System Administration Commands metassist(1M)
NAME
metassist - automated volume creation utility to support
Solaris Volume Manager
SYNOPSIS
metassist -V
metassist -?
metassist create [-v n] [-c] -F configfile
metassist create [-v n] [-c -d] -F requestfile
metassist create [-v n] [-c -d] [-f] [-n name]
[-p datapaths] [-r redundancy]
[-a available [,available,...]
[-u unavailable [,unavailable,...] -s setname -S size
metassist create -?
DESCRIPTION
The metassist command provides assistance, through automa-
tion, with common Solaris Volume Manager tasks.
SUBCOMANDS
The following subcommands are supported:
create The create subcommand creates one or more Solaris
Volume Manager volumes. You can specify this
request on the command line or in a file specified
on the command line.
If you create a volume using the command line, you
can specify the characteristics of the volume in
terms of the desired quality of service it will
provide - its size, the number of redundant copies
of the data it contains, the number of data paths
by which it is accessible, and whether faulty com-
ponents are replaced automatically. The diskset in
which the volume will reside and the volume's size
must be specified on the command line in this form
of the command.
If you create a volume using a request in a file,
you can specify the characteristics of the volume
in terms of the quality of service they provide,
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as on the command line. Alternatively, the file
can specify the types and component parts of the
volume, (for example, mirrors, stripes, concatena-
tions, and their component slices). The file may
also specify volumes partly in terms of their
types and partly in terms of their component
parts, and may specify the characteristics of more
than one volume. All volumes specified in a file
must reside in the same diskset, whose name must
be specified in the file.
If you specify the -c or -d option on the command
line, the command runs without creating an actual
volume or volumes. Instead, it outputs either a a
Bourne shell command script (-c option) or a
volume configuration (-d option). The command
script, when run, creates the specified volume or
volumes. The volume configuration specifies the
volume or volumes in complete detail, naming all
their components.
The input file given on the command line can take
one of the following forms:
o a volume request, which specifies a
request for a volume with explicit attri-
butes and components, or matching a given
quality of service
o a volume configuration, produced by a
previous execution of the command
OPTIONS
The following option is mandatory if you specify a volume
request or volume configuration in a file:
-F configfile requestfile
Specify the volume request or volume configuration file
to process. If configfile or requestfile is -, it is
read from standard input.
The -d option cannot be specified when inputfile is a
volume configuration file.
The following options are mandatory if you specify a volume
request on the command line:
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-s set Specify the disk set to use when creating
volumes. All the volumes and hot spare pools are
created in this disk set. If necessary, disks are
moved into the diskset for use in the volumes and
hot spare pools. If the diskset doesn't exist the
command creates it. This option is required.
metassist works entirely within a named disk set.
Use of the local, or unnamed disk set, is not
allowed.
-S size Specify the size of the volume to be created. The
size argument consists of a numeric value (a
decimal can be specified) followed by KB, MB, GB,
or TB, indicating kilobytes, megabytes, giga-
bytes, or terabytes, respectively. Case is
ignored when interpreting this option. This
option is required.
The following options are optional command line parameters:
-a device1,device2,... Explicitly specify the devices
that can be used in the creation
of this volume. Named devices may
be controllers or disks. Only used
when specifying a volume on the
command line.
-c Output the command script that
would implement the specified or
generated volume configuration.
The command script is not run, and
processing stops at this stage.
-d Output the volume configuration
that satisfies the specified or
generated volume request. No com-
mand script is generated or exe-
cuted, and processing stops at
this stage.
-f Specify whether the volume should
support automatic component
replacement after a fault. If this
option is specified, a mirror is
created and its submirrors are
associated with a hot spare.
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-n name Specify the name of the new
volume. See metainit(1M) for nam-
ing guidelines.
-p n Specify the number of required
paths to the storage volume. The
value of n cannot be greater than
the number of different physical
paths and logical paths to
attached storage. Only used when
specifying a volume on the command
line.
-r n Specify the redundancy level (0-4)
of the data. The default is 0.
