to Expand a RAID5 Metadevice (Command Line) 149

w How to Expand a Trans Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool) . 150

w How to Expand a Trans Metadevice (Command Line). 151

Growing a File System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153


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Preliminary Information For Growing a File System . . . . . 153

w How to Grow a File System (Command Line). . . . . . . . 153

Renaming Metad evices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Preliminary Information for Renaming Metadevices . . . . . 155

w How to Rename a Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . 156

w How to Rename a Metadevice (Command Line) . . . . . 156

Working With Mirrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Preliminary Information for Mirrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

w How to Unmirror a File System (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . 158

w How to Unmirror a File System (Command Line) . . . . 159

w How to Unmirror a File System That Cannot Be Unmoun ted

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

w How to Attach a Subm irror (DiskSuite Tool). . . . . . . . . 164

w How to Attach a Submirror (Command Line) . . . . . . . . 165

w How to Detach a Submirror (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . 166

w How to Detach a Submirror (Command Line). . . . . . . . 166

w How to Place a Submirror Offline and Online (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

w How to Place a Subm irror Offline and Online (Comma nd

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Working With Disksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Preliminary Information for Working With Disksets . . . . . 170

w How to Reserve a Diskset (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . 170

w How to Release a Diskset (Command Line). . . . . . . . . . 172

w How to Add Add itional Drives to a Diskset (Comm and

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174


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Contents xiii

w How to Add An other Host to a Diskset (Comm and

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

4. Changing DiskSuite Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Overview of Changing DiskSuite Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Prerequisites for Chan ging DiskSuite Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Working With the DiskSuite Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Preliminary Information for the DiskSuite Configuration . 181

w How to Save a DiskSuite Configur ation to Disk (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

w How to Restore a DiskSuite Configu ration From Disk

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Modifying State Database Replicas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Preliminary Inform ation for Mod ifying State Database Replicas

With the Metadev ice State Database InformationWind ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

w How to Mod ify State Da tabase Replicas (DiskSuite Tool)184

Chan ging Mirror Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Preliminary Information for Changing Mirror Options . . . 186

w How to Change a Mirrors Options (DiskSuite Tool) . . 187

w How to Change a Mirrors Options (Command Line) . 188

Sharing a Logging Device Among File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Preliminary Information for Sharing a Logging Device . . . 190

w How to Share a Logging Device Among File Systems

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

w How to Share a Logging Device Among File Systems

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192


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5. Removing DiskSuite Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Overview of Removing DiskSuite Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Prerequisites for Removing DiskSuite Objects. . . . . . . . . . . 196

Removing State Database Replicas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Preliminary Informa tion for Remov ing State DatabaseReplicas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

w How to Remove State Database Replicas (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

w How to Remove State Database Replicas (Command

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Removing Stripes and Concatenations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Preliminary Informa tion for Remov ing Stripes and

Concatena tions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

w How to Remove a Stripe, Concatenation, or ConcatenatedStripe (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

w How to Remove a Stripe, Concatenation, or Concatenated

Stripe (Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Removing Mirror s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Preliminary Information for Removing Mirrors . . . . . . . . . 201

w How to Remove a Mirror an d Subm irrors (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

w How to Remove a Mirror and Submirrors (Comm and

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Removing RAID5 Metadevices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Preliminary Information for Removing RAID5 Metad evices 204

w How to Remove a RAID5 Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool) 204

w How to Remove a RAID5 Metadevice (Comma nd Line) 205


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Removing Trans Metadevices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Preliminary Information for Removing Trans Metadevices 206

w How to Remove a Trans Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool) . 206

w How to Remove a Trans Metadevice (Command Line) 208

w How to Rem ove a Trans Metadevice From a File System ThatCannot Be Unmoun ted (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

w How to Rem ove a Trans Metadevice From a File System That

Cannot Be Unmounted (Command Line). . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Removing Hot Spares and Hot Spare Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Preliminary Information for Removing Hot Spares and Hot

Spare Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

w How to Remove a H ot Spare From a H ot Spare Pool

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

w How to Remove a H ot Spare From a H ot Spare Pool(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

w How to Remove a Hot Spare Pool (DiskSuite Tool) . . . 213

w How to Remove a Hot Spare Pool (Command Line) . . 214

Removing Disksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Preliminary Information for Removing Hosts an d Disks

From Disksets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

w How to Remove a H ost From a Diskset (Comma nd

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

w How to Remove a Drive From a Diskset (Comman d

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

w How to Remove a Diskset (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . 217

6. Managing the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Overview of Managing the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220


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Prerequisites for Managing the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Working With the Graphical View of the SPARCstorage Array 221

Preliminary Informa tion for Working Grap hically with th e

SPARCstorage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

w How to Select Objects in the Disk View Wind ow (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

w How to Check the Status of SPARCstorage Array Disks

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

w How to Ch eck the Statu s of a SPARCstorage Arra y

Controllers Fan an d Battery (DiskSuite Tool). . . . . . . . 225

w How to D isplay a SPARCstorage Array Cont rollers World

Wide N am e (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Adm inistering the SPARCstorage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Preliminary Information For Enabling and DisablingNVRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

w How to Enable N VRAM on a Con troller, Tray, or Disk

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

w How to Enable NVRAM For Synchron ous Writes on a

Controller, Tray, or Disk (DiskSuite Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . 228

w How to Disable NVRAM on a Con troller, Tray, or Disk

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Preliminary Information for Purging and Flushing NVRAM

Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

w How to Flush Ou tstand ing Writes From N VRAM (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

w How to Pu rge Fast Write Data NVRAM (DiskSuite Tool) 230

Preliminary Information for Reserving and Releasing Disks 231

w How to Reserve a Disk for H ost Exclusive Use (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231


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Contents xvii

w How to Release a Disk Reserved by H ost (DiskSuite

Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Preliminary Information for Stopping and Starting Disks . 232

w How to Stop a Disk (DiskSuite Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

w How to Start a Disk (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Monitoring and Graphing Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Performance Monitoring vs. Performance Analysis . . . . . . 235

Preliminary Information for Performance Monitoring and

Grap hing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

w How to View Device Statistics (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . 236

w How to Graph Device Statistics (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . 237

w How to Ad d Devices to the Statistics Graph Window

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

w How to Remove Devices From the Statistics Graph Wind ow

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Integrating SunNet Mana ger With DiskSuite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

w How to Enable SunN et Manager to Launch DiskSuite Tool

(Sun Net M anager) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

w How to Launch DiskSuite Tool From SunNet Manager

(Sun Net M anager) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Integrating SNMP Alerts With DiskSuite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

w How to Configure DiskSuite SNMP Supp ort (Comm andLine) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Integrating Storage Manager With DiskSuite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

w How to Enable DiskSuite to Launch Storage Manager

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242


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w How to Launch File System Manager a nd Disk Manager

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

7. Troubleshooting the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Overview of Troubleshooting the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Prerequisites for Troubleshooting the System . . . . . . . . . . . 246

General Guidelines for Troubleshooting DiskSuite . . . . . . . 246

Recovering the DiskSuite Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

w How to Use the md.cf File to Recover a DiskSuite

Configu ration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Chan ging DiskSuite Defau lts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Preliminary Information for Metadevices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

w How to Increase the Nu mber of Default Metadevices

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Preliminary Information for Disksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

w How to Increase the Nu mber of Default Disksets (Command

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Preliminary Information for State Database Replicas . . . . . 251

w How to Ad d Larger State Database Replicas (Command

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Checking For Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

w How to Au tomate Checking for Slice Errors in Metadevices

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Boot Problem s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Preliminary Information for Boot Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

w How to Recover From Improp er /etc/vfstab Entries

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257


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w How to Recover From Insu fficient State Database Replicas

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

w How to Recover From a Boot Device Failure (Comm and

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

w How to Record the Pa th to the Alternate Boot Device

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269w SPARC: How to Boot From the Alternate Dev ice (Comm and

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

w x86: How to Boot From the Alternate Device (Comma nd

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Replacing SCSI Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

w How to Replace a Failed SCSI Disk (Command Line) . 272

Working With SPARCstorage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Installat ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276Device Nam ing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Preliminary Inform ation for Replacing SPARCstorage Array

Comp onen ts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

w How to Rep lace a Failed SPARCstorage Array Disk in a

Mirror (DiskSuite Tool). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

w How to Rep lace a Failed SPARCstorage Array Disk in a

RAID5 Metad evice (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

w How to Remove a SPARCstorage Array Tray (Comm and

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

w How to Replace a SPARCstorage Array Tray. . . . . . . . . 285

w How to Recover From SPARCstorage Array Power Loss

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

w How to Move SPARCstorage Array Disks Between Hosts

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288


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Using the SPARCstorage Array as a System Disk . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Making a SPARCstorage Array Bootable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

w How to Make SPARCstorage Arr ay Disks Available Early in

the Boot Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

8. Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

State Database Replicas and Trans Metadevices . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

DiskSuite and Prestoserve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

w How to Configu re Prestoserve With DiskSuite (Command

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

DiskSuite Configuration Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

General Gu idelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

State Database Replica Guid elines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Striping Guid elines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Concatenat ion Guid elines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Concatenated Stripe Guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Mirror Gu idelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

RAID5 Metad evice Guid elines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

UFS Logging Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Hot Spare Guid elines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

File System Guid elines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Labeled Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Security Consid erations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Comp atibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Working With Disk Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

w How to Use fmthard(1M) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302


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Trans Metadevices (UFS Logging) and Disk Quotas . . . . . . . . . 303

Using DiskSuite Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Using the Metadev ice Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Using the Slice View, Disk View, and Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

w How to Filter for Slice Size (DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . 304

w How to Filter for Slice Replacement (DiskSuite Tool). . 305

Changing DiskSuite Tools Colors and Fonts. . . . . . . . . . . . 307

w How to Change DiskSuite Tools Default Colors and

Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Metadevice Nam ing Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Metad evice Nam e Switching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Prerequisites for Using Metadevice Name Switching. . . . . 314

