VERITAS Volume Manager™

Command Line Interface

Administrator’s Guide
Release 3.0.1

Solaris
May, 1999
P/N 100-001124
© 1998 -1999 VERITAS® Software Corporation. All rights reserved.

TRADEMARKS

VERITAS, VxVM, VxVA, VxFS, and FirstWatch are registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the United
States and other countries.

VERITAS Volume Manager, VERITAS File System, VERITAS NetBackup, VERITAS HSM, VERITAS Media Librarian, CVM,
VERITAS Quick I/O, VxSmartSync, and the VERITAS logo are trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation.

Other products mentioned in this document are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1. The Command Line Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Using the vxassist Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Displaying Disk Configuration Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Displaying Disk Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Displaying Volume Manager Object Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Displaying Free Space in a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Creating Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Volume Manager Task Monitor Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Task Monitor Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The vxtask Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. Disk Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Adding a Disk to Volume Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

iii
 Designating a Disk as a Hot-Relocation Spare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Removing a Disk as a Hot-Relocation Spare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Renaming a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Reserving Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Adding a Disk to a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Taking a Disk Offline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Mirroring a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Removing a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Displaying Disk Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Displaying Multipaths Under a VM Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Displaying Multipathing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Creating a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Upgrading a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Disk Group Upgrade Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Listing the Disk Group Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Creating Disk Groups of a Specific Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Upgrading a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Renaming a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Destroying a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Moving a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Displaying Disk Group Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3. Volume Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Creating a Volume. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Creating a Concatenated Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Creating a Concatenated Volume on Any Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Creating a Concatenated Volume on a Specific Disk . . . . . . . . . 38

iv VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

 Creating a Striped Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Creating a RAID-5 Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Creating a Mirrored Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Resizing a Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Resizing Volumes With vxassist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Extending to a Given Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Extending by a Given Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Shrinking to a Given Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Shrinking by a Given Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Resizing Volumes With vxvol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Changing the Volume Read Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Resizing Volumes With vxresize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Removing a Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Renaming and Removing Volume Manager Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Mirroring a Volume. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Creating a Volume with Dirty Region Logging Enabled. . . . . . . . . . 45
Mirroring an Existing Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Mirroring All Volumes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Adding a RAID-5 Log. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Adding a DRL Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Removing a DRL Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Removing a RAID-5 Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Stopping a Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Starting a Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Listing Unstartable Volumes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Preparing a Volume to Restore From Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Recovering a Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Contents v
 Removing a Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Moving Subdisks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Splitting Subdisks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Joining Subdisks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Displaying Volume Configuration Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Performing Online Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4. Volume Administration Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Volume Administration Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Volume Manager Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Using vxassist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Advantages of the vxassist Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
How vxassist Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
vxassist Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Volume Configuration Daemon vxdctl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Creating Volume Manager Objects With vxmake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Performing Plex Tasks With vxplex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Performing Subdisk Tasks With vxsd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Correcting Problems With vxmend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Printing Configuration Information With vxprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Printing Volume Statistics With vxstat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Tracing Volume Tasks With vxtrace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Performing Volume Tasks With vxvol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Subdisk Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Creating Subdisks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Removing Subdisks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Displaying Subdisk Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

vi VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

 Associating Subdisks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Associating Log Subdisks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Dissociating Subdisks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Changing Subdisk Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Plex Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Creating Plexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Creating a Striped Plex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Associating Plexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Dissociating and Removing Plexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Backup Using Mirroring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Displaying Plex Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Changing Plex Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Changing Plex Status: Detaching and Attaching Plexes . . . . . . . . . . 82
Detaching Plexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Attaching Plexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Moving Plexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Copying Plexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Volume Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Creating Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
vxassist Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
vxmake Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Initializing Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Estimating Maximum Volume Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Displaying Volume Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Changing Volume Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Online Relayout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
How Online Relayout Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Contents vii
 When to Use Relayout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
How to Use Relayout on the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Using Command vxassist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Changing the Number of Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Changing the Stripe-Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Changing the Stripe-Width and Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Changing the Layouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Starting, Stopping, and Reversing a Relayout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Finding the Status of a Relayout Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Transformation Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Converting a Plex in a Mirrored Volume to a RAID-5 Plex . . . . 100
Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5. Menu Interface Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Starting vxdiskadm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
The vxdiskadm Main Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
The vxdiskadm Main Menu Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Disk Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Bringing Physical Disks Under Volume Manager Control . . . . . . . . 107
Placing a Disk Under Volume Manager Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Placing Multiple Disks Under Volume Manager Control . . . . . 112
Encapsulating a Disk for Volume Manager Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Adding a Disk for Future Use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Reinitializing a Disk for Volume Manager Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Adding a VM Disk to the Hot-Relocation Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Removing a VM Disk From the Hot-Relocation Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

viii VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

 Displaying Information on Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Removing a Physical Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Disabling a Physical Disk (Taking a Physical Disk Offline) . . . . . . . 128
Enabling a Physical Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Replacing a Physical Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Replacing a Failed or Removed Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Volume Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Mirroring Volumes on a VM Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Moving Volumes from a VM Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Disk Group Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Adding a Disk to a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Creating a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Deporting a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Importing a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Exiting the Volume Manager Support Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Contents ix
x VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide
 Preface

The VERITAS® Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

describes the Command Line Interface (CLI) and the Support Operations
interface (vxdiskadm).

Audience
This guide is intended for system administrators responsible for configuring
and maintaining systems using the VERITAS Volume Manager.

This guide assumes:

• a basic understanding of system administration
• a working knowledge of the operating system being used
• experience with the window system being used

Scope
This guide describes how to perform a variety of Volume Manager tasks using
the Volume Manager command line interface and the Volume Manager
Support Operations menu interface (vxdiskadm). The chapters in this guide
focus on frequently-used Volume Manager tasks.

You can use one or more of the following interfaces to perform Volume
Manager tasks:
• command line interface—a set of Volume Manager commands (including an
automated command—vxassist)

xi
 • a menu-driven interface (vxdiskadm)
• Volume Manager Storage Administrator—a graphical user interface

This guide describes how to use the command line interface and vxassist
interfaces to perform similar Volume Manager tasks. The Storage
Administrator interface is described in the VERITAS Volume Manager Storage
Administrator Administrator’s Guide.

Organization
This guide provides information on how to use the command line interface to
the Volume Manager.

This guide is organized as follows:

Chapter 1, “The Command Line Interface,” is an overview of the command

line interface to Volume Manager.

Chapter 2, “Disk Tasks,” describes how to use various commands to perform

tasks on disks and disk groups. Topics include placing disks under Volume
Manager control and adding disks to disk groups

Chapter 3, “Volume Tasks,” describes how to use various commands to

perform tasks on volumes. Topics include creating, mirroring, and resizing
volumes.

Chapter 4, “Volume Administration Tasks,” describes how to use commands to

perform administration tasks on volumes.

Chapter 5, “Menu Interface Tasks,” describes how to use the vxdiskadm

(Volume Manager Task Operations) menu interface to perform tasks on disks
and volumes.

Related Documents
The following documents provide related information:
• The VERITAS Volume Manager Getting Started Guide provides administrators
with an overview of the Volume Manager and its features. It also provides
general information about Volume Manager setup.

xii VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

 • The VERITAS Volume Manager Storage Administrator Administrator’s Guide
provides administrators with information on how to perform various
Volume Manager tasks through the Storage Administrator graphical user
interface (SA).
• The VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Reference Guide provides
administrators with detailed information on Volume Manager recovery
procedures and disk administration.

Conventions
The following table describes the typographic conventions used in this guide.

Typeface Usage Examples

courier Computer output; user input; names $You have mail.

of commands, files, and directories The cat command displays files.
$ls -a

italics New terms; document titles; words $cat filename

to be emphasized; variables to be Refer to the User’s Guide for details.
substituted with a real name or
value

bold Glossary terms

Preface xiii
xiv VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide
 The Command Line Interface 1

Introduction
This chapter provides information about the VERITAS Volume Manager
command line interface (CLI). The Volume Manager command set (for
example, vxassist) ranges from commands requiring minimal user input to
commands requiring detailed user input. Many of the Volume Manager
commands require an understanding of Volume Manager concepts. Volume
Manager concepts are described in the VERITAS Volume Manager Getting
Started Guide. Most Volume Manager commands require superuser or access
privileges.

Refer to the chapters that follow for information on using Volume Manager
commands to perform common tasks. The vxintro(1M) manual page also
contains introductory information relating to Volume Manager tasks.

Topics covered in this chapter include:

• Using the vxassist Command
• Displaying Disk Configuration Information
• Displaying Disk Listings
• Displaying Volume Manager Object Listings
• Displaying Free Space in a Disk Group
• Creating Volumes
• Volume Manager Task Monitor Operations

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Note: Your system may use a device name that differs from the examples. See
Chapter 1, “Understanding Volume Manager,” in the VERITAS Volume Manager
Getting Started Guide, for more information on device names.

Using the vxassist Command

You can use the vxassist command to create and manage volumes from the
command line. vxassist requires minimal input from you and performs
many underlying tasks for you. You can use vxassist to easily create, mirror,
grow, shrink, remove, and back up volumes. vxassist is capable of
performing many operations that would otherwise require the use of a series of
more complicated Volume Manager commands. vxassist creates and
manipulates volumes based on a set of established defaults, but also allows
you to supply preferences for each task.

The vxassist command typically takes the following form:

vxassist keyword volume_name [attributes...]

Select the specific action to perform by specifying an operation keyword as the

first argument on the command line. For example, the keyword for creating a
new volume is make. You can create a new volume by entering:

vxassist make volume_name length

The first argument after any vxassist keyword is always a volume name.
Follow the volume name with a set of attributes. Use these attributes to specify
where to allocate space and whether you want mirroring or striping to be used.

You can select the disks on which the volumes are to be created by specifying
the disk names at the end of the command line. For example, to create a 30
megabyte striped volume on three specific disks (disk03, disk04, and
disk05), enter:

vxassist make stripevol 30m layout=stripe disk03 disk04\

disk05

vxassist defaults are listed in the file /etc/defaults/vxassist. The

defaults listed in this file take effect if there is no overriding default specified
on the vxassist command line.

2 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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Refer to the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Reference Guide, or the
vxassist(1M) manual page for more information on the vxassist
command.

Displaying Disk Configuration Information

You can display disk configuration information from the command line.
Output listings available include: available disks, Volume Manager objects, and
free space in disk groups.

Displaying Disk Listings

To display a list of available disks, use this command:

vxdisk list

The output of vxdisk list lists the device name, the type of disk, the disk
name, the disk group to which the disk belongs, and status of the disk. This is
an example of vxdisk list output:
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
c0t0d0s2 sliced disk01 rootdg online
c0t1d0s2 sliced disk02 rootdg online
c0t2d0s2 sliced disk03 rootdg online

Displaying Volume Manager Object Listings

The vxprint command displays detailed information on existing Volume
Manager objects. To display detailed output for all currently-existing objects
use this command:

vxprint -ht

The Command Line Interface 3

 1
Here is a typical output display:

Disk group: rootdg

DG NAME NCONFIG NLOG MINORS GROUP-ID

DM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATE
V NAME USETYPE KSTATE STATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLE
PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WI MODE
SD NAM PLEX DISK DISKOFFS LENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE

dg rootdg default default 0 [Link]

dm disk01 c0t0d0s2 sliced 1055 1054944 -

dm disk02 c0t1d0s2 sliced 1119 1043840 -

v vol03 fsgen DISABLED ACTIVE 1310720 SELECT-

pl vol03-01 vol03 DISABLED ACTIVE 1311632 STRIPE 2/128 RW
sd disk01-01 vol03-01 disk01 0 655380 0/0 c0t0d0 ENA
sd disk02-08 vol03-01 disk02 0 655760 1/0 c0t1d0 ENA

v vm-build fsgen DISABLED ACTIVE 409600 SELECT -

pl vm-build-01 vm-build DISABLED ACTIVE 410016 STRIPE 2/128 RW
sd disk01-02 vm-build-01 disk01 655380 204831 0/0 c0t0d0 ENA
sd disk02-01 vm-build-01 disk02 655760 204960 1/0 c0t1d0 ENA

In this output, dg is a disk group, dm is a disk, v is a volume, pl is a plex

(mirror), and sd is a subdisk. The top few lines indicate the headers that match
each type of output line that follows. Each volume is listed along with its
associated plex(es) and subdisk(s).

4 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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Displaying Free Space in a Disk Group
Before you add volumes and file systems to your system, make sure you have
enough free disk space to meet your needs. You can use the Volume Manager
to request a display of free space.

To display free space for a disk group, enter:

vxdg -g diskgroup free

where -g diskgroup optionally specifies a disk group.

To see the free space in the default disk group, rootdg, enter:

vxdg -g rootdg free

The Volume Manager displays the following:

GROUP DISK DEVICE TAG OFFSET LENGTH FLAGS

rootdg disk04 c0t0d0s2 c0t0d0 726400 102672 -

rootdg disk01 c1t0d0s2 c1t0d0 0 102128 -

rootdg disk01 c1t0d0s2 c1t0d0 175856 26384 -

rootdg disk02 c1t1d0s2 c1t1d0 26624 175616 -

The free space is measured in 512-byte sectors.

Creating Volumes
Volumes are created to take advantage of the Volume Manager concept of
virtual disks. Once a volume exists, a file system can be placed on the volume
to organize the disk space with files and directories. Also, applications such as
databases can be used to organize data on volumes.

You can create volumes using either a basic or advanced approach:

• Basic—The basic approach takes information about what you want to
accomplish and then performs the necessary underlying tasks. This
approach requires only minimal input from you, but also permits more
detailed specifications. Basic operations are performed primarily through
the vxassist command.

The Command Line Interface 5

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• Advanced—The advanced approach consists of a number of commands that
typically require you to specify detailed input. These commands use a
“building block” approach that requires you to have a detailed knowledge
of the underlying structure and components to manually perform the
commands necessary to accomplish a certain task. Advanced operations are
performed through several Volume Manager commands.

The creation of a volume involves the creation of plex and subdisk

components. With the basic approach to volume creation, you indicate the
desired volume characteristics and the underlying plexes and subdisks are
created automatically.

Volumes can be created with various layout types:

• Concatenated—A volume whose subdisks are arranged both sequentially
and contiguously within a plex. Concatenation allows a volume to be
created from multiple regions of one or more disks if there is not enough
space for an entire volume on a single region of a disk.
• Striped—A volume with data spread evenly across multiple disks. Stripes
are equal-sized fragments that are allocated alternately and evenly to the
subdisks of a single plex. There must be at least two subdisks in a striped
plex, each of which must exist on a different disk. Throughput increases
with the number of disks across which a plex is striped. Striping helps to
balance I/O load in cases where high traffic areas exist on certain subdisks.
• RAID-5—A volume that uses striping to spread data and parity evenly
across multiple disks in an array. Each stripe contains a parity stripe unit
and data stripe units. Parity can be used to reconstruct data if one of the
disks fails. In comparison to the performance of striped volumes, write
throughput of RAID-5 volumes decreases since parity information needs to
be updated each time data is accessed. However, in comparison to
mirroring, the use of parity reduces the amount of space required.
• Mirrored—A volume with multiple plexes that duplicate the information
contained in a volume. Although a volume can have a single plex, at least
two are required for true mirroring (redundancy of data). Each of these
plexes should contain disk space from different disks, for the redundancy to
be useful.

6 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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• Striped and Mirrored—A volume with a striped plex and another plex that
mirrors the striped one. This requires at least two disks for striping and one
or more other disks for mirroring (depending on whether the plex is simple
or striped). A striped and mirrored volume is advantageous because it both
spreads data across multiple disks and provides redundancy of data.
• Mirrored and Striped—A volume with a plex that is mirrored and another
plex that is striped. The mirrored and striped layout offers the benefits of
spreading data across multiple disks (striping) while providing redundancy
(mirroring) of data. The mirror and its striped plex are allocated from
separate disks.
• Layered Volume—A volume built on top of volumes. Layered volumes can
be constructed by mapping a subdisk to a VM disk or to a storage volume. A
storage volume provides a recursive level of layout that is similar to the
top-level volumes. Layered volumes allow for more combinations of logical
layouts.

Volume Manager Task Monitor Operations

The Volume Manager Task Monitor tracks the progress of system recovery by
monitoring task creation, maintenance, and completion. This section describes
the -t command line option, lists the utilities that support the -t option, and
describes the vxtask utility.

Task Monitor Options

Command line option (-t) allows you to specify a task tag for any task.

You can use the Task Monitor option with the following utilities:

vxplex, vxsd, vxvol, vxrecover, vxreattach, vxresize, vxassist,

vxevac, and vxrootmir

Task Monitor option -t takes the following form:

utility [-t tasktag] ...

where:

utility Volume Manager utilities that support the -t option.

The Command Line Interface 7

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tasktag Assigns the given task tag to any tasks created by the utility. All tasks
related to this operation are identified as a group.

For example, to execute a vxrecover command and track all resulting tasks as
a group, you can specify a task tag to the vxrecover command as follows:

vxrecover -t myrecovery -b disk05

The vxrecover command creates a task to track all recovery jobs. To establish
the task tag grouping, vxrecover specifies the tag to all utilities that it calls.
Additionally, to establish a parent-child task relationship to any tasks those
utilities execute, vxrecover passes its own task ID to those utilities.

For more information about the utilities, see their respective manual pages.

The vxtask Utility

The vxtask utility performs basic administrative operations on Volume
Manager tasks that are running on the system. Operations include listing tasks,
modifying the state of a task (pausing, resuming, aborting) and modifying the
rate of progress of a task. See the vxtask(1M) manual page for more
information.

Volume Manager tasks represent long-term operations in progress on the

system. Every task gives information on the time the operation started, the size
and progress of the operation, and the state and rate of progress of the
operation. The administrator can change the state of a task, giving coarse-
grained control over the progress of the operation. For those operations that
support it, the rate of progress of the task can be changed, giving more fine-
grained control over the task.

Every task is given a unique task identifier. This is a numeric identifier for the
task that can be specified to the vxtask utility to specifically identify a single
task. For most utilities, the tag is specified with the -t tag option.

Operations
The vxtask utility supports the following operations:

list List tasks running on the system in one-line summaries. The -l

option prints tasks in long format. The -h option prints tasks
hierarchically, with child tasks following the parent tasks. By default,

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all tasks running on the system are printed. If a taskid argument is
supplied, the output is limited to those tasks whose taskid or task
tag match taskid. The remaining arguments are used to filter tasks
and limit the tasks actually listed.

monitor The monitor operation causes information about a task or group of

tasks to be printed continuously as task information changes. This
allows the administrator to track progress on an ongoing basis.
Specifying -l causes a long listing to be printed. By default, short one-
line listing are printed. In addition to printing task information when
a task’s state changes, output is also generated when the task
completes. When this occurs, the state of the is printed as EXITED
(see the OUTPUT section).

pause

resume

abort These three operations request that the specified task change its state.
pause puts a running task in the paused state, causing it to suspend
operation. resume causes a paused task to continue operation.
abort causes the specified task to cease operation. In most cases, the
operations “back out” as if an I/O error occurred, reversing to the
extent possible what had been done so far.

set The set operation is used to change modifiable parameters of a task.

Currently, there is only one modifiable parameter for tasks: the slow
attribute, which represents a throttle on the task progress. The larger
the slow value, the slower the progress of the task and the fewer
system resources it consumes in a given time. (The slow attribute is
the same attribute that many commands, such as vxplex(1m),
vxvol(1m) and vxrecover(1m) accept on their command lines.)

Output
There are two output formats printed by vxtask: a short, one-line summary
format per task, and a long task listing. The short listing provides the most
used task information for quick perusal.

The Command Line Interface 9

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The long output format prints all available information for a task, spanning
multiple lines. If more than one task is printed, the output for different tasks is
separated by a single blank line. Each line in the long output format contains a
title for the line, followed by a colon (:), followed by the information.

Examples
To list all tasks currently running on the system:

vxtask list

To trace all tasks in the diskgroup foodg that are currently paused, as well as
any tasks with the tag sysstart:

vxtask -G foodg -p -i sysstart list

To list all tasks on the system that are currently paused:

vxtask -p list

To monitor all tasks with the tag myoperation:

vxtask monitor myoperation

To cause all tasks tagged with recovall to exit:

vxtask abort recovall

10 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

 Disk Tasks 2

Introduction
This chapter provides instructions on performing the following disk and disk
group tasks using the command line interface:
• Adding a Disk to Volume Manager
• Designating a Disk as a Hot-Relocation Spare
• Removing a Disk as a Hot-Relocation Spare
• Renaming a Disk
• Reserving Disks
• Adding a Disk to a Disk Group
• Taking a Disk Offline
• Mirroring a Disk
• Removing a Disk
• Displaying Disk Information
• Displaying Multipaths Under a VM Disk
• Displaying Multipathing Information
• Creating a Disk Group
• Upgrading a Disk Group
• Disk Group Upgrade Command
• Creating Disk Groups of a Specific Version

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• Renaming a Disk Group
• Destroying a Disk Group
• Moving a Disk Group
• Displaying Disk Group Information

Refer to the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Reference Guide, for

additional information and examples on using the command line interface to
perform disk tasks. For more information about disks and disk groups, see
Chapter 1, “The Command Line Interface.”

Note: Your system may use a device name that differs from the examples. See
Chapter 1, “Understanding Volume Manager,” in the VERITAS Volume Manager
Getting Started Guide, for more information on device names.

Adding a Disk to Volume Manager

You must place a disk under Volume Manager control, or add it to a disk
group, before you can use the disk space for volumes. If the disk was
previously in use, but not under Volume Manager control, you can preserve
existing data on the disk while still letting the Volume Manager take control of
the disk. This can be done by using the encapsulation feature of the Volume
Manager. If the disk is new, it must be initialized. If the disk was previously
not under Volume Manager control, but no data is required to be preserved, it
should be initialized.

Add a disk by using this command:

vxdiskadd devname

where devname is the device name of the disk to be added.

To add the device c1t0d0 to Volume Manager control, do the following:

1. Enter the following to start vxdiskadd:

vxdiskadd c1t0d0
Notice that the s2 suffix is not used in this example.

