Storage Foundation 7.4 Administrator's Guide - Solaris

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (7.4)
Platform: Solaris
  1. Section I. Introducing Storage Foundation
    1. Overview of Storage Foundation
      1.  
        About Storage Foundation
      2.  
        About Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP)
      3.  
        About Veritas Volume Manager
      4. About Veritas File System
        1.  
          About the Veritas File System intent log
        2.  
          About extents
        3.  
          About file system disk layouts
      5. About Storage Foundation Cluster File System (SFCFS)
        1. About Veritas File System features supported in cluster file systems
          1.  
            Veritas File System features not in cluster file systems
      6.  
        About Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
      7.  
        Use cases for Storage Foundation
    2. How Dynamic Multi-Pathing works
      1. How DMP works
        1. Device discovery
          1.  
            About enclosure-based naming
        2. How DMP monitors I/O on paths
          1. Path failover mechanism
            1.  
              Subpaths Failover Group (SFG)
            2.  
              Low Impact Path Probing (LIPP)
          2.  
            I/O throttling
        3.  
          Load balancing
        4.  
          Disabling Sun Multipath IO (MPxIO)
        5.  
          Dynamic Reconfiguration
        6.  
          DMP support for the ZFS root pool
        7.  
          About booting from DMP devices
        8. DMP in a clustered environment
          1.  
            About enabling or disabling controllers with shared disk groups
      2.  
        Veritas Volume Manager co-existence with Oracle Automatic Storage Management disks
    3. How Veritas Volume Manager works
      1. How Veritas Volume Manager works with the operating system
        1.  
          How data is stored
      2. How Veritas Volume Manager handles storage management
        1. Physical objects
          1.  
            About disk partitions
          2.  
            Disk arrays
        2. Virtual objects
          1.  
            Combining virtual objects in Veritas Volume Manager
        3.  
          About the configuration daemon in Veritas Volume Manager
        4.  
          Multiple paths to disk arrays
      3. Volume layouts in Veritas Volume Manager
        1.  
          Non-layered volumes
        2.  
          Layered volumes
        3.  
          Layout methods
        4.  
          Concatenation, spanning, and carving
        5.  
          Striping (RAID-0)
        6.  
          Mirroring (RAID-1)
        7.  
          Striping plus mirroring (mirrored-stripe or RAID-0+1)
        8.  
          Mirroring plus striping (striped-mirror, RAID-1+0, or RAID-10)
        9. RAID-5 (striping with parity)
          1.  
            Traditional RAID-5 arrays
          2.  
            Veritas Volume Manager RAID-5 arrays
          3.  
            Left-symmetric layout
          4.  
            RAID-5 logging
          5.  
            About layered volumes
      4. Online relayout
        1.  
          How online relayout works
        2.  
          Limitations of online relayout
        3.  
          Transformation characteristics
        4.  
          Transformations and volume length
      5. Volume resynchronization
        1.  
          Dirty flags
        2.  
          Resynchronization process
      6.  
        Hot-relocation
      7. Dirty region logging
        1.  
          Log subdisks and plexes
        2.  
          Sequential DRL
      8. Volume snapshots
        1.  
          Comparison of snapshot features
      9. FastResync
        1.  
          How FastResync works
        2.  
          How non-persistent FastResync works with snapshots
        3.  
          How persistent FastResync works with snapshots
        4. DCO volume versioning
          1.  
            Instant snap (version 20) DCO volume layout
          2.  
            Version 0 DCO volume layout
        5.  
          Effect of growing a volume on the FastResync map
        6.  
          FastResync limitations
      10.  
        Volume sets
      11.  
        Configuration of volumes on SAN storage
      12. How VxVM handles hardware clones or snapshots
        1.  
          How VxVM uses the unique disk identifier (UDID)
    4. How Veritas File System works
      1.  
        Veritas File System features
      2. Veritas File System performance enhancements
        1. Enhanced I/O performance
          1.  
            Enhanced I/O clustering
          2.  
            Veritas Volume Manager integration with Veritas File System for enhanced I/O performance
          3.  
            Application-specific parameters for enhanced I/O performance
        2.  
          Delayed allocation for extending writes
      3. Using Veritas File System
        1. Online system administration
          1.  
            About defragmentation
          2.  
            About file system resizing
          3.  
            Using UNIX Commands on File Systems Larger than One TB
        2. Application program interface
          1.  
            Expanded application facilities
  2. Section II. Provisioning storage
    1. Provisioning new storage
      1.  
        Provisioning new storage
      2.  
        Growing the existing storage by adding a new LUN
      3.  
        Growing the existing storage by growing the LUN
      4.  
        Displaying SF information with vxlist
    2. Advanced allocation methods for configuring storage
      1. Customizing allocation behavior
        1.  
          Setting default values for vxassist
        2. Using rules to make volume allocation more efficient
          1.  
            Rule file format
          2.  
            Using rules to create a volume
        3. Understanding persistent attributes
          1.  
            Using persistent attributes
        4. Customizing disk classes for allocation
          1.  
            User-defined alias names for disk classes
          2.  
            User-defined precedence order for disk classes
          3.  
            User-defined disk classes
        5. Specifying allocation constraints for vxassist operations with the use clause and the require clause
          1.  
            About require constraints
          2.  
            About use constraints
          3.  
            Interaction of multiple require and use constraints
          4.  
            Examples of use and require constraints
        6.  
          Management of the use and require type of persistent attributes
      2. Creating volumes of a specific layout
        1.  
          Types of volume layouts
        2. Creating a mirrored volume
          1.  
            Creating a mirrored-concatenated volume
          2.  
            Creating a concatenated-mirror volume
        3. Creating a striped volume
          1.  
            Creating a mirrored-stripe volume
          2.  
            Creating a striped-mirror volume
        4.  
          Creating a RAID-5 volume
      3.  
        Creating a volume on specific disks
      4.  
        Creating volumes on specific media types
      5.  
        Specifying ordered allocation of storage to volumes
      6.  
        Site-based allocation
      7.  
        Changing the read policy for mirrored volumes
    3. Creating and mounting VxFS file systems
      1. Creating a VxFS file system
        1.  
          File system block size
        2.  
          Intent log size
      2.  
        Converting a file system to VxFS
      3. Mounting a VxFS file system
        1.  
          log mount option
        2.  
          delaylog mount option
        3. tmplog mount option
          1.  
            Logging mode persistence guarantees
