Solstice Disksuite (SDS) Cheat Sheet

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Solstice DiskSuite (SDS) is a software product that enables you to manage large numbers of disks and the data on those disks. SDS uses virtual disks to manage physical disks and their associated data.

Product Name

SDS over the years has been revamped and known by many names, namely:

  • Online DiskSuite (ODS)
  • Solstice DiskSuite (SDS)
  • Logical Volume Manager (LVM)
  • Solaris Volume Manager (SVM)

Overview

In SDS a virtual disk is called a metadevice. SDS metadevices are built from slices (disk partitions), it provides logging and various levels of RAID such as concatenation, striping, mirroring and RAID 5.

Other features include disksets - used to share metadevices ins a HA/Cluster environment, hot spares and dynamic expansion of Unix file systems.

Through these features, Solstice DiskSuite provides data availability, data integrity, and a variety of storage management alternatives.

NOTE: Unlike older versions of Veritas Volume Manager - DiskSuite uses RAID 1+0 where it can.

DiskSuite uses meta state databases to store it's configuration information. A minimum of three of these data bases is needed for operation, and 50% + 1 to boot the system.

Solstice DiskSuite has a GUI - metatool, there are several bugs logged against it and all operations should be done via the command line rather than the GUI.

How to Determine Version Number

# pkginfo -x SUNWmd SUNWmdu

Where is it?

VersionSolarisSoftware location
4.0 2.5.1 Server Pack, INTRANET EXTENSION CD-ROM
4.1 2.6 Server Pack, INTRANET EXTENSION CD-ROM
4.2 2.7 Server Pack, EASY ACCESS SERVER 2.0/3.0 CD-ROM
4.2.1 8 "Solaris Software" CD's (2 of 2) under the EA (easy access) directory
11.9 9 Installed as part of the OS install

Packages to install

SDS ReleaseSVM Release
4.04.14.24.2.111.9
Package Names SUNWmd — Solstice DiskSuite SUNWmdg — Solstice DiskSuite Tool SUNWmd — Solstice DiskSuite SUNWmdg — Solstice DiskSuite Tool SUNWmd — Solstice DiskSuite SUNWmdg — Solstice DiskSuite Tool SUNWmdu — Solstice DiskSuite Commands SUNWmdr — Solstice DiskSuite Drivers SUNWmdx — Solstice DiskSuite Drivers(64-bit) SUNWmdg — Solstice DiskSuite Tool SUNWmdu — Solaris Volume Manager Commands SUNWmdr — Solaris Volume Manager Drivers SUNWmdx — Solaris Volume Manager Drivers (64-bit)

Compatability & Patch Matrix

Solaris 2.5.1Solaris 2.6Solaris 7 (32 & 64)Solaris 8 (32 & 64)Solaris 9
SDS 4.1 104172 104275 107195 104173 107196 104172 104275 107195 104173 107196 N/S N/S N/S
SDS 4.2 N/S 106627 106628 106627 106628 N/S N/S
SDS 4.2.1 N/S N/S N/S 108693 108694 N/S
SVM 11.9.0 N/S N/S N/S N/S N/P
KEY: N/S — Product not supported on this OS N/P — No patch applicable for this OS All patches listed above are for the Solaris SPARC platform, with the exception of those highlited which are for Solaris x86.

DiskSuite Examples

  • Creating State Databases 
    # metadb -a -f -c 2 c1t1d0s0 c2t1d0s0
    • the -c 2 adds 2 copies on the same slice
    • the -f is for 'force' and is only required if there are currently less than 3 replicas.
  • Creating a Concatination 
    # metainit d1 3 1 c1t2d0s0 1 c2t2d0s0 1 c3t0d0s0
  • Creating a Stripe 
    # metainit d2 1 3 c1t3d0s0 c2t3d0s0 c3t3d0s0
  • Creating a Mirror 
    # metainit d3 1 1 c1t4d0s0
# metainit d4 1 1 c2t4d0s0
# metainit d5 -m d3
# metattach d5 d4
  • Creating a Mirrored Stripe 
    # metainit d10 1 3 c1t3d0s0 c2t3d0s0 c3t3d0s0
# metainit d11 1 3 c4t3d0s0 c5t3d0s0 c6t3d0s0
# metainit d12 -m d10
# meattach d12 d11
  • Creating a RAID5 
    # metainit d20 -r c4t5d0s0 c5t5d0s0 c6t5d0s0

md.cf Entry Examples

    * Concatination:
d0 2 1 c0t0d0s2 1 c0t1d0s2 (up to 6 disks)
* Stripe:
d0 1 3 c0t0d0s0 c1t0d0s0 c2t0d0s0 (up to 6 disks)
* Mirror:
d0 -m d1 d2 (up to 3 disks)
* Hotspares:
hsp001 c3t0d0s0 c3t1d0s0 c3t2d0s0 (up to 999 hsp's allowed)
* Raid5:
d20 -r c0t1d0s0 c1t1d0s0 c2t1d0s0 (up to 6 disks)
* Trans Device:
d21 -t c1t1d0s0 c2t0d0s0 (assigned as master log)
* assign hotspare:
d1 1 1 c0t0d0s2 -h hsp001

Growing a Filesystem

    NOTE: If the filesystem already exists, only the last 2 steps are needed.

    # metainit d0 3 1 c1t1d0s0 1 c2t1d0s0 1 c3t1d0s0
# newfs /dev/md/dsk/d0
# mount /dev/md/dsk/d0 /directory
# metattach -a d0 c4t1d0s0
# growfs -M /directory /dev/md/rdsk/d0

Mirroring the Boot Disk

    # metainit -f d1 1 1 c0t0d0s0 (where c0t0d0s0 is the root slice)
# metainit d2 1 1 c1t0d0s0 (mirror for root)
# metainit d0 -m d1 (creates one-way mirror)
# metaroot d0 (check /etc/vfstab)
# reboot (a reboot here is NECESSARY)
# metattach d0 d2 (attaches mirror for root to d0)

Additional Notes

  • To run the Solaris Volume Manager GUI, you must also load the SMC 2.0 packages.
  • With SDS 4.2.1 onwards all binaries have been relocated from /etc/opt/SUNWmd/sbin and placed in /usr/sbin.
  • With 4.2.1 onwards, the configuration files have moved to /etc/lvm.
  • Soft Partitioning — The concepts of Soft Partitioning functionality was introduced in SDS 4.2.1 with patch 108693-06.