Creating a Metadevice Using Nam e Switching . . . . . . . . . . 315

w How to Create a Mirror From an Existing Concat/ Stripe

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

w How to Create a Trans Metadev ice From an Existing

Metadevice (Comm and Line). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Removing a Metadevice Using Nam e Switching. . . . . . . . . 318

w How to Unm irror a File System and Retain the Mou nt Device

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

w How to Remove a Trans Metadevice and Retain the Moun t

Device (Comm and Line). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Working With Stripes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

w How to Move a Stripe to a Different Controller (Command

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321


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Working With Mirrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Advanced Mirror Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

w How to Chan ge the Interlace Value of Stripes in Mirrors

(DiskSuite Tool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

w How to Use a Mirror to Make an On line Backup (Comma nd

Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

How Booting Into Single-User Mode Affects Mirrors. . . . . 327

Hot Spares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Working With Disksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

w How to Configure Disk Drive Device N ames for a Diskset

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

w How to Chan ge State Database Replica Size in a Diskset

(Comm and Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

A. Using Storage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Storage Manager s Load Context Property Book. . . . . . . . . . . . 334

w How to Load an Initial Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

w How to Load a Different Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

File System Manager Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

File System Manager s Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

File System Manager Property Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Managing File Systems, Mou nt Points, an d Directories With FileSystem M anager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

w How to Create a UFS File System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

w How to Create a Mount Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

w How to Modify the Properties of a Mount Point or

Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349


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w How to Mount or Unmount a File System . . . . . . . . . . . 351

w How to Share or Unshare a Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

w How to View Static Client File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

w How to View Active Server File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

w How to View Static Server File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

w How to Remove a Mount Point From the /etc/vfstab

File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Disk Manager Overv iew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Disk Manager s Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Selecting Mu ltiple Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Disk Manager Property Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Managing Disks With Disk Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

w How to Specify a Viewing Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

w How to Specify a Volum e Label. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

w How to Modify fdisk Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

w How to Modify Slice Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

w How to Clone a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Ind ex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379


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xxv

Figures

Figure 6-1 SPARCstorage Array 100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Figure 6-2 SPARCstorage Array 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Figure 6-3 SPARCstorage Array Wrench and Battery Icons . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Figure A-1 Storage Managers Load Context Property Book . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Figure A-2 File System Managers Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Figure A-3 File System Manager Property Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Figure A-4 Task Map: Managing Files With File System Manager . . . . . . 344

Figure A-5 Disk Managers Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Figure A-6 Disk Manager Property Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Figure A-7 Task Map: Managing Disks With Disk Manager . . . . . . . . . . . 368


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xxvii

Tables

Table P-1 Typographic Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi

Table P-2 Shell Prompts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxii

Table P-3 DiskSuite Roadmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxiv

Table P-4 DiskSuite Feature/ Task List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix

Table 3-1 MetaDB Object Status Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Table 3-2 General Status Keywords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Table 3-3 Mirror Status Keywords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Table 3-4 Submirror Status Keywords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Table 3-5 RAID5 Status Keywords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Table 3-6 Trans Metadevice Status Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Table 3-7 Hot Spare Pool Status Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Table 3-8 Submirror States (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Table 3-9 Submirror Slice States (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Table 3-10 RAID5 States (Command Line). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Table 3-11 RAID5 Slice States (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Table 3-12 Trans Metadevice States (Command Line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108


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Table 3-13 Hot Spare Pool States (Command Line). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Table 4-1 Metadevice State Database Information Window Functionality 185

Table 4-2 Mirror Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Table 7-1 Common DiskSuite Boot Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Table 7-2 SCSI Disk Replacement Decision Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Table 8-1 DiskSuite Tools Default Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Table 8-2 DiskSuite Tools Default Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Table 8-3 DiskSuite Tools Default Font Resource Specifications . . . . . . 311


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xxix

Preface

Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 is a software product that manages data and disk

drives.

DiskSuite runs on all SPARC systems running Solaris 2.4 or a later Solaris

2.x release, and on all x86 systems running Solaris 2.4 or a later Solaris 2.x

release.

DiskSuites d iskset feature is su pp orted only on the SPARC platform ed ition of

Solaris. This feature is not sup ported on x86 systems.

About This Book

Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 Users Guide replaces these two books p reviously released

with DiskSuite:

Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 A dministration Guide

Solstice DiskSuite Tool 4.0 Users Guide

Who Should Use This Book

This book targets system administrators and others who manage disk storage.


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xxx Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 U sers GuideOctober 1996

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized by groups of similar high-level tasks rather than by

product features.

Finding Solstice DiskSuite 4. 1 Information (page xxxiii), provides a qu ick

way to begin using DiskSuite and provides an easy access to commonly

performed tasks.

The remainder of this manual is organized as follows:

Chapter 1, Getting Started, describes how to get a new DiskSuite

configuration up and running.

Chapter 2, Creating D iskSuite Objects, describes how to create DiskSuite

objects.

Chapter 3, Maintaining D iskSuite Objects, describes m aintenance-related

tasks for DiskSuite objects, such a s checking statu s and replacing a n errored

slice.

Chapter 4, Changing DiskSu ite Objects, describes how to changepara meters on DiskSuite objects.

Chapter 5, Removing Disk Suite Objects, describes how to d elete DiskSuite

objects from the system .

Chapter 6, Managing the System, describes how to man age SPARCstorage

Arrays w ith DiskSuite Tool, get performan ce statistics, and how to integrate

DiskSuite w ith other Solstice prod ucts.

Chapter 7, Troubleshooting the System, describes various types of problems

that a DiskSuite administrator may encounter and how to solve those

problems.

Chapter 8, Tips and Tricks, provides some less obvious w ays to pu tDiskSuite to w ork to m aximize its potential.