        4.  
          logiosize mount option
        5.  
          nodatainlog mount option
        6.  
          blkclear mount option
        7.  
          mincache mount option
        8.  
          convosync mount option
        9. ioerror mount option
          1.  
            disable policy
          2.  
            wdisable policy and mwdisable policy
          3.  
            mdisable policy
        10. largefiles and nolargefiles mount options
          1.  
            Creating a file system with large files
          2.  
            Mounting a file system with large files
          3.  
            Managing a file system with large files
        11.  
          cio mount option
        12.  
          mntlock mount option
        13.  
          ckptautomnt mount option
        14.  
          Combining mount command options
      4.  
        Unmounting a file system
      5. Resizing a file system
        1.  
          Extending a file system using fsadm
        2.  
          Shrinking a file system
        3.  
          Reorganizing a file system
      6.  
        Displaying information on mounted file systems
      7.  
        Identifying file system types
      8. Monitoring free space
        1.  
          Monitoring fragmentation
    4. Extent attributes
      1. About extent attributes
        1.  
          Reservation: preallocating space to a file
        2.  
          Fixed extent size
        3.  
          How the fixed extent size works with the shared extents
        4. Other extent attribute controls
          1.  
            Extent attribute alignment
          2.  
            Extent attribute contiguity
          3.  
            Write operations beyond extent attribute reservation
          4.  
            Extent attribute reservation trimming
          5.  
            Extent attribute reservation persistence
          6.  
            Including an extent attribute reservation in the file
      2. Commands related to extent attributes
        1.  
          About failing to preserve extent attributes
  3. Section III. Administering multi-pathing with DMP
    1. Administering Dynamic Multi-Pathing
      1. Discovering and configuring newly added disk devices
        1.  
          Partial device discovery
        2. About discovering disks and dynamically adding disk arrays
          1.  
            How DMP claims devices
          2.  
            Disk categories
          3.  
            Adding DMP support for a new disk array
          4.  
            Enabling discovery of new disk arrays
        3.  
          About third-party driver coexistence
        4. How to administer the Device Discovery Layer
          1.  
            Listing all the devices including iSCSI
          2.  
            Listing all the Host Bus Adapters including iSCSI
          3.  
            Listing the ports configured on a Host Bus Adapter
          4.  
            Listing the targets configured from a Host Bus Adapter or a port
          5.  
            Listing the devices configured from a Host Bus Adapter and target
          6.  
            Getting or setting the iSCSI operational parameters
          7.  
            Listing all supported disk arrays
          8.  
            Displaying details about an Array Support Library
          9.  
            Excluding support for a disk array library
          10.  
            Re-including support for an excluded disk array library
          11.  
            Listing excluded disk arrays
          12.  
            Listing disks claimed in the DISKS category
          13.  
            Adding unsupported disk arrays to the DISKS category
          14.  
            Removing disks from the DISKS category
          15.  
            Foreign devices
      2.  
        Making devices invisible to VxVM
      3.  
        Making devices visible to VxVM
      4.  
        About enabling and disabling I/O for controllers and storage processors
      5.  
        About displaying DMP database information
      6.  
        Displaying the paths to a disk
      7. Administering DMP using the vxdmpadm utility
        1.  
          Retrieving information about a DMP node
        2.  
          Displaying consolidated information about the DMP nodes
        3.  
          Displaying the members of a LUN group
        4.  
          Displaying paths controlled by a DMP node, controller, enclosure, or array port
        5.  
          Displaying information about controllers
        6.  
          Displaying information about enclosures
        7.  
          Displaying information about array ports
        8.  
          Displaying information about devices controlled by third-party drivers
        9.  
          Displaying extended device attributes
        10.  
          Suppressing or including devices from VxVM control
        11. Gathering and displaying I/O statistics
          1.  
            Displaying cumulative I/O statistics
          2.  
            Displaying statistics for queued or erroneous I/Os
          3.  
            Examples of using the vxdmpadm iostat command
        12.  
          Setting the attributes of the paths to an enclosure
        13.  
          Displaying the redundancy level of a device or enclosure
        14.  
          Specifying the minimum number of active paths
        15.  
          Displaying the I/O policy
        16. Specifying the I/O policy
          1.  
            Scheduling I/O on the paths of an Asymmetric Active/Active or an ALUA array
          2.  
            Example of applying load balancing in a SAN
        17.  
          Disabling I/O for paths, controllers, array ports, or DMP nodes
        18.  
          Enabling I/O for paths, controllers, array ports, or DMP nodes
        19.  
          Renaming an enclosure
        20.  
          Configuring the response to I/O failures
        21.  
          Configuring the I/O throttling mechanism
        22.  
          Configuring Low Impact Path Probing (LIPP)
        23.  
          Configuring Subpaths Failover Groups (SFG)
        24.  
          Displaying recovery option values
        25.  
          Configuring DMP path restoration policies
        26.  
          Stopping the DMP path restoration thread
        27.  
          Displaying the status of the DMP path restoration thread
        28.  
          Configuring Array Policy Modules
      8.  
        DMP coexistence with native multi-pathing
      9. Managing DMP devices for the ZFS root pool
        1.  
          Configuring a mirror for the ZFS root pool using a DMP device
        2.  
          Using DMP devices as swap devices or dump devices
        3.  
          Cloning the boot environment with DMP
        4.  
          Creating a snapshot of an existing boot environment
        5.  
          Enabling and disabling DMP support for the ZFS root pool
    2. Dynamic Reconfiguration of devices
      1.  
        About online dynamic reconfiguration
      2. Reconfiguring a LUN online that is under DMP control using the Dynamic Reconfiguration tool
        1.  
          Removing LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID
        2.  
          Adding new LUNs dynamically to a target ID
        3.  
          Replacing LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID
        4.  
          Replacing a host bus adapter online
      3. Manually reconfiguring a LUN online that is under DMP control
        1.  
          Overview of manually reconfiguring a LUN
        2.  
          Manually removing LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID
        3.  
          Manually adding new LUNs dynamically to a new target ID
        4.  
          About detecting target ID reuse if the operating system device tree is not cleaned up
        5.  
          Scanning an operating system device tree after adding or removing LUNs
