File Formats volume-request(4)
NAME
volume-request, volume-defaults - Solaris Volume Manager
configuration information for top down volume creation with
metassist
SYNOPSIS
/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-request.dtd
/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-defaults.dtd
/etc/defaults/metassist.xml
DESCRIPTION
A volume request file, XML-based and compliant with the
volume-request.dtd Document Type Definition, describes the
characteristics of the volumes that metassist should pro-
duce.
A system administrator would use the volume request file
instead of providing options at the command line to give
more specific instructions about the characteristics of the
volumes to create. A volume request file can request more
than one volume, but all requested volumes must reside in
the same disk set.
If you start metassist by providing a volume-request file as
input, metassist can implement the configuration specified
in the file, can generate a command file that sets up the
configuraiton for you to inspect or edit, or can generate a
volume configuration file for you to inspect or edit.
As a system administrator, you would want to create a volume
request file if you need to reuse configurations (and do not
want to reenter the same command arguments), or if you
prefer to use a configuration file to specify volume charac-
teristics.
Volume request files must be valid XML that complies with
the document type definition in the volume-request.dtd file,
located at /usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-request.dtd. You
create a volume request file, and provide it as input to
metassist to create volumes from the top down.
Defining Volume Request
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The top level element surrounds the volume
request data. This element has no attributes. A volume
request requires at least one element, which must
be the first element after .
Optionally, the element can include one or
more and elements to specify which
controllers or disks associated with a specific controller
can or cannot be used to create the volume.
Optionally, the element can include a
element to specify characteristics of a hot spare pool if
fault recovery is used.
If not specified for a volume with fault-recovery, the first
hot spare pool found in the disk set is used. If no hot
spare pool exists but one is required, a hot spare pool is
created.
Optionally, the volume-request can include one or more , , , elements to specify
volumes to create.
Defining Disk Set
Within the element, a element
must exist. The element, with the name attribute,
specifies the name of the disk set to be used. If this disk
set does not exist, it is created. This element and the name
attribute are required.
Defining Availability
Within the element and within other ele-
ments, you can specify available or unavailable components
(disks, or disks on a specific controller path) for use or
exclusion from use in a volume or hot spare pool.
The and elements require a name
attribute which specifies either a full ctd name, or a par-
tial ctd name that is used with the implied wildcard to com-
plete the expression. For example, specifying c3t2d0 as
available would look like:
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The element also makes any unnamed components
unavailable. Specifying all controllers exept c1 unavailable
would look like:
Specifying all disks on controller 2 as unavailable would
look like:
The element can also be used to further res-
trict the list of available components. For example, speci-
fying all controllers exept c1 unavailable, and making all
devices associated with c1t2 unavailable as well would look
like this:
Components specified as available must be either part of the
named disk set used for this volume creation, or must be
unused and not in any disk set. If the components are
selected for use, but are not in the specified diskset, the
metassist command automatically adds them to the diskset.
It is unnecessary to specify components that are in other
disk sets as unavailable. metassist automatically excludes
them from consideration. However, unused components or com-
ponents that are not obviously used (for example, an
unmounted slice that is reserved for different uses) must be
explicitly specified as unavailable, or the metassist com-
mand can include them in the configuration.
Defining Hot Spare Pool
The next element within the element, after
the and, optionally, and
elements, is the element. Its sole attribute specifies
the name of the hot spare pool:
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The hot spare pool names must start with hsp and conclude
with a number, thus following the existing Solaris Volume
Manager hot spare pool naming requirements.
Within the element, you can specify one or more
and elements to specify which
disks, or disks associated with a specific controller can or
cannot be used to create the hot spares within the pool.
Also within the element, you can use the ele-
ment to specify hot spares to be included in the hot spare
pool (see DEFINING SLICE). Depending on the requirements
placed on the hot spare pool by other parts of the volume
request, additional slices can be added to the hot spare
pool.
Defining Slice
The element is used to define slices to include or
exclude within other elements. It requires only a name
attribute to specify the ctd name of the slice, and the con-
text of the element determines the function of the
element. Sample slice elements might look like:
Defining Stripe
The element defines stripes (interlaced RAID 0
volumes) to be used in a volume. It can contain either slice
elements (to explicitly determine which slices are used), or
appropriate combinations of available and unavailable ele-
ments if the specific determination of slices is to be left
to the metassist command.
The element takes an optional name attribute to
specify a name. If the name is not specified, an available
name is automatically selected from available Solaris Volume
Manager names. If possible, names for related components are
related.
The element takes an optional size attribute that
specifies the size as value and units (for example, 10TB,
5GB). If slices for the are explicitly specified,
the size attribute is ignored. The and elements can be used to constrain slices for use in a
stripe.
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The elements takes optional mincomp and maxcomp
attributes to specify both the minimum and maximum number of
components that can be included in it. As with size, if
slices for the are explicitly specified, the min-
comp and maxcomp attributes are ignored.