2. To continue with the task, enter y (or press Return) at the following prompt:

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Add or initialize disks
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/AddDisks

Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name]

c1t0d0

Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

3. At the following prompt, specify the disk group to which the disk should be
added or press Return to accept rootdg: (See “Adding a Disk to a Disk
Group” for more information.)
You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group, a
new disk group, or leave the disk available for use by future
add or replacement operations. To create a new disk group,
select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To leave the
disk available for future use, specify a disk group name of
“none”.
Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?] (default: rootdg)

4. At the following prompt, either press Return to accept the default disk
name or enter a disk name:
Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

5. When prompted as to whether this disk should become a hot-relocation

spare, enter n (or press Return): (See “Designating a Disk as a Hot-
Relocation Spare” for more information.)
Add disk as a spare disk for rootdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n
6. To continue with the task, enter y (or press Return) at the following prompt:
The selected disks will be added to the disk group rootdg with
default disk names.
c1t0d0
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

7. If there is data on this disk that needs to be preserved, enter y to select

encapsulation:
The following disk device has a valid VTOC, but does not appear

Disk Tasks 13
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to have been initialized for the Volume Manager. If there is
data on the disk that should NOT be destroyed you should
encapsulate the existing disk partitions as volumes instead of
adding the disk as a new disk Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t0d0
Encapsulate this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

8. To continue the task, press Return at the following prompt:

The following disk has been selected for encapsulation.
Output format: [Device_Name c1t0d0]
Continue with encapsulation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
A message similar to the following indicates that the disk is being
encapsulated for Volume Manager use:
The disk device c1t0d0 will be encapsulated and added to the
disk group rootdg with the disk name disk01.
The c1t0d0 disk has been configured for encapsulation.
The first stage of encapsulation has completed successfully.
You should now reboot your system at the earliest possible
opportunity.
The encapsulation will require two or three reboots which will
happen automatically after the next reboot. To reboot execute
the command:

shutdown -g0 -y -i6

This will update the /etc/vfstab file so that volume devices

are used to mount the file systems on this disk device. You
will need to update any other references such as backup scripts,
databases, or manually created swap devices.
Goodbye.

Remember to perform a shutdown and reboot as soon as convenient.

14 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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Designating a Disk as a Hot-Relocation Spare
Hot-relocation allows a system to automatically react to I/O failure by
relocating redundant subdisks to other disks and restoring the affected Volume
Manager objects and data. If a disk has already been designated as a spare in
the disk group, the subdisks from the failed disk are relocated to the spare
disk. Otherwise, any suitable free space in the disk group is used. Refer to
Chapter 2, in the VERITAS Volume Manager Getting Started Guide, for more
information.

To designate a disk as a hot-relocation spare, use this command:

vxedit set spare=on diskname

For example, to designate disk disk01 as a spare, use this command:

vxedit set spare=on disk01

You can use the vxdisk list command to confirm that this disk is now a
spare; disk01 should be listed with a spare flag.

Any VM disk in this disk group can now use this disk as a spare in the event
of a failure. If a disk fails, hot-relocation automatically occurs (if possible). You
are notified of the failure and relocation through electronic mail. After
successful relocation, you may want to replace the failed disk.

Removing a Disk as a Hot-Relocation Spare

While a disk is designated as a spare, the space on that disk is not used as free
space for the creation of Volume Manager objects within its disk group. If
necessary, you can free a spare disk for general use by removing it from the
pool of hot-relocation disks.

To determine which disks are currently designated as spares, use this

command:

vxdisk list

The output of this command lists any spare disks with the spare flag.

To remove a spare from the hot-relocation pool, enter:

vxedit set spare=off diskname

Disk Tasks 15
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For example, to make disk disk01 available for normal use, enter:

vxedit set spare=off disk01

Renaming a Disk
If you do not specify a Volume Manager name for a disk, the Volume Manager
gives the disk a default name when you add the disk to Volume Manager
control. The Volume Manager name is used by the Volume Manager to identify
the location of the disk or the disk type. You can change the disk name to
reflect a change of ownership or use, enter:

vxedit rename old_diskname new_diskname

To rename disk01 to disk03, enter:

vxedit rename disk01 disk03

To confirm that the name change took place, enter:

vxdisk list

The Volume Manager returns the following:

DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS

c0t0d0s2 sliced disk04 rootdg online

c1t0d0s2 sliced disk03 rootdg online

c1t1d0s2 sliced - - online

Note: By default, Volume Manager names subdisk objects after the VM disk
on which they are located. Renaming a VM disk does not automatically rename
the subdisks on that disk.

Reserving Disks
By default, vxassist allocates space from any disk that has free space. You
can reserve a set of disks for special purposes, such as to avoid general use of
a particularly slow or a particularly fast disk.

Use this command to reserve a disk for special purposes:

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vxedit set reserve=on diskname

After you enter this command, vxassist does not allocate space from the
selected disk unless that disk is specifically mentioned on the vxassist
command line. For example, if disk disk03 is reserved, the command:

vxassist make vol03 20m disk03

overrides the reservation and creates a 20 megabyte volume on disk03.

However, the command:

vxassist make vol04 20m

does not use disk03, even if there is no free space on any other disk.

To turn off reservation of a disk, enter:

vxedit set reserve=no diskname

Adding a Disk to a Disk Group

You can add a new disk to an already established disk group. For example, the
current disks have insufficient space for the application or work group
requirements, especially if these requirements have changed.

To add an initialized disk to a disk group, use this command:

vxdiskadd devname

To add device c1t1d0 to rootdg, use the following steps:

1. Enter this command to start vxdiskadd:

vxdiskadd c1t1d0
vxdiskadd displays the following message:
Add or initialize disks
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/AddDisks
Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t1d0
Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

Disk Tasks 17
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2. At the following prompt, specify the disk group to which the disk should be
added or press Return to accept rootdg:
You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group, a
new disk group, or leave the disk available for use by future
add or replacement operations. To create a new disk group,
select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To leave the
disk available for future use, specify a disk group name of
“none”.
Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?] (default: rootdg)

3. At the following prompt, either press Return to accept the default disk
name or enter a disk name:
Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
4. When vxdiskadd asks whether this disk should become a hot-relocation
spare, enter n (or press Return):
Add disk as a spare disk for rootdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n
5. To continue with the task, enter y (or press Return) at the following prompt:
The selected disks will be added to the disk group rootdg with
default disk names.
c1t1d0
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

6. The following prompt indicates that this disk has been previously
initialized for future Volume Manager use; enter y to confirm that you now
want to use this disk:
The following disk device appears to have been initialized
already. The disk is currently available as a replacement disk.
Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t1d0
Use this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
7. To reinitialize the disk, enter y (or press Return) at the following prompt:
The following disk you selected for use appears to already have
been initialized for the Volume Manager. If you are certain
the disk has already been initialized for the Volume Manager,

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then you do not need to reinitialize the disk device.
Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t1d0

Reinitialize this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

Messages similar to the following now confirm that this disk is being
reinitialized for Volume Manager use. You may also be given the option of
performing surface analysis on some systems.
Initializing device c1t1d0.
Perform surface analysis (highly recommended)
[y,n,q,?] (default: y) n
Adding disk device c1t1d0 to disk group rootdg with disk name
disk03.

To confirm that the disk has been added to the disk group, enter:

vxdisk list

The Volume Manager returns a listing similar to the following:

DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS

c0t0d0s2 sliced disk04 rootdg online

c1t0d0s2 sliced disk01 rootdg online

c1t1d0s2 sliced disk03 rootdg online

Taking a Disk Offline

You may need to take a physical disk offline. If the disk is corrupted, you need
to disable it and remove it. You also must disable a disk before moving the
physical disk device to another location to be connected to another system.

To take a physical disk offline, first remove the disk from its disk group (See
“Removing a Disk” for more information). Then place the disk in an “offline”
state with this command:

vxdisk offline devname

To take the device c1t1d0s2off line, use this command:

Disk Tasks 19
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vxdisk offline c1t1d0s2

Note: The device name is used here because the disk is no longer in a disk
group and so does not have an administrative name.

Mirroring a Disk
Mirroring the root disk mirrors the root volume and other areas needed for
booting onto another disk.

To mirror your boot (root) disk onto another disk, use either the steps outlined
here or vxdiskadm (see Chapter 5, “Menu Interface Tasks”). This makes it
possible to recover from failure of your boot disk by replacing it with the
mirror of the boot disk.

Before mirroring your boot disk, the EEPROM variable use-nvramrc? must be
set to true if you want to take advantage of the Volume Manager boot disk
aliases to identify the mirror of the boot disk if a replacement is needed. If this
variable is set to false, you will need to determine which disks are bootable
yourself. You can set this variable to true as follows:

eeprom use-nvramrc?=true

To mirror your boot disk, do the following:

1. Select a disk that is at least as large as your boot disk.

2. Use the vxdiskadd command to add the selected disk as a new disk (if it is
not already added).

3. Execute the following command:

/etc/vx/bin/vxrootmir alternate_disk
where alternate_disk is the disk name assigned to the other disk.
vxrootmir creates a mirror for rootvol (the volume for the root file
system on an alternate disk).
The alternate boot disk is configured to enable booting from it if the
primary boot disk fails.

20 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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There may be other volumes on the boot disk, such as volumes for /home or
/tmp file systems. These can be mirrored separately using the vxassist
utility. For example, if you have a /home file system on a volume homevol,
you can mirror it to alternate_disk using the command:

vxassist mirror homevol alternate_disk

If you do not have space for a copy of some of these file systems on your
alternate boot disk, you can mirror them to other disks. You can also span or
stripe these other volumes across other disks attached to your system.

To list all volumes on your primary boot disk, use the command:

vxprint -t -v -e\

’[Link].sd_disk="boot_disk"’

To mirror all of the concatenated volumes on this disk to your alternate boot
disk, use the command:

/etc/vx/bin/vxmirror boot_disk alternate_disk

Removing a Disk
You can remove a disk from a system and move it to another system if the disk
is failing or has failed. Before removing the disk from the current system, you
must:

1. Unmount any file systems on the volumes.

2. Stop the volumes on the disk.

3. Move the volumes to other disks or back up the volumes. To move a

volume, mirror the volume on one or more other disks, then remove the
original copy of the volume. If the volumes are no longer needed, they can
be removed instead of moved.

to remove a disk, use these steps:

1. Remove the disk from its disk group with this command:

vxdg [-g groupname] rmdisk diskname

where groupname is the name of the group to which the disk belongs and
diskname is the name of the disk to be removed.

Disk Tasks 21
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For example, to remove disk01 from rootdg, enter:

vxdg rmdisk disk01

Since rootdg is the default disk group, you do not need to specify it.

2. Remove the disk from Volume Manager control with this command:

vxdisk rm devname
For example, to remove c1t0d0 from Volume Manager control, enter:

vxdisk rm c1t0d0s2

Displaying Disk Information

Before you use a disk, you need to know if it has been initialized and placed
under Volume Manager control. You also need to know if the disk is part of a
disk group, because you cannot create volumes on a disk that is not part of a
disk group. The vxdisk list command displays device names for all
recognized disks, the disk names, the disk group names associated with each
disk, and the status of each disk.

You can display information on all disks that are defined to the Volume
Manager with this command:

vxdisk list

The Volume Manager returns the following display:

DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS

c0t0d0s2 sliced disk04 rootdg online

c1t0d0s2 sliced disk01 rootdg online

c1t1d0s2 sliced - - online

To display details on a particular disk defined to the Volume Manager, enter:

vxdisk list disk01

22 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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Displaying Multipaths Under a VM Disk
The vxdisk utility is used to display the multipathing information for a
particular metadevice. The metadevice is a device representation of a particular
physical disk having multiple physical paths from the I/O controller of the
system. In the Volume Manager, all the physical disks in the system are
represented as metadevices with one or more physical paths.

You can see the multipathing information for a particular metadevice with the
command:

vxdisk list c1t5d0s2

c1t5d0s2 is the metadevice formed by the DMP subsystem of Volume

Manager.

Displaying Multipathing Information

You can display details on a particular disk defined to the Volume Manager
with this command:

vxdisk list disk01

The Volume Manager returns the following display:

Device c2t0d0s2
devicetag c2t0d0
type sliced
hostid aparajita
disk name=disk01 id=[Link]
group name=rootdg id=[Link]
flags online ready autoconfig autoimport imported
pubpaths block=/dev/vx/dmp/c2t0d0s4 char=/dev/vx/rdmp/c2t0d0s4
privpaths block=/dev/vx/dmp/c2t0d0s3 char=/dev/vx/rdmp/c2t0d0s3
version 2.1
iosize min=512 (bytes) max=2048 (blocks)
public slice=4 offset=0 len=1043840
private slice=3 offset=1 len=1119
update time=861801175 seqno=0.48
headers 0 248
configs count=1 len=795

Disk Tasks 23
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logs count=1 len=120
Defined regions
config priv 000017-000247[000231]:copy=01 offset=000000 enabled
config priv 000249-000812[000564]:copy=01 offset=000231 enabled
log priv 000813-000932[000120]:copy=01 offset=000000 enabled
Multipathing information:
numpaths: 2
c2t0d0s2 state=enabled type=primary
c1t0d0s2 state=disabled type=secondary
The output shows two paths to a physical device represented by the
metadevice c2t0d0s2. The path c2t0d0s2 is active (state=enabled) and
the other path c1t0d0s2 is in a failed state (state=disabled).

Additional information in the form of type is shown for disks on active/passive

type disk arrays. This information indicates the primary and secondary paths to
the disk. For example, DG Clariion, Hitachi DF350, etc.

This type information will not be present for disks on active/active type disk
arrays because there is no concept of primary and secondary paths to disks on
these disk arrays. For example, StorEdge A5000 and Sparc Storage Array (SSA)
disk arrays.

The vxdisk list command returns the following display for disk01:
Device c2t0d0s2
devicetag c2t0d0
type sliced
hostid aparajita
disk name=disk01 id=[Link]
group name=rootdg id=[Link]
flags online ready autoconfig autoimport imported
pubpaths block=/dev/vx/dmp/c2t0d0s4 char=/dev/vx/rdmp/c2t0d0s4
privpaths block=/dev/vx/dmp/c2t0d0s3 char=/dev/vx/rdmp/c2t0d0s3
version 2.1
iosize min=512 (bytes) max=2048 (blocks)
public slice=4 offset=0 len=1043840
private slice=3 offset=1 len=1119
update time=861801175 seqno=0.48
headers 0 248

24 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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configs count=1 len=795
logs count=1 len=120
Defined regions
config priv 000017-000247[000231]:copy=01 offset=000000 enabled
config priv 000249-000812[000564]:copy=01 offset=000231 enabled
log priv 000813-000932[000120]:copy=01 offset=000000 enabled
Multipathing information:
numpaths: 3
c1t0d0s2 state=enabled
c2t0d0s2 state=enabled
c3t0d0s2 state=disabled

Creating a Disk Group

Disks need to be in disk groups before they Volume Manager can use the disks
for volumes. Volume Manager always has the root disk group, but you can add
more disk groups if needed.

Note: The Volume Manager supports a default disk group, rootdg, in which
all volumes are created if no further specification is given. All commands
default to rootdg as well.

A disk group must always contain at least one disk. A disk that does not
belong to any disk group must be available when you create a disk group.

Data related to a particular set of applications or a particular group of users

may need to be made accessible on another system. Examples of this are:
• A system has failed and its data needs to be moved to other systems.
• The work load must be balanced across a number of systems.

It is important that the data related to particular application(s) or users be

located on an identifiable set of disk, so that when these disks are moved, all
data of the application(s) or group of users, and no other data, is moved.

To create the disk group newdg associated with a disk, follow these steps:

1. Enter the following command to start vxdiskadd:

vxdiskadd c1t1d0

Disk Tasks 25
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2. At the following prompt, press Return to continue:
Add or initialize disks
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/AddDisks

Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name]

c1t1d0

Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

3. At the following prompt, specify the disk group to which the disk should be
added (newdg, in this case):
You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group, a
new disk group, or leave the disk available for use by future
add or replacement operations. To create a new disk group,
select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To leave the
disk available for future use, specify a disk group name of
“none”.
Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?] (default: rootdg) newdg
4. When vxdiskadd confirms that no active disk group currently exists with
the same name and prompts for confirmation that you want to create this
new disk group. Enter y to continue:
There is no active disk group named newdg.
Create a new group named newdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

5. At the following prompt, either press Return to accept the default disk
name or enter a disk name:
Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

6. When vxdiskadd asks whether this disk should become a hot-relocation

spare, enter n (or press Return):
Add disk as a spare disk for rootdg (or newdg)? [y,n,q,?]
(default: n) n

7. To continue with the task, enter y (or press Return) at the following prompt:
A new disk group will be created named newdg and the selected
disks will be added to the disk group with default disk names.

26 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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c1t1d0
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
Messages similar to the following should now confirm that this disk is
being initialized for Volume Manager use:
Initializing device c1t1d0.

Creating a new disk group named newdg containing the disk device
c1t1d0 with the name newdg01.

8. To verify that the disk group was created, use this command:

vxdisk list

The Volume Manager returns the following display:

DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS

c0t0d0s2 sliced disk04 rootdg online

c1t0d0s2 sliced disk03 rootdg online

c1t1d0s2 sliced newdg01 newdg online

Upgrading a Disk Group

Prior to the release of Volume Manager 3.0, the disk group version was
automatically upgraded (if needed) when the disk group was imported.
Upgrading the disk group makes it incompatible with previous Volume
Manager releases.

The Volume Manager 3.0 disk group upgrade feature separates the two
operations of importing a disk group and upgrading its version. You can
import a disk group of down-level version and use it without upgrading it.

When you want to use new features, the disk group can be upgraded. The
upgrade is an explicit operation (as opposed to earlier VxVM versions, where
the upgrade was performed when the disk group was imported). Once the
upgrade occurs, the disk group becomes incompatible with earlier releases of
VxVM that do not support the new version.

Disk Tasks 27
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Before the imported disk group is upgraded, no changes are made to the disk
group to prevent its use on the release that it was imported from until the
administrator explicitly upgrades it to the current release.

Until completion of the upgrade, the disk group can be used “as is” provided
there is no attempt to use the features of the current version. Attempts to use a
feature of the current version that is not a feature of the version the disk group
was imported from results in an error message similar to this:
vxvm:vxedit: ERROR: Disk group version doesn’t support feature
To use any of the new features, the administrator needs to execute a command
to explicitly upgrade the disk group to a version that supports those features.

All disk groups have a version number associated with them. Volume Manager
releases support a specific set of disk group versions. Volume Manager can
import and perform operations on a disk group of that version. The operations
are limited by what features and operations the disk group version supports.

Table 2-1 summarizes the VxVM releases that introduce and support specific
disk group versions:

Table 2-1: Disk Group Version Assignments

VxVM Introduces Supports

Release Version Versions
1.2 10 10
1.3 15 15
2.0 20 20
2.2 30 30
2.3 40 40
2.5 50 50
3.0 60 20-60

Note: With the exception of VxVM 3.0, all VxVM releases perform the
upgrade of supported disk group versions when they are imported.

28 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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Importing the disk group of a previous version on a VxVM 3.0 system prevents
the use of features introduced since that version was released. Table 2-2
summarizes features not supported by specific disk group versions.

Table 2-2: Disk Group Features Not Supported

Disk Group Version Features Not Supported

50 Online Relayout, Safe RAID-5 Subdisk
Moves
40
30 Hot Relocation
20 VxSmartSync Recovery Accelerator
10, 15 RAID-5 Volumes, New-style Stripes,
Recovery Checkpointing, Diskgroup
Configuration Copy Limiting, Dirty Region
Logging, Mirrored Volumes Logging

Disk Group Upgrade Command

This section describes the disk upgrade command vxdg upgrade.

Listing the Disk Group Version

You can get a disk group version listing by specifying a disk group name with
this command:

vxdg list dgname

You can determine the disk group version by using the vxprint(1M)
command with the -l format option.

Creating Disk Groups of a Specific Version

By default, VxVM creates a disk group of the highest version supported by the
release of VxVM. For example, VxVM 3.0 creates disk groups of Version 60.

It may be necessary to create a disk group of a back-level version. A disk group

created in default fashion on a system running VxVM Release 3.0 would be of
disk group version 60. It would not be importable on a system running VxVM
Release 2.5, which only supports up to version 50. Therefore, to create a disk

Disk Tasks 29
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group on a system running VxVM Release 3.0 that can be imported by a
system running VxVM Release 2.5, the disk group must be created with a
version of 50 or less.

To create such a disk group, the -T <version> option can be specified to the
vxdg init command. Option <version> should be the disk group version
desired for the disk group. For example, to create a disk group that can be
imported by a system running VxVM 2.5, the command:

% vxdg -T 40 init newdg newdg01=c0t3d0s2

creates the disk group newdg with a disk group version of 40. This disk group
can be imported by VxVM Release 2.5. Note that while the disk group can be
imported on the VxVM 2.5 system, attempts to use VxVM 3.0 features fail with
the error message:
vxvm:vxedit: ERROR: Disk group version doesn’t support feature

Upgrading a Disk Group

VxVM upgrades the disk group to the highest version supported by the release
of VxVM that is currently running. For VxVM Release 3.0, the disk group is
upgraded to version 60 with this command:
vxdg upgrade dgname

Renaming a Disk Group

Because only one disk group of a given name can exist per system, you must
rename a disk group if you want to move it (import it) to a system already
containing a disk group with the same name. A special case of this is with
rootdg.

Every system running the Volume Manager must have a single rootdg disk
group. rootdg can only be moved across systems if it is renamed.

You can use the following steps to temporarily move the rootdg disk group
from one host to another (for repair work on the root volume, for example) and
then move it back:

1. On the original host, identify the disk group ID of the root disk group to be
imported with this command:

vxdisk -s list

30 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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This command results in output that includes the following.
dgname: rootdg
dgid: [Link]

2. On the importing host, import and rename the rootdg disk group with this
command:

vxdg -tC -n newdg_name import diskgroup

where -t indicates a temporary import name; -C clears import locks (and
should only be used if you are certain that the disks are not being used by
any other hosts); -n specifies a temporary name for the rootdg to be
imported (so that it does not conflict with the existing rootdg); and
diskgroup is the ID of the rootdg disk group being imported.
If a crash or reboot occurs at this point, the temporarily-imported disk
group becomes unimported and requires a reimport.

3. After the necessary work has been done on the imported rootdg, deport it
back to its original host with this command:

vxdg -h hostname deport diskgroup

where hostname is the name of the system whose rootdg is being returned (the
name of the system can be confirmed with the command uname -n). This
command removes the imported rootdg from the importing host and returns
locks to its original host. The original host then autoimports its rootdg on its
next reboot.

