Using DiskSuite Tool

This section describes some advanced uses (and limitations) of DiskSuite Tool.

Limitations

• Color Mappings - DiskSuite Tool cannot save color mappings in the Disk View window when exiting the application. The color mapping is in effect during that particular usage of DiskSuite Tool. It cannot be saved.

• Logical Names for Metadevices - DiskSuite Tool currently does not have a mechanism to assign logical names, such as table1, log1, and so on, to metadevices.

• Slice Browser "Use" Column - The "Use" column in the Slice Browser does not change from "unassigned" when a slice is used as a raw device. All raw devices, not just metadevices used as the raw device, currently share this problem. There is no way to register devices for use other than as file systems or as swap. DiskSuite Tool does not have a way of its own for this purpose.

Using the Metadevice Editor

Here are three tips to help manage screen real estate on the Metadevice Editor's canvas:

• Selecting Collapse from an object's pop-up menu enables you to fit more objects onto the canvas.

• Selecting Clean Up Canvas from the Edit menu is useful when you have lots of objects on the canvas, and you are putting some of them away, or you are repositioning objects with the mouse. The Clean Up Canvas option rearranges objects on the canvas in a grid, making viewing easier.

• Use the sash to resize the canvas. You can widen the canvas area by clicking the sash at the bottom of the Metadevice Editor window and dragging to the right.

Using the Slice View, Disk View, and Filters

Setting filters within DiskSuite Tool on the Slice View and Disk View windows can help you quickly locate suitable slices for the task at hand.

How to Filter for Slice Size (DiskSuite Tool)

If you have a system with many disks (and slices), searching for available slices of a certain size can be a chore. Using the Slice Filter window can save you time in this activity.

This task describes how to create a filter in the Slice View window for available slices larger than 200 Mbytes, then drag and drop these slices to the Disk View window to see where they are located.

1. Click Slices to display the Slice View window.

   The Slice View window appears.

2. Select Set Filters from the Filters menu in the Slice View window.

   The Slice Filters window appears.

3. To search for available slices, make sure the "Available for use as" radio button as is checked, and that "Anything" is selected in the pull-down.

4. To filter for slices greater than 200 Mbytes, check the "Size" radio button, select "greater than" in the first pull-down, type 200 in the text box, and select Mbytes in the second pull-down.

5. Click Apply and view the results in the Slice Browser window.

   If necessary, change values in the Slice Filters window and click Apply to change the filtering scheme.

6. After adjusting the filtering scheme to your satisfaction, close the Slice Filters window by clicking OK.

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

   The Disk View window appears.

8. In the Slice Browser window, click Select All. Then drag the selected slices to a color drop site in the Disk View window.

9. View the results in the Disk View window.

   DiskSuite Tool uses the selected drop site's color for all slices dragged to the Disk View window. You can now make your slice selection (for example to create a submirror) following the considerations outlined in "General Guidelines".

How to Filter for Slice Replacement (DiskSuite Tool)

This task shows how to use DiskSuite Tool to find a suitably sized replacement slice for an errored slice in a submirror.

This approach is not limited to mirrors. You can use this task to find replacement slices for any type of metadevice.

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

   The Disk View window appears.

2. Drag the errored Mirror object from the Objects list to the canvas.

3. Select one submirror (a Concat/Stripe object) within the mirror and drag it to the Disk View window. Then do the same for the second submirror (and third submirror if this is a three-way mirror).

   The Disk View window colors the slices with a different color corresponding to the submirrors in the Mirror object. This helps you see where the slices are located, for example, across controllers.

4. Click Slices to display the Slice View window.

   The Slice View window appears.

5. Click Set Filters in the Slice View window.

   The Slice Filters window appears.

6. To search for available slices, make sure the "Available for use as" radio button is checked, and that "Metadevice Component" is selected in the pull-down.

7. Filter for slices to replace the errored slice.

   One way to do this is to set up a filter that finds slices greater than a size that is slightly smaller than the errored slice. This will display a larger range of slices than if you set up a filter that searches for slices equal to the errored slice size.

8. Check the "Size" radio button, select "greater than" in the first pull-down, type the size of the slice (in Mbytes, and slightly smaller than the errored slice's size) in the text box, and select Mbytes in the second pull-down.

9. Click Apply and view the results in the Slice Browser window.

   If necessary, change values in the Slice Filters window and click Apply to change the filtering scheme.

10. In the Slice Browser window, click Select All. Then drag the selected slices to a color drop site in the Disk View window.

11. View the results in the Disk View window.

    DiskSuite Tool uses the color for all slices dragged to the Disk View window.

12. Select a replacement slice.

    You can now make your slice selection for a DiskSuite object following the guidelines outlined in "General Guidelines". Pick a replacement that is large enough and follows mirror guidelines (on different controller, or at least a different disk.)

13. Drag the replacement slice from the Disk View window to the rectangle of the Concat/Stripe object with the errored slice.