Appendix A, Using Storage Manager, describes how to u se the File System

Manager an d D isk Manager grap hical tools to perform tasks such as creating a

file system and partitioning a disk.


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Preface xxxi

Related Books

Sun documentation related to DiskSuite and disk maintenance and

configuration includes:

Solstice AdminSuite 2.2 Administration Guide

Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 Reference

System Administration Guide an d

System Administration Guide, Volume II

SPARCstorage Array Users Guide an d SPARCstorage Array Configuration Guide

What Typographic Changes Mean

The following table describes the typographic changes used in this book.

Table P-1 Typographic Conventions

Typeface or

Symbol Meaning Example

AaBbCc123 The names of comman ds,

files, and directories;

on-screen comp uter outp ut

Edit your .login file.

Use ls -a to list all files.

machine_name% You have mail.

AaBbCc123 What you type, contrasted

with on-screen computer

output

machine_name% su

Password:

AaBbCc123 Command -line p laceholder:

replace with a real name or

value

To d elete a file, type rmfilename.

AaBbCc123 Book titles, new words or

terms, or words to beemphasized

Read Chapter 6 in Users Guide.

These are called class options.You mustbe root to do this.


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Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default system promp t and superuser prom pt

for the C sh ell, Bourn e shell, and Korn shell.

Table P-2 Shell Prompts

Shell Prompt

C shell promp t machine_name%

C shell superuser prompt machine_name#

Bourne shell and Korn shell

prompt

$

Bourne shell and Korn shell

superuser promp t

#


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xxxiii

Finding Solstice DiskSuite 4. 1Information

Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 Users Guide describes how to set up and maintain systems

usin g Solstice DiskSuite 4.1.

If you want to begin using the DiskSuite product right away, use the

information presented in this chapter. Organized as a roadmap, this chapter

serves as a high-level guide to fin d information for certain DiskSuite tasks,such as setting u p storag e capacity. It does not ad dress all the tasks that you

will need to use DiskSuite. Instead, it provides an easy way to find procedures

describing how to perform common tasks associated with the following

DiskSuite concepts:

Storage Cap acity

Availability

I/ O Performance

Administration

Troubleshooting

This chap ter also provid es a comp lete listing of tasks organ ized by feature. See

DiskSuite Task Sum mary on pa ge xxxix.

Warning If you do not u se DiskSuite correctly, you can d estroy data.

DiskSuite provides a powerful way to m anage your d isks and data on them.

As a minimum safety precaution, you shou ld make sure you u nd erstand how

DiskSuite w orks before attempting to use it.

!


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Getting Started With DiskSuite

Table P-3 DiskSuite Roadmap (1 of 5)

DiskSuite Concept Task Description Go To ... On ...

StorageCap

acity

Set Up Storage Capacity

You can create storage capacity that spansslices by creating a striped metadevice or a

RAID5 metadevice. The stripe or RAID5

metadevice can then be used for a file system or

any application, such as a database, that

accesses the raw device.

w How to Create a Striped

Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool)w How to Create a RAID5

Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool)

page 22

page 53

Expand an Existing File System

Increase the capacity of an existing file system

by creating a concatenation then adding

additional slices.

w How to Expand a SliceContaining Existing Data(DiskSuite Tool)

page 139

Expand an Existing Concatenation/Stripe

Use DiskSuite Tool to create a concatenatedstripe to expand an existing concatenation or

stripe.

w How to Expand an Existing

Concat/Stripe (DiskSuiteTool)

page 142

Expand a RAID5 Metadevice

If you need to expand the capacity of a RAID5

metadevice, you can concatenate additional

slices to it.

w How to Expand a RAID5Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool)

page 148

Increase the Size of UFS

The growfs(1M) command expands the size of

a UFS while it is mounted and without disrupting

access to the data.

w How to Grow a File System(Command Line)

page 153

Create a File System

You can create a file system on a stripe,

concatenation, mirror, RAID5 metadevice, or

trans metadevice.

w How to Create a File Systemon a Metadevice (FileSystem Manager)

page 82


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Finding Solstice DiskSuite 4. 1 Information xxxv

Availability

Maximize Data Availability

If you want maximum availability of your data,

use DiskSuites mirroring feature to maintain

multiple copies of your data. You can create a

mirror from unused slices in preparation for data,

or mirror an existing file system, including

root (/) and /usr.

w How to Create a Mirror FromUnused Slices (DiskSuiteTool)

w How to Create a Mirror From

a File System That Can BeUnmounted (DiskSuite Tool)

w How to Create a Mirror Froma File System That CannotBe Unmounted (DiskSuiteTool)

page 30

page 33

page 38

Add Data Availability With Minimum

Hardware Cost

To increase data availability with a minimum of

hardware, use DiskSuites RAID5 Metadevice

feature.

w How to Create a RAID5Metadevice (DiskSuite Tool)

page 53

Add Increased Data Availability to anExisting Mirror or RAID5 Metadevice

To increase data availability for a mirror or a

RAID5 metadevice, create a hot spare pool then

associate it with a mirrors submirrors, or a

RAID5 metadevice.

w How to Create a Hot SparePool (DiskSuite Tool)

page 66

Increase File System Availability After

Reboot

To increase overall file system availability after

reboot, add UFS logging (trans metadevice) to

the system. Logging a file system reduces the

amount of time fsck(1M) has to run when the

system reboots.