Destroying a Disk Group

The vxdg command provides a destroy option that removes a disk group from
the system and frees the disks in that disk group for use in other disk groups.
Disk groups that are not needed should be removed with the vxdg destroy
command so that the disks can be used by other disk groups.

vxdg destroy diskgroup

The vxdg deport command can still be used to make disks inaccessible. The
Volume Manager prevents disks in a deported disk group from being used in
other disk groups.

Disk Tasks 31
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Moving a Disk Group
A disk group can be moved between systems, along with its Volume Manager
objects (except for rootdg). This relocates the disk group configuration to a
new system.

Move a disk group across systems as follows:

1. Unmount and stop all volumes in the disk group on the first system.

2. Deport (disable local access to) the disk group to be moved with this
command:

vxdg deport diskgroup

3. Import (enable local access to) the disk group and its disks from the second
system with this command:

vxdg import diskgroup

4. After the disk group is imported, start all volumes in the disk group with
this command:

vxrecover -g diskgroup -sb

Displaying Disk Group Information

To use disk groups, you need to know their names and what disks belong to
each group.

Display information on existing disk groups with this command:

vxdg list

The Volume Manager returns the following listing of current disk groups:
NAME STATE ID
rootdg enabled [Link]
newdg enabled [Link]

You can display more detailed information on a specific disk group (such as
rootdg) with this command:

vxdg list rootdg

32 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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The Volume Manager displays the following example output for rootdg:
Group: rootdg
dgid: [Link]
import-id: 0.1
flags:
version 60
copies: nconfig=default nlog=default
config: seqno=0.94553 permlen=795 free=768 templen=16 loglen=8
config disk c2t2d2s2 copy 1 len=795 disabled
config disk c2t2d3s2 copy 1 len=795 disabled
config disk c2t2d4s2 copy 1 len=795 disabled
config disk c2t3d0s2 copy 1 len=795 state=clean online
log disk c2t2d2s2 copy 1 len=120 disabled
log disk c2t2d3s2 copy 1 len=120 disabled
log disk c2t2d4s2 copy 1 len=120 disabled
log disk c2t3d0s2 copy 1 len=120

If you need to verify the disk group ID and name associated with a specific
disk (to import the disk group, for example), use this command:

vxdisk -s list devicename

This command provides output that includes the following information for the
specified disk:
dgname: rootdg
dgid: [Link]

Disk Tasks 33
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34 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

 Volume Tasks 3

Introduction
This chapter describes how to create and maintain a system configuration
under Volume Manager control. It includes information about creating,
removing, and maintaining Volume Manager objects (volumes, plexes, and
subdisks). Online backup information is also included.

Information is presented as overviews of commands and more detailed

descriptions of tasks using the commands.

This chapter provides instructions on performing the following volume tasks

using the command line interface:
• Creating a Volume
• Creating a Concatenated Volume
• Creating a Striped Volume
• Creating a RAID-5 Volume
• Creating a Mirrored Volume
• Resizing a Volume
• Resizing Volumes With vxassist
• Resizing Volumes With vxvol
• Resizing Volumes With vxresize
• Removing a Volume
• Renaming and Removing Volume Manager Objects

35
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• Mirroring a Volume
• Creating a Volume with Dirty Region Logging Enabled
• Mirroring an Existing Volume
• Mirroring All Volumes
• Adding a RAID-5 Log
• Adding a DRL Log
• Removing a DRL Log
• Removing a RAID-5 Log
• Stopping a Volume
• Starting a Volume
• Listing Unstartable Volumes
• Preparing a Volume to Restore From Backup
• Recovering a Volume
• Removing a Mirror
• Moving Subdisks
• Splitting Subdisks
• Joining Subdisks
• Displaying Volume Configuration Information
• Performing Online Backup

Note: Some Volume Manager commands require superuser or other

appropriate privileges.

Creating a Volume
Volumes are created to take advantage of the Volume Manager concept of
virtual disks. A file system can be placed on the volume to organize the disk
space with files and directories. Also, applications such as databases can be
used to organize data on volumes.

36 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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The Volume Manager allows you to create volumes with the following layout
types:
• Concatenated
• Striped
• RAID-5
• Mirroring

The vxassist command provides the simplest way to create new volumes.

You can create a volume by using vxassist. The command takes the
following form:

vxassist make volume_name length [attributes]

where make is the keyword for volume creation, volume_name is a name you
give to the volume, and length specifies the number of sectors (by default) in
the volume. The length can be specified in kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes
by using a suffix character of k, m, or g, respectively. Refer to the vxintro(1M)
manual page for more information on specifying units of length when creating
volumes. Additional attributes can be specified, as appropriate.

By default, vxassist creates volumes in the rootdg disk group. Another disk
group can be specified by including -g diskgroup in the vxassist command
line.

Creating a volume in the disk group rootdg creates two device node files that
can be used to access the volume:
• /dev/vx/dsk/volume_name (the block device node for the volume)
• /dev/vx/rdsk/volume_name (the raw device node for the volume)

For volumes in rootdg and disk groups other than rootdg, these names
include the disk group name, as follows:
• /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup_name/volume_name
• /dev/vx/rdsk/diskgroup_name/volume_name

“Creating a Concatenated Volume,” describes the simplest way to create a

(default) volume. Later sections describe how to create volumes with specific
attributes.

Volume Tasks 37
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Creating a Concatenated Volume
By default, vxassist creates a concatenated volume that uses one or more
sections of disk space. On a fragmented disk, this allows you to put together a
volume larger than any individual section of free disk space available.

If there is not enough space on a single disk, vxassist creates a spanned

volume. A spanned volume is a concatenated volume with sections of disk
space spread across more than one disk. A spanned volume can be larger than
the single largest disk, since it takes space from more than one disk.

Creating a Concatenated Volume on Any Disk

If no disk is specified, the Volume Manager selects a disk on which to create
the volume.

Create a concatenated, default volume with this command:

vxassist make volume_name length

where volume_name is the name of the volume and length specifies the length of
the volume in sectors (unless another unit of size is specified with a suffix
character).

When you resize a volume, you can specify the length of a new volume in
sectors, kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes. The unit of measure is added as a
suffix to the length (s, m, k, or g). If no unit is specified, sectors are assumed.

You can use this command to create the volume voldefault with a length of
10 megabytes:

vxassist make voldefault 10m

Creating a Concatenated Volume on a Specific Disk

The Volume Manager automatically selects the disk(s) each volume resides on,
unless you specify otherwise. If you want a volume to reside on a specific disk,
you must designate that disk for the Volume Manager. More than one disk can
be specified.

Create a volume on a specific disk with this command:

vxassist make volume_name length diskname [...]

38 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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To create the volume volspecific on disk03, use this command:

vxassist make volspecific 3m disk03

Creating a Striped Volume

A striped volume contains at least one plex that consists of two or more
subdisks located on two or more physical disks. For more information on
striping, refer to Chapter 1 of the VERITAS Volume Manager Getting Started
Guide.

Create a striped volume with this command:

vxassist make volume_name length layout=stripe

To create the striped volume volzebra, use this command:

vxassist make volzebra 10m layout=stripe

This creates a striped volume with the default stripe unit size on the default
number of disks.

You can indicate the disks on which the volumes are to be created by
specifying the disk names at the end of the command line. For example, to
create a 30 megabyte striped volume on three specific disks (disk03, disk04,
and disk05), use this command:

vxassist make stripevol 30m layout=stripe disk03 disk04\

disk05

Creating a RAID-5 Volume

A RAID-5 volume contains a RAID-5 plex that consists of two or more
subdisks located on two or more physical disks. Only one RAID-5 plex can
exist per volume. A RAID-5 volume can also contain one or more RAID-5 log
plexes, which are used to log information about data and parity being written
to the volume. For more information on RAID-5 volumes, refer to the VERITAS
Volume Manager Getting Started Guide.

Create a RAID-5 volume with this command:

vxassist make volume_name length layout=raid5

Volume Tasks 39
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To create the RAID-5 volume volraid, use this command:

vxassist make volraid 10m layout=raid5

This creates a RAID-5 volume with the default stripe unit size on the default
number of disks. It also creates a RAID-5 log by default.

Creating a Mirrored Volume

Create a new mirrored volume with this command:

vxassist make volume_name length layout=mirror

To create the mirrored volume, volmir, use this command:

vxassist make volmir 5m layout=mirror

Resizing a Volume
Resizing a volume changes the volume size. This can be done by using either
vxassist, vxvol, or vxresize.

If the volume is not large enough for the amount of data that needs to be
stored in it, you need to extend the length of the volume. If a volume is
increased in size, vxassist automatically finds available disk space.

When you resize a volume, you can specify the length of a new volume in
sectors, kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes. The unit of measure is added as a
suffix to the length (s, m, k, or g). If no unit is specified, sectors are assumed.

CAUTION ! Do not shrink a volume below the size of the file system. If you
have a VxFS file system, you can shrink the file system and then shrink the
volume. If you do not shrink the file system first, you risk unrecoverable data
loss.

Resizing Volumes With vxassist

vxassist can resize a volume in the following ways:

growto—increase volume to specified length

growby—increase volume by specified amount

40 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

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shrinkto—reduce volume to specified length

shrinkby—reduce volume by specified amount

Extending to a Given Length

Extend a volume to a specific length with this command:

vxassist growto volume_name length

To extend volcat to 2000 sectors, use this command:

vxassist growto volcat 2000

Extending by a Given Length

Extend a volume by a specific length with this command:

vxassist growby volume_name length

To extend volcat by 100 sectors, use this command:

vxassist growby volcat 100

Shrinking to a Given Length

Shrink a volume to a specific length with this command:

vxassist shrinkto volume_name length

Make sure you do not shrink the volume below the current size of the file
system or database using the volume. This command can be safely used on
empty volumes.

To shrink volcat to 1300 sectors, use this command:

vxassist shrinkto volcat 1300

Shrinking by a Given Length

Shrink a volume by a specific length with this command:

vxassist shrinkby volume_name length

To shrink volcat by 300 sectors, use this command:

Volume Tasks 41
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vxassist shrinkby volcat 300

Resizing Volumes With vxvol

To change the length of a volume using vxvol set, use this command:

vxvol set len=value ... volume_name ...

For example, to change the length to 100000 sectors, use this command:

vxvol set len=100000 vol01

Note: The vxvol set len command cannot increase the size of a volume
unless the needed space is available in the plexes of the volume. When the size
of a volume is reduced using the vxvol set len command, the freed space is
not released into the free space pool.

Changing the Volume Read Policy

Volume Manager offers the choice of the following read policies:
• round reads each plex in turn in “round-robin” fashion for each
nonsequential I/O detected. Sequential access causes only one plex to be
accessed. This takes advantage of the drive or controller read-ahead caching
policies.
• prefer reads first from a plex that has been named as the preferred plex.
• select chooses a default policy based on plex associations to the volume.
If the volume has an enabled striped plex, select defaults to preferring
that plex; otherwise, it defaults to round-robin.

The read policy can be changed from round to prefer (or the reverse), or to a
different preferred plex. The vxvol rdpol command sets the read policy for a
volume.

To set the read policy to round, use this command:

vxvol rdpol round volume_name

For example, the command to set the read policy for volume vol01 to a round-
robin read is:

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vxvol rdpol round vol01

To set the read policy to prefer, use this command:

vxvol rdpol prefer volume_name preferred_plex_name

For example, the command to set the policy for vol01 to read preferentially
from the plex vol01-02 is:

vxvol rdpol prefer vol01 vol01-02

To set the read policy to select, use this command:

vxvol rdpol select volume_name

Resizing Volumes With vxresize

You can use the vxresize command to resize a volume containing a file
system. Although other commands can be used to resize volumes containing
file systems, vxresize offers the advantage of automatically resizing the file
system as well as the volume. For details on how to use vxresize, see the
vxresize(1M) manual page. Note that only vxfs and ufs file systems can be
resized with vxresize.

If your volume is larger than you need it to be, you can shrink the size of the
volume.

Removing a Volume
Once a volume is no longer necessary (it is inactive and archived, for example),
you can remove the volume and free up the disk space for other uses.

Before removing a volume, make sure you do the following:

1. Remove all references to the volume.

2. If the volume is mounted as a file system, unmount it with the command:

umount /dev/vx/dsk/volume_name

3. If the volume is listed in /etc/vfstab, remove its entry.

Volume Tasks 43
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4. Make sure that the volume is stopped with the command:

vxvol stop volume_name

The vxvol stop command stops all VM activity to the volume.

After following these steps, remove the volume with this command:

vxedit rm volume_name

or

vxedit -rf rm volume_name

The -r option indicates recursive removal, which means the removal of all
plexes associated with the volume and all subdisks associated with those
plexes. The -f option forces removal, and is necessary if the volume is
enabled.

Note: The -r option of vxedit removes multiple objects. Exercise caution

when using it.

You can also remove an entire volume with the vxassist command. Use the
keywords remove and volume and provide the volume name on the
command line as shown in this example:

vxassist remove volume volume_name

Renaming and Removing Volume Manager Objects

The vxedit command has two functions:
• vxedit allows you to modify certain records in the volume management
databases. Only fields that are not volume usage-type-dependent can be
modified.
• vxedit can remove or rename Volume Manager objects.

Volume Manager objects that are associated with other objects are not
removable by vxedit. This means that vxedit cannot remove:
• a subdisk that is associated with a plex
• a plex that is associated with a volume

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Note: Using the recursive suboption (–r) to the removal option of vxedit
removes all objects from the specified object downward. In this way, a plex and
its associated subdisks, or a volume and its associated plexes and their
associated subdisks, can be removed by a single vxedit command.

For detailed information about how to use vxedit, refer to the vxedit(1M)
manual page.

Mirroring a Volume
A mirror is a copy of a volume. The mirror copy is not stored on the same
disk(s) as the original copy of the volume. Mirroring a volume ensures that the
data in that volume is not lost if one of your disks fails.

Creating a Volume with Dirty Region Logging Enabled

To create a mirrored volume with Dirty Region Logging (DRL) enabled, create
a mirrored volume with a log with this command:

vxassist make volume_name length layout=mirror,log

vxassist creates one log plex for each log subdisk, by default. See the
VERITAS Volume Manager Getting Started Guide for more information on DRL.

Mirroring an Existing Volume

A mirror (plex) can be added to an existing volume. This can be done with the
vxassist command:

vxassist mirror volume_name

For example:

vxassist mirror voltest

creates a mirror of the volume voltest.

Another way to mirror an existing volume is by first creating a plex and then
associating it with a volume, using these commands:

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vxmake plex plex_name sd=subdisk_name ...

vxplex att volume_name plex_name

Mirroring All Volumes

To mirror all existing volumes on the system to available disk space, use this
command:

/etc/vx/bin/vxmirror -g diskgroup -a

You can also configure the Volume Manager to create mirrored volumes by
default. To do this, enter the command:

/etc/vx/bin/vxmirror -d yes

If you make this change, you can still make unmirrored volumes by specifying
nmirror=1 as an attribute to the vxassist command. For example, to create
an unmirrored 20-megabyte volume named nomirror, use the command:

vxassist make nomirror 20m nmirror=1

Adding a RAID-5 Log

Only one RAID-5 plex can exist per RAID-5 volume. Any additional plexes
become RAID-5 log plexes, which are used to log information about data and
parity being written to the volume. When a RAID-5 volume is created using
vxassist, a log plex is created for that volume by default.

Add a RAID-5 log to an existing volume with this command:

vxassist addlog volume_name

To create a log for the RAID-5 volume volraid, use this command:

vxassist addlog volraid

Adding a DRL Log

To put Dirty Region Logging into effect for a volume, a log subdisk must be
added to that volume and the volume must be mirrored. Only one log subdisk
can exist per plex.

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Add a DRL log to an existing volume with this command:

vxassist addlog volume_name

To create a log for the volume vol03, use this command:

vxassist addlog vol03

When vxassist is used to add a log subdisk to a volume, a log plex is also
created to contain the log subdisk by default.

Once created, the plex containing a log subdisk can be treated as a regular plex.
Data subdisks can be added to the log plex. The log plex and log subdisk can
be removed using the same procedures used to remove ordinary plexes and
subdisks.

Removing a DRL Log

You can also remove a log with the vxassist command as follows.

vxassist remove log volume_name

Use the attribute nlog= to specify the number of logs to be removed. By

default, vxassist removes one log.

Removing a RAID-5 Log

Removing a RAID-5 log involves first dissociating the log from its volume and
then removing the log and any associated subdisks completely.

Dissociate and remove the log from its volume in one operation with this
command:

vxplex -o rm dis plex_name

To identify the log plex, use the command:

vxprint -ht volume_name

where volume_name is the name of the RAID-5 volume. This results in output
that lists a plex with the STATE field of LOG.

To disassociate and remove the log plex volraid-02 from volraid, use this
command:

Volume Tasks 47
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vxplex -o rm dis volraid-02

The output of vxprint -h for volraid is now:

Disk group: rootdg

TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0
v volraid raid5 ENABLED 32 - ACTIVE - -
pl volraid-01 volraid ENABLED 32 - ACTIVE - -
sd disk01-03 volraid-01 - 32 0 - - -
sd disk02-02 volraid-01 - 32 0 - - -

You can also remove a RAID-5 log with the vxassist command as follows:

vxassist remove log volume_name

Use the attribute nlog= to specify the number of logs to be removed. By

default, vxassist removes one log.

See the “Recovery” chapter in the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s

Reference Guide for more information on volume STATES.

Stopping a Volume
Stopping a volume affects its availability to the user. Stopping a volume makes
it unavailable.

Stopping a volume changes the volume state from ENABLED or DETACHED to

DISABLED. If the command cannot stop it, the volume remains in its current
state. To stop a volume, use this command:

vxvol stop volume_name ...

For example, the command to stop a volume named vol01 is:

vxvol stop vol01

To stop all ENABLED volumes, use this command:

vxvol stopall

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If all mirrors of the volume become STALE, you can place the volume in
maintenance mode. Then you can view the plexes while the volume is
DETACHED and determine which plex to use for reviving the others. To place a
volume in maintenance mode, use this command:

vxvol maint volume_name

To assist in choosing the revival source plex, list the unstarted volume and
display its plexes.

To take plex vol01-02 offline, use this command:

vxmend off vol01-02

The vxmend command can change the state of an OFFLINE plex of a DISABLED
volume to STALE. Then a vxvol start on the volume revives the plex. To put
a plex named vol01-02 in the STALE state, use this command:

vxmend on vol01-02

Starting a Volume
Starting a volume affects its availability to the user. Starting a volume changes
its state and makes it available for use.

Starting a volume changes the volume state from DISABLED or DETACHED to

ENABLED. The success of this task depends on the ability to enable a volume. If
a volume cannot be enabled, it remains in its current state. To start a volume,
use this command:

vxrecover -s volume_name ...

To start all DISABLED volumes, use this command:

vxrecover -s

If all mirrors of the volume become STALE, you can place the volume in
maintenance mode. Then you can view the plexes while the volume is
DETACHED and determine which plex to use for reviving the others. To place a
volume in maintenance mode, use this command:

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vxvol maint volume_name

To assist in choosing the revival source plex, list the unstarted volume and
display its plexes.

To take plex vol01-02 offline, use this command:

vxmend off vol01-02

The vxmend command can change the state of an OFFLINE plex of a DISABLED
volume to STALE. Then a vxvol start on the volume revives the plex. To put
a plex named vol01-02 in the STALE state, use this command:

vxmend on vol01-02

Listing Unstartable Volumes

An unstartable volume can be incorrectly configured or have other errors or
conditions that prevent it from being started. To display unstartable volumes,
use the command vxinfo. vxinfo displays information on the accessibility
and usability of one or more volumes:

vxinfo [volume_name]

Preparing a Volume to Restore From Backup

It is important to make backup copies of your volumes. This provides a copy of
the data as it stands at the time of the backup. Backup copies are used to
restore volumes lost due to disk failure, or data destroyed due to human error.
The Volume Manager allows you to back up volumes with minimal
interruption to users.

You can back up a volume with vxassist by using the following procedure:

1. Create a snapshot mirror of the volume to be backed up.

The vxassist snapstart task creates a write-only backup mirror, which
is attached to and synchronized with the volume to be backed up. When
synchronized with the volume, the backup mirror is ready to be used as a
snapshot mirror. However, it continues being updated until it is detached
during the actual snapshot portion of the procedure. This may take some
time, depending on the volume size.

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Create a snapshot mirror for a volume with this command:

vxassist snapstart volume_name

To create a snapshot mirror of a volume called voldef, use this command:

vxassist snapstart voldef

2. Choose a suitable time to create a snapshot volume.

If possible, plan to take the snapshot at a time when users are accessing the
volume as little as possible.

3. Create a snapshot volume that reflects the original volume at the time of the
snapshot.
The online backup procedure is completed by running the vxassist
snapshot command on the volume with the snapshot mirror. This task
detaches the finished snapshot mirror, creates a new normal volume, and
attaches the snapshot mirror to it. The snapshot then becomes a read-only
volume. This step should only take a few minutes.
Create a snapshot volume with this command:
vxassist snapshot volume_name new_volume_name
To create a snapshot volume of voldef, use this command:
vxassist snapshot voldef snapvol
The snapshot volume can now be used by backup utilities while the
original volume continues to be available for applications and users.

You can back up the snapshot volume by whatever means you prefer. To avoid
wasting space, you should remove the snapshot volume when your backup is
complete, The snapshot volume occupies as much space as the original
volume.

Recovering a Volume
A system crash or an I/O error can corrupt one or more plexes of a volume
and leave no plex CLEAN or ACTIVE. You can mark one of the plexes CLEAN
and instruct the system to use that plex as the source for reviving the others.

To place a plex in the CLEAN state, use this command:

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vxmend fix clean plex_name

For example, the command to place the plex named vol01-02 in the CLEAN
state is:

vxmend fix clean vol01-02

For information about how to use vxmend, refer to the vxmend(1M) manual
page. For more information on recovery, refer to the VERITAS Volume Manager
Administrator’s Reference Guide, Chapter 1, “Recovery.”

Removing a Mirror
When a mirror is no longer needed, you can remove it. Examples of tasks that
require removal of a mirror are:
• to provide free disk space
• reduce the number of mirrors in a volume to increase the length of another
mirror and its associated volume. The plexes and subdisks are removed,
then the resulting space can be added to other volumes
• remove a temporary mirror created to backup a volume and is no longer
required
• change the layout of a mirror from concatenated to striped, or back

Note: The last valid plex associated with a volume cannot be removed.

