SANUNIX

2010-08-03T11:19:00.001-07:00

'Scale out' storage options for your company

Read my article on techtarget

http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.in/tip/0,289483,sid202_gci1517110,00.html

2009-11-30T20:51:00.000-08:00

Xen memory overcommitment is it possible??

Click the below link to read more

http://blog.coparsystems.com/?p=36&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

2009-11-30T20:49:00.000-08:00

I'm now blogging on http://blog.coparsystems.com

For information on our offerings, services and solutions, please visit our website

http://www.coparsystems.com

2008-09-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Google Chrome - The new browser from the pillar of the internet

This blog mostly has stuff on SAN, Storage and Unix. For a change I thought of writing about the latest browser from Google. Titled "Chrome".

You can read about the features and download the browser here

http://www.google.com/chrome

I read that it was made with code from open source projects like Apple's Webkit and Mozilla's firefox.

whats different??

1. If you open task manager then you would see atleast 1 process for each TAB you open. This seems to protect from crashes in a TAB. Normally firefox would crash if you open a rouge site in a tab, the whole browser app would crash. With chrome its just the TAB that would crash.

2. Incognito window for browsing site which you do not want appear in the histroy. This is a good feature for cyber cafe's. Users can use this feature to avoid browsing history to be safe from other users.

3. You can enable google gears, this will help you with enhanced browsing experience for sites which use this feature. Gears helps the coder to interact with apps installed on your desktop. I found the sites using gear to be very user friendly but still wonder how gears helps them. Check this website to plan tasks.

https://www.rememberthemilk.com/signup/

Presumably this uses gears.

If you are worried about google intruding privacy then click on settings and turn of the feedback option.

2008-08-04T06:26:00.000-07:00

Brocade LSAN - Concepts

LSAN is the sharing of resources across fabrics. You need a MPR or a FR4-18i blade in the 48K to be able to connect the 2 fabrics - yet keep them unmerged. Just to make it more clear, the other option to scale out, is to connect the 2 switches in either fabrics. If you do this, you are actually merging the 2 fabrics. MPR's restrict the type of RSCN's propgated, with the help of special port EX. You have to designate a port on the MPR as EX, and once u do this, although data frames can pass via the MPR, the RSCN's responsible for fabric merge are suppressed.

To share a target (ex: tape drive) in Fabric 1 in DC1 to a server (initiator) in Fabric 2 in DC2, you need to create a LSAN in both fabrics. Remember

1. LSAN's ideally should be named the same (not compulsary). Naming convention shd follow LSAN_FabricName_InitiatorName_FabricName_TargetName

In my case I will name it as
LSAN_DC1F1_STK3DRV4_DC2F2_host01

2. An LSAN should have atleast one initiator and one target. Ideally have only one initiator and one target and not more, but there is no restriction.

3. And LSAN should have the same members. If u have a 3 DC solution like I have, you will have to create seperate LSAN's to share the same resource to 2 fabrics. For ex if u want to share the tape drive to hosts in DC2-F2 and DC3-F1

LSAN_DC1F1_STK3DRV4_DC2F2_host01

LSAN_DC1F1_STK3DRV4_DC3F1_host80

I will continue with a post on howto create LSAN's and also how to troubleshoot issues in a routed fabric. If you have queries please post in the comments section. Queries on comparison with CISCO VSAN are also welcome.

2008-03-31T03:50:00.000-07:00

Upgrading Brocade firmware on switches (not directors)

A post after a long gap, why??? Coz for a short while I worked as a consultant, and this meant I work on economics rather than technical stuff. Now that I'm back with some real technical workm you should be able to see more good stuff.

My posts on NetApps, Symantec/Veritas products and SAN troubleshooting have got good response. Thanks to readers.

So back to topic... Upgrading Brocade firmware on switches..!

I was surprised that there was'nt a simple howto on this. So here we go.

Note : My approach is to download the firmware and use it before I commit. This allows me to revert back to my old firmware if need be.

View FOS guide pg 165 for understanding the preparation for this acitivity. Steps like saving configuration, downloading new firmware, configuring FTP server etc. has been described here.

The internal process will be as follows
1. firmware -s download command is entered, and you respond to prompts.
2. Firmware is downloaded to Secondary Partition
3. Primary and Secondary boot pointers are swapped
4. CP boots from firmware in new Primary partition.

After a few days of cool operation, run the firmwareCommit command and then the new firmware is copied to the seconday partition as well.

Thats it we'll see a snapshot.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
switch:admin> firmwareDownload -s
Type of Firmware (FOS, SAS, or any application) [FOS]:
Server Name or IP Address: 192.168.32.10
Network Protocol (1-auto-select, 2-FTP, 3-SCP) [1]:
User Name: userfooFile Name: /home/userfoo/v5.3.0
Password:
*Do Auto-Commit after Reboot [Y]: n
*Reboot system after download [N]: y
Firmware is being downloaded to the switch. This step may take up to 30minutes.
Checking system settings for firmwaredownload...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Recommended steps. Say no to autocommit and yes to reboot after download.