w How to Create a TransMetadevice for a FileSystem That Can BeUnmounted (DiskSuite Tool)

w How to Create a TransMetadevice for a File

System That Cannot beUnmounted (DiskSuite Tool)

page 57

page 61




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xxxvi Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 U sers GuideOctober 1996

I/O

Performance

Increase Mirror Performance

Adding additional state database replicas before

creating the mirror helps improve a mirrors

performance.

w How to Create AdditionalState Database Replicas(DiskSuite Tool)

page 18

Tune Mirror Read and Write Policies

The read and write policies for a mirror can be

specified to improve performance for a given

configuration.

w How to Change a MirrorsOptions (DiskSuite Tool)

page 187

Optimize Device Performance

Creating stripes optimizes performance of

devices that make up the stripe. The stripes

interlace value can be optimized for random or

sequential access.

w How to Create a StripedMetadevice (DiskSuite Tool)

page 22

Maintain Device Performance Within an

Existing StripeA concatenated stripe expands a stripe or

concatenation that has run out of space. A

concatenation of stripes is better for

performance than a concatenation of slices.

w How to Expand an Existing

Concat/Stripe (DiskSuiteTool)

page 142

Improve System Performance

UFS logging (trans metadevice) helps

performance by decreasing the number of

synchronous disk writes.

w How to Create a TransMetadevice for a FileSystem That Can BeUnmounted (DiskSuite Tool)

w How to Create a TransMetadevice for a FileSystem That Cannot Be

Unmounted (DiskSuite Tool)

page 57

page 61




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Finding Solstice DiskSuite 4. 1 Information xxxvii

Administration

Simplify Administration of Large

Configurations

The DiskSuite Tool graphical interface makes

working with many disks quick and easy. It

supports drag-and-drop operations and provides

physical and logical views of the system.

Solstice DiskSuite 4.1

Reference, Chapter 4,

DiskSuite Tool

Graphically Administer Slices/File Systems

DiskSuite is integrated with the Solstice Storage

Manager graphical user interface. Use it to

administer your disks and file systems,

performing such tasks as partitioning disks and

constructing UFS file systems.

Appendix A, Using Storage

Manager

page 333

Administer SPARCstorage Arrays

The DiskSuite Tool graphical interface enables

you to perform a number of maintenance tasks

on SPARCstorage Arrays, such as starting and

stopping trays of disks, and working with

NVRAM.

Chapter 6, Managing the

System

page 219

Reconfigure Metadevices

Administering metadevices is made easier

through the metarename(1M) command.

w How to Rename aMetadevice (Command Line)

page 156

Optimize Solstice DiskSuite 4.1

DiskSuite performance is dependent on a

well-designed configuration. Once created, the

configuration needs monitoring and tuning.

w How to Graph DeviceStatistics (DiskSuite Tool)

page 237

Plan for Future ExpansionBecause file systems tend to run out of space,

you can plan for future growth by putting a file

system into a concatenation.

w How to Expand a SliceContaining Existing Data(DiskSuite Tool)

page 139

Automate DiskSuite Monitoring

Use DiskSuites SNMP features to integrate

alerts with SunNet Manager.

w How to Enable SunNetManager to LaunchDiskSuite Tool

w How to Configure DiskSuiteSNMP Support

page 238

page 240




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Troub

leshooting

Replace a Failed Slice

The situation could arise when a failing slice in a

metadevice needs replacing. In the case of

stripes and concatenation, you have to use a

new slice, delete and recreate the metadevice,

then restore data from a backup. Slices in

mirrors and RAID5 metadevices might be able to

be replaced and resynced without loss of data.

w How to Recreate a Stripe orConcatenation After SliceFailure (DiskSuite Tool)

w How to Enable a Slice in a

Submirror (DiskSuite Tool)

w How to Enable a Slice in aRAID5 Metadevice(DiskSuite Tool)

page 113

page 121

page 126

Recover From Boot Problems

Special problems can arise when booting the

system, due to a hardware problem or operator

error.

w How to Recover FromImproper /etc/vfstabEntries (Command Line)

w How to Recover FromInsufficient State DatabaseReplicas (Command Line)

w How to Recover From a

Boot Device Failure(Command Line)

page 257

page 260

page 263

Work With an SSA Disk Problem

For the most part, using DiskSuite with a

SPARCstorage Array is transparent. Some

procedures, such as resolving disk problems,

have slightly different steps.

w How to Replace a FailedSPARCstorage Array Disk ina Mirror (DiskSuite Tool)

page 278

Work With Trans Metadevice Problems

Problems with trans metadevices can occur on

either the master or logging device, and they can

either be caused by errored data or device

problems. All trans metadevices sharing thesame logging device must be fixed before they

return to a usable state.

w How to Recover a TransMetadevice With a FileSystem Panic (CommandLine)

w How to Recover a TransMetadevice With HardErrors (Command Line)

page 134

page 135




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Finding Solstice DiskSuite 4. 1 Information xxxix

DiskSuite Task Summary

The information in th is section, organized by DiskSuite feature, serves as a

quick reference for all DiskSuite tasks. Keyboard accelerators (if available) and

the command line equivalents are given for each task.