14. Commit the mirror.

    Click inside the top of the Mirror object then click Commit. A mirror resync begins.

Changing DiskSuite Tool's Colors and Fonts

By default, DiskSuite Tool uses colors and fonts that are compatible with the OpenWindows^TM desktop applications. This section describes how to change these colors and fonts.

DiskSuite Tool and Colors

DiskSuite Tool uses a variety of colors:

• Standard foreground color - Determines the main colors used to display almost all of the application's elements. The standard background provides the default color for windows, buttons, and other controls.

• Standard background color - Provides the color value used to display information presented in windows, buttons, and other controls.

• Canvas background color - Provides the background color for data areas. For example, the display areas for the Editor, Disk View window, and scrolling lists all use the canvas background color.

• Mapping colors - Display the mappings from logical devices to their slices in the Disk View window. There are eight mapping colors, one for each of the DiskView mappings.

• Status colors - Highlight status information for objects needing attention. There are three status conditions requiring unique colors: Attention, Urgent and Critical.

The X Window System RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color specification mechanism enables you to specify a nearly infinite variety of colors. Of course, many of these colors will appear similar, varying only slightly in shade or intensity.

To aid in selecting and specifying colors, the X Window System provides a standard default set of colors that you can specify by name instead of RGB values. This "database" of color names can be examined using the standard X utility showrgb. It shows the RGB values and a corresponding descriptive alias. For example:

# showrgb
		199  21 133	medium violet red
		176 196 222	light steel blue
		102 139 139	paleturquoise4
		159 121 238	mediumpurple2
		141 182 205	lightskyblue3
		  0 238 118	springgreen2
		255 160 122	light salmon
		154 205  50	yellowgreen
		178  58 238	darkorchid2
		 69 139 116	aquamarine4
...
 		107 107 107	gray42
 		 71  71  71	gray28
 		 61  61  61	gray24
 		255 255 255	white
 		  0 205 205	cyan3
 		  0   0   0	black

You can also examine the default color name database by looking at the /usr/openwin/lib/X11/rgb.txt file.

Unfortunately, there are no standard applications for browsing colors. If you don't have access to a public domain color browser, experiment by trial and error.

DiskSuite Tool's Default Colors

DiskSuite Tool's default colors are shown in Table 8-1.

DiskSuite Tool and Fonts

DiskSuite Tool uses four different fonts:

• Standard font - Displays almost all text in the tool, for example, in button labels, menus, and dialog boxes.

• Mono-spaced (fixed-width) font - Enables consistent columnar alignment, for example, in the various browsers and scrolling lists. This needs to be specified several times.

• Bold font - Distinguishes attribute names and labels from the actual attribute values. The names/labels in Information windows appear in the standard font and the corresponding values appear in the bold font. This font is used sparingly.

• Small font - Shows the physical devices at the 50 percent scaling level in the Disk View window.

Available Fonts in DiskSuite

The available fonts depend on which X Window System server you use to display the application. The standard X utility, xlsfonts(1), displays the available fonts on a server. For example:

# xlsfonts
--courier-bold-o-normal--0-0-0-0-m-0-iso8859-1
--courier-bold-r-normal--0-0-0-0-m-0-iso8859-1
--courier-medium-o-normal--0-0-0-0-m-0-iso8859-1
--courier-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-m-0-iso8859-1
--symbol-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0--symbol
-symbol-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-sun-fontspecific
-adobe-courier-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-m-0-iso8859-1
...
utopia-bolditalic
utopia-italic
utopia-regular
variable
vshd
vtbold
vtsingle
zapfchancery-mediumitalic
zapfdingbats

Another helpful utility for displaying available fonts is xfontsel(1). Refer to the man pages for these utilities for more information.

DiskSuite Tool's Default Fonts

DiskSuite Tool's default fonts all come from the Lucida font family:

DiskSuite Tool uses the X Window System's resource database mechanism to determine which fonts to use. The default resource specifications are:

How to Change DiskSuite Tool's Default Colors and Fonts

You can change DiskSuite Tool's default colors and fonts by using one of the following four methods.

• For one invocation of DiskSuite Tool, use the xrm option to specify the alternate font or color resources.

  # metatool -xrm 'resource'

• For all of your invocations of DiskSuite Tool, edit your own .Xdefaults file and specify the alternate color or font resources. The .Xdefaults file is typically loaded when you start your desktop session. After editing this file, the next time you start your desktop session, the new or changed resources will be used.

• For the current session, without having to restart, use the xrdb utility.

  # xrdb -merge path_to_.Xdefaults

• For all users of DiskSuite Tool, edit the /usr/sadm/lib/lvm/X11/app-defaults/Metatool file. Changes made to this file are recognized the next time DiskSuite Tool is started.

Example -- Changing Fonts

This example changes the standard font to lucidasans16 for a single invocation of DiskSuite Tool.

# metatool -xrm 'Metatool*fontList: lucidasans16'