14.5 LSM Commands

14.5 LSM Commands

While the intent of this chapter is not to teach you how to use LSM, but rather to show you what the differences are between LSM on a standalone system and LSM in a cluster, we thought at least to give you an idea of which commands can be used to create LSM volumes.

LSM has a whole slew of commands that accomplish various tasks. Let's look at which commands are used and when you may want to use them.

There are three interfaces that can be used with LSM:

• Graphical User Interface (GUI)^[4]

• Menu-Based

• Command-line

There are two approaches that can be taken when working with LSM:

• Top-Down

• Bottom-Up

We're not referring to driving down the highway with the "top down" or chugging a beer ("bottoms up!") but rather how the commands are used to create and manipulate the various LSM components. Figure 14-7 illustrates the two approaches.

Figure 14-7: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up

Top-Down commands (Table 14-1) are designed to take a lot of the complexity out of working with LSM. With one command (volassist), you can create a volume that consists of two striped plexes.

Table 14-1: LSM Top-Down Commands

LSM Top-Down Commands
Command	Location	Man	Type	Description
volassist	/sbin	8	binary	Program to create, minor, back up, grow, shrink, and move LSM volumes.
voldiskadd	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Adds one or more disks for use within LSM.
voldisksetup	/usr/sbin	8	sh	sets up a disk for use within LSM.
volevac	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Evacuates all volumes from a disk.
volmirror	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Mirrors volumes on a disk or control default mirroring.

As you become more comfortable with LSM, you may find that the Top-Down commands are a little restrictive (or perhaps too broad for a particular operation that needs to be accomplished). The Bottom-Up commands (Table 14-2) allow for more granular control.

Table 14-2: LSM Bottom-Up Commands

LSM Bottom-UP Commands
Command	Location	Man	Type	Description
voldg	/sbin	8	binary	Manages LSM disk groups.
voldisk	/sbin	8	binary	Creates and manages LSM disks.
voledit	/sbin	8	binary	Creates, removes, and modifies LSM recores.
volmake	/sbin	4/8	binary	Creates LSM objects. This is an advanced command that can be used to create many LSM objects quickly. It looks like a top-down command when run, but the preparation is definitely more of a bottom-up approach. Very Powerful.
volmend	/usr/sbin	8	binary	Repairs (mends) simple problems in LSM configuration records.
volplex	/sbin	8	binary	Manages LSM plexes.
volsd	/sbin	8	binary	Manages LSM subdisks.
volume	/sbin	8	binary	Manages LSM volumes.

For example, if you can create a mirrored, striped volume with one Top-Down command, how many commands would you need to accomplish the same goal with Bottom-Up commands? The answer is eight.

volmake(8)	volmake sd	– create a subdisk	(4)
	volmake plex	– create a striped plex	(2)
	volmake vol	– create a volume	(1)
volume(8)	volume start	– initialize and start the volume	(1)

Generally, you will use the Top-Down commands to add disks to LSM and add new volumes, and you will use the Bottom-Up commands to manage the LSM objects. The GUI and Menu-based programs are listed in Table 14-3.

Table 14-3: LSM GUI and Menu-Based Programs

LSM GUI and Menu-Based Programs
Command	Location	Man	Type	Description
dxlsm	/usr/bin/X11	8x	binary	Superceded by the Ismsa command.
Ismsa	/usr/bin	8	ksh	This scripts starts the Java-based storage Administrator program.
Ismasad	/usr/bin	8	ksh	This script starts the Java-based storage Administrator daemon.
voldiskadm	/usr/bin	8	ksh	Menu-driven inferface to manage LSM disks.

In addition to creating and manipulating LSM objects, there are commands available to display information and statistics about the LSM configuration (Table 14-4), administrative commands and daemons (Table 14-5), as well as commands to aid in moving data to and from LSM (Table 14-6).

Table 14-4: LSM Informational Commands

LSM informational Commands
Command	Location	Man	Type	Description
volinfo	/usr/sbin	8	binary	Print accessibility and usability of volumes
volnotify	/usr/sbin	8	binary	Displays LSM configuration events.
volprints	/sbin	8	binary	Displays LSM configuration.
volstat	/usr/sbin	8	binary	Display LSM statistics.

Table 14-5: LSM Administrative Commands and Daemons

LSM Administrative Commands and Daemons
Command	Location	Man	Type	Description
lsmbstartup	sbin	8	sh	Script that starts LSM during system startup.
lsmsetup	/usr/sbin	8	symlink	A symbolic link to the volsetup command
vold	/sbin	8	binary	LSM volume configuration daemon.
voldctl	/sbin	8	binary	Controls the LSM volume configuration daemon (vold).
volinstall	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Sets up LSM after LSM installation. Creates LSM device special files, etc.
voliod	/sbin	8	binary	Starts, stops, and reports on LSM kernel I/O daemons.
volrecover	/sbin	8	binary	Performs volume recovery operations
volrestore	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Restores a complete or partial LSM configuration from information saved by the volsave command.
volrootmir	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Creates mirror of areas necessary for booting on a new disk NOT SUPPORTED IN A CLUSTER!
volsave	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Saves a LSM configuration.
volsetup	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Initializes LSM by creating the rootdg disk group.
voltrace	/usr/sbin	8	binary	Trace operations on volumes.
volunroot	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Removes root and swap from LSM on a standalone system. NOT SUPPORTED IN A CLUSTER!
volwatch	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Monitors LSM for failure events and performs hot sparing.

Table 14-6: LSM Migration Commands

LSM Migration Commands
Command	Location	Man	Type	Description
volencap	/usr/sbin	8	binary	Encapsulates disks, disk partitions, or AdvFS domains on a single system or a cluster, or the swap devices for one or more cluster members.
vollogcnvt	/usr/sbin	8	sh	Utility to convert from pre-V5 Block Change Logging (BCL) to Dirty Region Logging (DRL).
volmigrate	/usr/sbin	8	ksh	Moves AdvFS domain storage from physical storage to LSM volumes (volmigrate) or from LSM volumes to physical storage (volunmigrate).
volreconfig	/sbin	8	sh	Used with volencap command to ceomplete the encapsulation process.
volunmigrate	/usr/sbin	8	symlink	See volmigrate.

^[4]Requires the LSM-OA license PAK to use.