        6.  
          Manually cleaning up the operating system device tree after removing LUNs
        7.  
          Manually replacing a host bus adapter on an M5000 server
      4.  
        Changing the characteristics of a LUN from the array side
      5.  
        Upgrading the array controller firmware online
    3. Managing devices
      1. Displaying disk information
        1.  
          About Media Format Discovery
        2.  
          Viewing information about the native layouts of operating system
        3. Viewing information about the disk sector size
          1.  
            Supported operating systems
        4.  
          Displaying disk information with vxdiskadm
      2. Changing the disk device naming scheme
        1.  
          Displaying the disk-naming scheme
        2.  
          Setting customized names for DMP nodes
        3.  
          Regenerating persistent device names
        4.  
          Changing device naming for enclosures controlled by third-party drivers
        5. Simple or nopriv disks with enclosure-based naming
          1.  
            Removing the error state for simple or nopriv disks in the boot disk group
          2.  
            Removing the error state for simple or nopriv disks in non-boot disk groups
        6. About the Array Volume Identifier (AVID) attribute
          1.  
            Enclosure based naming with the Array Volume Identifier (AVID) attribute
      3.  
        About disk installation and formatting
      4. Adding and removing disks
        1. Adding a disk to VxVM
          1.  
            Disk reinitialization
          2.  
            Using vxdiskadd to put a disk under VxVM control
        2. Removing disks
          1.  
            Removing a disk with subdisks
          2.  
            Removing a disk with no subdisks
      5.  
        Renaming a disk
    4. Event monitoring
      1.  
        About the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) event source daemon (vxesd)
      2.  
        Fabric Monitoring and proactive error detection
      3.  
        Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) automated device discovery
      4.  
        Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) discovery of iSCSI and SAN Fibre Channel topology
      5.  
        DMP event logging
      6.  
        Starting and stopping the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) event source daemon
  4. Section IV. Administering Storage Foundation
    1. Administering sites and remote mirrors
      1. About sites and remote mirrors
        1.  
          About site-based allocation
        2.  
          About site consistency
        3.  
          About site tags
        4.  
          About the site read policy
      2.  
        Making an existing disk group site consistent
      3.  
        Configuring a new disk group as a Remote Mirror configuration
      4. Fire drill - testing the configuration
        1.  
          Simulating site failure
        2.  
          Verifying the secondary site
        3.  
          Recovery from simulated site failure
      5. Changing the site name
        1.  
          Resetting the site name for a host
      6. Administering the Remote Mirror configuration
        1.  
          Configuring site tagging for disks or enclosures
        2.  
          Configuring automatic site tagging for a disk group
        3.  
          Configuring site consistency on a volume
      7.  
        Examples of storage allocation by specifying sites
      8.  
        Displaying site information
      9. Failure and recovery scenarios
        1.  
          Recovering from a loss of site connectivity
        2.  
          Recovering from storage failure
        3.  
          Recovering from site failure
        4.  
          Recovering from disruption to connectivity to storage at all sites from the hosts at a site
        5.  
          Automatic site reattachment
  5. Section V. Optimizing I/O performance
    1. Veritas File System I/O
      1.  
        About Veritas File System I/O
      2. Buffered and Direct I/O
        1. Direct I/O
          1.  
            Direct I/O requirements
          2.  
            Direct I/O versus synchronous I/O
          3.  
            Direct I/O CPU overhead
          4.  
            Discovered Direct I/O
        2.  
          Unbuffered I/O
        3. Data synchronous I/O
          1.  
            Data synchronous I/O vs. synchronous I/O
      3.  
        Concurrent I/O
      4.  
        Cache advisories
      5.  
        Freezing and thawing a file system
      6.  
        Getting the I/O size
      7.  
        About Veritas InfoScale product components database accelerators
    2. Veritas Volume Manager I/O
      1.  
        Veritas Volume Manager throttling of administrative I/O
  6. Section VI. Using Point-in-time copies
    1. Understanding point-in-time copy methods
      1.  
        About point-in-time copies
      2. When to use point-in-time copies
        1.  
          Implementing point-in time copy solutions on a primary host
        2.  
          Implementing off-host point-in-time copy solutions
      3. About Storage Foundation point-in-time copy technologies
        1.  
          Comparison of Point-in-time copy solutions
      4. Volume-level snapshots
        1.  
          Persistent FastResync of volume snapshots
        2.  
          Data integrity in volume snapshots
        3.  
          Third-mirror break-off snapshots
        4. Space-optimized instant volume snapshots
          1.  
            How space-optimized instant snapshots work
        5.  
          Choices for snapshot resynchronization
        6.  
          Disk group split/join
      5. Storage Checkpoints
        1.  
          How Storage Checkpoints differ from snapshots
        2. How a Storage Checkpoint works
          1.  
            Copy-on-write
          2. Storage Checkpoint visibility
            1.  
              Storage Checkpoints and 64-bit inode numbers
        3. Types of Storage Checkpoints
          1.  
            Data Storage Checkpoints
          2.  
            Nodata Storage Checkpoints
          3.  
            Removable Storage Checkpoints
          4.  
            Non-mountable Storage Checkpoints
      6. About FileSnaps
        1.  
          Properties of FileSnaps
        2.  
          Concurrent I/O to FileSnaps
        3.  
          Copy-on-write and FileSnaps
        4.  
          Reading from FileSnaps
        5.  
          Block map fragmentation and FileSnaps
        6.  
          Backup and FileSnaps
      7. About snapshot file systems
        1.  
          How a snapshot file system works
    2. Administering volume snapshots
      1.  
        About volume snapshots
      2. Traditional third-mirror break-off snapshots
        1. Creating traditional third-mirror break-off snapshots
          1.  
            Converting a plex into a snapshot plex
          2.  
            Creating multiple snapshots with the vxassist command
          3.  
            Reattaching a snapshot volume
          4.  
            Adding plexes to a snapshot volume
          5.  
            Dissociating a snapshot volume
          6.  
            Displaying snapshot information
      3. Full-sized instant snapshots
        1. Creating instant snapshots
          1. Adding an instant snap DCO and DCO volume
            1.  
              Creating a shared cache object
            2.  
              Creating a volume for use as a full-sized instant or linked break-off snapshot
            3.  
              Upgrading the instant snap Data Change Objects (DCOs) and DCO volumes for a VxVM volume
          2.  
            Creating and managing space-optimized instant snapshots
          3.  