CAUTION ! To save the data on a mirror to be removed, the configuration of

that mirror must be known. Parameters from that configuration (stripe unit
size and subdisk ordering) are critical to the creation of a new mirror to contain
the same data. Before this type of mirror is removed, its configuration must be
recorded.

A mirror can be dissociated and removed from the associated volume with this
command:

vxplex -o rm dis plex_name

To dissociate and remove a mirror named vol01-02, use this command:

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vxplex -o rm dis vol01-02

This removes the mirror vol01-02 and all associated subdisks.

Note: You can first dissociate the plex and subdisks, then remove them with
the commands:
vxplex dis plex_name
vxedit -r rm plex_name
Together, these commands accomplish the same as vxplex -o rm dis.

Moving Subdisks
Moving a subdisk copies the disk space contents of a subdisk onto another
subdisk. If the subdisk being moved is associated with a plex, then the data
stored on the original subdisk is copied to the new subdisk. The old subdisk is
dissociated from the plex, and the new subdisk is associated with the plex. The
association is at the same offset within the plex as the source subdisk. To move
a subdisk, use this command:

vxsd mv old_subdisk_name new_subdisk_name

For the subdisk move task to work correctly, these conditions must be met:
• The subdisks involved must be the same size.
• The subdisk being moved must be part of an active plex on an active
(ENABLED) volume.
• The new subdisk must not be associated with any other plex.

Splitting Subdisks
Splitting a subdisk divides an existing subdisk into two subdisks. To split a
subdisk, use this command:

vxsd –s size split subdisk_name newsd1 newsd2

where:
• subdisk_name is the name of the original subdisk
• newsd1 is the name of the first of the two subdisks to be created

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• newsd2 is the name of the second subdisk to be created

The –s option is required to specify the size of the first of the two subdisks to
be created. The second subdisk occupies the remaining space used by the
original subdisk.

If the original subdisk is associated with a plex before the task, upon
completion of the split, both of the resulting subdisks are associated with the
same plex.

To split the original subdisk into more than two subdisks, repeat the previous
command as many times as necessary on the resulting subdisks.

Joining Subdisks
Joining subdisks combines two or more existing subdisks into one subdisk. To
join subdisks, the subdisks must be contiguous on the same disk. If the selected
subdisks are associated, they must be associated with the same plex, and be
contiguous in that plex. To join a subdisk, use this command:

vxsd join subdisk1 subdisk2 new_subdisk

Displaying Volume Configuration Information

You can use the vxprint command to display information about how a
volume is configured.

You can display the volume, plex, and subdisk record information for all
volumes in the system with this command:

vxprint -ht

This is an example of the vxprint output:

Disk group: rootdg
DG NAME NCONFIG NLOG MINORS GROUP-ID
DM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATE
V NAME USETYPE KSTATE STATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX
PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODE
SD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFS LENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE

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dg rootdg [Link]

dm disk10 c1t0d0s2 sliced 559 1044400 -

dm disk20 c2t0d0s2 sliced 559 1044400 -

v pubs fsgen ENABLED ACTIVE 2288 SELECT -

pl pubs-01 pubs ENABLED ACTIVE 2288 CONCAT - RW
sd disk10-01 pubs-01 disk10 0 2288 0 c0t0d0 ENA

v voldef sgen ENABLED ACTIVE 20480 SELECT -

pl voldef-01 voldef ENABLED ACTIVE 20480 CONCAT - RW
sd disk10-02 voldef-0 disk10 2288 20480 0 c0t1d0 ENA

where dg is a disk group, dm is a disk, v is a volume, pl is a plex, and sd is a

subdisk. The top few lines indicate the headers that match each type of output
line that follows. Each volume is listed along with its associated plex(es) and
subdisk(s).

You can display volume-related information for a specific volume with this
command:

vxprint -t volume_name

To display information about voldef, use this command:

vxprint -t voldef

This is an example of the vxprint output:

Disk group: rootdg

V NAME USETYPE KSTATE STATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX
v voldef fsgen ENABLED ACTIVE 20480 SELECT -

Performing Online Backup

Volume Manager provides snapshot backups of volume devices. This is done
through vxassist and other commands. There are various procedures for
doing backups, depending upon the requirements for integrity of the volume
contents. These procedures have the same starting requirement: a plex that is

Volume Tasks 55
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large enough to store the complete contents of the volume. The plex can be
larger than necessary, but if a plex that is too small is used, an incomplete copy
results.

The recommended approach to volume backup is by using the vxassist

command which is easy to use. The vxassist snapstart, snapwait, and
snapshot tasks provide a way to do online backup of volumes with minimal
disruption to users.

The vxassist snapshot procedure consists of two steps:

1. Running vxassist snapstart to create a snapshot mirror

2. Running vxassist snapshot to create a snapshot volume

Note: You can use the vxassist command to create a snapshot of a RAID-
5 volume by using the recommended approach to volume backup described in
this section.

The vxassist snapstart step creates a write-only backup plex which gets
attached to and synchronized with the volume. When synchronized with the
volume, the backup plex is ready to be used as a snapshot mirror. The end of
the update procedure is indicated by the new snapshot mirror changing its
state to SNAPDONE. This change can be tracked by the vxassist snapwait
task, which waits until at least one of the mirrors changes its state to
SNAPDONE. If the attach process fails, the snapshot mirror is removed and its
space is released.

Once the snapshot mirror is synchronized, it continues being updated until it

is detached. You can then select a convenient time at which to create a
snapshot volume as an image of the existing volume. You can also ask users
to refrain from using the system during the brief time required to perform the
snapshot (typically less than a minute). The amount of time involved in
creating the snapshot mirror is long in contrast to the brief amount of time
that it takes to create the snapshot volume.

The online backup procedure is completed by running the vxassist

snapshot command on a volume with a SNAPDONE mirror. This task detaches
the finished snapshot (which becomes a normal mirror), creates a new normal
volume and attaches the snapshot mirror to the snapshot volume. The
snapshot then becomes a normal, functioning mirror and the state of the
snapshot is set to ACTIVE.

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If the snapshot procedure is interrupted, the snapshot mirror is
automatically removed when the volume is started.

Use the following steps to perform a complete vxassist backup:

1. Create a snapshot mirror for a volume with this command:

vxassist snapstart volume_name

2. When the snapstart step is complete and the mirror is in a SNAPDONE

state, choose a convenient time to complete the snapshot task. Inform
users of the upcoming snapshot and ask them to save files and refrain
from using the system briefly during that time.

3. Create a snapshot volume that reflects the original volume with this
command:

vxassist snapshot volume_name temp_volume_name

4. Use fsck (or some utility appropriate for the application running on the
volume) to clean the temporary volume’s contents. For example, you can
use this command:

fsck -y /dev/vx/rdsk/temp_volume_name

5. Copy the temporary volume to tape, or to some other appropriate backup

media.

6. Remove the new volume with this command:

vxedit -rf rm temp_volume_name

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58 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

 Volume Administration Tasks 4

Introduction
This chapter describes how to maintain a system configuration under Volume
Manager control by using concepts and procedures that are normally “hidden”
from the casual user. Some procedures are managed automatically by higher
level commands such as vxassist.

Information is presented as overviews of commands and more detailed

descriptions of operations using the commands. Online backup information is
also included.

Note: Most Volume Manager commands require superuser or other

appropriate privileges.

The following main topics are covered in this chapter:

• Volume Administration Tasks
• Volume Manager Commands
• Subdisk Tasks
• Plex Tasks
• Volume Tasks
• Online Relayout

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Volume Administration Tasks
Volume Manager can be used to perform system and configuration
management tasks on its objects: disks, disk groups, subdisks, plexes, and
volumes. Volumes contain two types of objects:
• subdisk—a region of a physical disk
• plex—a series of subdisks linked together in an address space

Disks and disk groups must be initialized and defined to the Volume Manager
before volumes can be created. Volumes can be created in either of the
following ways:
• Automatically—you can create and manipulate volumes by using the
vxassist command. vxassist creates required plexes and subdisks by
using only the basic attributes of the desired volume as input. vxassist
can also modify existing volumes. It automatically modifies any underlying
or associated objects. vxassist uses default values for many volume
attributes, unless you provide specific values.
• Manually—you can create volumes by first creating the volume subdisks,
then the plexes, then the volume itself (a bottom-up approach). This
approach often requires detailed user input and an understanding of
Volume Manager concepts. Creating volumes manually is useful for
manipulating volumes with specific, non-default attributes. The manual
approach does not use the vxassist command.

Note: This section focuses on how to create and modify volumes using the
manual “bottom-up” approach. However, it can be more convenient to use the
automated vxassist approach to volume management.

Many of the concepts and procedures in this section are normally “hidden”
from the casual user. Some procedures are managed automatically by higher
level commands such as vxassist. Some of the commands and procedures
described are not normally performed by system administrators.

The steps normally involved in creating volumes manually are:

• create subdisks
• create plexes
• associate subdisks and plexes

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• create volumes
• associate volumes and plexes
• initialize volumes

Before you create volumes, you should determine which volume layout best
suits your system needs. See the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s
Reference Guide and the VERITAS Volume Manager Getting Started Guide for more
information about volume layouts.

Volume Manager Commands

This section describes volume Manager commands that perform system
administration and maintenance functions.

Using vxassist
You can use the vxassist command to do volume management. vxassist is
an automated one-step interface to Volume Manager Tasks. Unlike some
Volume Manager commands, vxassist does not require a thorough
understanding of Volume Manager concepts.

vxassist can do tasks that would otherwise require the use of several other
Volume Manager commands. vxassist automatically performs all underlying
and related tasks that would otherwise be done by the user (in the form of
other commands).

vxassist does not conflict with existing Volume Manager commands or

preclude their use. Objects created by vxassist are compatible and inter-
operable with objects created by other VM commands and interfaces.

vxassist performs these tasks:

• finds space for and creates volumes
• finds space for and creates mirrors for existing volumes
• finds space for and extends existing volumes
• shrinks existing volumes and returns unused space
• provides facilities for the online backup of existing volumes
• provides an estimate of the maximum size for a new or existing volume

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For detailed information about how to use vxassist, refer to the
vxassist(1M) manual page.

Advantages of the vxassist Command

Some of the advantages of using vxassist include:
• The use of vxassist involves only one step (command) on the part of the
user.
• You are required to specify only minimal information to vxassist, yet you
can optionally specify additional parameters to modify its actions.
• vxassist tasks result in a set of configuration changes that either succeed
or fail as a group, rather than individually. Most vxassist tasks work so
that system crashes or other interruptions do not leave intermediate states
to be cleaned up. If vxassist finds an error or an exceptional condition, it
exits without leaving partially-changed configurations. The system is left in
the same state as it was prior to the attempted vxassist task.

How vxassist Works

The vxassist command allows you to create and modify volumes. You
specify the basic volume creation or modification requirements and vxassist
performs the necessary tasks.

vxassist obtains most of the information it needs from sources other than
your input. vxassist obtains information about the existing objects and their
layouts from the objects themselves.

For tasks requiring new disk space, vxassist seeks out available disk space
and allocates it in the configuration that conforms to the layout specifications
and that offers the best use of free space.

The vxassist command typically takes this form:

vxassist keyword volume_name [attributes...]

where keyword selects the task to perform. The first argument after a vxassist
keyword is a volume name, which is followed by a set of attributes. For details
on available vxassist keywords and attributes, refer to the vxassist(1M)
manual page.

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vxassist creates and manipulates volumes based on a set of established
defaults, but also allows you to supply preferences for each task.

vxassist Defaults
vxassist uses a set of tunable parameters that can be specified in the defaults
files or at the command line. The tunable parameters default to reasonable
values if they are not listed on the command line. Tunables listed on the
command line override those specified elsewhere. Here are the tunable
parameters:
• Internal defaults—The built-in defaults are used when the value for a
particular tunable is not specified elsewhere (on the command line or in a
defaults file).
• System-wide defaults file—The system-wide defaults file contains default
values that you can alter. These values are used for tunables that are not
specified on the command line or in an alternate defaults file.
• Alternate defaults file—A non-standard defaults file, specified with the
command vxassist -d alt_defaults_file.
• Command line—The tunable values specified on the command line
override any values specified internally or in defaults files.

Defaults File
The default behavior of vxassist is controlled by the tunables specified in the
/etc/default/vxassist file. The format of the defaults file is a list of
attribute=value pairs separated by new lines. These attribute=value pairs are the
same as those specified as options on the vxassist command line (refer to the
vxassist(1M) manual page for details).

Here is a sample vxassist defaults file:

# by default:
# create unmirrored, unstriped volumes
# allow allocations to span drives
# with RAID-5 create a log, with mirroring don’t create a log
# align allocations on cylinder boundaries
layout=nomirror,nostripe,span,nocontig,raid5log,noregionlog,
diskalign

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# use the fsgen usage type, except when creating RAID-5 volumes
usetype=fsgen

# allow only root access to a volume

mode=u=rw,g=,o=
user=root
group=root

# when mirroring, create two mirrors

nmirror=2

# for regular striping, by default create between 2 and 8 stripe

# columns
max_nstripe=8
min_nstripe=2

# for RAID-5, by default create between 3 and 8 stripe columns

max_nraid5stripe=8
min_nraid5stripe=3

# create 1 log copy for both mirroring and RAID-5 volumes, by

default
nregionlog=1
nraid5log=1

# by default, limit mirroring log lengths to 32Kbytes

max_regionloglen=32k

# use 64K as the default stripe unit size for regular volumes
stripe_stwid=64k

# use 16K as the default stripe unit size for RAID-5 volumes
raid5_stwid=16k

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Volume Configuration Daemon vxdctl
The volume configuration daemon (vxconfigd) is the interface between the
Volume Manager commands and the kernel device drivers (vol, vols, DMP).
The config device is a special device file created by the Volume Manager that
interacts with vxdctl to make system configuration changes.

Some vxdctl tasks involve modifications to the volboot file that indicates
the location of some root configuration copies.

The vxdctl command is the interface to vxconfigd and is used for:

• performing tasks related to the state of the vxconfigd daemon
• managing boot information and Volume Manager root configuration
initialization
• manipulating the contents of the volboot file that contains a list of disks
containing root configuration databases (this is not normally necessary, as
Volume Manager automatically locates all disks on the system)
• reconfiguring the DMP database (if used on your system) to reflect new
disk devices attached to the system, and removal of any disk devices from
the system
• creating DMP (if used on your system) device nodes in the device
directories /dev/vx/dmp and /dev/vx/rdmp
• reflecting the change in path type into the DMP database for active/passive
disk arrays. You can change the path type from primary to secondary and
vice-versa through the utilities provided by disk array vendors

For detailed information about how to use vxdctl, refer to the vxdctl(1M)
manual page.

Creating Volume Manager Objects With vxmake

You can use the vxmake command to add a new volume, plex, or subdisk to
the set of objects managed by Volume Manager. vxmake adds a new record for
that object to the Volume Manager configuration database. You can create
records from parameters specified on the command line or by using a
description file.

If you specify operands on the command line as shown in this example:

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vxmake -Uusage_type vol volume_name len=length plex=plex_name,..

where:
• the first operand (keyword) determines the kind of object to be created
• the second operand is the name given to that object
• additional operands specify attributes for the object

If no operands are specified on the command line, then a description file is

used to specify the records to create.

A description file is a file that contains plain text that describes the objects to be
created with vxmake. A description file can contain several commands, and
can be edited to perform a list of tasks. The description file is read from
standard input, unless the -d description_file option specifies a filename. The
following is a sample description file:

#rectyp #name #options

sd disk3-01 disk=disk3 offset=0 len=10000
sd disk3-02 disk=disk3 offset=25000 len=10480
sd disk4-01 disk=disk4 offset=0 len=8000
sd disk4-02 disk=disk4 offset=15000 len=8000
sd disk4-03 disk=disk4 offset=30000 len=4480
plex db-01 layout=STRIPE ncolumn=2 stwidth=16k
sd=disk3-01:0/0,disk3-02:0/10000,disk4-01:1/0,\
disk4-02:1/8000, disk4-03:1/16000
sd ramd1-01 disk=ramd1 len=640
comment=”Hot spot for dbvol
plex db-02 sd=ramd1-01:40320
vol db usetype=gen plex=db-01,db-02
readpol=prefer prefname=db-02
comment=”Uses mem1 for hot spot in last 5m

This description file specifies a volume with two plexes. The first plex has five
subdisks on physical disks. The second plex is preferred and has one subdisk
on a volatile memory disk.

For detailed information about how to use vxmake, refer to the vxmake(1M)
manual page.

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Performing Plex Tasks With vxplex
The vxplex command performs Volume Manager tasks on a plex or on
volume-and-plex combinations. The first operand is a keyword that specifies
the task to perform. The remaining operands specify the objects to which the
task is to be applied.

You can use the vxplex command to:

• Attach or detach a plex and a volume. A detached plex does not share in
I/O activity to the volume, but remains associated with the volume. A
detached plex is reattached when a volume is next started.
• Dissociate a plex from the associated volume. When a plex is dissociated, its
relationship to the volume is broken. The plex is then available for other
uses and can be associated with a different volume. This is useful as part of
a backup procedure.
• Copy the contents of the specified volume to the named plex(es). This task
makes a copy of a volume (for backup purposes) without mirroring the
volume in advance.
• Move the contents of one plex to a new plex. This is useful for moving a
plex on one disk to a different location.

For detailed information about how to use vxplex, refer to the vxplex(1M)
manual page.

Performing Subdisk Tasks With vxsd

The vxsd command maintains subdisk-mirror associations. You can use vxsd
to:
• associate or dissociate a subdisk from its associated mirror
• move the contents of a subdisk to another subdisk
• split one subdisk into two subdisks that occupy the same space as the
original
• join two contiguous subdisks into one.

Note: Some vxsd tasks can take a large amount of time to complete.

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For detailed information about how to use vxsd, refer to the vxsd(1M) manual
page.

Correcting Problems With vxmend

The vxmend command performs Volume Manager usage-type-specific tasks on
volumes, plexes, and subdisks. These tasks fix simple problems in
configuration records (such as clearing utility fields, changing volume or plex
states, and offlining or onlining volumes or plexes).

vxmend is used primarily to escape from a state that was accidentally reached.
The offline and online functions can be performed with disk-related
commands.

For detailed information about how to use vxmend, refer to the vxmend(1M)
manual page.

Printing Configuration Information With vxprint

The vxprint command displays information from records in a Volume
Manager configuration database. You can use this command to display partial
or complete information about any or all Volume Manager objects. The format
can be hierarchical to clarify relationships between Volume Manager objects.
UNIX system utilities such as awk, sed, or grep can also use vxprint output.

For detailed information about how to use vxprint, refer to the vxprint(1M)
manual page.

Printing Volume Statistics With vxstat

The vxstat command prints statistics about Volume Manager objects and
block devices under Volume Manager control. vxstat reads the summary
statistics for Volume Manager objects and formats them to the standard output.
These statistics represent Volume Manager activity from the time the system
initially booted or from the last time statistics were cleared. If no Volume
Manager object name is specified, statistics from all volumes in the
configuration database are reported.

For detailed information about how to use vxstat, refer to the vxstat(1M)
manual page and the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Reference Guide,
Chapter 2, “VxVM Performance Monitoring.”

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Tracing Volume Tasks With vxtrace
The vxtrace command prints kernel I/O error or I/O error trace event
records on the standard output or writes them to a file in binary format. Binary
trace records written to a file can also be read back and formatted by vxtrace.

If no operands are given, then either all error trace data or all I/O trace data on
all virtual disk devices are reported. With error trace data, you can select all
accumulated error trace data, wait for new error trace data, or both (the
default). Selection can be limited to a specific disk group, to specific Volume
Manager kernel I/O object types, or to particular named objects or devices.

For detailed information about how to use vxtrace, refer to the vxtrace(1M)
manual page and the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Reference Guide,
Chapter 2, “VxVM Performance Monitoring.”

Performing Volume Tasks With vxvol

The vxvol command performs Volume Manager tasks on volumes. You can
use vxvol to:
• initialize a volume
• start a volume
• stop a volume
• establish the read policy for a volume

Starting a volume changes its kernel state from DISABLED or DETACHED to

ENABLED. Stopping a volume changes its state from ENABLED or DETACHED to
DISABLED (however, it is seldom useful to stop a volume). For more
information about volume states, see the “Recovery” chapter in the VERITAS
Volume Manager Administrator’s Reference Guide.

You can use vxvol to specify one of these read policies:

• round reads each plex in turn in “round-robin” fashion for each
nonsequential I/O detected. Sequential access causes only one plex to be
accessed. This takes advantage of the drive or controller read-ahead caching
policies.
• prefer reads first from a plex that has been named as the preferred plex.

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• select chooses a default policy based on plex associations to the volume.
If the volume has an enabled striped plex, select defaults to preferring
that plex; otherwise, it defaults to round-robin.

For detailed information about how to use vxvol, refer to “Changing the
Volume Read Policy” in Chapter 3, and the vxvol(1M) manual page.

Subdisk Tasks
Subdisks are low-level building blocks in a Volume Manager configuration.
The following sections describe tasks that you can perform on subdisks.
Subdisk tasks include:
• creating a subdisk
• removing a subdisk
• displaying subdisk information
• associating a subdisk
• associating log subdisks
• dissociating a subdisk
• changing a subdisk
• moving a subdisk
• splitting a subdisk
• joining subdisks

Creating Subdisks
You can use the vxmake command to create Volume Manager objects, such as
subdisks. When you create a subdisk, you must specify the:
• name of the subdisk
• length of the subdisk
• starting point (offset) of the subdisk within the disk
• disk media name

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To create a subdisk, use this command:

vxmake sd subdisk_name disk,offset,len

For example, the command to create a subdisk named disk02-01 that starts at
the beginning of disk disk02 and has a length of 8000 sectors is shown here:

vxmake sd disk02-01 disk02,0,8000

By default, Volume Manager commands take sizes in sectors. Adding a suffix

(such as k, m, or g) changes the unit of size.

Note: To preserve (encapsulate) any data that exists on the disk, a plex and
volume must be created to cover that data.

If you intend to use the new subdisk to build a volume, you must associate the
subdisk with a plex (see “Associating a Subdisk”). Subdisks for all plex layouts
(concatenated, striped, RAID-5) are created the same way.

