Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide

May 2006

The Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide provides instructions on using Solaris Volume Manager to manage disk storage, including creating, modifying, and using RAID-0 (concatenation and stripe) volumes, RAID-1 (mirror) volumes, RAID-5 volumes, and soft partitions.

Document Information
Preface
1. Getting Started With Solaris Volume Manager
- Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--What's New
- Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Storage Capacity
- Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Availability
- Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--I/O Performance
- Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Administration
- Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Troubleshooting
2. Storage Management Concepts
- Introduction to Storage Management
  - Storage Hardware
  - RAID Levels
- Configuration Planning Guidelines
  - Choosing Storage
- General Performance Guidelines
- Random I/O and Sequential I/O Optimization
  - Random I/O
  - Sequential Access I/O
3. Solaris Volume Manager Overview
- What's New in Solaris Volume Manager
- Introduction to Solaris Volume Manager
  - How Solaris Volume Manager Manages Storage
- How to Administer Solaris Volume Manager
  - How to Access the Solaris Volume Manager Graphical User Interface (GUI)
- Solaris Volume Manager Requirements
- Overview of Solaris Volume Manager Components
- Solaris Volume Manager Configuration Guidelines
  - General Guidelines
  - File System Guidelines
- Overview of Creating Solaris Volume Manager Components
  - Prerequisites for Creating Solaris Volume Manager Components
- Overview of Multi-Terabyte Support in Solaris Volume Manager
  - Large Volume Support Limitations
  - Using Large Volumes
- Upgrading to Solaris Volume Manager
4. Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster (Overview)
- Introduction to Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster
  - Prerequisite: Required Software Components for Multi-Owner Disk Set Functionality
- Multi-Owner Disk Set Concepts
  - Tasks Associated With Multi-Owner Disk Sets
- Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster Configuration
- RAID-1 (Mirror) Volumes in Multi-Owner Disk Sets
  - Mirror Ownership With Multi-Owner Disk Sets
  - Data Management and Recovery Processes
    - Optimized Resynchronization for Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster
    - Application-Based Recovery and Directed Mirror Reads
5. Configuring and Using Solaris Volume Manager (Scenario)
- Scenario Background Information
  - Hardware Configuration
  - Initial Physical Storage Configuration
- Final Solaris Volume Manager Configuration
6. State Database (Overview)
- About the Solaris Volume Manager State Database and Replicas
- Understanding the Majority Consensus Algorithm
- Administering State Database Replicas
- Handling State Database Replica Errors
- Scenario--State Database Replicas
7. State Database (Tasks)
- State Database Replicas (Task Map)
- Creating State Database Replicas
  - How to Create State Database Replicas
- Maintaining State Database Replicas
  - How to Check the Status of State Database Replicas
  - How to Delete State Database Replicas
8. RAID-0 (Stripe and Concatenation) Volumes (Overview)
- Overview of RAID-0 Volumes
- Background Information for Creating RAID-0 Volumes
  - RAID-0 Volume Requirements
  - RAID-0 Volume Guidelines
- Scenario--RAID-0 Volumes
9. RAID-0 (Stripe and Concatenation) Volumes (Tasks)
- RAID-0 Volumes (Task Map)
- Creating RAID-0 (Stripe) Volumes
  - How to Create a RAID-0 (Stripe) Volume
- Creating RAID-0 (Concatenation) Volumes
  - How to Create a RAID-0 (Concatenation) Volume
- Expanding Storage Capacity
  - How to Expand Storage Capacity for Existing Data
  - How to Expand an Existing RAID-0 Volume
- Removing a RAID-0 Volume
  - How to Remove a RAID-0 Volume
10. RAID-1 (Mirror) Volumes (Overview)
- Overview of RAID-1 (Mirror) Volumes
- RAID-1 Volume (Mirror) Resynchronization
- Creating and Maintaining RAID-1 Volumes
- The Affect of Booting Into Single-User Mode on RAID-1 Volumes
- Scenario--RAID-1 Volumes (Mirrors)
11. RAID-1 (Mirror) Volumes (Tasks)
- RAID-1 Volumes (Task Map)
- Creating a RAID-1 Volume
- Working With Submirrors
- Maintaining RAID-1 Volumes
- Responding to RAID-1 Volume Component Failures
  - How to Replace a Slice in a Submirror
  - How to Replace a Submirror
- Removing RAID-1 Volumes (Unmirroring)
  - How to Unmirror a File System
  - How to Unmirror a File System That Cannot Be Unmounted
- Backing Up Data on a RAID-1 Volume
  - How to Perform an Online Backup of a RAID-1 Volume
12. Soft Partitions (Overview)
- Overview of Soft Partitions
- Configuration Guidelines for Soft Partitions
- Scenario--Soft Partitions
13. Soft Partitions (Tasks)
- Soft Partitions (Task Map)
- Creating Soft Partitions
  - How to Create a Soft Partition
- Maintaining Soft Partitions
14. RAID-5 Volumes (Overview)
- Overview of RAID-5 Volumes
  - Example--RAID-5 Volume
  - Example--Concatenated (Expanded) RAID-5 Volume