            Creating and managing full-sized instant snapshots
          4.  
            Creating and managing third-mirror break-off snapshots
          5.  
            Creating and managing linked break-off snapshot volumes
          6.  
            Creating multiple instant snapshots
          7.  
            Creating instant snapshots of volume sets
          8.  
            Adding snapshot mirrors to a volume
          9.  
            Removing a snapshot mirror
          10.  
            Removing a linked break-off snapshot volume
          11.  
            Adding a snapshot to a cascaded snapshot hierarchy
          12.  
            Refreshing an instant space-optimized snapshot
          13.  
            Reattaching an instant full-sized or plex break-off snapshot
          14.  
            Reattaching a linked break-off snapshot volume
          15.  
            Restoring a volume from an instant space-optimized snapshot
          16.  
            Dissociating an instant snapshot
          17.  
            Removing an instant snapshot
          18.  
            Splitting an instant snapshot hierarchy
          19.  
            Displaying instant snapshot information
          20. Controlling instant snapshot synchronization
            1.  
              Improving the performance of snapshot synchronization
          21.  
            Listing the snapshots created on a cache
          22.  
            Tuning the autogrow attributes of a cache
          23.  
            Monitoring and displaying cache usage
          24.  
            Growing and shrinking a cache
          25.  
            Removing a cache
      4.  
        Linked break-off snapshots
      5. Cascaded snapshots
        1.  
          Creating a snapshot of a snapshot
      6.  
        Creating multiple snapshots
      7.  
        Restoring the original volume from a snapshot
      8. Adding a version 0 DCO and DCO volume
        1.  
          Specifying storage for version 0 DCO plexes
        2.  
          Removing a version 0 DCO and DCO volume
        3.  
          Reattaching a version 0 DCO and DCO volume
    3. Administering Storage Checkpoints
      1.  
        About Storage Checkpoints
      2. Storage Checkpoint administration
        1.  
          Creating a Storage Checkpoint
        2.  
          Removing a Storage Checkpoint
        3.  
          Accessing a Storage Checkpoint
        4. Converting a data Storage Checkpoint to a nodata Storage Checkpoint
          1.  
            Showing the difference between a data and a nodata Storage Checkpoint
          2.  
            Converting multiple Storage Checkpoints
          3.  
            Creating a delayed nodata Storage Checkpoint
        5.  
          Enabling and disabling Storage Checkpoint visibility
      3.  
        Storage Checkpoint space management considerations
      4.  
        Restoring from a Storage Checkpoint
      5.  
        Storage Checkpoint quotas
    4. Administering FileSnaps
      1. FileSnap creation
        1.  
          FileSnap creation over Network File System
      2.  
        Using FileSnaps
      3. Using FileSnaps to create point-in-time copies of files
        1.  
          Using FileSnaps to provision virtual desktops
        2.  
          Using FileSnaps to optimize write intensive applications for virtual machines
        3.  
          Using FileSnaps to create multiple copies of data instantly
        4.  
          An example to perform FileSnap
      4.  
        Comparison of the logical size output of the fsadm -S shared, du, and df commands
    5. Administering snapshot file systems
      1.  
        Snapshot file system backups
      2.  
        Snapshot file system performance
      3.  
        About snapshot file system disk structure
      4.  
        Differences between snapshots and Storage Checkpoints
      5.  
        Creating a snapshot file system
  7. Section VII. Optimizing storage with Storage Foundation
    1. Understanding storage optimization solutions in Storage Foundation
      1.  
        About thin provisioning
      2.  
        About thin optimization solutions in Storage Foundation
      3. About SmartMove
        1.  
          SmartMove for thin provisioning
      4.  
        About the Thin Reclamation feature
      5.  
        Determining when to reclaim space on a thin reclamation LUN
      6.  
        How automatic reclamation works
    2. Migrating data from thick storage to thin storage
      1.  
        About using SmartMove to migrate to Thin Storage
      2.  
        Migrating to thin provisioning
    3. Maintaining Thin Storage with Thin Reclamation
      1. Reclamation of storage on thin reclamation arrays
        1.  
          About Thin Reclamation of a disk, a disk group, or an enclosure
        2.  
          About Thin Reclamation of a file system
      2. Identifying thin and thin reclamation LUNs
        1.  
          Displaying detailed information about reclamation commands
      3.  
        Displaying VxFS file system usage on thin reclamation LUNs
      4.  
        Reclaiming space on a file system
      5.  
        Reclaiming space on a disk, disk group, or enclosure
      6.  
        About the reclamation log file
      7.  
        Monitoring Thin Reclamation using the vxtask command
      8.  
        Configuring automatic reclamation
    4. Veritas InfoScale 4k sector device support solution
      1.  
        About 4K sector size technology
      2.  
        Veritas InfoScale unsupported configurations
      3.  
        Migrating VxFS file system from 512-bytes sector size devices to 4K sector size devices
  8. Section VIII. Maximizing storage utilization
    1. Understanding storage tiering with SmartTier
      1. About SmartTier
        1.  
          About VxFS multi-volume file systems
        2.  
          About VxVM volume sets
        3.  
          About volume tags
        4.  
          SmartTier file management
        5.  
          SmartTier sub-file object management
      2.  
        How the SmartTier policy works with the shared extents
      3.  
        SmartTier in a High Availability (HA) environment
    2. Creating and administering volume sets
      1.  
        About volume sets
      2.  
        Creating a volume set
      3.  
        Adding a volume to a volume set
      4.  
        Removing a volume from a volume set
      5.  
        Listing details of volume sets
      6.  
        Stopping and starting volume sets
      7. Managing raw device nodes of component volumes
        1.  
          Enabling raw device access when creating a volume set
        2.  
          Displaying the raw device access settings for a volume set
        3.  
          Controlling raw device access for an existing volume set
    3. Multi-volume file systems
      1.  
        About multi-volume file systems
      2.  
        About volume types
      3. Features implemented using multi-volume file system (MVFS) support
        1.  
          Volume availability
      4.  
        Creating multi-volume file systems
      5.  
        Converting a single volume file system to a multi-volume file system
      6. Adding a volume to and removing a volume from a multi-volume file system
        1.  
          Adding a volume to a multi-volume file system
        2.  
          Removing a volume from a multi-volume file system
        3.  
          Forcibly removing a volume in a multi-volume file system
        4.  
          Moving volume 0 in a multi-volume file system
      7. Volume encapsulation
        1.  
          Encapsulating a volume
        2.  
          Deencapsulating a volume
      8.  
        Reporting file extents
      9. Load balancing
        1.  
          Defining and assigning a load balancing allocation policy
        2.  
          Rebalancing extents
      10.  