Removing Subdisks
To remove a subdisk, use this command:

vxedit rm subdisk_name

For example, you can use this command to remove a subdisk named disk02-
01:

vxedit rm disk02-01

Displaying Subdisk Information

The vxprint command displays information about Volume Manager objects.
To display general information for all subdisks, use this command:

vxprint -st

The -s option specifies information about subdisks. The -t option prints a

single-line output record that depends on the type of object being listed.

You can display complete information about a particular subdisk by using this
command:

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vxprint -l subdisk_name

For example, here is the command to obtain all information on a subdisk

named disk02-01:

vxprint -l disk02-01

This command provides the following output:

Disk group: rootdg

Subdisk: disk02-01
info: disk=disk02 offset=0 len=205632
assoc: vol=mvol plex=mvol-02 (offset=0)
flags: enabled
device: device=c2t0d1s2 path=/dev/vx/dmp/c2t0d1s4 diskdev=32/68

Associating Subdisks
Associating a subdisk with a plex places the amount of disk space defined by
the subdisk at a specific offset within the plex. The entire area that the subdisk
fills must not be occupied by any portion of another subdisk. There are several
ways that subdisks can be associated with plexes, depending on the overall
state of the configuration.

If you have already created all the subdisks needed for a particular plex,
associate subdisks at plex creation by using the command:

vxmake plex plex_name sd=subdisk_name,...

For example, the following command creates the plex home-1 and associates
subdisks disk02-01, disk02-00, and disk02-02 with plex home-1. This is
done during the plex creation process:

vxmake plex home-1 sd=disk02-01,disk02-00,disk02-02

Subdisks are associated in order starting at offset 0. If you use this type of
command, you do not have to specify the multiple commands needed to create
the plex and then associate each of the subdisks with that plex. In this example,
the subdisks are associated to the plex in the order they are listed (after sd=).
The disk space defined as disk02-01 is first, the disk space disk02-00 is
second, and disk02-02 is third.

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This method of associating subdisks is convenient during initial configuration.
Subdisks can also be associated with a plex that already exists. One or more
subdisks can be associated with an existing plex with this command:

vxsd assoc plex_name sd_name [sd_name2 sd_name3 ...]

For example, you can use this command to associate subdisks named disk02-
01, disk02-00, and disk02-02 with a plex named home-1:

vxsd assoc home-1 disk02-01 disk02-00 disk02-01

If the plex is not empty, the new subdisks are added after any subdisks that are
already associated with the plex, unless the -l option is specified with the
command. The -l option associates subdisks at a specific offset within the
plex.

The -l option is needed when you have created a sparse plex (that is, a plex
with a gap between its subdisks) for a particular volume, and want to make
this plex complete. To make the plex complete, you need to create a subdisk of
a size that fits the hole in the sparse plex exactly. Then you associate the
subdisk with the plex by specifying the offset of the beginning of the hole in
the plex. Use this command:

vxsd -l offset assoc sparse_plex_name exact_size_subdisk

Note: The subdisk must be exactly the right size because Volume Manager
does not allow for the space defined by two subdisks to overlap within a single
plex.

For striped subdisks, you can specify a column number and column offset for
the subdisk:

vxsd -l column_#/offset assoc plex_name sd_name ...

If only one number is specified with the -l option for striped plexes, the
number is interpreted as a column number and the subdisk is associated at the
end of the column.

Associating Log Subdisks

Log subdisks are defined for and added to a plex that is to become part of a
volume using Dirty Region Logging. Dirty Region Logging is enabled for a
volume when the volume is mirrored and has at least one log subdisk.

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For a description of Dirty Region Logging, refer to “Dirty Region Logging,“ in
Chapter 2 of the VERITAS Volume Manager Getting Started Guide, and “Dirty
Region Logging (DRL) Guidelines” in Chapter 3 of the Getting Started Guide.
Log subdisks are ignored as far as the usual plex policies are concerned, and
are only used to hold the dirty region log.

Note: Only one log subdisk can be associated with a plex. Because this log
subdisk is frequently written, care should be taken to position it on a disk that
is not heavily used. Placing a log subdisk on a heavily-used disk can degrade
system performance.

To add a log subdisk to an existing plex, use this command:

vxsd aslog plex subdisk

where subdisk is the name to be used as a log subdisk. The plex must be
associated with a mirrored volume before DRL takes effect.

For example, you can use this command to associate a subdisk named
disk02-01 with a plex named vol01-02 (which is already associated with
volume vol01):

vxsd aslog vol01-02 disk02-01

Note: You can also use the following command to add a log subdisk to an
existing volume:
vxassist addlog volume_name disk
This command automatically creates a log subdisk within a log plex for the
specified volume.

Dissociating Subdisks
To break an established connection between a subdisk and the plex to which it
belongs, the subdisk is dissociated from the plex. A subdisk is dissociated when
the subdisk is removed or used in another plex. To dissociate a subdisk, use
this command:

vxsd dis subdisk_name

For example, you can dissociate a subdisk named disk02-01 from the plex
with which it is currently associated, by using this command:

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vxsd dis disk02-01

Note: You can also remove subdisks with the command:

vxsd -orm dis subdisk_name

Changing Subdisk Attributes

CAUTION ! Change subdisk attributes with extreme care, and only if

necessary.

The vxedit command changes attributes of subdisks to other Volume

Manager objects. To change information relating to a subdisk, use this
command:

vxedit set field=value ... subdisk_name

For example, here is the command to change the comment field of a subdisk
named disk02-01:

vxedit set comment=“new_comment” disk02-01

The subdisk fields that can be changed using vxedit are:

• name
• putil[n] fields
• tutil[n] fields
• len (only if the subdisk is dissociated)
• comment

Note: Entering data in the putil0 field prevents the subdisk from being used
as part of a plex, if it is not already part of a plex.

Plex Tasks
Plexes are logical groupings of subdisks that create an area of disk space
independent of physical disk size or other restrictions. Replication (mirroring)
of disk data is done by creating multiple plexes for a single volume. Each plex

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contains an identical copy of the volume data. Because each plex must reside
on different disks, the replication provided by mirroring prevents data loss in
the event of a single-point disk-subsystem failure. Multiple plexes also provide
increased data integrity and reliability.

Plex tasks include:

• creating a plex
• backup using mirroring
• associating a plex
• dissociating and removing a plex
• listing all plexes
• displaying plexes
• changing plex attributes
• changing plex status
• moving plexes
• copying plexes

Creating Plexes
The vxmake command creates Volume Manager objects, such as plexes. When
you create a plex, you identify subdisks and associate them to the plex that you
want to create.

To create a plex from existing subdisks, use this command:

vxmake plex plex_name sd=subdisk_name,...

For example, the command to create a concatenated plex named vol01-02

using two existing subdisks named disk02-01 and disk02-02 is:

vxmake plex vol01-02 sd=disk02-01,disk02-02

Creating a Striped Plex

To create a striped plex, you need to specify additional attributes. For example,
the command to create a striped plex named pl-01 with a stripe width of 32
sectors and 2 columns is:

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vxmake plex pl-01 layout=stripe stwidth=32 ncolumn=2\
sd=disk01-01,disk02-01

If you intend to use a plex to build a volume, you must associate the plex with
the volume (see “Associating Plexes,” for more information.

Associating Plexes
A plex becomes a participating plex for a volume by associating the plex with
the volume. To associate a plex with an existing volume, use this command:

vxplex att volume_name plex_name

For example, the command to associate a plex named vol01-02 with a

volume named vol01 is:

vxplex att vol01 vol01-02

If the volume has not been created, a plex (or multiple plexes) can be
associated with the volume to be created as part of the volume create
command:

vxmake -U usetype vol volume_name plex=plex_name1, plex_name2...

For example, the command to create a mirrored, fsgen-type volume named

home and associate two existing plexes named home-1 and home-2 is:

vxmake -Ufsgen vol home plex=home-1,home-2

Note: You can also use the following command on an existing volume to add
and associate a plex: vxassist mirror volume_name

Dissociating and Removing Plexes

When a plex is no longer needed, you can remove it. You may need to remove
a plex in the following situations:
• to provide free disk space
• to reduce the number of mirrors in a volume so you can increase the length
of another mirror and its associated volume. When the plexes and subdisks
are removed, the resulting space can be added to other volumes

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• to remove a temporary mirror that was created to back up a volume and is
no longer needed
• to change the layout of a plex

CAUTION ! To save the data on a plex to be removed, the configuration of that

plex must be known. Parameters from that configuration (stripe unit size and
subdisk ordering) are critical to the creation of a new plex to contain the same
data. Before a plex is removed, you must record its configuration. See
“Displaying Plex Information” for more information.

A plex can be dissociated and removed from the associated volume with this
command:

vxplex -o rm dis plex_name

To dissociate and remove a plex named vol01-02, use this command:

vxplex -o rm dis vol01-02

This removes the plex vol01-02 and all associated subdisks.

Note: You can first dissociate the plex and subdisks, then remove them with
the commands:
vxplex dis plex_name
vxedit -r rm plex_name
Together, these commands accomplish the same as vxplex -o rm dis.

Backup Using Mirroring

If a volume is mirrored, backup can be done on that volume by taking one of
the volume mirrors offline for a period of time. This removes the need for extra
disk space for the purpose of backup only. However, it also removes
redundancy of the volume for the duration of the time needed for the backup
to take place.

Note: The information in this section does not apply to RAID-5.

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You can perform backup of a mirrored volume on an active system with these
steps:

1. Optionally stop user activity for a short time to improve the consistency of
the backup.

2. Dissociate one of the volume mirrors (vol01-01, for this example):

vxplex dis vol01-01

3. Create a new, temporary volume using the dissociated plex:

vxmake -U gen vol tempvol plex=vol01-01

4. Start the temporary volume:

vxvol start tempvol

5. Do appropriate backup procedures, using the temporary volume.

6. Stop the temporary volume:

vxvol stop tempvol

7. Dissociate the backup plex from its temporary volume:

vxplex dis vol01-01

8. Reassociate the backup plex with its original volume to regain redundancy
of the volume:

vxplex att vol01 vol01-01

9. Remove the temporary volume:

vxedit rm tempvol

For information on an alternative online backup method using the vxassist

command, refer to “Performing Online Backup.”

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Displaying Plex Information
Listing plexes helps identify free plexes for building volumes. Using the
vxprint command with the plex (–p) option lists information about all plexes.

To display detailed information about all plexes in the system, use this
command:

vxprint -lp

To display detailed information about a specific plex, use this command:

vxprint -l plex_name

The –t option prints a single line of information about the plex. To list free
plexes, use this command:

vxprint -pt

Changing Plex Attributes

CAUTION ! Change plex attributes with extreme care, and only if necessary.

The vxedit command changes the attributes of plexes and other volume
Manager objects. To change plex attributes, use this command:

vxedit set field=value ... plex_name ...

The comment field and the putil and tutil fields are used by Volume
Manager commands after plex creation. putil attributes are maintained on
reboot; tutil fields are temporary and are not retained on reboot.

Both putil and tutil have three functions and are numbered according to
those functions. These fields can be modified as needed. Volume Manager uses
the utility fields marked putil0 and tutil0. Other VERITAS products use
those marked putil1 and tutil1. Fields marked putil2 and tutil2 are
user fields. Table 1 lists the functions of the putil and tutil fields.

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Table 1 The putil[n] and tutil[n] Fields

Field Description of Utility Fields

putil0 Reserved for use by Volume Manager commands and is
retained on reboot.
putil1 Reserved for use by high-level utilities such as the graphical
user interface. This field is retained on reboot.
putil2 Reserved for use by the system administrator or site-specific
applications. This field is retained on reboot.
tutil0 Reserved for use by Volume Manager commands and is
cleared on reboot.
tutil1 Reserved for use by high-level utilities such as the graphical
user interface. This field is cleared on reboot.
tutil2 Reserved for use by the system administrator or site-specific
applications. This field is cleared on reboot.

The command:

vxedit set comment=”my plex” tutil2=”u” user=”admin” \

vol01-02

uses vxedit to set the following attributes:

• set the comment field (identifying what the plex is used for) to my plex
• set tutil2 to u to indicate that the subdisk is in use
• change the user ID to admin

To prevent a particular plex from being associated with a volume, set the
putil0 field to a non-null string, as specified in this command:

vxedit set putil0=”DO-NOT-USE” vol01-02

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Changing Plex Status: Detaching and Attaching Plexes
Once a volume has been created and placed online (ENABLED), Volume
Manager can temporarily disconnect plexes from the volume. This is useful, for
example, when the hardware on which the plex resides needs repair or when a
volume has been left unstartable and a source plex for the volume revive must
be chosen manually.

Resolving a disk or system failure includes taking a volume offline and

attaching and detaching its plexes. The two commands used to accomplish
disk failure resolution are vxmend and vxplex.

To take a plex OFFLINE so that repair or maintenance can be performed on the

physical disk containing subdisks of that plex, use this command:

vxmend off plex_name ..

If a disk has a head crash, you should put all plexes that have associated
subdisks on the affected disk OFFLINE. For example, if plexes vol01-02 and
vol02-02 had subdisks on a drive to be repaired, use this command:

vxmend off vol01-02 vol02-02

This command places vol01-02 and vol02-02 in the OFFLINE state, and
they remain in that state until changed.

Detaching Plexes
To temporarily detach one plex in a mirrored volume, use this command:

vxplex det plex_name

For example, the command to temporarily detach a plex named vol01-02 and
place it in maintenance mode is:

vxplex det vol01-02

This command temporarily detaches the plex, but maintains the association
between the plex and its volume. However, the plex is not used for I/O. A plex
detached with the preceding command is recovered at system reboot. The plex
state is set to STALE, so that if a vxvol start command is run on the
appropriate volume (for example, on system reboot), the contents of the plex is
recovered and made ACTIVE.

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When the plex is ready to return as an active part of its volume, follow this
procedure:
• If the volume is not ENABLED, start it with this command:

vxvol start volume_name

If it is unstartable, set one of the plexes to CLEAN by using the command:

vxmend fix clean plex_name

and then start the volume.
• If the plex does not yet have a kernel state of ENABLED, use this command:

vxplex att volume_name plex_name ...

As with returning an OFFLINE plex to ACTIVE, this command recovers the

contents of the plex(es), then sets the plex state to ACTIVE.

Attaching Plexes
When the disk has been repaired or replaced and is again ready for use, the
plexes must be put back online (plex state set to ACTIVE).

If the volume is currently ENABLED, use this command:

vxplex att volume_name plex_name ...

For example, the command for a plex named vol01-02 on a volume named
vol01 is:

vxplex att vol01 vol01-02

This command starts to recover the contents of the plex and, after the revive is
complete, sets the plex utility state to ACTIVE.

If the volume is not in use (not ENABLED), use this command:

vxmend on plex_name

For example, the command for a plex named vol01-02 is:

vxmend on vol01-02

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In this case, the state of vol01-02 is set to STALE. When the volume is next
started, the data on the plex is revived from the other plex, and incorporated
into the volume with its state set to ACTIVE.

If it becomes necessary to manually change the state of a plex, refer to

“Recovering a Volume.” in “Volume Tasks.” See the vxmake(1M) and
vxmend(1M) manual pages for more information about these commands.

Moving Plexes
Moving a plex copies the data content from the original plex onto a new plex.
The command to move data from one plex to another is:

vxplex mv original_plex new_plex

For a move task to be successful, the following criteria must be met:

• The old plex must be an active part of an active (ENABLED) volume.
• The new plex should be at least the same size or larger than the old plex.
• The new plex must not be associated with another volume.

The size of the plex has several implications:

• If the new plex is smaller or more sparse than the original plex, an
incomplete copy of the data on the original plex results. If this is the desired
action, you must use the -o force option.
• If the new plex is longer or less sparse than the original plex, the data that
exists on the original plex is copied onto the new plex. Any area that was
not on the original plex, but is represented on the new plex, is filled from
other complete plex(es) associated with the same volume.
• If the new plex is longer than the volume itself, then the remaining area of
the new plex above the size of the volume is not initialized and remains
unused.

Copying Plexes
This task copies the contents of a volume onto a specified plex. The volume to
be copied cannot be enabled. The plex cannot be associated with any other
volume. To copy a plex, use this command:

vxplex cp volume_name new_plex

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After the copy task is complete, new_plex is not associated with the specified
volume volume_name. The plex contains a complete copy of the volume data.
The plex that is being copied should be the same size or larger than the volume
If the plex being copied is larger than the volume, an incomplete copy of the
data results. For the same reason, new_plex should not be sparse.

Volume Tasks
A volume is a collection of up to 32 plexes. A volume appears as a block device
in the /dev/vx/dsk directory and a character device in the /dev/vx/rdsk
directory. A volume can be used as a partition device.

The following sections describe how to perform common volume tasks. In

some cases, either vxassist or other commands can be used to do the same
task and both are described. Detailed descriptions about the commands used
to perform volume tasks are contained in the Volume Manager manual pages.

Note: This section provides information on general volume tasks. For details
on tasks specific to RAID-5 volumes, refer to “Performing Online Backup.” in
“Volume Tasks.”

Creating Volumes
Volumes can be created with the vxassist or vxmake commands. The easiest
way to create volumes is by using the vxassist command.

You can specify the length of a new volume in sectors, kilobytes, megabytes, or
gigabytes. The unit of size is added as a suffix to the length (s, m, k, or g). If no
unit is specified, sectors are assumed.

vxassist Command
You can use the vxassist command to create volumes with default settings
or with user-specified attributes. vxassist automatically creates and attempts
to enable new volumes. If the volume fails to be enabled, vxassist attempts
to remove it and releases the space used to allocate that volume.

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To create a simple volume using vxassist and its default settings, use this
command:

vxassist make volume_name length

For example, the following command creates a volume named voldef with a
length of 10 megabytes on any available disk(s):

vxassist make voldef 10m

You can specify additional parameters to vxassist to reflect the new volume
attributes. Refer to the vxassist(1M) manual page for details.

The following example shows how to create a volume named volzebra that is
striped across disk03 and disk04, has the fsgen usage type, and is 10
megabytes long:

vxassist -Ufsgen make volzebra 10m layout=stripe disk03 \

disk04

vxmake Command
For detailed information about how to use vxmake, and an example of the
vxmake description files, refer to “Creating Volume Manager Objects With
vxmake” in this chapter or the vxmake(1M) manual page.

To create a volume with an attached plex using vxmake, use this command:

vxmake -Uusage_type vol volume_name len=length plex=plex_name,...

If you do not specify a length, the volume length is equal to the length of the
plex to which it is attached. You can select a length (less than or equal to the
length of the plex) by specifying a length with the len= parameter.

You can also create a volume without attaching a plex to it. You do this by
omitting the plex= parameter. In this case, you must specify a length. The
volume you create is not available for use until you attach a plex to it by using
vxplex att.

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Examples of commands for creating an fsgen-type volume called vol01 are:

vxmake -Ufsgen vol vol01 len=100000

and

vxmake vol vol01 use_type=fsgen plex=vol01-01,vol01-2

You can specify the usage type for a volume as either -Ufsgen or
use_type=fsgen. If you do not specify a length, or associated plexes are not
identified, the length is 0.

Instead of specifying parameters on the command line, you can use a vxmake
description file to create a volume, as well as associated subdisks and plexes,
by using this command:

vxmake -d description_file

Initializing Volumes
During normal system operation, volume and plex states are affected by
system failures, shutdowns, and possible I/O failures. When a volume is first
created, it is necessary to initialize the state of its plex(es) according the state of
the data on each plex.

Normally, if you have created the volume using vxassist or one of the other
higher-level interfaces, the state of the plexes is properly set. However, when
vxmake has been used to create a volume, the states of its plexes must be set
manually before the volume can be made available for use through the vxvol
start command. The command for setting the state of a volume plex is:

vxvol init state volume_name [plex_name]

where the state variable determines what the initialization does and what
condition the volume and plexes have after the volume has been initialized.

The most common form of manual initialization is setting the state of the
volume to CLEAN. The following examples show how to do this for mirrored
and nonmirrored volumes. In the simplest case, in which a volume has been
created containing only one plex (mirror), the state of the plex is set to CLEAN.
This is because there is no need for any synchronization of the data on the disk.
Since there is only one plex in the volume, it is not necessary to specify the
plex_name argument.

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The command to set the state of this volume to CLEAN is:

vxvol init clean volume_name

Note: The rest of this initialization section applies only to mirrored volumes
(not RAID-5 volumes, which are discussed later).

For a newly-created mirror volume vol01, that has multiple plexes associated
with it, one of the plexes must be chosen to be synchronized with the other
plexes. For example, plex vol01-02 may have been created over disk space
that contained data that needed to be accessed after the volume is made
available. The following command synchronizes data with the other plexes
when the volume is started:

vxvol init clean vol01 vol01-02

This command sets the state of vol01-02 to CLEAN and the remainder of the
plexes to STALE, so they are properly synchronized at the time the volume is
made available. You can avoid the initial synchronization of the volume to save
time, but only if you are certain that none of the plexes contain data that is the
final contents of the volume. In this case, you can temporarily initialize the
state of the volume so that the data can be loaded without having to perform a
synchronization first. The command to do this is:

vxvol init enable volume_name

This enables the volume and all its plexes, but leaves the plex utility states set
to EMPTY. After the entire contents of the volume have been restored, both
mirrors contain exactly the same data and do not need to be synchronized
using the vxvol start task. The volume (for example, home1) can be
initialized for use and started at the same time by using this command:

vxvol init active home1

Note: It is strongly recommended that data on each of the mirrors be exactly

the same. Otherwise, the system can corrupt the data on both mirrors and,
depending on the use of the volume, can crash the system. If you are not sure
that the data is identical, use the vxvol init clean method.

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Sometimes it is necessary to remove all existing data from disks before new
data is loaded. In this case, you can initialize every byte of the volume to zero
with this command:

vxvol init zero volume_name

Estimating Maximum Volume Size

The vxassist command can determine the largest possible size for a volume
that can currently be created with a given set of attributes. vxassist can also
determine how much an existing volume can be extended under the current
conditions.

To determine the largest possible size for the volume to be created, use the
command:

vxassist maxsize attributes...

For example, to determine the maximum size for a new RAID-5 volume on
available disks, enter:

vxassist maxsize layout=raid5

This does not actually create the volume, but returns an output similar to this
example (in sectors, by default):
Maximum volume size: 376832 (184Mb)
If, however, a volume with the specified attributes cannot be created, an error
message is returned similar to this example:
vxvm:vxassist: ERROR: No volume can be created within the given
constraints
To determine how much an existing volume can grow, use the command:

vxassist maxgrow volume_name

For example, the command:

vxassist maxgrow raidvol

does not actually resize the volume, but results in output similar to this
example:
Volume raidvol can be extended by 366592 to 1677312 (819Mb)

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Notice that this output indicates both the amount by which the volume can be
increased and the total size to which the volume can grow (in sectors, by
default).

