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XPert Transcript: Solaris Data Technologies - Filesystems and beyond
Chris Baker - Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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Last Updated June 2002
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- Can I use Solaris software to access and manage all the storage in my enterprise?
- What is Solaris Volume Manager?
- I'm currently using Solstice Disksuite - can I easily update to Solaris Volume Manager?
- What are the advantages of having integrated Volume Management in the Solaris 9 OE?
- Can I use Sun Management Center to manage my storage under Solaris?
- What tools do I have to manage storage devices under the Solaris Volume Manager?
- Can I run a database (e.g. Oracle) directly on Sun's UFS file system and still expect good performance?
- ...for fast IO performance on millions of small files....Can Sun can provide a solution in the Solaris 9 release?
- Can I use [the Sun StorEdge(TM) Traffic Manager feature] to support another vendor's SAN storage device, such as HP VA7400 for fibre channel multi-pathing?
- How do I make a directory permanently writable...?
- How do I find the permissions of a user for a specific file system?
- I've done a restoration of the operating system from a Netra T1 to an E220R....
- ....is there any advantage to upgrading from SDS on our smaller mahines as well?
- How can I use the hardware compression of my Exabute Mammoth tape drive with the Solaris 2.5.1 release?
- How can I make bootable CDs for the Solaris 8 operating environment?
- Where do I find all of the information concerning Y2K bugs and fixes...?
- ....How do I extract a power failure signal from the UPS?....
- I need a software program that will read PC disks without corrupting the data.
- What, if any, are the advantages of Sun Volume Manager over Veritas Volume Manager?
- What is the methodology for converting/migrating Veritas Volume Manager disk management to the new Sun Volume Manager disk management?
Q:
Can I use Solaris software to access and manage all the storage in my enterprise?
A:
Yes, the Solaris OE with its integral file system, volume management and storage
management capabilities plus NFS will operate with all forms of storage:
directly attached, SAN and NAS implementations.
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Q:
What is Solaris Volume Manager?
A:
Solaris Volume Manager is the name for Sun's tightly integrated disk and
storage management solution. Based on Sun's Solstice Disksuite (SDS) technology,
it is now a component of the Solaris Operating Environment and will be
maintained as part of the Solaris platform.
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Q:
I'm currently using Solstice Disksuite - can I easily update to Solaris
Volume Manager?
A:
Yes. The fact that Volume Management is part of Solaris when it is installed
means that you can easily upgrade systems running earlier releases of Solaris
and Solstice Disksuite. This applies to all Solaris releases from 2.6 to 8.
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Q:
What are the advantages of having integrated Volume Management in the Solaris
9 OE?
A:
By integrating the Solaris Volume Manager code into the Solaris Operating
Environment, the volume management functionality is tested and updated as part
of Solaris software. For
the customer this means lower deployment risk and reduced TCO compared to adding
third party products.
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Q:
Can I use Sun Management Center to manage my storage under Solaris?
A:
Yes. You can manage your storage through SNMP agents which monitor Solaris
Volume Manager and notify events to Sun Management Center, as well as compatible
third party system management solutions.
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Q:
What tools do I have to manage storage devices under the Solaris Volume
Manager?
A:
Solaris Volume Manager has a CIM/WBEM API which provides monitoring and
control functions. Command line tools are provided for customers who develop
their own scripts for common storage management tasks. In addition, a plug-in
for the Solaris Management Console offers GUI-driven wizards to guide
administrators through common storage allocation tasks; these Java-based wizards
also log the commands which are executed by the wizard to provide scripts which
can then be customised to facilitate automation.
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Q:
Can I run a database (e.g. Oracle) directly on Sun's UFS file system and still
expect good performance?
A:
Yes. Improvements in file system performance have been delivered though
Solaris 8 OE updates, and this trend will continue for the Solaris 9 OE. We already find
that many customers rely on Sun's UFS file system and volume management. Not only
does this deliver adequate performance for the majority of applications, it also
reduces cost and risk compared with having to integrate and manage third party
solutions for storage access.
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Q:
I am evaluating SGI/XFS and RaiserFS on Linux for fast IO performance on
millions of small files. I know that Veritas has a good product for the
Solaris operating environment. Can Sun can provide a solution in
the Solaris 9 release?
A:
In UFS, the file system in the Solaris OE, improvements were made to the
Dynamic Name Lookup Cache (DNLS) that resulted in huge improvements
in performance when handling millions of files per directory. These
improvements were included in the Solaris 8 release. In the Solaris 9
release, we continued to improve performance, especially in the area of
logging.