        Converting a multi-volume file system to a single volume file system
    4. Administering SmartTier
      1. About SmartTier
        1.  
          About compressing files with SmartTier
      2.  
        Supported SmartTier document type definitions
      3. Placement classes
        1.  
          Tagging volumes as placement classes
        2.  
          Listing placement classes
      4. Administering placement policies
        1.  
          Assigning a placement policy
        2.  
          Unassigning a placement policy
        3.  
          Analyzing the space impact of enforcing a placement policy
        4.  
          Querying which files will be affected by enforcing a placement policy
        5.  
          Enforcing a placement policy
        6.  
          Validating a placement policy
      5.  
        File placement policy grammar
      6. File placement policy rules
        1.  
          SELECT statement
        2.  
          CREATE statement
        3. RELOCATE statement
          1.  
            Specifying the I/O temperature relocation criterion
          2.  
            Prefer attribute
          3.  
            Average I/O activity criteria
          4.  
            RELOCATE statement examples
        4. DELETE statement
          1.  
            DELETE statement examples
        5. COMPRESS statement
          1.  
            Specifying the I/O temperature compression criterion
          2.  
            Prefer attribute
          3.  
            Average I/O activity criteria
          4.  
            COMPRESS statement examples
        6. UNCOMPRESS statement
          1.  
            Specifying the I/O temperature uncompression criterion
          2.  
            Prefer attribute
          3.  
            Average I/O activity criteria
          4.  
            UNCOMPRESS statement examples
      7.  
        Calculating I/O temperature and access temperature
      8. Multiple criteria in file placement policy rule statements
        1.  
          Multiple file selection criteria in SELECT statement clauses
        2.  
          Multiple placement classes in <ON> clauses of CREATE statements and in <TO> clauses of RELOCATE statements
        3.  
          Multiple placement classes in <FROM> clauses of RELOCATE and DELETE statements
        4.  
          Multiple conditions in <WHEN> clauses of RELOCATE and DELETE statements
      9.  
        File placement policy rule and statement ordering
      10.  
        File placement policies and extending files
      11. Using SmartTier with solid state disks
        1.  
          Fine grain temperatures with solid state disks
        2.  
          Prefer mechanism with solid state disks
        3.  
          Average I/O activity with solid state disks
        4.  
          Frequent SmartTier scans with solid state disks
        5.  
          Quick identification of cold files with solid state disks
        6.  
          Example placement policy when using solid state disks
      12. Sub-file relocation
        1.  
          Moving sub-file data of files to specific target tiers
    5. Administering hot-relocation
      1.  
        About hot-relocation
      2. How hot-relocation works
        1.  
          Partial disk failure mail messages
        2.  
          Complete disk failure mail messages
        3.  
          How space is chosen for relocation
      3.  
        Configuring a system for hot-relocation
      4.  
        Displaying spare disk information
      5.  
        Marking a disk as a hot-relocation spare
      6.  
        Removing a disk from use as a hot-relocation spare
      7.  
        Excluding a disk from hot-relocation use
      8.  
        Making a disk available for hot-relocation use
      9.  
        Configuring hot-relocation to use only spare disks
      10. Moving relocated subdisks
        1. Moving relocated subdisks using vxunreloc
          1.  
            Moving hot-relocated subdisks back to their original disk
          2.  
            Moving hot-relocated subdisks back to a different disk
          3.  
            Forcing hot-relocated subdisks to accept different offsets
          4.  
            Examining which subdisks were hot-relocated from a disk
        2.  
          Restarting vxunreloc after errors
      11.  
        Modifying the behavior of hot-relocation
    6. Deduplicating data on Solaris SPARC
      1. About deduplicating data
        1.  
          About deduplication chunk size
        2.  
          Deduplication and file system performance
        3.  
          About the deduplication scheduler
      2. Deduplicating data
        1.  
          Enabling and disabling deduplication on a file system
        2.  
          Scheduling deduplication of a file system
        3.  
          Performing a deduplication dry run
        4.  
          Querying the deduplication status of a file system
        5.  
          Starting and stopping the deduplication scheduler daemon
      3.  
        Deduplication results
      4.  
        Deduplication supportability
      5.  
        Deduplication use cases
      6.  
        Deduplication limitations
    7. Compressing files
      1. About compressing files
        1.  
          About the compressed file format
        2.  
          About the file compression attributes
        3.  
          About the file compression block size
      2.  
        Compressing files with the vxcompress command
      3.  
        Interaction of compressed files and other commands
      4.  
        Interaction of compressed files and other features
      5.  
        Interaction of compressed files and applications
      6. Use cases for compressing files
        1. Compressed files and databases
          1.  
            Supported database versions and environment
          2.  
            Compressing archive logs
          3.  
            Compressing read-only tablespaces
          4.  
            Compressing infrequently accessed table partitions
          5.  
            Compressing infrequently accessed datafiles
          6.  
            Best practices for compressing files in an Oracle database
        2.  
          Compressing all files that meet the specified criteria
  9. Section IX. Administering storage
    1. Managing volumes and disk groups
      1. Rules for determining the default disk group
        1.  
          Displaying the system-wide boot disk group
        2.  
          Displaying and specifying the system-wide default disk group
      2. Moving volumes or disks
        1.  
          Moving volumes from a VxVM disk
        2.  
          Moving disks between disk groups
        3. Reorganizing the contents of disk groups
          1.  
            Limitations of disk group split and join
          2. Listing objects potentially affected by a move
            1.  
              Moving DCO volumes between disk groups
          3.  
            Moving objects between disk groups
          4.  
            Splitting disk groups
          5.  
            Joining disk groups
      3. Monitoring and controlling tasks
        1.  
          Specifying task tags
        2. Managing tasks with vxtask
          1.  
            vxtask operations
          2.  
            Using the vxtask command
      4.  
        Using vxnotify to monitor configuration changes
      5. Performing online relayout
        1.  
          Permitted relayout transformations
        2.  
          Specifying a non-default layout
        3.  
          Specifying a plex for relayout
        4.  
          Tagging a relayout operation
        5.  
          Viewing the status of a relayout
        6.  
          Controlling the progress of a relayout
      6. Adding a mirror to a volume
        1.  
          Mirroring all volumes
        2.  
          Mirroring volumes on a VxVM disk