The elements takes an optional interlace attribute
as value and units (for example, 16KB, 5BLOCKS, 20KB). If
this value is not specified, the Solaris Volume Manager
default value is used.
The element takes an optional usehsp attribute to
specify if a hot spare pool should be associated with this
component. This attribute is specified as a boolean value,
as usehsp="TRUE". If the component is not a submirror, this
attribute is ignored.
Defining Concat
The element defines concats (non-interlaced RAID 0
volumes) to be used in a configuration. It is specified in
the same way as a element, except that the mincomp,
maxcomp, and interlace attributes are not valid.
Defining Mirror
The element defines mirrors (RAID 1 volumes) to be
used in a volume configuration. It can contain combinations
of and elements (to explicitly determine
which volumes are used as submirrors). Alternatively, it can
have a size attribute specified, along with the appropriate
combinations of available and unavailable elements to leave
the specific determination of components to the metassist
command.
The element takes an optional name attribute to
specify a name. If the name is not specified, an available
name is automatically selected.
The element takes an optional size attribute that
specifies the size as value and units (for example, 10TB,
5GB). If and elements for the mirror are
not specified, this attribute is required. Otherwise, it is
ignored.
The element takes an optional nsubmirrors attribute
to define the number of submirrors (1-4) to include. Like
the size attribute, this attribute is ignored if the under-
lying and submirrors are explicitly
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specified. The element takes an optional read
attribute to define the mirror read options (ROUNDROBIN,
GEOMETRIC, or FIRST) for the mirror. If this attribute is
not specified, the Solaris Volume Manager default value is
used.
The element takes an optional write attribute to
define the mirror write options (PARALEL, SERIAL, or FIRST)
for the mirror. If this attribute is not specified, the
Solaris Volume Manager default value is used.
The element takes an optional usehsp attribute to
specify if a hot spare pool should be associated with each
submirror. This attribute is specified as a boolean value,
as usehsp="TRUE". If the usehsp attribute is specified in
the configuration of the or element used
as a submirror, it overrides the value of usehsp attributes
for the mirror as a whole.
Defining Volume by Quality of Service
The element defines volumes (high-level) by the
quality of service they should provide. (The ele-
ment offers the same functionality that options on the
metassist command line can provide.)
The element can contain combinations of
and elements to determine which components can
be included in the configuration.
The element takes an optional name attribute to
specify a name. If the name is not specified, an available
name is automatically selected.
The element takes a required size attribute that
specifies the size as value and units (for example, 10TB,
5GB).
The element takes an optional redundancy attribute
to define the number of additional copies of data (1-4) to
include. In a worst-case scenario, a volume can suffer
failure of n-1 components without data loss, where
redundancy=n. With fault recovery options, the volume could
withstand up to n]hsps-1 non-concurrent failures without
data loss. Specifying redundancy=0 results in a RAID 0
volume being created (a stripe, specifically).
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The element takes an optional faultrecovery attri-
bute to determine if additional components should be allo-
cated to recover from component failures in the volume. This
is used to determine whether the volume is associated with a
hot spare pool. The faultrecovery attribute is a boolean
attribute, with a default value of FALSE.
The element takes an optional datapaths attribute
to determine if multiple data paths should be required to
access the volume. The datapaths attribute should be set to
a numeric value.
Defining Default Values Globally
Global defaults can be set in /etc/default/metassist.xml.
This volume-defaults file can contain most of the same ele-
ments as a volume-request file, but differs structurally
from a volume-request file:
o The container element must be ,
not .
o The element can contain , , , , ,
, or elements.
Attributes specified by these elements define glo-
bal default values, unless overridden by the
corresponding attributes and elements in a volume-
request. None of these elements is a container ele-
ment.
o The element can contain one or
more elements to provide disk set-
specific defaults. The element can con-
tain , , , ,
, , or elements.
o Settings specified outside of a element
apply to all disk sets, but can be overridden
within each element.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Creating a Redundant Volume
The following example shows a volume request file used to
create a redundant and fault tolerant volume of 1TB.
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Example 2 Creating a Complex Configuration
The following example shows a sample volume-request file
that specifies a disk set name, and specifically itemizes
characteristics of components to create.
BOUNDARY VALUES
Attribute Minimum Maximum
mincomp 1 N/A
maxcomp N/A 32
nsubmirrors 1 4
passnum 0 9
datapaths 1 4
redundancy 0 4
FILES
/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-request.dtd
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/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/volume-defaults.dtd
/etc/defaults/metassist.xml
SEE ALSO
metassist(1M), metaclear(1M), metadb(1M), metadetach(1M),
metahs(1M), metainit(1M), metaoffline(1M), metaonline(1M),
metaparam(1M), metarecover(1M), metareplace(1M),
metaroot(1M), metaset(1M), metasync(1M), metattach(1M),
mountufs(1M), mddb.cf(4)
Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide
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