Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) cheat sheet
Updated 12 Jul 2002
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Storage
This article is aimed a providing a list of basic and advanced commands and common information for Veritas Volume Manager.
Basic VxVM Commands
Disk Operations
Action Command Line
Initialise a disk
vxdisksetup -i device
List disks owned by local and remote hosts
vxdisk -o alldgs list
List disk header
vxdisk list diskname |device
Evacuate a disk
vxevac -g diskgroup from_disk to_disk
Rename a disk
vxdisk -g diskgroup rename oldname> newname
Set spare, no hot relocation, or reserved space on a disk
vxedit -g diskgroup set [spare|nohotuse|reserve]=on|off diskname
Unrelocate a disk
vxunreloc -g diskgroup original_diskname
Disk Group Operations
Action Command Line
Create a disk group
vxdisk list diskgroup diskname=device
Add a disk to disk group
vxdg -g diskgroup adddisk diskname=device
Remove a disk from disk group
vxdg -g disksgroup rmdisk diskname
Deport, inport or destroy a disk group
vxdg [deport|import|destroy] diskgroup
List disk groups
vxdg list [diskgroup ]
Show free/spare space pool
vxdg -g diskgroup [free|spare]
Upgrade disk group version
vxdg [-T version ] upgrade diskgroup
Rewrite disk headers, configuration copies, and kernel log copies in a disk group.
vxdg flush diskgroup targetdg object...
or
vxdctl enable for all disk groups
Move an object between disk groups
vxdg more sourcedg targetdg object ...
Split objects between disk groups
vxdg split sourcedg targetdg object ...
Join disk groups
vxdg join sourceg targetdg
List objects affected by a disk group move operation
vxdg listmove sourcedg targetdg object ...
Volume Operations
Action Command Line
Create a volume
vxassist -g diskgroup make vol_name size layout=format diskname
Remove a volume
vxedit -g diskgroup -rf rm vol_name
or
vxassist -g diskgroup remove volume vol_name
Display a volume
vxprint -g diskgroup -bt vol_name
vxprint -g diskgroup> remove volume vol_name
Display a volume
vxprint -g diskgroup -vt vol_name
vxprint -g diskgroup -l vol_name
Change volume read policy
vxvol -g diskgroup> rcpol round vol_name
vxvol -g diskgroup> rcpol prefer vol_name preferred_plex_name
vxvol -g diskgroup> rcpol select vol_name
Mirror an existing plex
vxassist -g diskgroup mirror vol_name
Create a snapshot
vxassist -g diskgroup -b snapstart vol_name
vxassist -g diskgroup snapshot vol_name new_volume
Abort a snapshot
vxassist -g diskgroup snapabort orig_vol_name
Reassociate a snapshot
vxassist -g diskgroup snapback snapshot_vol
Dissaciate a snapshot
vxassist -g diskgroup snapclear vol_name
Print snapshot information
vxassist -g diskgroup snapprint vol_name
Relayout a volume
vxassist -g diskgroup relayout vol_name layout=new_layout [attributes ...]
Convert to or from a layered layout
vxassist -g diskgroup convert vol_name layout=new_layout [attributes ...]
Add a log to a volume
vasssist -g diskgroup addlog vol_name
Advanced VxVM Commands
Subdisk Operations
Action Command Line
Create a subdisk
vxmake -g diskgroup sd subdisk_name diskname offset length
Remove a subdisk
vxedit -g diskgroup rm subdisk_name
Display subdisk information
vxprintr -st
vxprint -l subdisk_name
Associate a subdisk to a plex
vxsd assoc plex_name subdisk_name
Plex and Volume Operations
Action Command Line
Create a plex
vxmake -g diskgroup plex plex_name sd=<subdisk_name, ...
Associate a plex (to a volume)
vxplex -g diskgroup att vol-name plex_name
Unmirror a volume (remove a plex)
vxplex -i rm disk plex_name
Start/stop volumes
vxvol [start|stop] vol-name
Start/stop all volumes
vxvol [startall|stopall]
Recover a volume
vxrecover -sn vol_name
Detach a plex
vxprint -g diskgroup det plex_name
Attach a plex
vxplex -g diskgroup att vol_name plex_name
Change state flags on plex
vxmend fix [active|clean|stale] plex_name
Turn plex online/offline
vxmend [on|off] plex_name
Set fastResync flag on a volume
vxvol set fastresync=on vol_name
Benchmarking Operations
Action Command Line
Count ans size of VxVM disk I/Os completed per sample time slice to a volume
vxstat -g diskgroup [-i interval ] [-c count ] -d vol_name
VxVM I/O trace information-- dump to file and read from file
vxtrace -g diskgroup [-t duration ] -d filename ] -o dev,disk vol_name
vxtrace -l -f /tmp/tracedata | more
Sample I/O load with statistics-- sequential
vxbench -w [read|write] -i iosize=size ,iocount=count filename
Sample I/O load with statistics-- random
vxbench -w [rand_read|rand_write] -i iosize=size ,iocount=count ,maxfilesize=size filename
Tuning Operations
Action Command Line
View currently set VxVM kernel parameters
Example: view the current setting for the kernel paramter vol_max_vol;
# echo 'vol_max_io/D' | adb -k
Change VxVM kernel parameters
Example: change the VxVM kernel paramter vol_ax_vol from the current value to a new value of 2048 by adding the parameter to the /etc/system file:
# set vxio: vol_max_vol=2048
then, reboot the system