Table P-4 DiskSuite Feature/ Task List (1 of 5)

Feature/Task DiskSuite Tool Menu or Action Keyboard Command

Concatenations

Checking status Object Info metastat(1M)

Creating Edit Create Concat/ Stripe metainit(1M)

Expanding Drag an unused slice to the object metattach(1M)

Recrea tin g a fter slice fa ilu re Delete a nd recr ea te m et ad ev ice metaclear(1M),

metainit(1M)

Removing Edit Delete metaclear(1M)

Configurations

Renaming a metadevice Use the Info window metarename(1M)

Restoring uncommitted configuration File Restore From File

Reversing all uncommitted operations Edit Undo All Ctrl-A

Reversing an u ncommitted operation Edit Undo Last Ctrl-L

Saving uncommit ted configurat ion File Save To File

DiskSuite Tool

Collapsing an object Object Collapse

Committing an object Object Commit metainit(1M)

Configuration Log, viewing Browse Configuration Log

Deleting an object Edit Delete metaclear(1M)

Disks, viewing Browse Disk View Ctrl-D

Displaying entire object Object Expand

Duplicating an object Edit Duplicate

Evaluating an object Object Evaluate

Exiting File Exit Ctrl-E


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xl Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 U sers GuideOctober 1996

Finding metadevices Browse Find

Metadevices, viewing Browse Metadevices

Object information Object Info metastat(1M)

Problems, viewing Browse Problem List Ctrl-P

Putting away an object Object Put Away

Reorganiz ing objects on the canvas Edit Cleanup Canvas Ctrl-U

Slices, viewing Browse Slices prtvtoc(1M),

format(1M)

Hot Spares

Adding a sl ice to a hot spare pool Drag an available sl ice to the hot

spare pool object

metahs(1M)

Associatin g a hot sp are p ool Dr ag a h ot sp are p ool object on to

subm irror or RAID5 object

metaparam(1M)

Changing the associated

hot spare pool

Drag a replacement h ot spare pool

object onto submirror or RAID5

object

metaparam(1M)

Checking status Object Info metahs(1M)

Creating hot spare pool Edit Create Spare Pool metainit(1M)

Enabling a hot spare Use the Hot Spare Pool Info

window

metahs(1M)

Removing a hot spare Use the Hot Spare Pool Info

Window

metahs(1M)

Removing a hot spare pool Edit Delete metaparam(1M),

metahs(1M)

Replacing a component Drag a rep lacement slice to the

Hot Spare Pool object

metahs(1M)

Viewing a hot spare pool Browse Hot Spare Pool metastat(1M)

Mirrors

Attaching a submirror Drag a submirror to a Mirror

object

metattach(1M)

Changing options Use the Mirror Info window metaparam(1M)




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Finding Solstice DiskSuite 4. 1 Information xli


Creating Edit Create Mirror metainit(1M)

Detaching a submirror Use the Mirror Info window metadetach(1M)

Expanding Drag unused slices to the

submirrors

metattach(1M),

growfs(1M)

Placing a submirror offline/ online Use the Mirror Info window metaonline(1M),

metaoffline(1M)

Rep lacin g failed com pon en ts Dr ag a rep lacem en t slice to th e

errored slice

metareplace(1M)

Removing Edit Delete metadetach(1M),

metaclear(1M)

Unmirroring a File System

Performance Monitoring

Displaying device statistics Object Statistics iostat(1M)

Displaying graphs Browse Statistics Graph s iostat(1M)

RAID5 Metadevices

Checking Status Object Info metastat(1M)

Creating Edit Create RAID metainit(1M)

Expanding Drag an unused slice to the RAID5

object

metattach(1M)

Rep lacin g failed com pon en ts Dr ag a rep lacem en t slice to th e

errored slice

metareplace(1M)


SPARCstorage Arrays

Checking status of fan and battery Disk View Object Info ssaadm(1M)

Displaying cont ro ller information Disk View Object Info ssaadm(1M)

Disabling NVRAM Disk View Object Fast Write

Disable

ssaadm(1M)

Enabling NVRAM Disk View Object Fast Write

Enable

ssaadm(1M)




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Enabling NVRAM (synchronous

writes)

Disk View Object Fast Write

Synchronous

ssaadm(1M)

Flushing ou tstanding w rites from

NVRAM

Disk View Object Sync

NVRAM

ssaadm(1M)

Purging fast write data from NVRAM Select the object, display its

pop-up menu and choose Purge

NVRAM

ssaadm(1M)

Reserving a Disk Disk View Object Reserve

Disks

ssaadm(1M)

Releasing a Disk Disk View Object Release

Disks

ssaadm(1M)

Starting a disk / tray/ con troller Disk View Object Start Disks ssaadm(1M)

Stop pin g a d isk/ tray/ con troller Disk View Object Stop Disks ssaadm(1M)

State Database Replicas

Adding more Drag slices to the initialized

Metadev ice State Data base object

metadb(1M)

Attaching Use the MetaDB Info window metadb(1M)

Checking status Object Info metadb(1M)

Creating initial Drag slices to the uninitialized

Metadev ice State Data base object

metadb(1M)

Removing Display the Metadevice State

Database Information w indow

and choose Remove.

metadb(1M)

Restoring Display the Metadevice State

Database Information w indow

and choose Restore.