Only used when specifying a volume
on the command line. If redundancy
is 0, a stripe is created. If
redundancy is 1 or greater, a mir-
ror with this number of submirrors
is created. In this case, the
volume can suffer a disk failure
on n-1 copies without data loss.
With the use of hot spares (see
the -f option), a volume can
suffer a disk failure on n]hsps-1
volumes without data loss, assum-
ing non-concurrent failures.
-u device1,device2,... Explicitly specify devices to
exclude in the creation of this
volume. Named devices can be con-
trollers or disks. You can use
this option alone, or to exclude
some of the devices listed as
available with the -a option, Only
used when specifying a volume on
the command line.
-v value Specify the level of verbosity.
Values from 0 to 2 are available,
with higher numbers specifying
more verbose output when the com-
mand is run. -v 0 indicates silent
output, except for errors or other
critical messages. The default
level is 1.
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-V Display program version informa-
tion.
-? Display help information. This
option can follow a subcommand for
subcommand-specific help.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Creating a Mirror
The following example creates a two-way, 36Gb mirror on
available devices from controller 1 and controller 2. It
places the volume in diskset mirrorset.
# metassist create -r 2 -a c1,c2 -s mirrorset -S 36GB
Example 2 Creating a Mirror with Additional Fault Tolerance
The following example creates a two-way, 36Gb mirror on
available devices from controller 1 and controller 2. It
provides additional fault tolerance in the form of a hot
spare. It places the volume in diskset mirrorset.
# metassist create -f -r 2 -a c1,c2 -s mirrorset -S 36GB
Example 3 Creating a Three-way Mirror and Excluding Devices
The following example creates a three-way, 180Gb mirror from
storage devices on controller 1 or controller 2. It excludes
the disks c1t2d0 and c2t2d1 from the volume. It places the
volume in diskset mirrorset.
metassist create -r 3 -a c1,c2 -u c1t2d0, c2t2d1 \
-s mirrorset -S 180GB
Example 4 Determining and Implementing a Configuration
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The following example determines and implements a configura-
tion satisfying the request specified in a request file:
# metassist create -F request.xml
Example 5 Determining a Configuration and Saving It in a
volume-config File
The following example determines a configuration which
satisfies the given request. It saves the configuration in a
volume-config file without implementing it:
# metassist create -d -F request.xml > volume-config
Example 6 Determining a Configuration and Saving It in a
Shell Script
The following example determines a configuration which
satisfies the given request. It saves the configuration in a
shell script without implementing it:
# metassist create -c -F request.xml > setupvols.sh
Example 7 Implementing the Given volume-config
The following example implements the given volume-config:
# metassist create -F config.xml
Example 8 Converting the Given volume-config to a Shell
Script
The following example converts the given volume-config to a
shell script that you can run later:
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# metassist create -c -F config.xml > setupvols.sh
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
FILES
/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-request.dtd
/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-defaults.dtd
/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-config.dtd
ATRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
ATRIBUTE TYPE ATRIBUTE VALUE
Availability SUNWmdr
Inteface Stability Stable
SEE ALSO
mdmonitord(1M), metaclear(1M), metadb(1M), metadetach(1M),
metahs(1M), metainit(1M), metaoffline(1M), metaonline(1M),
metaparam(1M), metarecover(1M), metarename(1M),
metareplace(1M), metaroot(1M), metaset(1M), metastat(1M),
metasync(1M), metattach(1M), md.tab(4), md.cf(4),
mddb.cf(4), md.tab(4), volume-config(4), volume-request(4),
attributes(5), md(7D)
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NOTES
The quality of service arguments are mutually exclusive with
the -F inputfile argument.
When specifying a request file or quality of service argu-
ments on the command line, the /etc/default/metassist.xml
file is read for global and per-disk set defaults.
Characteristics of this file are specified in the DTD, in
/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-defaults.dtd.
Characteristics of the XML request file are specified in the
DTD, in /usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-request.dtd.
Characteristics of the XML configuration file are specified
in the DTD, in /usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-config.dtd.
This command must be run as root.
This command requires a functional Solaris Volume Manager
configuration before it runs.
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