Displaying Volume Information

You can list information related to volumes under Volume Manager control.
This information includes the name of the volume, its usage type, state, length,
user and group IDs, and mode.

To list information on all volumes, use this command:

vxprint -vt

To limit the vxprint display to a single object, you can specify the object
name after the vxprint command.

For example, to display information about a specific volume, use this

command:

vxprint -l volume_name

You can display detailed information for all volumes with this command:

vxprint -vl

To display the plexes for a volume named vol01, use this command:

vxprint -ht vol01

This command displays the volume, its plexes, and the subdisks in those
plexes.

You can also display the plexes for vol01 with the command:

vxprint -e ’assoc= “vol01”’

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Changing Volume Attributes
You can change volume attributes such as read policy, error policies,
ownership, permissions, and the values in the comment and utility fields for
existing volumes. These attributes are typically changed when use of the
volume or your needs change.

CAUTION ! Change volume attributes with extreme care and only if necessary.

There are two Volume Manager commands that set volume attributes:
• The vxedit command sets attributes that are not usage-type dependent.
• The vxvol command sets attributes that are usage-type dependent.

Use the vxedit command as follows:

vxedit set field=value ... volume_name ...

Use the vxvol command as follows:

vxvol set field=value ... volume_name ...

Table 2 details which attributes can be set by each command.

Table 2 Setting Volume Attributes

Command Attribute Description

vxedit comment the comment field
tutil0, tutil1, tutil2 descriptive string of volume contents
putil0, putil1, putil2
fstype string indicating file system type
writeback boolean (on/off) specifying read
error correction mode
user owner of volume
group group of volume
mode permission mode for volume

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Table 2 Setting Volume Attributes

Command Attribute Description

vxvol len numeric length of volume
logtype (drl/undef) specifier of Dirty Region
Logging mode for volume
loglen length of the Dirty Region Logging
log
startopts options to be executed to the
vxvol start task

Note: Setting volume device permissions and ownership using the chgrp,
chown, and chmod commands does not work. It is necessary to use vxedit
set to modify these values.

For example, to change the owner of the group to susan and the permissions
to read/write for owner, group, and other:

vxedit set user=susan group=staff mode=0666 vol01

Online Relayout
The vxassist command has been enhanced to include a new option named
Online Relayout. Relayout is used to change the configuration of a volume.
Relayout allows you to transform the storage characteristics of a volume
without interrupting data access to the volume.

Transforming the storage characteristics of a volume is done by using the

existing storage and by using some additional temporary space. If a
transformation requires additional storage, the storage is automatically
allocated.

In general, Relayout can be used to change the performance and/or reliability

of a volume, online.

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How Online Relayout Works
Online relayout is a process where storage in a volume or a plex is converted
from one layout to another while maintaining data availability at all times. You
can convert any supported layout in the Volume Manager to another layout,
and/or change the stripe width or the number of columns. You can also do just
stripe width and/or column changes.

Transformation of a volume or a plex must be initiated using the vxassist

command. vxassist creates the necessary infrastructure and storage needed
to perform the layout transformation and invokes vxrelayout internally to
perform the transformation.

vxrelayout performs the layout transformation by copying a chunk of data

to a temporary location. The chunk size is determined by vxassist.
vxrelayout then transforms the storage associated with the data to the
desired layout, and finally copies the data from the temporary location to
destination layout. This is done until all the storage and data is converted to
the desired layout.

Note that the data in the volume is always available during the transformation.
Since vxrelayout depends on vxassist to do the setup before a layout
transformation can be started, the vxassist command must be used to
initiate any layout transformation. The vxtask command can be used to
monitor the state of an ongoing transformation.

Since these transformations are time consuming, a transformation can be

interrupted. The interruption can be caused by a system crash, I/O failure, or
the user voluntarily stopping the transformation process. Using kill -9 is not
advisable to stop transformations. The vxrelayout command can be used to
continue or reverse a transformation process stopped because of interruptions.

Volume Manager reacts to interruptions in the following ways:

• I/O failure—The vxrelayout command exits with an error on stderr.
The vxrelocd daemon tries to relocate the failed subdisks. If it succeeds, it
invokes vxrecover which in turn invokes vxrelayout to continue the
transformation. An I/O failure should be transparent to the user if the
relocation succeeds. If the relocation fails, then the transformation process is
not restarted again.

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• System crash—On a reboot after a system crash, vxrecover tries to start all
startable volumes, causing vxrelayout to be invoked on appropriate
volumes and plexes.

If you stop vxrelayout, the transformation process can be reversed or

continued by invoking vxrelayout manually.

When to Use Relayout

There are a number of situations where you may need to use Relayout. Here
are a few examples of situations where using Relayout is appropriate.
• You have a RAID-5 volume that does not perform well. You want to convert
it to a mirrored volume, and you can sacrifice additional storage.
• You want to change stripe widths as the current stwidths are incorrect.
• You want to add more columns to a RAID-5 or striped volume to improve
performance.
• You have a mirrored volume and you can sacrifice performance, but you
want to use less space with the same redundancy. The mirrored volume can
be converted to RAID-5 by using Relayout.
• A plex in a simple mirrored volume needs to be changed to striped.

How to Use Relayout on the Command Line

This section describes how to operate Online Relayout from the command line.
Refer to the vxassist(1M) manual page for the usage of vxassist
relayout. This document provides only basic information. You can also
perform Online Relayout tasks by using the Storage Administrator.

Using Command vxassist

You can use the vxassist command to operate Relayout. The command
syntax is as follows:

vxassist relayout volume_name | plex_name layout=layout \

ncol=[+/-]ncol stwidth=stdwidth tmpsize=tmpsize

1. volume_name | plex_name specifies the name of the volume/plex that is to be

transformed.

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2. layout specifies the new layout desired.

3. ncol specifies the number of columns in the new layout. The +/- operator
can be used to specify the number of columns to be added to or subtracted
from the original volume/plex.

4. stwidth specifies the stripe width of the new layout.

5. tmpsize specifies the size of the scratch space (this is optional). vxassist
chooses the volume size as the tmpsize for volumes less than 50M. For
volumes greater than 50M, vxassist uses 50M. For volumes greater than
1G, the tmpsize is 1G. You can override the default values by specifying a
value for this parameter.

Parameter 1 (volume_name | plex_name) is mandatory.

Parameters 2, 3, and 4, can be specified in any combination. At least one of

these parameters must be specified for a volume to be considered a candidate
for Relayout. If only the layout parameter is specified and the number of
mirrors is increased or decreased as a result of the specification, then a
Relayout operation does not occur.

For example, if there is a stripe-mirror volume named vol, and you specify:

vxassist relayout vol layout=stripe

this specification means to remove a mirror, which is not considered a Relayout

operation. For a volume to be considered a candidate for a Relayout operation,
one of the following must be part of the reconfiguration:
• a change in number of columns
• a change of stripe-width
• removal or addition for parity
• RAID-5 to mirroring or the reverse operation

Note: vxassist also recognizes storage attributes that can be used in the
relayout operation. Refer to “Using vxassist” in this chapter for more
information on vxassist. For details on available vxassist keywords and
attributes, refer to the vxassist(1M) manual page.

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Examples
This section shows some examples of how to use the Command Line Interface
to do Relayout operations.

The basic layouts supported are:

• RAID-5
• stripe
• mirror
• nostripe
• stripe-mirror, mirror-stripe
• concat-mirror, mirror-concat

The basic layouts are described in the VERITAS Volume Manager Getting Started
Guide.

Changing the Number of Columns

This section describes how to use Relayout to change columns.

To add a column to a volume, use this command:

vxassist relayout volume_name ncol=+1

To remove a column, use this command:

vxassist relayout volume_name ncol=-1

To specify a new column number to Relayout, use this command:

vxassist relayout volume_name ncol=new_ncol

To specify a volume so that the final volume has 5 columns, use this command:

vxassist relayout volume_name ncol=5

Changing the Stripe-Width

To change the stripe-width, use this command:

vxassist relayout volume_name stwidth=new_stwidth

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Changing the Stripe-Width and Column
The attributes ncol and stwidth can also be used in combination. To relayout
a volume to result in a stripe-width of 64K and 5 columns, use this command:

vxassist relayout volume_name stwidth=64K ncol=5

Changing the Layouts

This section describes how to use Relayout to change layout configurations.

RAID-5 to Mirroring
To change a RAID-5 volume to a stripe-mirrored volume, use this command:

vxassist relayout volume_name layout=stripe-mirror

The stripe-mirror and mirror-stripe layouts are treated the same by Relayout. If
you do not specify nmirror= number greater than 1, then Relayout generates a
stripe-mirror. If you specify nmirror=2(or greater), Relayout generates the
mirror-stripe layout that you specified.

If the stripe-width is not specified during these changes, a default value is

chosen that may not be the same as the original volume. This is done for
performance reasons. You can use the vxassist convert option to convert a
stripe-mirror to a mirror-stripe. You can also use the convert option for a
mirror-concat layout.

Any Layout to RAID-5

To change any layout to RAID-5, use this command:

vxassist relayout volume_name layout=raid5

In general, you can use the layout field to create any layout desired. This can
be used in combination with ncol and stwidth to exactly specify the final
volume characteristics.

For example, to convert a striped volume to a concatenated volume, use this

command:

vxassist relayout volume_name layout=nostripe

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Starting, Stopping, and Reversing a Relayout
Relayout is a transactional operation, so it can be stopped, started, and
reversed at anytime without loss of data or data availability. The vxtask
command can be used to stop a Relayout operation.

A Relayout operation can be restarted on a volume with this command:

vxrelayout start volume_name

A Relayout operation can be reversed by first stopping any ongoing Relayout

operation and then doing the following:

vxrelayout reverse volume_name

It is advised that transformation direction changes be done with care.

Online Relayout can be applied only to disk groups with version 50 or above
(see the vxdg(1M) manual page) and only one disk group at a time.

The vxrelayout command takes the following form:

vxrelayout [ -f ] [ -g diskgroup ] [ -U usagetype ]

[ -o useopt ] start volume

vxrelayout [ -f ] [ -g diskgroup ] [ -U usagetype ]

[ -o useopt ] reverse volume

vxrelayout status volume

The following are the recognized operation keywords:

start Continue a discontinued layout conversion. This operation

determines the current state and direction of a layout transformation
and continues from where it was last stopped. Any existing layout
transformation process must be stopped before this operation is
applied.

reverse Reverse a discontinued layout conversion. This operation

determines the current state and direction of a layout transformation
and reverse the transformation from where it was last stopped. Any
existing layout transformation process must be stopped before this
operation is applied.

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status Display the status of a discontinued or an ongoing layout
conversion. This operation displays the characteristics of the source
and the destination layout. The display includes the layout, number
of columns, and stripe width. It also displays whether the
transformation is ongoing or stopped and the percentage completed.

The first operand is a keyword that determines whether a layout conversion is

to be continued, reversed, or to display the status of any existing
transformation in the volume. For example, if a RAID-5 volume is being
converted to a striped volume, reversal of such an operation reverts all data
and storage in striped format to the RAID-5 format. A reversal of a reversal is
equivalent to a continue.

The direction of a transformation can be determined by using the status

operation in the vxrelayout utility. This command determines if any plex in
the volume is being transformed and displays its characteristics.

The second operand is the name of the topmost volume to which the plex
undergoing relayout is attached. If there are multiple plexes in the volume, the
vxrelayout utility selects the appropriate plex using the supplied volume
name. It should be noted that there can only be one relayout operation
happening in a volume at any instant of time. A specific disk group can be
specified with -g diskgroup.

Finding the Status of a Relayout Operation

Relayout operations can be time consuming. It is desirable to determine the
progress rate of such operations. It is also useful to know what layout is being
transformed to what layout.

The rate of progress can be found by using the vxtask utility. The
characteristics of the storage transformation can be determined by using the
following command:

vxrelayout status volume_name

This provides the storage characteristics and a rough estimate of the

percentage completed. Note that the second piece of information is not as
accurate as the one provided by the vxtask utility. For example, if you are
adding a column to a striped volume and you check the status with this
command:

vxrelayout status volume_name

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you will get:
STRIPED, columns=5, stwidth=128 --> STRIPED, columns=6, stwidth=128
Relayout running, 0.00% completed. .

Transformation Details
You can use Online Relayout on one data plex in a volume or on the entire
volume. You cannot invoke multiple Relayout operations on multiple plexes in
a volume. There can only be one Relayout operation at a time in a volume.

Converting a Plex in a Mirrored Volume to a RAID-5 Plex

If there is more than one plex in the mirrored volume to be converted to RAID-
5, you must specify which plex is to be converted. The specified plex is then
converted to a RAID-5 plex. Because RAID-5 mirroring is not supported in
Volume Manager, all other plexes in the volume are removed at the end of the
conversion. The space previously occupied by the removed plexes is not
reused. A mirrored volume can be converted to a layout other than RAID-5,
which does not result in removal of nonconverted plexes.

Logs
A Relayout operation can render existing logs incompatible with the new
layout as a result of the transformation. For example, when a mirrored volume
with a DRL log is converted to a RAID-5 volume with RAID log, the DRL log
is removed and the RAID-5 log is used. If you specified that the RAID-5
volume should not have a log, then the DRL log is also removed.

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Introduction
This chapter describes the menu-driven interface known as Volume Manager
Support Operations (or vxdiskadm). vxdiskadm is used to perform physical
and logical device administration.

This chapter provides the following information on performing disk and

volume tasks using vxdiskadm:
• Starting vxdiskadm
• The vxdiskadm Main Menu
• The vxdiskadm Main Menu Description
• Disk Tasks
• Bringing Physical Disks Under Volume Manager Control
• Adding a Disk for Future Use
• Reinitializing a Disk for Volume Manager Use
• Adding a VM Disk to the Hot-Relocation Pool
• Removing a VM Disk From the Hot-Relocation Pool
• Displaying Information on Physical Disks
• Removing a Physical Disk
• Disabling a Physical Disk (Taking a Physical Disk Offline)
• Enabling a Physical Disk

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• Replacing a Physical Disk
• Replacing a Failed or Removed Disk
• Volume Tasks
• Mirroring Volumes on a VM Disk
• Moving Volumes from a VM Disk
• Disk Group Tasks
• Adding a Disk to a Disk Group
• Creating a Disk Group
• Deporting a Disk Group
• Importing a Disk Group
• Exiting the Volume Manager Support Tasks

Starting vxdiskadm
To start vxdiskadm, enter:

vxdiskadm

vxdiskadm displays its main menu showing the tasks available to you.

The vxdiskadm Main Menu

This is the vxdiskadm main menu:

Volume Manager Support Operations

Menu: VolumeManager/Disk

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

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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
list List disk information

? Display help about menu

?? Display help about the menuing system
q Exit from menus

Select an operation to perform

• ? can be entered at any time to provide help in using the menu. The
output of ? is a list of operations and a definition of each.
• ?? lists inputs that can be used at any prompt.
• q returns you to the main menu if you need to restart a process; however,
using q at the main menu level exits the Volume Manager Support
Operations.

The vxdiskadm Main Menu Description

The vxdiskadm menu provides access to the following tasks. The numbers
correspond to the items listed in the main menu:

1. Add or initialize one or more disks.

You can add formatted disks to the system. SCSI disks are already
formatted. For other disks, see the manufacturer’s documentation for
formatting instructions. You are prompted for the disk device(s). You can
specify the disk group to which the disk(s) should be added; if none is
selected, the disk is held as a spare to be used for future operations or
disk replacements without needing to be initialized at that time. You can
also specify that selected disks be marked as hot-relocation spares for a
disk group. If the disk has not been initialized already, the disk is
partitioned and initialized for use with the Volume Manager.

2. Encapsulate one or more disks.

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You can bring a disk that was added to the system before installing the
Volume Manager under Volume Manager control. You are prompted for
the disk device(s), disk group, and disk name(s). The disk is added to the
specified disk group. The disk is examined to search for partitions that
are used for file systems or other purposes. Volumes are created to
replace disk partitions as the means of accessing the existing data. If the
encapsulation cannot determine the purpose of a partition automatically,
you are asked what to do with it. You can choose to replace the partition
with a volume, leave the partition alone, or remove the partition.
You must reboot the system if any partitions are being used for mounted
file systems or for running applications. You may have to modify
application configuration files to use volumes, rather than direct disk
devices, to access the disk partitions. File system mount information is
adjusted automatically.

3. Remove a disk.
You can remove a disk from a disk group. You are prompted for the
name of a disk to remove. You cannot remove a disk if any volumes use
storage on that disk. If any volumes are using storage on the disk, you
have the option of asking the Volume Manager to move that storage to
other disks in the disk group.

Note: You cannot remove the last disk in a disk group using this task. If you
wish to use all the remaining disks in a disk group for some purpose, you
should disable (deport) the disk group. You will then be able to reuse the disks.
rootdg cannot, however, be deported.

4. Remove a disk for replacement.

You can remove a physical disk from a disk group, while retaining the
disk name. This changes the state for the named disk to removed. If
there are any initialized disks that are not part of a disk group, you are
given the option of using one of these disks as a replacement.

5. Replace a failed or removed disk.

You can specify a replacement disk for a disk that you removed with the
Remove a disk for replacement menu entry, or one that failed during
use. You are prompted for a disk name to replace and a disk device to
use as a replacement. You can choose an uninitialized disk, in which case

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the disk will be initialized, or you can choose a disk that you have
already initialized using the Add or initialize a disk menu
operation.

6. Mirror volumes on a disk

You can mirror volumes on a disk. These volumes can be mirrored to
another disk with available space. Creating mirror copies of volumes in
this way protects against data loss in case of disk failure. Volumes that
are already mirrored or that are comprised of more than one subdisk will
not be mirrored with this task. Mirroring volumes from the boot disk will
produce a disk that can be used as an alternate boot disk.

7. Move volumes from a disk.

You can move any volumes (or parts of a volume) that are using a disk
onto other disks. Use this menu task immediately prior to removing a
disk, either permanently or for replacement.

Note: Simply moving volumes off a disk, without also removing the disk,
does not prevent other volumes from being moved onto the disk by future
operations.

8. Enable access to (import) a disk group.

You can enable access by this system to a disk group. If you wish to
move a disk group from one system to another, you must first disable
(deport) it on the original system. Then, move the disks from the
deported disk group to the other system and enable (import) the disk
group there. You are prompted for the disk group name.

9. Disable access to (deport) a disk group

You can disable access to a disk group that is currently enabled
(imported) by this system. Deport a disk group if you intend to move the
disks in a disk group to another system. Also, deport a disk group if you
want to use all of the disks remaining in a disk group for some new
purpose.
You are prompted for the name of a disk group. You are asked if the
disks should be disabled (offlined). For removable disk devices on some
systems, it is important to disable all access to the disk before removing
the disk.

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10. Enable (online) a disk device.
If you move a disk from one system to another during normal system
operation, the Volume Manager will not recognize the disk automatically.
Use this menu task to tell the Volume Manager to scan the disk to
identify it, and to determine if this disk is part of a disk group. Also, use
this task to re-enable access to a disk that was disabled by either the disk
group deport task or the disk device disable (offline) operation.

11. Disable (offline) a disk device.

You can disable all access to a disk device through the Volume Manager.
This task can be applied only to disks that are not currently in a disk
group. Use this task if you intend to remove a disk from a system
without rebooting.
Note that some systems do not support disks that can be removed from a
system during normal operation. On those systems, the offline operation
is seldom useful.

12. Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group.

You can reserve a disk as an automatic replacement disk (for hot-
relocation) in case another disk in the disk group should fail.

13. Turn off the spare flag on a disk.

You can free hot-relocation spare disks for use as regular VM disks.
• List disk information
You can display a list of disks attached to your system. This also lists
removed or failed disks.
You can also use this task to list detailed information for a particular
disk. This information includes the disk group of which the disk is a
member, even if that disk group is currently disabled.

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Disk Tasks
This section describes the disk tasks available with vxdiskadm.

When performing disk administration, it is important that you recognize the

difference between a device name and a disk name.

Note: Your system may use a device name that differs from the examples. See
Chapter 1, “Understanding Volume Manager,” in the VERITAS Volume Manager
Getting Started Guide, for more information on device names.

The device name (sometimes referred to as devname or disk access name) is the
location of the disk. The syntax of a device name is c#b#t#d#s#, where:
• c# is the number of the controller to which the disk drive is attached.
• b# is the corresponding bus number (if used on your system)
• t# is the number of the target disk on that controller.
• d# is the number of the disk.
• s# is the number of the disk slice.

The full pathname of a device is /dev/vx/dmp/devicename. In this document,

only the device name is listed and /dev/vx/dmp is assumed. An example of a
device name is c0t0d0s2.

The disk name (sometimes referred to as disk media name) is an administrative

name for the disk, such as disk01. If you do not assign a disk name, the disk
name defaults to disk## if the disk is being added to rootdg (where ## is a
sequence number). Otherwise, the default disk name is groupname##, where
groupname is the name of the disk group to which the disk is added.

Bringing Physical Disks Under Volume Manager Control

When you add a disk to a system that is running Volume Manager, you need to
put the disk under Volume Manager control so that the Volume Manager can
control the space allocation on the disk.

Unless another disk group is specified, Volume Manager places new disks in
the default disk group, rootdg. Instructions on creating additional disk
groups are provided later in this chapter.

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The method by which you place a disk under Volume Manager control
depends on the circumstances:
• If the disk is new, it needs to be initialized and placed under Volume
Manager control (see “Placing a Disk Under Volume Manager Control”).
• If the disk is not needed immediately, it can be initialized (but not added to
a disk group) and reserved for future use (see “Adding a Disk for Future
Use”).
• If the disk was previously initialized for future Volume Manager use, it can
be reinitialized and placed under Volume Manager control (see
“Reinitializing a Disk for Volume Manager Use”).
• If the disk was previously in use, but not under Volume Manager control,
you may wish to preserve existing data on the disk while still letting
Volume Manager take control of the disk. This can be accomplished using
encapsulation (see “Encapsulating a Disk for Volume Manager Use”).
• Multiple disks on one or more controllers can be placed under Volume
Manager control simultaneously. Depending on the circumstances, all of the
disks may not be processed the same way. See “Placing Multiple Disks
Under Volume Manager Control.”
When initializing or encapsulating multiple disks at once, it is possible to
exclude certain disks or certain controllers. To exclude disks, list the names
of the disks to be excluded in the file /etc/vx/[Link] before the
initialization or encapsulation. Similarly, you can exclude all disks on
specific controllers from initialization or encapsulation by listing those
controllers in the file /etc/vx/[Link].