Viewing and modifying Use the Metadevice State

Database Info w indow

Stripes


Creating Ed it Create Concat/ Stripe metainit(1M)

Expanding Drag an unused slice to the object metattach(1M)




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Finding Solstice DiskSuite 4. 1 Information xliii

Recrea tin g a fter slice fa ilu re Delete a nd recr ea te m et ad ev ice metaclear(1M),

metainit(1M)


Trans Metadevi ces

Attaching logging d evice Drag slice or m etad evice to log

rectangle of trans device.

metattach(1M)


Creating Edit Create Trans metainit(1M)

Detaching logging d evice Drag logging d evice ou t of trans

metadevice.

metadetach(1M)


Sharing a log among trans

metadevices

Edit Create Trans; for the log,

use the same slice already in use

by another trans metadevice.

metainit(1M); for th e log,

use the same slice already in

use by another trans

metadevice.




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1

Getting Started 1

This chap ter introdu ces the DiskSuite software, and describes the steps to take

to get a new configuration up and running. The high-level tasks for getting

started are:

If you are merely up grad ing an existing DiskSuite installation, you don t need

to read th is chap ter. Instead, refer to the Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 Product

Installation and Release Notes to upgrade to Solstice DiskSuite 4.1.

The prerequisites for the tasks in th is chap ter are:

Have a current backup of all data.

Have Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 software installed. (Refer to the Product

Installation an d Release N otes to install DiskSuite.)

Have root privilege.

Planning Your Configuration page 2

Creating Initial State Database Replicas page 4


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2 Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 U sers GuideOctober 1996

1

Introduction

Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 is a software p rodu ct that enables you to m anage large

num bers of disks and the d ata on those disks.

Although there are many ways to use DiskSuite, most tasks center around

increasing:

Storage capacity Data availability

DiskSuite uses virtu al disks to ma nage p hysical disks and th eir associated

data. In DiskSuite, a virtua l disk is called a metadevice. A metad evice is

functionally iden tical to a p hysical disk in the view of an ap plication. DiskSuite

converts I/ O requests directed at a metadevice into I/ O requests to the

und erlying member d isks.

DiskSuites m etadevices are bu ilt from slices (disk p artitions). An easy w ay to

build metad evices is to u se the grap hical user interface, DiskSuite Tool, that

comes w ith DiskSuite. DiskSuite Tool presents you with a view of all the slices

available to you. By d ragging slices onto m etadevice objects, you can qu ickly

assign slices to metadevices.

If, for examp le, you wa nt to create more storage capacity, you could use

DiskSuite to fool the system into thinking that a collection of man y sm all

slices is one p hysical disk. After you have created a metad evice from these

slices, you can im med iately begin u sing it just as an y real disk.

DiskSuite can also increase the availability of data by u sing mirrors an d RAID5

metad evices. Mirrors and RAID5 metad evices replicate da ta so that it is not

destroyed if the d isk on w hich it is stored fails.

For a more detailed d iscussion of metadev ices, and for more information on a ll

of DiskSuites tools, refer t o Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 Reference.

Planning Your Configuration

Reading Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 Reference is an essential starting point for

und erstand ing how DiskSuite works, and how you can best use its features.

The Glossary located at the end ofSolstice DiskSuite 4.1 Reference explains

DiskSuite terminology, wh ich m ay be u nfamiliar to you .


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Getting Started 3

1

w How to Determine DiskSuite Use in Your Environment

Use the following high -level decision tree to determ ine the best fit for

DiskSuite in your environment.

Example: If your m ost impor tant factor is lower h ardw are costs, followed by

availability, your n eeds w ould be best served by using RAID5 metadev ices.

Note For a comp lete discussion of how to p lan for DiskSuite, refer to Solstice

DiskSuite 4.1 Reference.

Step 1. Step 2. Step 3.

Choose the factor most

important to you.

Choose the next most

important factor.

For your needs, the best

DiskSuite feature is ...

Performance

Availability Mirroring

Hardw are Costs Striping

Performance

Hardware Costs

Mirroring *

RAID5 *

Hardware Costs

Availability

Performance

RAID5

Striping

Availability

Performance

(* with Hot Spar ing)


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Creating Initial State Database Replicas

This section d escribes how to create initial state data base replicas based on

your system configuration.

Preliminary Information for Creating State Database Replicas

A state d atabase replica stores DiskSuite configur ation and state

information. Before you can u se DiskSuite, you m ust create state database

replicas.

At least three state databa se replicas shou ld be created. The system w ill stay

running with exactly half or more state database replicas available at any

one time. The system will panic when less than half the state database

replicas are available. The system w ill not reboot w ithout on e more th an

half the total state d atabase replicas. Instead, it will go into single-user m ode

for administrative tasks.

Use the following estimates for state database replicas based on the nu mber

of hard drives in your system. Adjust it to meet your needs.

Note In a two-drive configuration, always create two state database replicas

on each drive. For example, assume you create two state database replicas on

one slice and only one state d atabase replica on the oth er. If the slice with twostate d atabase replicas fails, DiskSuite will not fun ction because the remaining

slice only has one state datab ase replica. Refer to Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 Reference

for more information on the operation of state database replicas.

You can create state database rep licas on either a d edicated slice, or on a

slice that w ill be used as pa rt of a simp le metadev ice, RAID5 metad evice, or

trans metad evice. Refer to Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 Reference for guidelines on

plann ing the location of state da tabase replicas.