Incase things dont turn out to be nice, and you get some nasty emails complaining loss of path, new storage not visible etc. Then its time to roll back.

To restore from the secondary partition, if you have not run the firmwarecommit command, this is what you run

firmwareRestore

Simple, aint it...! Atleast I would say so..! The pain is co-ordination with system admins and busniess owners, we dont have commands for these operations :)

2007-09-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

EMC ILM Products

ILM - Information Lifecycle Management, very few companies have managed to go beyond learning the meaning of the 3 letters. The very fact that ILM seems to sound like a management function keeps techies out of this interesting subject.

ILM can be categorised into the following activities

Tiering of storage.
File and asset discovery.
Record Management.
Email Management.

This article focusses on some of EMC's ILM products that help you acheive this

Tiering of storage.

EMC's flagship storage resource management (SRM) product ECC combined with StoragScope helps acheive this objective. Each company can define its own tiers. The tiers could be within the same storage or spread across mid tier, NAS solutions and tape.

File and asset discovery.

ECC + StorageScope + File Level Reporting (license) = File level discovery.

Know which type of files are occupying more space OR if there are duplicates e.t.c. with options of pre defined or custom reports.

Record Management.

DiskXtender helps define rules for automatic policy based movement of files to

NAS

FixedContentStorage (CAS)

Or Tape

You can therefore use DiskXtender to move files never used for more than a month to a lower cost storage and thus save upgrades on your primary storage.

Email Management.

EmailXtender helps realtime record of to and fro email traffic across all your email servers. EmailXtender components - EmailXtract - EmailXaminer e.t.c. help you archive old mails in PST and also do automated tagging of objectionable content.

EmailXtender combined with DiskXtender can help in reducing primary storage requirements for Messaging solutions.

2007-06-05T01:51:00.000-07:00

India moves ahead with National Skills Registry - NASSCOM

Attention all IT employees, its now mandatory for everyone to register with the NSR - NASSCOM for creating a one stop identification for all companies. Here's a brief nowto with the steps

First Step

Access http://www.nationalskillsregistry.com/

Register following details (PLEASE ENTER CORRECT INFORMATION
ONLY AS IT CAN BE REFERRED FOR VERIFICATION):

• Name, Date of Birth, Addresses (Present, previous and
Permanent, these could be common also) , PAN , Passport
details

• Your preferred User ID and Password for access to NSR

• Details of Academic, professional and technical qualifications

• Details of present and previous employments (joining / relieving
dates, designations and addresses)

Second Step

_ Visit Point of Service (POS) locations at one of the locations given in
the annexure
_ Submit Finger-prints, photograph, signature and registration fees (250
plus service tax) and first year usage fees (Rs. 50 plus service tax) total

337 to the Point of Service (POS).

_ Please carry one of the following documents for identification :
Employment Identity Car, Voter's ID Card, Passport, Driving
License, Bank Pass book (if photo attached), College ID card (not more
than 1 year old) , PAN card
Use NSR
On the next day, NSR will inform you about your successful registration and
your unique ITPIN (IT Professional Identification Number).

Now you can access NSR based on your ITPIN – User ID and Password and

A View & keep your details updated.

A Get your details verified by empanelled background checkers. This is very important as your details are confirmed by a background checker and are relied upon by companies for employing you.

A Permit companies to view your profile.
A In case a company views your profile (as per your permission); you
Will be able to know that such a company has viewed your profile.

Even the support and admin staff working for IT companies like peons, travel assistants e.t.c. will be covered by the program.

The companies which have been authorized as registrars are yet to get professional. Today I called up 2 authorized registrars for NSR, and both did not have their systems ready for registration. One in town had his finger print scanner not functioning and another had his computers not functioning. So advise all to call up your nearest registrar and then travel.

All this said and done, I do not understand why employees should pay NASSCOM for this, its not to protect us but to protect companies. I was cheated by Satyam last year and all that Kiran Karnik (NASSCOM) did was to tell me to approach the court. Just keep in mind that you need not create this card unless the companies force you to do so.

