/usr/sbin/vxassist – Unix Arena’s Manual page
Product – Veritas Volume Manager-vxvm (Storage Foundation)
The vxassist utility is a command-line interface to the Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) that:
– Finds space for and creates volumes
– Performs volume conversion
– Adds mirrors and logs to existing volumes
– Extends and shrinks existing volumes
– Migrates data from a specified set of disks
– Provides facilities for the online backup of existing volumes
Tasks & Switches:
- Check the maximum size a volume could be created
vxassist [-g diskgroup] maxsize
- Check the maximum size a volume can grow
vxassist [-g diskgroup] maxgrow volume-name [attrs...]
- Create volume
vxassist [-g diskgroup] [-U usetype] [-b] make volume-name {len|maxsize=<size>} [layout=layout_method] [attrs...]
- Add logs to volume
vxassist [-g diskgroup][-b] addlog volume-name [attrs...]
- Resize volumes
growto vxassist [-g diskgroup] growto volume-name new-length [attrs...] growby vxassist [-g diskgroup] growby volume-name length-change [attrs...] Shrinkto vxassist [-g diskgroup][-f] shrinkto volume-name new-length [attrs...] shirnkby vxassist [-g diskgroup][-f] shrinkby volume-name length-change [attrs...]
- Mirror volume
vxassist [-g diskgroup] [-b] mirror volume-name [attrs...]
- Volume relayout
vxassist [-g diskgroup] [-U usetype] [-b] relayout {volume-name|plex-name} [attrs...]
- Volume convertions
vxassist [-g diskgroup] convert volume-name [attrs...]
- Move volume
vxassist [-g diskgroup][-b] [-t taskid] [-k [-O operation-tag]] move volume-name storage-spec ... [attrs...]
- removing volume|mirror|log
vxassist [-g diskgroup] [-b] remove {volume|mirror|log} volume-name [storage-spec ...] [attrs...]
vxassist – Examples:
To check the maximum size a volume could be created:
# vxassist -g oradg maxsize Maximum volume size: 24768512 (12094Mb) # vxassist -g oradg maxsize layout=stripe Maximum volume size: 24768512 (12094Mb) # vxassist -g oradg maxsize layout=mirror Maximum volume size: 12384256 (6047Mb) # vxassist -g oradg maxsize layout=raid5 Maximum volume size: 16513024 (8063Mb) # vxassist -g oradg maxsize layout=stripe-mirror Maximum volume size: 12384256 (6047Mb)
Creating a Simple Volume:
# vxassist -g oradg make oravol01 5g
– If the ‘layout’ is not specified, by default ‘concat’ volumes will be created.
Creating a Stripe Volume:
# vxassist -g oradg make oravol 2g layout=stripe ncol=4 stwidth=64 oradisk01 oradisk02 oradisk03 oradisk04
– Here 4 coloumn stripe volume of 2 GB size will be created using the specified disks.
– Default ‘ncol’ value is 3
– Default ‘stwidth’ value is 128
Creating a Mirror Volume:
# vxassist -g oradg make oravol 1g layout=mirror mirror=ctlr nmirror=3 logtype=drl
– Here, the 3 way mirror volume of 1 GB size will created using different controllers with ‘DRL’ Log enabled (oradisk01=c1 oradisk03=c2 oradisk05=c3)
– Default ‘nmirror’ value is 2
– By default no log plexes will be added to mirror volume.
Creating RIAD-5 Volume:
# vxassist -g oradg make oravol 1g layout=raid5 ncol=4 oradisk01 oradisk02 oradisk03 oradisk04 oradisk05
– Here the 4 column raid5 volume will be created using specified disks.
