VERITAS VOLUME MANAGER

The main features of volume manager are:

• . Allows creation of logical volumes spanning over

multiple disks. This overcomes the physical limit of
the disk .
• Provides high availability storage solutions through
RAID ,Mirroring of disks .
• . Provides fail over features by providing
transferable disk group ownership between
systems.
• Dynamic reconfiguration of disk storage in an
online system state .
 VERSIONS
Veritas Volume Manager 5.0
Release date: July 2006

Veritas Volume Manager 4.1

Release date: March 2005
Veritas Volume Manager 4.0
Release date: February 2004

Veritas Volume Manager 3.5

Release date: August 2002

Veritas Volume Manager 3.1

Release date: August 2002
Disk Group Version New Features Supported Previous Version Features Supported

Cluster Support for Oracle Resilvering

Disk Group Move, Split and Join
Device Discovery Layer (DDL)
90 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80
Layered Volume Support in Clusters
Ordered Allocation
OS Independent Naming Support
Persistent FastResync

80 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70

VERITAS Volume Replicator (VVR) Enhancements

Non-Persistent FastResync
70 20, 30, 40, 50, 60
VERITAS Volume Replicator (VVR) Enhancements
Unrelocate

60 Online Relayout 20, 30, 40

Safe RAID-5 Subdisk Moves

50 20, 30, 40
SRVM (now known as VERITAS Volume Replicator or VVR)

40 20, 30
Hot-Relocation

30 20
VxSmartSync Recovery Accelerator

Dirty Region Logging

Disk Group Configuration Copy Limiting,
20 Mirrored Volumes Logging
New-Style Stripes
RAID-5 Volumes
Recovery Checkpointing
 VxVM and data storage :-

• VxVM uses two types of objects to handle storage management :

Physical objects
Physical disks, or other hardware, with block and raw operating
system device interfaces that are used to store data.
Virtual objects
• When one or more physical disks are brought under the control of
VxVM, it creates virtual objects called volumes on those physical
disks. Each volume records and retrieves data from one or more
physical disks. Volumes are accessed by file systems, databases, or
other applications the same way that physical disks are accessed.
• Volumes are also composed of other virtual objects (plexes and
subdisks) that are used in changing the volume configuration.
Volumes and their virtual components are called virtual objects, or
VxVM objects.
 VIRTUAL OBJECTS IN VXVM
• VM DISKS
• DISKGROUPS
• SUBDISKS
• PLEXES
• VOLUMES
• The connection between physical objects
and VxVM objects is made when you
place a physical disk under VxVM control.
 Volume Manager disks
• Adding physical disks to the volume manager results in creation of public
and private region in the disk by the volume manager .The public region is the
disk space available for volume space and the private region stores the
configuration information.
• A Volume Manager disks are created from the public region of a physical disk
that is under Volume Manager control. Each volume manager disk corresponds

to one physical disk.

• A volume manager disk is given a disk media name when it is added to a disk
group which can be default or unique user defined..
 CREATING VM DISK
# vxdisksetup –i <diskname>
or
#vxencap <diskname>
or we can use
#vxdiskadm (utility)
 Disk groups
• A disk group is a collection of volume manager disks grouped
together to hold the data . All the configuration changes made
to a disk group are applied to the disks in that disk group only.

• Volume Manager objects cannot span disk groups i.e. all the
operations on a particular disk group remains confined to that
particular group .

• Disk groups enable high availability as these can be shared by

two or more hosts but can be accessed by only one host at a
time. In two hosts and a shared storage situation one host can
take over the ownership of the disk groups and drives in case
other host fails.
 CREATING DISKGROUP
#vxdg init <diskgroupname> vmdisk=physicaldisk

Adding some more disks to existing diskgroup

#vxdg –g dg adddisk d1=c1t1d0,d2=c1t2d0

 Subdisks
• A subdisk is a subsection of a disk's public region and is the
smallest unit of storage in Volume Manager.

• A subdisk is defined by an offset and a length in sectors on a volume

manager disk.

• A volume manager disk can contain multiple subdisks but subdisks

cannot overlap or share the same portions of a volume manager disk.

• volume manager disk space that is not reserved or that is not part of a
subdisk is free space. You can use free space to create new subdisks.
 CREATING SUB-DISKS
#vxmake –g dg sd disk1-01 disk1,0,100m

this would create a sub-disk called disk1-01 at the start

of disk disk01 and would be 100m long.

if you want to create another sub-disk on the same

disk (disk01) the offset would be 100m as this is
where the next free space would be on the disk. So

#vxmake –g dg sd disk01-02 disk1,100m,100m

would create another 100m subdisk.
 Plexes
• A plex is a structured or ordered collection of subdisks that
represents one copy of the data in a volume. A plex consists of
one or more subdisks located on one or more physical disks.

• The default naming convention for plexes in a volume is

volumename-##. The default plex name consists of the volume
name, a hyphen, and a two-digit number

• A plex is also called a mirror. The terms plex and mirror can be
used interchangeably, even though a plex is only one copy of
the data. The terms "mirrored" or "mirroring" imply two or more
copies of data.
 CREATING PLEX
#vxmake –g dg plex <plexname> sd=<sdname>
 Volumes
• A volume is composed of one or more plexes not restricted by
the physical size of the disk.

• A volume can span across multiple disks.

• Volume Manager uses the default naming convention vol## for

volumes, where ## represents a two-digit number but can be
user defined as per requirement.
 CREATING VOLUMES
#vxmake –g dg vol <volname> plex=<plexname>

Instead of creating sub-disks , plexes , volumes step-by-

step we can create volume at a time by vxassist
command.