- Background Information for Creating RAID-5 Volumes
  - Requirements for RAID-5 Volumes
  - Guidelines for RAID-5 Volumes
- Overview of Checking Status of RAID-5 Volumes
- Overview of Replacing and Enabling Slices in RAID-5 Volumes
- Scenario--RAID-5 Volumes
15. RAID-5 Volumes (Tasks)
- RAID-5 Volumes (Task Map)
- Creating RAID-5 Volumes
  - How to Create a RAID-5 Volume
- Maintaining RAID-5 Volumes
16. Hot Spare Pools (Overview)
- Overview of Hot Spares and Hot Spare Pools
- Scenario--Hot Spares
17. Hot Spare Pools (Tasks)
- Hot Spare Pools (Task Map)
- Creating a Hot Spare Pool
  - How to Create a Hot Spare Pool
  - How to Add Additional Slices to a Hot Spare Pool
- Associating a Hot Spare Pool With Volumes
  - How to Associate a Hot Spare Pool With a Volume
  - How to Change the Associated Hot Spare Pool
- Maintaining Hot Spare Pools
18. Disk Sets (Overview)
- What's New in Disk Sets
- Introduction to Disk Sets
- Types of Disk Sets
  - Local Disk Sets
  - Named Disk Sets
- Solaris Volume Manager Disk Set Administration
- Guidelines for Working With Disk Sets
- Asynchronous Shared Storage in Disk Sets
- Scenario--Disk Sets
19. Disk Sets (Tasks)
- Disk Sets (Task Map)
- Creating Disk Sets
  - How to Create a Disk Set
- Expanding Disk Sets
- Maintaining Disk Sets
- Importing Disk Sets
  - How to Print a Report on Disk Sets Available for Import
  - How to Import a Disk Set From One System to Another System
20. Maintaining Solaris Volume Manager (Tasks)
- Solaris Volume Manager Maintenance (Task Map)
- Viewing the Solaris Volume Manager Configuration
  - How to View the Solaris Volume Manager Volume Configuration
  - Where To Go From Here
- Renaming Volumes
- Working With Configuration Files
  - How to Create Configuration Files
  - How to Initialize Solaris Volume Manager From a Configuration File
- Changing Solaris Volume Manager Default Values
- Expanding a File System Using the growfs Command
  - Background Information for Expanding Slices and Volumes
  - How to Expand a File System
- Overview of Replacing and Enabling Components in RAID-1 and RAID-5 Volumes
21. Best Practices for Solaris Volume Manager
- Deploying Small Servers
- Using Solaris Volume Manager With Networked Storage Devices
22. Top-Down Volume Creation (Overview)
- Overview of Top-Down Volume Creation
- Top-Down Volume Creation Implementation With Disk Sets
- Top-Down Volume Creation Processes
- Determining Which Disks Are Available for Top-Down Volume Creation
23. Top-Down Volume Creation (Tasks)
- Top-Down Volume Creation (Task Map)
- Prerequisites for Top-Down Volume Creation
- Creating Volumes Automatically
  - Analyzing Volume Creation by Specifying Output Verbosity
  - How to Create RAID-1 (mirror) Volumes Using the metassist Command
- Working With File-Based Data Using the metassist Command
- Changing the Default Behavior of the metassist Command
  - Changing the Volume Defaults File
24. Monitoring and Error Reporting (Tasks)
- Solaris Volume Manager Monitoring and Reporting (Task Map)
- Configuring the mdmonitord Command for Periodic Error Checking
  - How to Configure the mdmonitord Command for Periodic Error Checking
- Solaris Volume Manager SNMP Agents Overview
- Configuring the Solaris Volume Manager SNMP Agents
  - How to Configure the Solaris Volume Manager SNMP Agents
- Limitations of the Solaris Volume Manager SNMP Agent
- Monitoring Solaris Volume Manager With a cron Job
  - How to Automate Checking for Errors in Volumes
25. Troubleshooting Solaris Volume Manager (Tasks)
- Troubleshooting Solaris Volume Manager (Task Map)
- Overview of Troubleshooting the System
- Replacing Disks
  - How to Replace a Failed Disk
- Recovering From Disk Movement Problems
  - Disk Movement and Device ID Overview
  - Resolving Unnamed Devices Error Message
- Device ID Discrepancies After Upgrading to the Solaris 10 Release
- Recovering From Boot Problems
- Recovering From State Database Replica Failures
  - How to Recover From Insufficient State Database Replicas
- Recovering From Soft Partition Problems
  - How to Recover Configuration Data for a Soft Partition
- Recovering Storage From a Different System
  - How to Recover Storage From a Local Disk Set
  - Recovering Storage From a Known Disk Set
    - How to Print a Report on Disk Sets Available for Import
    - How to Import a Disk Set From One System to Another System
- Recovering From Disk Set Problems
  - What to Do When You Cannot Take Ownership of A Disk Set
    - How to Purge a Disk Set
- Performing Mounted Filesystem Backups Using the ufsdump Command
  - How to Perform a Backup of a Mounted Filesystem Located on a RAID-1 Volume
- Performing System Recovery
  - How to Recover a System Using a Solaris Volume Manager Configuration
A. Important Solaris Volume Manager Files
- System Files and Startup Files
- Manually Configured Files
  - Overview of the md.tab File
B. Solaris Volume Manager Quick Reference
- Command-Line Reference
C. Solaris Volume Manager CIM/WBEM API
- Managing Solaris Volume Manager
Index
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- T
- V

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