        3.  
          Additional mirroring considerations
      7.  
        Configuring SmartMove
      8.  
        Removing a mirror
      9.  
        Setting tags on volumes
      10. Managing disk groups
        1. Disk group versions
          1.  
            Upgrading the disk group version
          2.  
            Creating a disk group with an earlier disk group version
        2. Displaying disk group information
          1.  
            Displaying free space in a disk group
        3.  
          Creating a disk group
        4.  
          Removing a disk from a disk group
        5.  
          Deporting a disk group
        6. Importing a disk group
          1.  
            Setting the automatic recovery of volumes
        7.  
          Handling of minor number conflicts
        8. Moving disk groups between systems
          1.  
            Handling errors when importing disks
          2.  
            Reserving minor numbers for disk groups
          3.  
            Compatibility of disk groups between platforms
        9. Importing a disk group containing hardware cloned disks
          1.  
            Considerations when using EMC CLARiiON SNAPSHOT LUNs
          2.  
            Writing a new UDID to a disk
          3.  
            Importing the existing disk group with only the cloned disks
          4.  
            Importing the cloned disks as a new standard disk group
          5.  
            Importing a set of cloned disks with tags
        10.  
          Setting up configuration database copies (metadata) for a disk group
        11.  
          Renaming a disk group
        12. Handling conflicting configuration copies
          1.  
            Example of a serial split brain condition in a cluster
          2.  
            Correcting conflicting configuration information
        13.  
          Disabling a disk group
        14. Destroying a disk group
          1.  
            Recovering a destroyed disk group
        15. Backing up and restoring disk group configuration data
          1.  
            Backing up and restoring Flexible Storage Sharing disk group configuration data
        16.  
          Working with existing ISP disk groups
      11. Managing plexes and subdisks
        1. Reattaching plexes
          1.  
            Automatic plex reattachment
          2.  
            Reattaching a plex manually
        2.  
          Plex synchronization
      12. Decommissioning storage
        1.  
          Removing a volume
        2.  
          Removing a disk from VxVM control
        3.  
          About shredding data
        4.  
          Shredding a VxVM disk
        5.  
          Failed disk shred operation results in a disk with no label
        6. Removing and replacing disks
          1.  
            Replacing a failed or removed disk
          2.  
            Removing and replacing a disk in a Sun StorEdge A5x00 disk array
    2. Rootability
      1. Encapsulating a disk
        1.  
          Failure of disk encapsulation
        2. Using nopriv disks for encapsulation
          1.  
            Creating a nopriv disk for encapsulation
          2.  
            Creating volumes for other partitions on a nopriv disk
      2. Rootability
        1.  
          Booting root volumes
        2.  
          Boot-time volume restrictions
        3.  
          Creating redundancy for the root disk
        4.  
          Creating an archived back-up root disk for disaster recovery
        5.  
          Mirroring an encapsulated root disk
        6. Booting from alternate boot disks
          1. Booting from an alternate boot disk on Solaris SPARC systems
            1.  
              The boot process on Solaris SPARC systems
        7.  
          Mirroring other file systems on the root disk
        8. Encapsulating SAN disks
          1.  
            Best practices and guidelines for booting from SAN LUNS
      3. Administering an encapsulated boot disk
        1.  
          Creating a snapshot of an encapsulated boot disk
        2.  
          Growing an encapsulated boot disk
      4.  
        Unencapsulating the root disk
    3. Quotas
      1.  
        About Veritas File System quota limits
      2.  
        About quota files on Veritas File System
      3.  
        About Veritas File System quota commands
      4.  
        About quota checking with Veritas File System
      5. Using Veritas File System quotas
        1.  
          Turning on Veritas File System quotas
        2.  
          Turning on Veritas File System quotas at mount time
        3.  
          Editing Veritas File System quotas
        4.  
          Modifying Veritas File System quota time limits
        5.  
          Viewing Veritas File System disk quotas and usage
        6.  
          Displaying blocks owned by users or groups
        7.  
          Turning off Veritas File System quotas
        8.  
          Support for 64-bit Quotas
    4. File Change Log
      1.  
        About Veritas File System File Change Log
      2.  
        About the Veritas File System File Change Log file
      3.  
        Veritas File System File Change Log administrative interface
      4.  
        Veritas File System File Change Log programmatic interface
      5.  
        Summary of Veritas File System File Change Log API functions
  10. Section X. Reference
    1. Appendix A. Reverse path name lookup
      1.  
        About reverse path name lookup
    2. Appendix B. Tunable parameters
      1.  
        About tuning Storage Foundation
      2. Tuning the VxFS file system
        1.  
          Tuning inode table size
        2.  
          Tuning performance optimization of inode allocation
        3.  
          Partitioned directories
        4.  
          vx_maxlink
        5. Veritas Volume Manager maximum I/O size
          1.  
            vol_maxio
      3.  
        DMP tunable parameters
      4. Methods to change Dynamic Multi-Pathing tunable parameters
        1.  
          Changing the values of DMP parameters with the vxdmpadm settune command line
        2. About tuning Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) with templates
          1.  
            DMP tuning templates
          2.  
            Example DMP tuning template
          3.  
            Tuning a DMP host with a configuration attribute template
          4.  
            Managing the DMP configuration files
          5.  
            Resetting the DMP tunable parameters and attributes to the default values
          6.  
            DMP tunable parameters and attributes that are supported for templates
      5. Tunable parameters for VxVM
        1.  
          Tunable parameters for core VxVM
        2.  
          Tunable parameters for FlashSnap (FMR)
        3.  
          Tunable parameters for CVM
        4.  
          Tunable parameters for VVR
        5.  
          Points to note when changing the values of the VVR tunables
      6. Methods to change Veritas Volume Manager tunable parameters
        1.  
          Changing the values of the Veritas Volume Manager tunable parameters using the vxtune command line
        2.  
          Changing the value of the Veritas Volume Manager tunable parameters using templates
        3.  
          Changing the tunable values using the vxio.conf file
    3. Appendix C. Command reference
      1.  
        Command completion for Veritas commands
      2.  
        Veritas Volume Manager command reference
      3. Veritas Volume Manager manual pages
        1.  
          Section 1M - administrative commands
        2.  
          Section 4 - file formats
        3.  
          Section 7 - device driver interfaces
      4.  
        Veritas File System command summary
      5.  
        Veritas File System manual pages
      6.  
        SmartIO command reference