**** LIST OF POS ****

Ahmedabad
Alankit Assignments LimitedGanesh Plaza, 1/3-, 1st FloorOpp. Navrangpur Bus Stand,Ahmedabad - 380009Ph No: - 079-40048980Contact Person: Manish JangidEmail :alankitahd@alankit.com
Bangalore
Alankit Assignments LimitedNo 42, 2nd & 4th Floor,46E , Lalbagh Main Road(Urvasi Theatre Road),Land Mark : Next to Khivraj Bajaj Showroom, Bangalore - 560027Tel no :91-80-40195733Contact person : Kalyan Basak Email :kalyan.basak@alankitonline.com
Integrated Enterprises (India) Limited 12 Ramanuja Plaza - II Floor5th Cross, MalleswaramBangalore - 560003.Tel no: 09902025630Contact Person: MR. SIVAKUMAREmail: siva@iepindia.com
Chennai
Alankit Assignments Limited109 & 110, 2nd Floor Charmiers Road, Teynampet Chennai - 600018.Tel no: 044 -43947000/9962012104/9962012102Contact Person: J C Mittal/J KannanEmail: jcmittal@alankitonline.com/kannan@alankitonline.com
Integrated Enterprises ( INDIA ) Ltd,16 Vijayaraghava road T Nagar Chennai - 600017.Tel no: 044-28150891 / 28150893 / 09444210962 Fax: 044 - 28150894Contact Person: Manikandan Email: mapin@iepindia.com / selvakumar@iepindia.com
Chandigarh
Alankit Assignment LimitedSCO 16 -17, Ground FloorSector 34AChandigarh - 160035.Tel no: 0172 - 4611833 / 09872747862Contact Person: Alok ShuklaEmail :alankitchg@alankit.com
Gurgaon
Alankit Assignments LimitedSCO-17, Ground FloorSaraswati Vihar Shopping ComplexHousing Board, ChakerpurGurgaon - 122001.Tel no: 0124 - 4039140 / 44/09910893089Contact Person: Naveen Kumar Sharma/Nipun SharmaEmail :alankitgurgaon@alankit.com
Hyderabad
Integrated Enterprises (India) LimitedNo-5-10-197 / A, G4-I FLOORReliance Krishna ApartmentsNavad Pahad, Hill Fort rdHyderabad - 500004.Tel no: 09849912523Contact Person: VijayEmail:venkateswarlu@iepindia.com/hydbasheer@iepindia.com
Indore
Alankit Assignments Limited401, Navneet Plaza4th Floor, 5 / 2 Old PlasiaGreater Kailash Nursing Home RoadIndore - 452001.Tel no: 0731 - 4202337 / 2566176 / 09827500170Contact Person: Mahesh Khandelwal / Manish JagetiyaEmail :dmm01021@rediffmail.com
Jaipur
Alankit Assignments Limited101-104, Luhadia TowerAshok Marg, 'C' SchemeJaipur - 302001.Tel no: 0141 - 2374531 - 34 / 9314509386Contact Person: Sumit AgarwalEmail :alankitjpr@alankit.com sumit@alankit.com
Kochi
Alankit Assignments LimitedXL 531, Presidency Business Centre,Above Katson Traders, High Court Jn,Banerji Road, Kochi-682031.Ph No: 0484-2398398, 4038398Mob No: 09249528400, 09249572272Contact Person: George VargheseEmail : 1271@kvco.in
Kolkata
Alankit Assignments LimitedNo. 19, R N Mukherjee RoadMain Building, Second FloorKolkata - 700001.Tel no: 033-44014100/4200/4115Contact Person: Shyama Kejriwal / Sheo Kumar GuptaEmail :skejriwal@alankitonline.com skgupta@alankitonline.com
Mumbai
Alankit Assignments LimitedR. R. House / BabulinIdeal Industrial EstateOpp. New Empire MillsSenapati Bapat MargLower ParelMumbai - 400013.Tel no: 022 - 24821234/24985512/24821281Contact Person: Pawan Goel/ Harish LikamEmail: pawangoel@alankitonline.com/harish@alankitonline.com
Integrated Enterprises ( India ) LimitedNO.217 - Shilpin Centre - II floorNr. Shriram Industrial Estatekartak Road, 40 G D Ambedkar RoadWadala, Mumbai - 400031.Tel no: 022 - 40335800 / 40335804 / 9322935321 / 9833196676 Fax: 022 - 40335807Contact Person: Suryakant Kamble/Rahul/D KrishnamurthyEmail: anand@iepindia.com / Seshadriswami@yahoo.com Krishnamurthydee@gmail.com
Kotak Securities Limited
Industry Manor Building
First Floor
Above J K Banquet Hall
Near Century Bazaar and New Passport Office
Appasaheb Marathe Marg, Prabhadevi
Mumbai - 400030
Contact Person: Sanjay H. Singh / Mr. Narendra
Tel No:022 - 66216666 / 6100 / 6401 / 9224350613
Email:sanjay.singh@kotak.com -->
New Delhi
Alankit Assignments LimitedAlankit House2E / 21, JHANDEWALAN EXTENSIONNew Delhi - 110055.Tel no: 011 - 42541246 / 42541740 / 42541988Contact Person: Rajeev Berk / Mr. Gaurav MalhotraEmail:rajeevb@alankit.com /gauravm@alankitonline.com
Noida
Alankit Assignments limited101-103, Upper Ist floorJOP Plaza, P-2, Sector 18Noida - 201301.Tel no: 0120 - 2516151 - 52Contact Person: Satendra KumarEmail: alankitnoida@alankit.com
Pune
Alankit Assignments Limited6, Kailas park, Airport RoadNr Gunjan CinemaOpp Neeta Park, above Gokul ElectronicsYerwada, Pune - 411006. Tel no: 020 - 26697080 / 26693132 / 09823090239 / 09890393144 Contact Person: Prakash Babanrao / Vijay Kumar DhandeEmail: dhananjaypune@yahoo.co.in
ICICI Web Trade Ltd
Mantri house, Grd floor
Nr. Dnyneshwar Paduka Chowk
Pune - 411004.
Tel no: 9822868512
Contact Person: Reshma-->
Secundrabad
Alankit Assignment Limited1-8-54 / 1 / 1, 1st FloorPender Ghast RoadSecundrabad - 500003.Tel no: 040-66178222-230 /66178270Contact Person: Ashil Singhal / M V Jeevan PrasadEmail: ashil@alankitonline.com/nsrhyd@alankitonline.com