1. This configuration is not d esirable, as it creates a single point of failure.

Num ber of Hard D rives

Num ber of State Database

Replicas to Create

One Three, all on one slice1

TwoFour Two on each drive

Five or more One on each drive


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Getting Started 5

1

The maximu m n um ber of state database rep licas is 50. This also app lies to

replicas that are p art of a d iskset.

w How to Decide Which Method to Use for Creating Initial StateDatabase Replica s

Use one of the following three meth ods to create your initial state database

replicas. The methods depend on how the slices on your system are

configured . If your system h as no available slices, or if you cannot repartition

existing slices, you will not be able to use DiskSuite software.

a. Starting from scratch: If you have a new system, the easiest way to

create state da tabase replicas is to pu t them on slices that w ill become

part of a simp le metadevice (stripe/ concatenation), RAID5 metadevice,

or trans metadevice. A state database replica cannot be part of root (/),

swap, /usr, an existing file system, or a slice containing d ata.

If you h ave a new system , refer to H ow to Create Initial State Database

Replicas From Scratch (DiskSuite Tool) on page 6.

Note When you combine state database replicas and metadevices on the

same slice, DiskSuite d etects the state d atabase replica and adjusts the starting

address and size of the metadevice accordingly . The advantage to this method

is that you dont have to do anything extra, such as repartitioning a slice, and

you dont have to worry about wasting space on a slice by having to dedicate

it to just th e state da tabase replica.

b. Starting with existing unused slices : If your existing configur ation has

unused dedicated slices, put the state database replicas on those slices.

You m ay find , how ever, that th e state databa se replicas are relatively

sma ll (517 KB, or 1034 sectors), so you dont want to ded icate a large slice

just to h old the sm all state da tabase replica. You m ay hav e to make som eslices smaller than they cur rently are.

If you h ave existing, unu sed slices, refer to How to Create Initial State

Database Replicas on Existing Unused Slices (DiskSuite Tool) on

page 11.


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c. Starting w ith no u nused slices: If your existing configu ration has n o

available slices, you n eed to steal space from anoth er slice, such as

swap, for the state d atabase replicas. If this is the case, refer to H ow to

Create State Database Replicas by Allocating Space From th e sw ap

Partition on page 12.

Warning Never try to put a state database replica on a slice that is in use by

a file system or d atabase; this will destroy any existing data on th at slice.

w How to Create Initial State Database Replicas From Scratch (DiskSuiteTool)

This procedure d irects you to use th ree wind ows in DiskSuite Tool to identify

and view your configuration, and then put state database replicas on slices.

1. Make sure you h ave met the prerequisites (page 1), and have read the

preliminary information (page 4).

2. D ecide how many state database replicas you need, based on the table on

page 4.

3. As root, start DiskS uite Tool to identify and v iew your configuration.

4. The first time you run Dis kSuite, you see the follow ing message. Click

OK to continue.

#metatool &

!


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Getting Started 7

1

5. From the Objects list, drag the MetaDB object onto the canvas.

Use the ADJUST mouse button (by default, the middle button) to drag the

object.

Note The MetaDB object represents or contains all the state datab ase

replicas in you r configu ration. Because you a re starting from scratch, the

MetaDB object has a Critical label on it to show y ou th at you need to ad d

state datab ase replicas to it.

6. Click Disk View to display the Disk View window.

7. Select View All Controllers from the View me nu in the Disk View

window.

This show s you r storage configur ation: controllers, disks, and slices. You

may w ant to use the View m enu on the Disk View wind ow to set the viewto 50, 100, or 200 percent viewing. The default is 100 percent.

8. Click Slices to display the Slice Brow ser wi ndow .

This wind ow show s the statu s and current u se of slices. (The Disk View

windows status line also displays this information when you position the

cursor over the slice.)


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9. Build a MetaDB object (create the state database repli cas) by dragging

available slices from the disks sh ow n in the D isk View win dow, or from

the Slice Browser window, over the MetaDB object in the canvas.

As long as th e MetaDB object was selected w hen y ou op ened the Disk View

w indow, w hen a slice is pu t into the MetaDB object, the Disk View w indow

colors the slice (blue on color screens, black on mon ochrome screens) that

contains the state d atabase replica. This helps you see w here state replicas

are located, for example, across controllers.

Try to balance state database replicas across controllers to achieve

redun dancy. For configurations with m any d isks, put a state database

rep lica on each disk. (You can also click the Set Filters bu tton in the Disk

View w indow to filter for slices that are n ot in u se.)

10. [Optional] To add multiple s tate database repli cas to the same slice,

display the MetaDB objects Info window, type the slice in the Slice field,

type the numbe r of replicas to add in the Replicas field , click Attach, then

click Close.

This method does not enable you to change the nu mber of state database

replicas on a slice, only to initially specify them.

11. Select the MetaDB object, then click Commit.

12. To verify that the MetaDB object was committed, display the

Configu ration Log.

Select Configu ration Log from the Browse men u.


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Getting Started 9

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Example Committed MetaDB Object Consisting of Six State

Database Replicas

This example shows a committed MetaDB object consisting of six slices, each

containing one state d atabase rep lica. The statu s of the MetaDB object i

solstice disksuite 4.1 user's guide

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