Important Notes about VERITAS Volume Manager...

Gathered By: John Kazerooni

The following are a very basic information about VERTTAS Volume Manager. For more accurate

Information please read complete VERITAS Volume Manager Manuals.

Please don’t perform any instruction unless you know what the outcome is.

Important Notes for Installing VERITAS Volume Manager:

• Check what VERITAS  packages are currently running:

# pkginfo | grep –i VRTS

• Make sure the boot disk has at least two free partitions with 2048 contiguous sectors (512 bytes) aviable.

# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0

• Make sure to save the boot disk information by using the “prtvtoc” command.

# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0  > /etc/my_boot_disk_information

• Make sure to have a backup copy of the /etc/system and /etc/vfstab files.

• Add packages to your system.

# cd 2location_of_your_packages

# pkgadd –d . VRTSvxvm VRTSvmman VRTSvmdoc

• Add the license key by using vxlicinst

# vxlicinst

• Then run the Volume Manager Installation program.

# vxinstall

• Check the .profile file to ensure the following paths:

# PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/vxvm/bin:/opt/VRTSobgui/bin:/usr/sbin:/opt/VRTSob/bin

# MANPATH=$MANPATH:/opt/VRTS/man

# export PATH MANPATH

Important Notes for how to set up VEA:

• Install the VEA software.

# cd 2location_of_your_packages

# pkgadd –a ../scripts/VRTSobadmin –d . VRTSob VRTSobgui VRTSvmpro VRTSfspro

• Start the VEA server if not, running.

# vxsvc –m  (Check or monitor the VEA server is running)

# vxsvc  (Start the VEA server)

• Start the Volume Manager User interface.

# vea &

The Most handy Volume Manager commands:

• # vxdiskadm

• # vxdctl enable (Force the VxVM configuration to rescan for the disks. See devfsadm)

• # vxassist (Assist to create a VxVM volume.)

• # vxdisk list rootdisk (Displays information about the header contents of the root disk.)

• # vxdg list rootdg  (Displays information about the content of the rootdg disk group.)

• # vxprint –g rootdg –thf | more (Displays information about volumes in rootdg.)

•  

In order to create VERITAS Volume Manager, you may use the following three methods:

(This article emphases on the CLI method.)

• VEA

• Command Line Interface (CLI)

• vxdiskadm

Steps to create a disk group:

• # vxdg init accountingdg disk01=c1t12d0

Steps to add a disk to a disk group:

• View the status of the disk.

# vxdisk list     --or-- # vxdisk –s list

• Add one un-initialized disk to the free disk pool.

# vxdisksetup –i c1t8d0

• Add the disk to a disk group called accoutingdg.

# vxdg init accountingdg disk01=c1t8d0

# vxdg –g accountingdg adddisk disk02=c2t8d0

Steps to split objects between disk groups:

• # vxdg split sourcedg targetdg object …

Steps to join disk groups:

• # vxdg join sourcedg targetdg

Steps to remove a disk from a disk group:

• Remove the “disk01” disk from the “accountingdg” diskgroup.

# vxdg –g accountingdg rmdisk=disk01

Steps to remove a device from the free disk pool:

• Remove the c1t8d0 device from the free disk pool.

# vxdiskunsetup c2t8d0

Steps to manage disk group:

• To deport and import the “accountingdg” disk group.

# vxdg deport accountingdg

# vxdg –C import accountingdg

# vxdg –h other_hostname deport accountingdg

• To destroy the “accountingdg” disk group.

# vxdg destroy accountingdg

Steps to create a VOLUME:

• # vxassist –g accountingdg make payroll_vol 500m

• # vxassist –g accountingdg make gl_vol 1500m

Steps to mount a VOLUME:

            If using ufs:

• # newfs /dev/vx/rdsk/accountingdg/payroll_vol

• # mkdir /payroll

• # mount –F ufs /dev/vx/dsk/accountingdg/payroll_vol /payroll

I           If using VxFS:

• # mkfs –f vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/accountingdg/payroll_vol

• # mkdir /payroll

• # mount –F vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/accountingdg/payroll_vol /payroll

Steps to resize a VOLUME:

• # vxresize –g accountingdg payroll_vol 700m

Steps to remove a VOLUME:

• # vxedit –g accountingdg –rf rm payroll_vol

Steps to create a two striped and a mirror VOLUME:

• # vxassist –g accounting make ac_vol 500m layout=stripe,mirror

Steps to create a raid5 VOLUME:

• # vxassist –g accounting make ac_vol 500m layout=raid5 ncol=5 disk01 …

Display the VOLUME layout:

• # vxprint –rth

Add or remove a mirror to an existing VOLUME:

• # vxassist –g accountingdg mirror payroll_vol

• # vxplex –g accounitngdg –o rm dis payroll_plex01

Add a dirty region log to an existing VOLUME and specify the disk to use for the drl:

• # vxassist –g accountingdg addlog payroll_vol logtype=drl disk04

Move an existing VOLUME from its disk group to another disk group:

• # vxdg move accountingdg new_accountingdg payroll_vol

To start a VOLUME:

• #vxvol start <volume_name>

Steps to encapsulate and Root Disk Mirroring

• Use “vxdiskadm” to place another disk in rootdg with the same size or greater.

• Set the eeprom variable to enable VxVM to create a device alias in the openboot program.

# eeprom use-nvramrc?=true

• Use “vxdiskadm” to mirror the root volumes. (Option 6)

• Test you can reboot from mirror disk.

# vxmend off rootvol-01  (disable the boot disk)

# init 6

OK> devalias    (check available boot disk aliases)

OK> boot vx-disk01

Write a script to use the “for” statement to do some work.

# for i in 0 1 2 3 4

>do

>cp –r /usr/sbin /mydir${i}

>mkfile 5m /mydir${i}

>dd if=/mydir/my_input_file of=/myother_dir/my_output_file &

>done