Tunable parameters for core VxVM

Table: Kernel tunable parameters for core VxVM lists the kernel tunable parameters for VxVM.

You can tune the parameters using the vxtune command or the operating system method, unless otherwise noted.

Table: Kernel tunable parameters for core VxVM

Parameter

Description

vol_checkpt_default

The interval at which utilities performing recoveries or resynchronization operations load the current offset into the kernel as a checkpoint. A system failure during such operations does not require a full recovery, but can continue from the last reached checkpoint.

The default value is 20480 sectors (10MB).

Increasing this size reduces the overhead of checkpoints on recovery operations at the expense of additional recovery following a system failure during a recovery.

vol_default_iodelay

The count in clock ticks for which utilities pause if they have been directed to reduce the frequency of issuing I/O requests, but have not been given a specific delay time. This tunable is used by utilities performing operations such as resynchronizing mirrors or rebuilding RAID-5 columns.

The default value is 50 ticks.

Increasing this value results in slower recovery operations and consequently lower system impact while recoveries are being performed.

vol_kmsg_resend_period

This parameter cannot be tuned with the vxtune command. If specified in the /kernel/drv/vxio.conf file, the value is internally converted to microseconds. The value is then applied to the vol_kmsg_resend_period_usecs parameter, which represents the value of the kernel message (KMSG) resend period that is used by the clustering functionality of VxVM.

vol_kmsg_send_period

This parameter cannot be tuned with the vxtune command. If specified in the /kernel/drv/vxio.conf file, the value is internally converted to microseconds. The value is then applied to the vol_kmsg_send_period_usecs parameter, which represents the value of the kernel message (KMSG) send period that is used by the clustering functionality of VxVM.

vol_max_adminio_poolsz

The maximum size of the memory pool that is used for administrative I/O operations. VxVM uses this pool when throttling administrative I/O.

The default value is 64MB. The maximum size must not be greater than the value of the voliomem_maxpool_sz parameter.

vol_max_vol

This parameter cannot be tuned with the vxtune command. The maximum number of volumes that can be created on the system. The minimum permitted value is 1. The maximum permitted value is the maximum number of minor numbers representable on the system.

The default value is 131071.

vol_maxio

The maximum size of logical I/O operations that can be performed without breaking up the request. I/O requests to VxVM that are larger than this value are broken up and performed synchronously. Physical I/O requests are broken up based on the capabilities of the disk device and are unaffected by changes to this maximum logical request limit.

The default value is 2048 sectors (1 MB).

The value of voliomem_maxpool_sz must be at least 10 times greater than the value of vol_maxio.

If DRL sequential logging is configured, the value of voldrl_min_regionsz must be set to at least half the value of vol_maxio.

The maximum limit for vol_maxio is 20% of the smaller of physical memory or kernel virtual memory. It is inadvisable to go over this limit.

vol_maxioctl

The maximum size of data that can be passed into VxVM via an ioctl call. Increasing this limit allows larger operations to be performed. Decreasing the limit is not generally recommended, because some utilities depend upon performing operations of a certain size and can fail unexpectedly if they issue oversized ioctl requests.

The default value is 32768 bytes (32KB).

vol_maxparallelio

The number of I/O operations that the vxconfigd daemon is permitted to request from the kernel in a single VOL_VOLDIO_READ per VOL_VOLDIO_WRITE ioctl call.

The default value is 256. This value should not be changed.

vol_maxspecialio

The maximum size of an I/O request that can be issued by an ioctl call. Although the ioctl request itself can be small, it can request that a large I/O request be performed. This tunable limits the size of these I/O requests. If necessary, a request that exceeds this value can be failed, or the request can be broken up and performed synchronously.

The default value is 4096 sectors (2 MB).