#vxassist –g dg make volname size layout

Object Description
Name

VM Disk A contiguous area of disk space from which the Volume Manager allocates storage. Each VM disk
corresponds to at least one partition. A VM disk usually refers to a physical disk in the array.

Disk A collection of VM disks that share a common configuration. The default disk group used to be rootdg (the
Group root disk group) in versions prior to version 4, but there is now no default disk group assigned.
Additional disk groups can be created, as necessary. Volumes are created within a disk group; a given
volume must be configured from disks belonging to the same disk group. Disk groups allow the
administrator to group disks into logical collections for administrative convenience.

Subdisk A set of contiguous disk blocks; subdisks are the basic units in which the Volume Manager allocates disk
space. A VM disk can be divided into one or more subdisks.

Plex Often referred to as mirrors; a plex consists of one or more subdisks located on one or more disks,
forming one side of a mirror configuration. The use of two or more plexes forms a functional mirror.

Volume A virtual disk device that appears to be a physical disk partition to applications, databases, and file
systems, but does not have the physical limitations of a physical disk partition. Volumes are created
within a disk group; a given volume must be configured from disks belonging to the same disk group.
 Disk Regions

Private
This is were VERITAS holds the meta data
regarding the disk. A copy of the configuration
database is copied to each private region within the
disk group. VERITAS will try and keep 5 copies of the
configuration database.
Public

This is the area that will store the users data.

 Disk Layouts
Sliced Disk layout
private region and public region slices are on seprate
partitions (3 & 4), tis type of disk is not suitable for moving
between different O/S's but are suitable for boot partitions
CDS (Cross-platform Data Sharing)
private and public regions are one slice (slice 7) , this type is
suitable for moving between different O/S's but not suitable for
boot parttions.
Simple
Private and public are the same partition but continuous (slice
3)
Volume Manager Objects and Their Relationship
 File Locations

/etc/vx/reconfig.d/state.d/install-db
vxinstall has not be run

Host ID's /etc/vx/volboot

backup config files

/etc/vx/cbr/bk
(vxconfigbackupd)

delete or deported disk

/etc/vx/dgcfg/deport
group config files

All commands logs /var/adm/vx/veacmdlog

Licenses /etc/vx/licenses/lic

/var/vxvm/tempdb
Imported disk groups info
Note: to clear the tempdb file:
vxconfigd -k -x cleartempdir - clear the /var/vxvm/tempdb

vxconfigd log file /var/vxvm/vxconfigd.log

 VM daemons
• Vxconfigd
Maintains system configuration in the kernel & disk (private
region). If the daemon is stopped it does not disable any
configuration state loaded into the kernel, it only affects the
ability to make configuration changes until vxconfigd is
restarted
Vxrelocd
Monitors for failure events and relocates failed subdisks
Vxconfigbackupd
Used to backup configuration chnages, the files created can
be used with vxmake to restored lost groups.
Vxnotify
Display vertias volume manager events used with the
vxconfigd daemon.
 Sub-disks

vxmake sd <sub-disk>
Creating sub-disk
<disk>, offset, len
Removing sub-disk vxedit rm <sub-disk>
vxsd mv <old sub-
Moving sub-disk
disk> <new sub-disk>
vxmake plex <plex>
sd=<sub-disk>, …
i.e vxmake plex
Associating with a plex
home-1 sd= disk02-
01, disk02-00,
disk02-02
Dissociating vxsd dis <sub-disk>
vxsd –s<size> split
Splitting
sd<new sub><newsub2>
vxsd join <sub-
Joining disk1><subdisk2><new
subdisk>
 Plex
Creating a
vxmake plex <plex> sd =<sub disk name>
plex

vxplex –o rm dis <plex>

Remove a
vxplex -g <group> dis <plex>
plex
vxedit -g <group> -rf rm <plex>

Moving a plex vxplex mv <original plex> <new plex>

Copying a plex vxplex cp <volume> <new plex>

Attaching a
vxplex att <volume> <plex>
plex

Detaching a
vxplex det <plex>
plex

Offlining a
vxmend off vol01-02
plex
Starting a volume vxvol start <volume

Disable a volume vxvol stop <volume>

Hot spare vxedit –g <group> set spare=on <disk>

 Vxdiskadm(utility)
• 1 Add or initialize one or more disks
• 2 Encapsulate one or more disks
• 3 Remove a disk
• 4 Remove a disk for replacement
• 5 Replace a failed or removed disk
• 6 Mirror volumes on a disk
• 7 Move volumes from a disk
• 8 Enable access to (import) a disk group
• 9 Remove access to (deport) a disk group
• 10 Enable (online) a disk device
• 11 Disable (offline) a disk device
• 12 Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group
• 13 Turn off the spare flag on a disk
• 14 Unrelocate subdisks back to a disk
• 15 Exclude a disk from hot-relocation use
• 16 Make a disk available for hot-relocation use
• 17 Prevent multipathing/Suppress devices from VxVM's view
• 18 Allow multipathing/Unsuppress devices from VxVM's view
• 19 List currently suppressed/non-multipathed devices
• 20 Change the disk naming scheme
• 21 Get the newly connected/zoned disks in VxVM view
• 22 Change/Display the default disk layouts
• 23 Mark a disk as allocator-reserved for a disk group
• 24 Turn off the allocator-reserved flag on a disk
• list List disk information