The sections that follow provide detailed examples of how to use vxdiskadm
to place disks under Volume Manager control in various ways and
circumstances.

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Note: A disk must be formatted (using the format command, for example) or
added to the system (using diskadd) before it can be placed under Volume
Manager control.

If you attempt to place an unformatted disk under Volume Manager control

through vxdiskadm, the initialization begins as normal, but quits with a
message that informs you that the disk does not appear to be valid and may
not be formatted. If this happens, you need to format the disk properly and
then attempt to place the disk under Volume Manager control again.

Placing a Disk Under Volume Manager Control

This section describes how to place a formatted disk under Volume Manager
control. The disk can be new or previously used outside Volume Manager.

Note: Initialization does not preserve data on disks.

Initialize a single disk for Volume Manager use as follows:

1. Select menu item 1 (Add or initialize one or more disks) from the
vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the disk device name of the disk to be added
to Volume Manager control (or enter list for a list of disks):

Add or initialize disks

Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/AddDisks

Use this operation to add one or more disks to a disk group. You
can add the selected disks to an existing disk group or to a new
disk group that will be created as a part of the operation. The
selected disks may also be added to a disk group as spares. The
selected disks may also be initialized without adding them to a
disk group leaving the disks available for use as replacement
disks.

More than one disk or pattern may be entered at the prompt. Here
are some disk selection examples:

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all: all disks

c3 c4t2: all disks on both controller 3 and controller
4,target 2
c3t4d0: a single disk

Select disk devices to add:

[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?] list

<pattern-list> can be a single disk, or a series of disks and/or controllers

(with optional targets). If <pattern-list> consists of multiple items, those
items must be separated by white space.
If you enter list at the prompt, vxdiskadm displays a list of the disks
available to the system, followed by a prompt at which you should enter
the device name of the disk to be added:
DEVICE DISK GROUP STATUS
c0t0d0 disk01 rootdg online
c0t1d0 disk02 rootdg online
c0t2d0 disk03 rootdg online
c0t3d0 - - online
c1t0d0 disk10 rootdg online
c1t0d1 - - error
.
.
.
c3t0d0 - - error
c3t1d0 disk33 rootdg online
c3t2d0 disk34 rootdg online
c3t3d0 disk35 rootdg online

Select disk devices to add:

[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?] c1t0d1
All disks attached to the system are recognized by the Volume Manager and
displayed here.

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The word error in the STATUS line tells you that a disk has not yet been
added to Volume Manager control. These disks may or may not have been
initialized before. The disks that are listed with a disk name and disk group
cannot be used for this task, as they are already under Volume Manager
control.

3. To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following
prompt:
Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t2d0
Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

4. At the following prompt, specify the disk group to which the disk should be
added or press Return to accept rootdg:
You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group, a
new disk group, or leave the disk available for use by future
add or replacement operations. To create a new disk group,
select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To leave the
disk available for future use, specify a disk group name of
“none”.
Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?] (default: rootdg)

5. At the following prompt, either press Return to accept the default disk
name or enter a disk name:
Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
6. When vxdiskadm asks whether this disk should become a hot-relocation
spare, enter n (or press Return):
Add disk as a spare disk for rootdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n
7. To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following
prompt:
The selected disks will be added to the disk group rootdg with
default disk names.
c1t2d0
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

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8. If you are sure that there is no data on this disk, enter n to avoid
encapsulation. When vxdiskadm asks if you want to initialize the disk
instead, enter y:
The following disk device has a valid VTOC, but does not appear
to have been initialized for the Volume Manager. If there is
data on the disk that should NOT be destroyed you should
encapsulate the existing disk partitions as volumes instead of
adding the disk as a new disk.
Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t2d0
Encapsulate this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) n
c1t2d0
Instead of encapsulating, initialize? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) y
Messages similar to the following should now confirm that disk c1t2d0 is
being placed under Volume Manager control. On some systems, you are
also given the option of performing surface analysis.

Initializing device c1t2d0.

Perform surface analysis (highly recommended)
[y,n,q,?] (default: y) n
Adding disk device c1t2d0 to disk group rootdg with disk
name disk39.
9. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to continue to
initialize more disks (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Add or initialize other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

Placing Multiple Disks Under Volume Manager Control

This section describes how to place multiple disks under Volume Manager
control simultaneously. The set of disks can consist of all disks on the system,
all disks on a controller, selected disks, or a combination thereof.

Depending on the circumstances, all of the disks may not be processed the
same way. For example, some may be initialized, while others may be
encapsulated.

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Note: Initialization does not preserve data on disks.

When initializing or encapsulating multiple disks at one time, it is possible to

exclude certain disks or certain controllers. To exclude disks, list the names of
the disks to be excluded in the file /etc/vx/[Link] before the
initialization or encapsulation. You can exclude all disks on specific controllers
from initialization or encapsulation by listing those controllers in the file
/etc/vx/[Link].

Place multiple disks under Volume Manager control at one time as follows:

1. Select menu item 1 (Add or initialize one or more disks) from the
vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the pattern-list for the disks to be added to
Volume Manager control. In this case, enter c3 to indicate all disks on
controller 3:
Add or initialize disks
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/AddDisks
Use this operation to add one or more disks to a disk group.
You can add the selected disks to an existing disk group or to
a new disk group that will be created as a part of the
operation. The selected disks may also be added to a disk
group as spares. The selected disks may also be initialized
without adding them to a disk group leaving the disks
available for use as replacement disks.
More than one disk or pattern may be entered at the prompt.
Here are some disk selection examples:
all: all disks
c3 c4t2: all disks on both controller 3 and
controller 4, target 2
c3t4d0: a single disk
Select disk devices to add:
[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?] c3
where <pattern-list> can be a single disk, or a series of disks and/or
controllers (with optional targets). If <pattern-list> consists of multiple
items, those items must be separated by white space.

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If you do not know the address (device name) of the disk to be added, enter
list at the prompt for a complete listing of available disks.

3. To continue the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following

prompt:
Here are the disks selected. Output format: [Device_Name]
c3t0d0 c3t1d0 c3t2d0 c3t3d0
Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

4. To add these disks to the default disk group, rootdg, enter y (or press
Return) at the following prompt:

You can choose to add these disks to an existing disk group, a

new disk group, or you can leave these disks available for use
by future add or replacement operations. To create a new disk
group, select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To
leave the disks available for future use, specify a disk group
name of “none”.
Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?] (default: rootdg) y

5. To allow vxdiskadm to use default disk names for each of the disks, enter
y (or Press Return) at the following prompt:
Use default disk names for these disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
6. At the following prompt, enter n to indicate that these disks should not be
used as hot-relocation spares:
Add disks as spare disks for rootdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n
7. To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following
prompt:

The selected disks will be added to the disk group rootdg with
default disk names.

c3t0d0 c3t1d0 c3t2d0 c3t3d0

Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

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8. The following prompt lists any disks that have already been initialized for
Volume Manager use; enter Y to indicate that all of these disks should be
used now:

The following disk devices appear to have been initialized

already.
The disks are currently available as replacement disks.
Output format: [Device_Name]
c3t1d0 c3t2d0 c3t3d0
Use these devices? [Y,N,S(elect),q,?] (default: Y) Y

Note that this prompt allows you to indicate “yes” or “no” for all of these disks
(Y or N) or to select how to process each of these disks on an individual basis
(S).

If you are sure that you want to reinitialize all of these disks, enter Y at the
following prompt:

The following disks you selected for use appear to already have
been initialized for the Volume Manager. If you are certain the
disks already have been initialized for the Volume Manager, then
you do not need to reinitialize these disk devices.
Output format: [Device_Name]

c3t1d0 c3t2d0 c3t3d0

Reinitialize these devices? [Y,N,S(elect),q,?] (default: Y) Y

9. vxdiskadm now indicates that one of the disks on controller 3 is a

candidate for encapsulation; enter y (or press Return) to encapsulate this
disk:

The following disk device has a valid VTOC, but does not appear
to have been initialized for the Volume Manager. If there is
data on the disk that should NOT be destroyed you should
encapsulate the existing disk partitions as volumes instead of
adding the disk as a new disk. Output format: [Device_Name]
c3t0d0
Encapsulate this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

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Encapsulation allows you to add an active disk to Volume Manager control
and preserve the data on that disk.

Note: Disk encapsulation requires that you reboot the system and may require
a few subsequent reboots. You will be prompted for these operations, as
necessary.

vxdiskadm now confirms those disks that are being initialized and added
to Volume Manager control with messages similar to the following:
Initializing device c3t1d0.
Initializing device c3t2d0.
Initializing device c3t3d0.
Adding disk device c3t1d0 to disk group rootdg with disk
name disk33.

Adding disk device c3t2d0 to disk group rootdg with disk

name disk34.

Adding disk device c3t3d0 to disk group rootdg with disk

name disk35.

In addition to the output displayed above, you may see prompts that give
you the option of performing surface analysis.

10. vxdiskadm then confirms any disks that have been selected for
encapsulation and prompts you for permission to proceed with the
encapsulation; enter y (or press Return) to continue encapsulation:

The following disk has been selected for encapsulation.

Output format: [Device_Name]
c3t0d0
Continue with encapsulation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
vxdiskadm now displays an encapsulation status and informs you that you
must perform a shutdown and reboot as soon as possible:

The disk device c3t0d0 will be encapsulated and added to the

disk group rootdg with the disk name disk38.

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The first stage of encapsulation has completed successfully.
You should now reboot your system at the earliest possible
opportunity.

The encapsulation will require two or three reboots which will

happen automatically after the next reboot. To reboot execute
the command:

shutdown -g0 -y -i6

This will update the /etc/vfstab file so that volume devices are
used to mount the file systems on this disk device. You will
need to update any other references such as backup scripts,
databases, or manually created swap devices.

11. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to continue to

initialize more disks (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Add or initialize other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

Encapsulating a Disk for Volume Manager Use

This section describes how to encapsulate a disk for Volume Manager use.
Encapsulation preserves any existing data on the disk when the disk is placed
under Volume Manager control.

To reduce the chance of encapsulation failure, make sure that the disk:
• has a small amount of free space (at the beginning or end of the disk) that
does not belong to any partition
• has two free partitions
• has an s2 (or s0 on some systems) slice that represents the whole disk

On some systems, when encapsulating the boot (root) disk, the swap partition
should be tagged as swap so that it’s possible to dump to that partition later.

Before encapsulating your boot disk, the EEPROM variable use-nvramrc?

must be set to true if you want to take advantage of the Volume Manager boot
disk aliases to identify the mirror of the boot disk if a replacement is needed. If
this variable is set to false, you need to determine which disks are bootable
yourself. You can set this variable to true as follows:

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eeprom use-nvramrc?=true

Encapsulate a disk for Volume Manager use as follows:

1. Select menu item 2 (Encapsulate one or more disks) from the

vxdiskadm main menu.

Note: Your system may use a device name that differs from the examples. See
Chapter 1, “Understanding Volume Manager,” in the VERITAS Volume Manager
Getting Started Guide, for more information on device names.

2. At the following prompt, enter the disk device name for the disks to be
encapsulated:

Encapsulate one or more disks

Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/Encapsulate

Use this operation to convert one or more disks to use the

Volume [Link] adds the disks to a disk group and
replaces existing partitions with volumes. Disk encapsulation
requires a reboot for the changes to take effect.

More than one disk or pattern may be entered at the prompt.

Here are some disk selection examples:

all: all disks

c3 c4t2: all disks on both controller 3 and controller
4,target 2
c3t4d0: a single disk

Select disk devices to encapsulate:

[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?] c2t5d0

Where <pattern-list> can be a single disk, or a series of disks and/or

controllers (with optional targets). If <pattern-list> consists of multiple
items, those items must be separated by white space.

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If you do not know the address (device name) of the disk to be
encapsulated, enter l or list at the prompt for a complete listing of
available disks.

3. To continue the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following

prompt:
Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name]
c2t5d0
Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

4. To add the disk to the default disk group, rootdg, press Return at the
following prompt:
You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group or to
a new disk group. To create a new disk group, select a disk
group name that does not yet exist.

Which disk group [<group>,list,q,?] (default: rootdg)

5. At the following prompt, either press Return to accept the default disk
name or enter a disk name:
Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

6. To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following
prompt:
The selected disks will be encapsulated and added to the rootdg
disk group with default disk names.
c2t5d0
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

7. To confirm that encapsulation should proceed, enter y (or press Return) at

the following prompt:
The following disk has been selected for encapsulation. Output
format: [Device_Name]
c2t5d0
Continue with encapsulation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

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A message similar to the following confirms that the disk is being
encapsulated for Volume Manager use and tells you that a reboot is needed:
The disk device c2t5d0 will be encapsulated and added to the
disk group rootdg with the disk name disk01.
The c2t5d0 disk has been configured for encapsulation.

The first stage of encapsulation has completed successfully.

You should now reboot your system at the earliest possible
opportunity.
The encapsulation will require two or three reboots which
will happen automatically after the next reboot. To reboot
execute the command:

shutdown -g0 -y -i6

This will update the /etc/vfstab file so that volume devices

are used to mount the file systems on this disk device. You
will need to update any other references such as backup
scripts, databases, or manually created swap devices.

8. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to encapsulate more

disks (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Encapsulate other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n

Under some circumstances, encapsulation of a disk can fail. Encapsulation

often fails because there is not enough free space available on the disk to
accommodate Volume Manager. If this happens, the procedure outlined above
ends abruptly with an error message similar to the following:
The disk device c2t5d0 will be encapsulated and added to the
disk group rootdg with the disk name disk01.

The encapsulation operation failed with the following error:

It is not possible to encapsulate c2t5d0, for the following

reason:
<vxvm:vxslicer: ERROR: Unsupported disk layout.>
Hit RETURN to continue.

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Adding a Disk for Future Use
If you want to add a disk to Volume Manager control for future use, follow the
steps outlined in “Bringing Physical Disks Under Volume Manager Control.”
However, when you are asked to name a disk group, enter none instead of
selecting rootdg or typing in a disk group name. The disk is then initialized as
before, but is reserved for use at a later time. It cannot be used until it is added
to a disk group.

Note that this type of “spare disk” should not be confused with a hot-
relocation spare disk.

Reinitializing a Disk for Volume Manager Use

This section describes how to reinitialize a disk that has previously been
initialized for Volume Manager use.

If the disk you want to add has been used before, but not with Volume
Manager, you can do either of the following:
• Encapsulate the disk and preserve its information (see “Encapsulating a
Disk for Volume Manager Use”).
• Reinitialize the disk, allowing the Volume Manager to configure the disk for
Volume Manager. Note that reinitialization does not preserve data on the
disk. If you wish to have the disk reinitialized, make sure that the disk does
not contain data that should be preserved.

Reinitialize a disk for Volume Manager use as follows:

1. Select menu item 1 (Add or initialize one or more disks) from the
vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the disk device name of the disk to be added
to Volume Manager control:
Add or initialize disks
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/AddDisks

Use this operation to add one or more disks to a disk group.

You can add the selected disks to an existing disk group or to
a new disk group that will be created as a part of the
operation. The selected disks may also be added to a disk group

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as spares. The selected disks may also be initialized without
adding them to a disk group leaving the disks available for use
as replacement disks.

More than one disk or pattern may be entered at the prompt. Here
are some disk selection examples:

all: all disks

c3 c4t2: all disks on both controller 3 and controller
4, target 2
c3t4d0: a single disk

Select disk devices to add:

[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?] c1t3d0

Where <pattern-list> can be a single disk, or a series of disks and/or

controllers (with optional targets). If <pattern-list> consists of multiple
items, those items must be separated by white space.
If you do not know the address (device name) of the disk to be added, enter
l or list at the prompt for a complete listing of available disks.

3. To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following
prompt:

Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name]

c1t3d0
Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

4. At the following prompt, specify the disk group to which the disk should be
added or press Return to accept rootdg:
You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group, a
new disk group, or leave the disk available for use by future
add or replacement operations. To create a new disk group,
select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To leave the
disk available for future use, specify a disk group name of
“none”.

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Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?] (default: rootdg)

5. At the following prompt, either press Return to accept the default disk
name or enter a disk name:
Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

6. When vxdiskadm asks whether this disk should become a hot-relocation

spare, enter n (or press Return):
Add disk as a spare disk for rootdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n

7. To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following
prompt:
The selected disks will be added to the disk group rootdg with
default disk names.
c1t3d0
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

8. The following prompt indicates that this disk has been previously
initialized for future Volume Manager use; enter y to confirm that you now
want to use this disk:
The following disk device appears to have been initialized
already. The disk is currently available as a replacement disk.
Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t3d0
Use this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

9. To reinitialize the disk, enter y (or press Return) at the following prompt:
The following disk you selected for use appears to already have
been initialized for the Volume Manager. If you are certain the
disk has already been initialized for the Volume Manager, then
you do not need to reinitialize the disk device.
Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t3d0
Reinitialize this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

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Messages similar to the following now confirm that this disk is being
reinitialized for Volume Manager use:
Initializing device c1t3d0.
Adding disk device c1t3d0 to disk group rootdg with disk
name disk40.

10. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to continue to

initialize more disks (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Add or initialize other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

Adding a VM Disk to the Hot-Relocation Pool

Hot-relocation allows the system to automatically react to I/O failure by
relocating redundant subdisks to other disks. Hot relocation then restores the
affected Volume Manager objects and data. If a disk has already been
designated as a spare in the disk group, the subdisks from the failed disk are
relocated to the spare disk. Otherwise, any suitable free space in the disk group
is used. Refer to Chapter 1, “The Command Line Interface” for more
information.

To designate a disk as a spare, do the following:

1. Select menu item 12 (Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group) from
the vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter a disk name (such as disk01):

Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/MarkSpareDisk
Use this operation to mark a disk as a spare for a disk group.
This operation takes, as input, a disk name. This is the same
name that you gave to the disk when you added the disk to the
disk group.

Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk01

vxdiskadm displays the following confirmation:

Marking of disk01 in rootdg as a spare disk is complete.

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3. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to add more disks as
spares (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Mark another disk as a spare? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
Any VM disk in this disk group can now use this disk as a spare in the
event of a failure. If a disk fails, hot-relocation should automatically occur
(if possible). You should be notified of the failure and relocation through
electronic mail. After successful relocation, you may want to replace the
failed disk.

Removing a VM Disk From the Hot-Relocation Pool

While a disk is designated as a spare, the space on that disk is not used as free
space for the creation of Volume Manager objects within its disk group. If
necessary, you can free a spare disk for general use by removing it from the
pool of hot-relocation disks.

To verify which disks are currently designated as spares, select the list menu
item from the vxdiskadm main menu. Disks that are spares are listed with the
spare flag.

To remove a disk from the hot-relocation pool, do the following:

1. Select menu item 13 (Turn off the spare flag on a disk) from the
vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the name of a spare disk (such as disk01):
Turn off the spare flag on a disk
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/UnmarkSpareDisk

Use this operation to turn off the spare flag on a disk.

This operation takes, as input, a disk name. This is the same
name that you gave to the disk when you added the disk to the
disk group.

Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk01

vxdiskadm displays the following confirmation:
Disk disk01 in rootdg no longer marked as a spare disk.

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3. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to disable more spare
disks (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Turn-off spare flag on another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

Displaying Information on Physical Disks

Displaying disk information shows you which disks are initialized, to which
disk groups they belong, and the disk status. The list command displays
device names for all recognized disks, the disk names, the disk group names
associated with each disk, and the status of each disk.

To display disk information, do the following:

1. Select list from the vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following display, enter the address of the disk you want to see or
enter all for a list of all disks:
List disk information
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/ListDisk

Use this menu operation to display a list of disks. You can

also choose to list detailed information about the disk at
a specific disk device address.

Enter disk device or "all" [<address>,all,q,?] (default: all)

• If you enter all, the Volume Manager displays the following

information (some systems may display rootdisk in place of
c0t0d0s2):
DEVICE DISK GROUP STATUS
c0t0d0 c0t0d0s2 rootdg online
c1t0d0 disk01 rootdg online
c1t1d0 - - online

Device to list in detail [<address>,none,q,?] (default: none)

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• If you enter the address of the device for which you want information,
complete disk information (including the device name, the type of disk,
and information about the public and private partitions of the disk) is
shown.
Once you have examined this information, press Return to return to the
main menu.

Removing a Physical Disk

Before removing a disk, make sure it contains no data, all data no longer
needed, or the data can be moved to other disks. Then remove the disk as
follows:

1. Select menu item 3 (Remove a disk) from the vxdiskadm main menu.

Note: You must disable the disk group before you can remove the last disk in
that group.

2. At the following prompt, enter the disk name of the disk to be removed:
Remove a disk
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/RemoveDisk

Use this operation to remove a disk from a disk group. This

operation takes a disk name as input. This is the same name
that you gave to the disk when you added the disk to the disk
group.

Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk01

3. If there are any volumes on the disk, the Volume Manager asks you whether
they should be evacuated from the disk. If you wish to keep the volumes,
answer y. Otherwise, answer n.

4. At the following verification prompt, press Return to continue:

Requested operation is to remove disk disk01 from group rootdg.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

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vxdiskadm removes the disk from the disk group and displays the
following success message:
Removal of disk disk01 is complete.
You can now remove the disk or leave it on your system as a replacement.

5. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to remove other disks
(y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Remove another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

Disabling a Physical Disk (Taking a Physical Disk Offline)

You can take a disk offline. If the disk is corrupted, you need to take it offline
and remove it. You may be moving the physical disk device to another location
to be connected to another system. To take a disk offline, first remove it from
its disk group, then do the following:

1. Select menu item 11 (Disable (offline) a disk device) from the

vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the address of the disk you want to disable:
Disable (offline) a disk device
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/OfflineDisk
Use this menu operation to disable all access to a disk device
by the Volume Manager. This operation can be applied only to
disks that are not currently in a disk group. Use this operation
if you intend to remove a disk from a system without rebooting.
NOTE: Many systems do not support disks that can be removed from
a system during normal operation. On such systems, the
offline operation is seldom useful.

Select a disk device to disable [<address>,list,q,?] c1t1d0

vxdiskadm disables the specified disk.

3. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to disable another

device (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Disable another device? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

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Enabling a Physical Disk
If you move a disk from one system to another during normal system
operation, the Volume Manager does not recognize the disk automatically. Use
the enable disk task to get Volume Manager to scan the disk to identify it, and
to determine if this disk is part of a disk group. Also, use this task to re-enable
access to a disk that was disabled by either the disk group deport task or the
disk device disable (offline) task. To enable a disk, do the following:

1. Select menu item 10 (Enable (online) a disk device) from the

vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the device name of the disk to be enabled
(or enter list for a list of devices):
Enable (online) a disk device
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/OnlineDisk

Use this operation to enable access to a disk that was disabled

with the “Disable (offline) a disk device” operation.

You can also use this operation to re-scan a disk that may have
been changed outside of the Volume Manager. For example, if a
disk is shared between two systems, the Volume Manager running
on the other system may have changed the disk. If so, you can
use this operation to re-scan the disk.

NOTE: Many vxdiskadm operations re-scan disks without user

intervention. This will eliminate most needs to online a
disk directly, except when the disk is directly offlined.
Select a disk device to enable [<address>,list,q,?] c1t1d0

vxdiskadm enables the specified device.

3. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to enable another

device (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Enable another device? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

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Replacing a Physical Disk
If a disk fails, you need to replace that disk with another. This task requires
disabling and removing the failed disk and installing a new disk in its place. To
replace a disk, do the following:

1. Select menu item 4 (Remove a disk for replacement) from the

vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the name of the disk to be replaced (or enter
list for a list of disks):
Remove a disk for replacement
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/RemoveForReplace

Use this menu operation to remove a physical disk from a disk

group, while retaining the disk name. This changes the state
for the disk name to a removed disk. If there are any

initialized disks that are not part of a disk group, you will be
given the option of using one of these disks as a replacement.

Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk02

Additional displays show any volumes associated with the disk you wish to
remove. You must decide whether to keep the data associated with the
volumes or to allow that data to be lost when the disk is replaced. Answer
any prompts accordingly.

3. At the following prompt, either select the device name of the replacement
disk (from the list provided) or press Return to choose the default disk:
The following devices are available as replacements:
c1t1d0

You can choose one of these disks now, to replace disk02.

Select “none” if you do not wish to select a replacement disk.

Choose a device, or select “none”

[<device>,none,q,?] (default: c1t1d0)

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4. At the following prompt, press Return to continue:
Requested operation is to remove disk disk02 from group rootdg.
The removed disk will be replaced with disk device c1t1d0.

Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

vxdiskadm displays the following success messages:

Removal of disk disk02 completed successfully.
Proceeding to replace disk02 with device c1t1d0.

Disk replacement completed successfully.

5. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to remove another

disk (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Remove another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

Replacing a Failed or Removed Disk

Disks can be removed and then replaced later. To do this, use menu item
4 (Remove a disk for replacement) to remove a disk, then do the
following:

1. Select menu item 5 (Replace a failed or removed disk) from the

vxdiskadm main menu.

2. Select the disk name of the disk to be replaced:

Replace a failed or removed disk
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/ReplaceDisk

Use this menu operation to specify a replacement disk for a disk

that you removed with the “Remove a disk for replacement” menu
operation, or that failed during use. You will be prompted for
a disk name to replace and a disk device to use as a replacement
. You can choose an uninitialized disk, in which case the disk
will be initialized, or you can choose a disk that you have
already initialized using the Add or initialize a disk menu
operation.

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Select a removed or failed disk [<disk>,list,q,?] disk02

3. vxdiskadm displays the device names of the disk devices available for use
as replacement disks; enter the device name of the device of your choice or
press Return to select the default device:

Note: Your system may use a device name that differs from the examples. See
Chapter 1, “Understanding Volume Manager,” in the VERITAS Volume
Manaager Getting Started Guide, for more information on device names.

The following devices are available as replacements:

c1t0d0s2 c1t1d0s2

You can choose one of these disks to replace disk02.

Choose "none" to initialize another disk to replace disk02.

Choose a device, or select "none"

[<device>,none,q,?] (default: c1t0d0s2)

4. At the following prompt, press Return to replace the disk:

The requested operation is to use the initialized device
c1t0d0s2 to replace the removed or failed disk disk02 in disk
group rootdg.

Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

vxdiskadm displays the following success message:

Replacement of disk disk02 in group rootdg with disk device
c1t0d0s2 completed successfully.

5. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to replace another disk
(y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Replace another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

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Volume Tasks
This section describes the volume tasks that can be performed with the Volume
Manager Support Operations. These volume tasks are used to protect data in
case of device failures.

Mirroring Volumes on a VM Disk

Mirroring the volumes on a VM disk gives you one or more copies of your
volumes in another disk location. By creating mirror copies of your volumes,
you protect your system against loss of data in case of a disk failure. You can
use this task on your root disk to make a second copy of the boot information
available on an alternate disk. This allows you to boot your system even if
your root disk is corrupted.

Note: This task only mirrors concatenated volumes. Volumes that are already
mirrored or that contain subdisks that reside on multiple disks are ignored.

To mirror volumes on a disk, make sure that the target disk has an equal or
greater amount of space as the originating disk and then do the following:

1. Select menu item 6 (Mirror volumes on a disk) from the vxdiskadm

main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the disk name of the disk that you wish to
mirror:

Mirror volumes on a disk

Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/Mirror

This operation can be used to mirror volumes on a disk. These

volumes can be mirrored onto another disk or onto any
available disk space. Volumes will not be mirrored if they are
already mirrored. Also, volumes that are comprised of more than
one subdisk will not be mirrored.

Mirroring volumes from the boot disk will produce a disk that
can be used as an alternate boot disk.

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Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk02

3. At the following prompt, enter the target disk name (this disk must be the
same size or larger than the originating disk):
You can choose to mirror volumes from disk disk02 onto any
available disk space, or you can choose to mirror onto a
specific disk. To mirror to a specific disk, select the name of
that disk. To mirror to any available disk space, select "any".

Enter destination disk [<disk>,list,q,?] (default: any) disk01

Note: Be sure to always specify the destination disk when you are creating an
alternate root disk. Otherwise, the Volume Manager selects a disk to be the
alternate root disk. However, your system may not be able to boot from that
disk.

4. At the following prompt, press Return to make the mirror:

The requested operation is to mirror all volumes on disk disk02
in disk group rootdg onto available disk space on disk disk01.

NOTE: This operation can take a long time to complete.

Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

vxdiskadm displays the status of the mirroring operation:

Mirror volume voltest-bk00 ...
Mirroring of disk disk01 is complete.

5. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to mirror volumes on

another disk (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):

Mirror volumes on another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

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Moving Volumes from a VM Disk
Before you disable or remove a disk, you may want to move the data from that
disk to other disks on the system. To do this, make sure that the target disks
have sufficient space, then do the following:

1. Select menu item 7 (Move volumes from a disk) from the vxdiskadm
main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the disk name of the disk whose volumes
you wish to move:
Move volumes from a disk
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/Evacuate

Use this menu operation to move any volumes that are using a
disk onto other disks. Use this menu immediately prior to
removing a disk, either permanently or for replacement. You can
specify a list of disks to move volumes onto, or you can move
the volumes to any available disk space in the same disk group.

NOTE: Simply moving volumes off of a disk, without also removing

the disk, does not prevent volumes from being moved onto
the disk by future operations. For example, using two
consecutive move operations may move volumes from the
second disk to the first.
Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] disk01

After the following display, you can optionally specify a list of disks to
which the volume(s) should be moved.
You can now specify a list of disks to move onto. Specify a list
of disk media names (e.g., disk01) all on one line separated by
blanks. If you do not enter any disk media names, then the
volumes will be moved to any available space in the disk group.

3. At the following prompt, press Return to move the volumes:

Requested operation is to move all volumes from disk disk01 in
group rootdg.

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NOTE: This operation can take a long time to complete.

Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

As the volumes are moved from the disk, vxdiskadm displays the status of
the operation:
Move volume voltest ...
Move volume voltest-bk00 ...

When the volumes have all been moved, vxdiskadm displays the following
success message:
Evacuation of disk disk01 is complete.

4. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to move volumes from
another disk (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Move volumes from another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

Disk Group Tasks

The following sections describe disk group tasks available with the Volume
Manager Support operations.

Adding a Disk to a Disk Group

You may wish to add a new disk to an already established disk group. For
example, the current disks may have insufficient space for the project or work
group requirements, especially if these requirements have changed. You can
add a disk to a disk group by following the steps required to add a disk. Refer
to “Bringing Physical Disks Under Volume Manager Control.”

Creating a Disk Group

You may want all data related to a particular set of applications of a particular
group of users needs to be made accessible on another system. Examples of
this are:
• A system has failed and its data must be moved to other systems.

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• The work load must be balanced across a number of systems.

In these cases, it is important that the data related to particular application(s)

or users be located on an identifiable set of disk drives. When these disks are
moved, all data belonging to the application(s) or users on these disks, and no
other data, is moved.

Note: The Volume Manager supports a default disk group, rootdg, in which
all volumes are created if no further specification is given. All commands
default to rootdg as well.

A disk group can only be created along with a disk. A disk group must have at
least one disk associated with it.

If you need to create a disk group in addition to rootdg, do the following:

1. Select menu item 1 (Add or initialize one or more disks) from the
vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the disk device name of the disk to be added
to Volume Manager control:

Add or initialize disks

Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/AddDisks

Use this operation to add one or more disks to a disk group.

You can add the selected disks to an existing disk group or
to a new disk group that will be created as a part of the
operation. The selected disks may also be added to a disk
group as spares. The selected disks may also be initialized
without adding them to a disk group leaving the disks
available for use as replacement disks.

More than one disk or pattern may be entered at the prompt.

Here are some disk selection examples:

all: all disks

c3c4t2: all disks on both controller 3 and controller
4, target 2

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c3t4d0: a single disk

Select disk devices to add:

[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?] c1t2d0

Where <pattern-list> can be a single disk, or a series of disks and/or

controllers (with optional targets). If <pattern-list> consists of multiple
items, those items must be separated by white space.
If you do not know the address (device name) of the disk to be added, enter
l or list at the prompt for a listing of all disks.

3. To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following
prompt:
Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t2d0
Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

4. At the following prompt, specify the disk group to which the disk should be
added (anotherdg, in this case):
You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group, a
new disk group, or leave the disk available for use by future
add or replacement operations. To create a new disk group,
select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To leave the
disk available for future use, specify a disk group name of
“none”.

Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?] (default: rootdg)

anotherdg

5. vxdiskadm confirms that no active disk group currently exists with the
same name and prompts for confirmation that you really want to create this
new disk group:
There is no active disk group named anotherdg.
Create a new group named anotherdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

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6. At the following prompt, either press Return to accept the default disk
name or enter a disk name:
Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)

7. When vxdiskadm asks whether this disk should become a hot-relocation

spare, enter n (or press Return):
Add disk as a spare disk for anotherdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n

8. To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following
prompt:
A new disk group will be created named anotherdg and the
selected disks will be added to the disk group with default disk
names.
c1t2d0
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

9. The following prompt appears if this disk was previously initialized for
future Volume Manager use; enter y to confirm that you now want to use
this disk:
The following disk device appears to have been initialized
already. The disk is currently available as a replacement disk.
Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t2d0
Use this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

If you are sure you want to reinitialize the disk, enter y (or press Return) at
the following prompt:
The following disk you selected for use appears to already have
been initialized for the Volume Manager. If you are certain the
disk has already been initialized for the Volume Manager, then
you do not need to reinitialize the disk device.
Output format: [Device_Name]
c1t2d0
Reinitialize this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

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Messages similar to the following confirm that this disk is being
reinitialized for Volume Manager use:
Initializing device c1t2d0.
Creating a new disk group named anotherdg containing the disk
device c1t2d0 with the name another01.

10. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to continue to

initialize more disks (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Add or initialize other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

Deporting a Disk Group

Use the deport disk group task to disable access to a disk group that is
currently enabled (imported) by this system. Deport a disk group if you intend
to move the disks in a disk group to another system. Also, deport a disk group
if you want to use all of the disks remaining in a disk group for some new
purpose.

To deport a disk group, do the following:

1. Select menu item 9 (Remove access to (deport) a disk group) from

the vxdiskadm main menu.

2. At the following prompt, enter the name of the disk group to be deported:
Remove access to (deport) a disk group
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/DeportDiskGroup

Use this menu operation to remove access to a disk group that is

currently enabled (imported) by this system. Deport a disk
group if you intend to move the disks in a disk group to another
system. Also, deport a disk group if you want to use all of the
disks remaining in a disk group for some new purpose.

You will be prompted for the name of a disk group. You will also
be asked if the disks should be disabled (offlined). For
removable disk devices on some systems, it is important to
disable all access to the disk before removing the disk.

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Enter name of disk group [<group>,list,q,?] (default: list)
newdg

3. At the following prompt, enter y if you intend to remove the disks in this
disk group:
The requested operation is to disable access to the removable
disk group named newdg. This disk group is stored on the
following disks:
newdg01 on device c1t1d0s2

You can choose to disable access to (also known as “offline”)

these disks. This may be necessary to prevent errors if
you actually remove any of the disks from the system.

Disable (offline) the indicated disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

4. At the following prompt, press Return to continue with the operation:
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
Once the disk group is deported, vxdiskadm displays the following
message:
Removal of disk group newdg was successful.

5. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to disable another disk
group (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Disable another disk group? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

Importing a Disk Group

Use this menu task to enable access by this system to a disk group. If you wish
to move a disk group from one system to another, you must first disable
(deport) it on the original system, then move the disk between systems and
enable (import) the disk group.

To import a disk group, do the following:

1. Select menu item 8 (Enable access to (import) a disk group) from

the vxdiskadm main menu.

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2. At the following prompt, enter the name of the disk group to import:
Enable access to (import) a disk group
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/EnableDiskGroup

Use this operation to enable access to a disk group. This can be

used as the final part of moving a disk group from one system to
another. The first part of moving a disk group is to use the
“Remove access to (deport) a disk group” operation on the
original host.

A disk group can be imported from another host that failed

without first deporting the disk group. Be sure that all disks
in the disk group are moved between hosts.

If two hosts share a SCSI bus, be very careful to ensure that

the other host really has failed or has deported the disk group.
If two active hosts import a disk group at the same time, the
disk group will be corrupted and will become unusable.

Select disk group to import [<group>,list,q,?] (default: list)

newdg

Once the import is complete, vxdiskadm displays the following success

message:
The import of newdg was successful.

3. At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to import another disk
group (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Select another disk group? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

Exiting the Volume Manager Support Tasks

When you have completed all of your disk administration activities, exit the
Volume Manager Support Operations by selecting q from the main menu.

142 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

Index

A disk device names, 2

adding concatenated volume
a disk, 12, 103 creating, 38
a disk for future use, 121 controller, 107
a disk to a disk group, 17, 136 copying mirrors
a DRL log, 46 vxplex, 85
a mirror to a volume, 45 creating
a RAID-5 log, 46 a concatenated volume, 38
associating log subdisks, 73 a disk group, 136
vxsd, 74 a RAID-5 volume, 39
associating mirrors a spanned volume, 38
vxmake, 77 a striped volume, 39
associating plexes a volume, 2, 36
vxmake, 77 a volume on a VM disk, 38
associating subdisks creating mirrors
vxmake, 72 vxmake, 76
vxsd, 73 creating subdisks, 70
vxmake, 70
creating volumes
B manually, 60
backing up a volume, 50 vxassist, 60
backups, 55
mirrors, 78
vxassist, 56
D
boot disk daemons
mirroring, 20 configuration, 65
decreasing volume size, 43
defaults file
C vxassist, 63
cli deporting

143
 a disk group, 105, 140 moving volumes from, 105
description file, 66 removing, 21, 104
device name, 107 replacing, 104, 130
reserving, 16
devname, 107
taking offline, 19
Dirty Region Logging, 46
reinitializing, 121
log subdisks, 74
removing, 127
disabling root disk, 20
a disk, 106, 128 VM
a disk group, 105, 140 creating a volume on, 38
disk access name, 107 displaying
disk groups disk group information, 32
adding a disk, 136 disk information, 22, 126
creating, 25, 136, 137 free disk space, 5
default, 25, 137 multipath information, 23
deporting, 140 volume configuration, 54
disabling, 140 displaying subdisks
displaying information, 32 vxprint, 71
enabling, 105
dissociating mirrors
importing, 32, 141
vxplex, 52, 78
initializing, 25, 137
DMP configuration, 65
moving, 32
renaming, 30 DRL, 46
disk information, displaying, 126
disk media name, 107 E
disks, 107 enabling
adding for future use, 121 a disk, 106, 129
boot disk, 20 a disk group, 105
disabling, 128 access to a disk group, 141
displaying information, 126 encapsulating a disk, 103
enabling, 129
encapsulating disks, 117
encapsulation, 103, 117
encapsulation, 103, 117
hot-relocation spares, 15, 124
mirroring volumes on, 133 exiting
moving volumes from, 135 vxdiskadm, 142
physical
adding, 12, 103 F
adding to disk group, 17
free space
bringing under VxVM control, 12
displaying, 5
disabling, 106
displaying information, 22
enabling, 106
listing information, 106

144 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

H dissociating, 52, 77, 78
offline, 49, 50, 82
hot-relocation, 15, 106, 124
online, 49, 50
designating spares, 15, 124
removing, 52, 77, 78
removing spares, 15, 125
moving
volumes from a disk, 105, 135
I moving disk groups
importing a disk group, 105, 141 vxdg, 32
increasing volume size, 40 vxrecover, 32
information, 75 moving mirrors, 84
vxplex, 84
moving subdisks
J vxsd, 53
joining subdisks
vxsd, 54
N
name
L device, 107
listing disk access, 107
disk information, 106 disk media, 107
listing mirrors
vxprint, 80
O
log
adding, 46 OFFLINE, 82
RAID-5, 46 offlining
log subdisks, 73 a disk, 19, 106, 128
associating, 73, 74 online backup, 56
online relayout, 92
command line use, 94
M examples, 96
managing volumes, 2 finding status, 99
menu interface, 101 how it works, 93
mirroring, 105 starting, stopping, reversing, 98
all volumes, 46 transformation details, 100
boot disk, 20 when to use it, 94
root disk, 20 ownership, 91
volumes on a disk, 133
mirrors P
adding to a volume, 45
backup using, 78 partitions
creating, 76 UNIX, 107
displaying, 80 pathname of a device, 107

Index 145
 permission, 92 S
plexes size
attach, 67 volumes
attaching, 82, 83 decreasing, 43
changing information, 80 increasing, 40
copying, 84
slice, 107
creating, 76
detach, 67 snapshot, 56, 57
detaching, 82 RAID-5, 56
displaying, 80 spanned volume
listing, 80 creating, 38
moving, 84 splitting subdisks
offline, 49, 50 vxsd, 53
online, 49, 50 starting
putil, 80 vxdiskadm, 102
striped volume
creating, 39
R
subdisks, 60
RAID-5 associating, 72, 73
snapshot, 56 changing information, 75
RAID-5 log, 46 creating, 70
RAID-5 volume displaying, 71
creating, 39 dissociating, 74
recovery joining, 54
volumes, 51 log, 73
reinitializing disks, 121 moving, 53
removing operations, 70
a disk, 104, 127 removing, 71
a DRL, 46 splitting, 53
a physical disk, 21
a RAID-5 log, 47 T
a volume, 43
tutil, 80
removing mirrors, 52
removing subdisks
vxedit, 71 U
replacing a disk, 104, 130 UNIX partition, 107
reserving disks for special purposes, 16 utility descriptions
root disk vxassist, 61
mirroring, 20 vxdctl, 65
vxedit, 44
vxmake, 65
vxmend, 68

146 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide

 vxplex, 67 creating, 39
vxprint, 68 vxassist, 2, 40, 45, 55, 56, 57, 61, 62, 85, 86
vxsd, 67 backup, 56
vxstat, 68 creating volumes, 60
vxvol, 69 defaults, 63
description of, 61
V growby, 40
growto, 40
vm disk operations, 22 shrinkby, 40
Volume Manager, 1 shrinkto, 40
volumes, 85, 91 vxassist addlog, 46
adding a mirror, 45 vxassist growby, 41
backing up, 50
vxassist growto, 41
changing information, 91
vxassist make, 17, 38
concatenated, creating, 38
creating, 2, 36, 85 vxassist snapshot, 51
concatenated, 38 vxassist snapstart, 51
decreasing size, 43 vxconfigd, 65
displaying, 90 vxdctl, 65
displaying configuration, 54 description of, 65
error policies, 91 vxdg, 32
estimating size, 89 moving disk groups, 32
increasing size, 40 vxdg free, 5
initializing, 87, 88
vxdg list, 32
kernel state, 69
managing, 2 vxdg rmdisk, 22
mirroring, 45 vxdisk list, 22
mirroring all existing volumes, 46 vxdisk rm, 22
mirroring on disk, 133 vxdiskadd, 12, 23, 25
moving from disk, 135 vxdiskadm
operations, 69 starting, 102
permissions, 91 vxedit, 44, 53, 71, 75, 78, 80
RAID-5 description of, 44
creating, 39 removing subdisks, 71
read policy, 42
vxedit rename, 16
recovery, 51
removing, 43 vxedit set, 17
removing a RAID-5 log from, 47 vxmake, 46, 65, 66, 70, 72, 76, 77, 86, 87
spanned associating mirrors, 77
creating, 38 associating subdisks, 72
starting, 48, 49 creating mirrors, 76
stopping, 48, 49 creating subdisks, 70
striped description of, 65

Index 147
 vxmend, 49, 50, 52, 68, 82, 83
vxplex, 46, 53, 67, 77, 78, 79, 82, 83, 84
copying mirrors, 85
description of, 67
dissociating mirrors, 52, 78
moving mirrors, 84
vxprint, 3, 54, 68, 71, 80, 90
description of, 68
displaying subdisks, 71
listing mirrors, 80
vxrecover
moving disk groups, 32
vxsd, 53, 67, 73, 74
associating log subdisks, 74
associating subdisks, 73
description of, 67
joining subdisks, 54
moving subdisks, 53
splitting subdisks, 53
vxstat, 68
description of, 68
vxtrace, 69
VxVM, 1
vxvol, 40, 42, 69, 83, 87, 88
description of, 69

148 VERITAS Volume Manager Command Line Interface Administrator’s Guide