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Q:
The Sun StorEdge(TM) Traffic Manager feature supports multiple paths for I/O
devices, such as Fibre Channel-accessible storage. Can I use this feature to
support another vendor's SAN storage device, such as HP VA7400 for fibre channel
multi-pathing?
A:
Sun support provides drivers for third party HBAs connected to specific
Sun storage products.
It is possible that other storage products may operate with the
StorEdge Traffic Manager, but I do not believe that support is available
from Sun for such configurations.
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Q:
How do I make a directory permanently writable by anyone in the group that
owns the directory?
A:
I'm not sure what you mean by "permanently writeable." However, you should find
answers in the setfacl
and chmod
man pages.
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Q:
How do I find the permissions of a user for a specific file system? For
example, user x has permissions on different directories like j,k,l and n.
A:
Refer to the setfacl
and getfacl man pages.
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Q:
I've done a restoration of the operating system from a Netra T1 to an E220R.
The first problem I am encountering is that after the restoration and
bootblock, I have restarted the server with option init 6. I get the
following error:
Error: Can?t find driver for console frame buffer configuring IPV4 interfaces:
hme0
I noticed that this could be due to interface problem. I booted from the CD-ROM
and changed the hostname.eri0 to hostname hme0. After that I was able to boot.
I am now getting this error message:
failed to open /etc/coreadm.confsyseventd:unable to open dameon look
file '/etc/sysvent/syseventd_lock'
Can you provide a solution?
A:
I would suggest that you contact your Sun support representative for
assistance. Having said that, it is not clear to me that the operation
you have attempted is supported across your two hardware platforms.
An initial installation of the operating system may be a more apporpriate
solution.
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Q:
We use DiskSuite on almost all of our machines, including Netras and
workstations, for mirroring drivers for fault tolerance.
I can see the advantage of volume management for large storage arrays and
databases, but is there any advantage to upgrading from SDS on our smaller
machines as well?
A:
All I can say is that it depends! Many users are happy with UFS and
managing at the file system level on smaller systems. But, if there are
specific aspects of volume management that appeal to you, there is no reason
not to use SDS or the Solaris Volume Manager that is integrated in the
Solaris 9 release.
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Q:
How can I use the hardware compression of my Exabute Mammoth tape drive
with the Solaris 2.5.1 release? The default devices like /dev/nrst28 do
not support compression.
A:
No new features will be added to the Solaris 2.5.1 release. If you need
to support this functionality, I would suggest that you upgrade
to a more current version of the Solaris operating environment,
for example the Solaris 8 or Solaris 9 release. For more information,
read the st man page.
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Q:
How can I make bootable CDs for the Solaris 8 operating environment?
A:
Refer to the instructions for the
Free Solaris Binary License Program.
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Q:
Where do I find all of the information concerning Y2K bugs and fixes for
the Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 releases for the upcoming years 2004,
2036, and any years in between?
A:
Sun made a successful transition to Y2000. You can find information
about this transition at the Year 2000 Program
web site. We do not anticipate any future date-related isses.
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Q:
I want to run an automatic shutdown script from an enterprise server. I want
to add a UPS (APC) serial port to system serial port connectivity. How do
I extract a power failure signal from the UPS? Can I add this failure
signal in my script to initiate the system shutdown with the timer option?
Also, how dow I shutdown a Windows server using a script delivered from a
Solaris system?
A:
Regarding your questions about the UPS, Isuggest that you work with your
UPS vendor to understand the functionality of the drivers that they supply.
Sun does not support Windows servers. I cannot think of a clean way to
remotely shutdown a Windows server. You may find help in other newsgroups
related to such topics.
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Q:
I need a software program that will read PC disks without corrupting the data.
The project that I am working on requires a PC user to download a Solaris file
over the internet and transfer it via floppy or other disk to a Sun machine.
A:
PC file systems can be mounted from a floppy. For more details, refer to
the pcfs man page.
There are also some open source packages that manipulate PC files.
It's a pity that you don't appear to have a network connection between your
Sun and PC systems.
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Q:
What, if any, are the advantages of Sun Volume Manager over Veritas Volume
Manager?
A:
The
Comprehensive Data Management Using Solaris Volume Manger Software white
paper provides details about the Solaris Volume Manager features.
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Q:
What is the methodology for converting/migrating Veritas Volume
Manager disk management to the new Sun Volume Manager disk management?
A:
With the release of the Solaris Volume Manager software, we have had a
number of inquiries on this subject and are currently developing some
documentation on how to approach such a migration. In the meanwhile,
if you plan on moving to the Solaris Volume Manager software I would
suggest engaging your local Sun Professional Services organization to
help you do this work. They can be contacted through your Sun sales
representative.
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