– RIAD5 uses default LOG method
– Default ‘ncol’ value is 5
– Default ‘stwidth’ value is 32
Creating Non-Layerd Volumes:
– Volumes where sub disks directly mapped to plex then to Volumes
1. mirror-concat
# vxassist -g oradg make oravol 1g layout=mirror-concat
2. mirror-stripe
# vxassist -g oradg make oravol 1g layout=mirror-stripe
Creating Layed Volumes:
-Volumes where sub disks & plexes are mappaed to underlaying volumes then to volumes
1. concat-mirror
# vxassist -g oradg make oravol 1g layout=concat-mirror
2. stripe-mirror
# vxassist -g oradg make oravol 1g layout=stripe-mirror
Using ‘ordered’ allocation attribute:
# vxassist -g oradg -o ordered make oravol 1g layout=raid5 ncol=4 oradisk01 oradisk05 oradisk03 oradisk02 oradisk04
– Here the sub disks will be created in the above specified manner.
– For creating 4 coloumn raid, make sure you input five disks. ( 4 + 1 disk = 4 column + 1 log)
Adding or Enabling DRL logging to Existing Mirror Volume:
# vxassist -g oradg addlog oravol logtype=drl
Mirroring Existing Volumes:
# vxassist -g oradg mirror oravol
To check the maximum size a volume can grow:
# vxassist -g oradg maxgrow oravol01 Volume oravol01 can be extended by 24358912 to: 24563712 (11994Mb)
Resizing Volumes:
# vxassist -g oradg make oravol 300m
1. growto
# vxassist -g oradg growto oravol 500m
(Volume size will be resized to 500m)
2. growby
# vxassist -g oradg growby oravol 200m
(Volume size will be resized to 700m)
3. shrinkto
# vxassist -g oradg -f shrinkby oravol 200m
(Volume size will be resized to 500m)
4. shrinkby
# vxassist -g oradg -f shrinkto oravol 300m
(Volume size will be resized to 300m)
Note:
– The ‘vxassist’ command only resizes the volume not the file system use ‘fsadm’ to resize the file system.
– The ‘vxresize’ command resizes both file systems & Volumes.
– Before shrinking any volumes make sure you have resized the file system using ‘fsadm’, else you could corrupt file systems.
Performing Online-Relayout:
Online Re-Layout supports to change the plex or volume to or from
1. Concatenated
2. Striped
3. Raid 5
4. Striped Mirror
5. Concatenated mirror
Also it used to change number of columns & Stripe unit size in striped & Raid 5 Volumes
Changing Concat volume into Stripe Layout:
# vxassist -g oradg make oravol 100m layout=nostripe oradisk01 # vxassist -g oradg relayout testvol layout=stripe ncol=3
Adding more columns to existing Stripe Layout Volume:
# vxassist -g oradg relayout oravol ncol=+2
Removing column(s) from existing Stripe Layout Volume:
# vxassist -g oradg relayout oravol ncol=-1
To change Stripeunit size & number of column of a stripe layout volume:
# vxassist -g oradg relayout oravol stripeunit=64k ncol=5
To Change the mirror volume into RAID 5 Volume Layout:
# vxassist -g oradg relayout oravol-01 layout=raid5 stripeunit=128k ncol=3
Note:
*** Specify one of the plex name from mirror volume to change the layout into raid5. Online relayout operations can be administered using ‘vxrelayout’ command as well.
Convert between a layered volume and a non-layered volume layout:
1. Mirror-Concat into Concat-Mirror
# vxassist -g oradg make testvol 100m layout=mirror-concat # vxassist -g oradg convert testvol layout=concat-mirror
2. Mirror-Stripe into Stripe-Mirror
\ # vxassist -g oradg make testvol 100m layout=mirror-stripe # vxassist -g oradg convert testvol layout=stripe-mirror
Moving Storage objects in volume:
# vxassist -g oradg move oravol \!oradisk01 oradisk02
– For a simple volume which is having one subdisk & plex you can use the above command
– For a mirror and other volumes you have to perform this command about ‘n’ time to complete the operations depending on your volume configuration.
To remove log from existing volume:
# vxassist -g oradg remove log oravol
To remove Mirror from existing mirror volume:
# vxassist -g oradg remove mirror oravol
To remove volume and its associated objects:
# vxassist -g oradg remove volume oravol