Raising this limit can cause difficulties if the size of an I/O request causes the process to take more memory or kernel virtual mapping space than exists and thus deadlock. The maximum limit for this tunable is 20% of the smaller of physical memory or kernel virtual memory. It is inadvisable to go over this limit, because deadlock is likely to occur.

If stripes are larger than the value of this tunable, full stripe I/O requests are broken up, which prevents full-stripe read/writes. This throttles the volume I/O throughput for sequential I/O or larger I/O requests.

This tunable limits the size of an I/O request at a higher level in VxVM than the level of an individual disk. For example, for an 8 by 64KB stripe, a value of 256KB only allows I/O requests that use half the disks in the stripe; thus, it cuts potential throughput in half. If you have more columns or you have used a larger interleave factor, then your relative performance is worse.

This tunable must be set, as a minimum, to the size of your largest stripe (RAID-0 or RAID-5).

vol_stats_enable

Enables or disables the I/O stat collection for Veritas Volume manager objects. The default value is 1, since this functionality is enabled by default.

vol_subdisk_num

The maximum number of subdisks that can be attached to a single plex. The default value of this tunable is 4096.

voliomem_chunk_size

The granularity of memory chunks used by VxVM when allocating or releasing system memory. A larger granularity reduces CPU overhead by allowing VxVM to retain hold of a larger amount of memory.

The value of this tunable parameter depends on the page size of the system. You cannot specify a value larger than the default value. If you change the value, VxVM aligns the values to the page size when the system reboots.

The default value is 524288 (512 KB) for 8 KBpage size.

voliomem_maxpool_sz

The maximum memory requested from the system by VxVM for internal purposes. This tunable has a direct impact on the performance of VxVM as it prevents one I/O operation from using all the memory in the system.

VxVM allocates two pools that can grow up to this size, one for RAID-5 and one for mirrored volumes. Additional pools are allocated if instant (Copy On Write) snapshots are present.

A write request to a RAID-5 volume that is greater than one fourth of the pool size is broken up and performed in chunks of one tenth of the pool size.

A write request to a mirrored volume that is greater than the pool size is broken up and performed in chunks of the pool size.

The minimum allowable value for this tunable is 5% of memory. If you specify a value less than that, the value is adjusted to 5% of value.

The default value is 134217728 (128MB).

The value of voliomem_maxpool_sz must be greater than the value of volraid_minpool_size.

The value of voliomem_maxpool_sz must be at least 10 times greater than the value of vol_maxio.

voliot_errbuf_dflt

The default size of the buffer maintained for error tracing events. This buffer is allocated at driver load time and is not adjustable for size while VxVM is running.

The default value is 16384 bytes (16KB).

Increasing this buffer can provide storage for more error events at the expense of system memory. Decreasing the size of the buffer can result in an error not being detected via the tracing device. Applications that depend on error tracing to perform some responsive action are dependent on this buffer.

voliot_iobuf_default

The default size for the creation of a tracing buffer in the absence of any other specification of desired kernel buffer size as part of the trace ioctl.

The default value is 8192 bytes (8 KB).

If trace data is often being lost due to this buffer size being too small, then this value can be increased.

voliot_iobuf_limit

The upper limit to the size of memory that can be used for storing tracing buffers in the kernel. Tracing buffers are used by the VxVM kernel to store the tracing event records. As trace buffers are requested to be stored in the kernel, the memory for them is drawn from this pool.

Increasing this size can allow additional tracing to be performed at the expense of system memory usage. Setting this value to a size greater than can readily be accommodated on the system is inadvisable.

The default value is 4194304 bytes (4 MB).

voliot_iobuf_max

The maximum buffer size that can be used for a single trace buffer. Requests of a buffer larger than this size are silently truncated to this size. A request for a maximal buffer size from the tracing interface results (subject to limits of usage) in a buffer of this size.

The default size for this buffer is 1048576 bytes (1 MB).

Increasing this buffer can provide for larger traces to be taken without loss for very heavily used volumes.

Do not increase this value above the value for the voliot_iobuf_limit tunable value.

voliot_max_open

The maximum number of tracing channels that can be open simultaneously. Tracing channels are clone entry points into the tracing device driver. Each vxtrace process running on a system consumes a single trace channel.

The default number of channels is 32.

The allocation of each channel takes up approximately 20 bytes even when the channel is not in use.

volraid_minpool_size

This parameter cannot be tuned with the vxtune command. The initial amount of memory that is requested from the system by VxVM for RAID-5 operations. The maximum size of this memory pool is limited by the value of voliomem_maxpool_sz.

The default value is 8192 sectors (4MB).

volraid_rsrtransmax

The maximum number of transient reconstruct operations that can be performed in parallel for RAID-5. A transient reconstruct operation is one that occurs on a non-degraded RAID-5 volume that has not been predicted. Limiting the number of these operations that can occur simultaneously removes the possibility of flooding the system with many reconstruct operations, and so reduces the risk of causing memory starvation.

The default value is 1.

Increasing this size improves the initial performance on the system when a failure first occurs and before a detach of a failing object is performed, but can lead to memory starvation.

autostartvolumes

Turns on or off the automatic volume recovery. When set to on, VxVM automatically recovers and starts disabled volumes when you import, join, move, or split a disk group. When set to off, turns off this behavior. The default value is on.

fssmartmovethreshold

The threshold for an individual file system, in percentage full. After this threshold is reached, the SmartMove feature is not used. The default value is 100.

reclaim_on_delete_start_time

The time of day when the reclamation begins on a thin LUN, after a volume using that LUN is deleted. Specified in 24 hour time (HH:MM). The default value is 22:10.

reclaim_on_delete_wait_period

The number of days to wait before starting to reclaim space on a thin LUN, after a volume using that LUN is deleted. Specified as an integer from −1 to 366, where −1 specifies immediately and 366 specifies never. The default value is 1.

usefssmartmove

The state of the SmartMove feature. Valid values are:

  • thinonly − use for Thin disks only.

  • all − use for all disks.

  • none − turn off the SmartMove feature.

The default value is all.