2007-03-04T23:22:00.000-08:00

What is qtree?? And how is it different from a directory??

Ans : A qtree is a special subdirectory under the root volume directory.

For example if /vol/vol04nas1 is the ROOT volume directory, and a qtree training is created in it, we can refer to the qtree by traversing the following path.

/vol/vol04nas1/training

A qtree is different from the traditional directory on a Unix system in many ways including

1. A qtree can be assigned a security style. We can create a qtree with Unix, NT or mixed security style.

2. CIFS oplocks can be enabled on the qtree. CIFS oplocks help the client to buffer data locally, performing read ahead from an open file. The nature of buffering depends on the nature of oplocks granted.

3. We can set disk space & file limits at qtree level, allowing control over resource allocation to multiple projects.

Say we have 3 departments, finance, HR, sales and each function has separate qtree's. We can then assign 20 GB to sales, 100 GB to HR, since it contains training videos e.t.c. and 75 GB to finance.

2007-02-23T23:31:00.000-08:00

How Netbackup works???

I was trying to simplify the understanding of the netbackup processes. Here's what I could manage.

On master server

bprd must be running.

ltid must be running.

Scheduled backup operations

bprd -> bpsched -> consults bpdbm to determine
1. which jobs need to be run.
2. figure out req of jobs to be run.

This is automated and is governed bu the global Wakeup interval. If bpsched finds that there is no job to be done, it quitely exits.

bpsched now starts another bpsched (lets call it bpsched-B) which is given the onus of executing the tasks.

bpsched-B also spawns multiple bpscheds,one for each task it needs to spawn.

Each of these bpsched starts a bpcd process on the media server required by the policy. The media server is determined by the storage unit.

bpcd -> bpbrm -> bptm (on media-server) -> bpcd (client) -> bpbkar to start sending data -> meta data to bpbrm ->bpdbm (update catalog)

At the same time

bptm (on media-server)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
V
bptm (on media server) -> vmd (media to be used).
bptm (on media server) -> ltid (robotic communication, tape request).
bptm (on media server) -> tpreq

|
V
bptm (child process) -> bpbkar on client and receiving and writing out to the data buffers.

Once bpbkar stops sending out data to the bptm on the media server, it exits and the bpsched child will now communicate to its parent bpsched-B and bpsched-B will check if there are other jobs it scheduled running. If no it send a signal to the bpsched-A.

Incase there are no more jobs to be scheduled, bpsched-A exits.

References : Veritas Troubleshooting Guide and this post from Kemal Badur.

http://www.mail-archive.com/veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu/msg00520.html

2007-02-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

Off Host SnapShot

I was just revising my VxVM fundas, since it has been quite sometime before I have actually done it. More involved with backup off late.

Fast-Resync FlashSnap (Licensed Feature), Lets discuss 3rd mirror snapshot only as I have worked only on this feature.

Step 1 : Test bed starts with creation of a volume.

vxassist -g datadg make vol01 10g

Step 2 : Enable Fast Resync

vxsnap -g datadg prepare vol01

This also adds a DCO (Data Change Object), tracks changes and is

persistent across reboots.

Step 3 : Add mirror to the volume.

vxsnap -g datadg addmir datavol

This will add a mirror plex to the vol01, lets call it vol01-02

Step 4 : Now to create instant FULL sized snapshot.

vxsnap -g datadg make source=vol01/newvol=snapvol01/plex=vol01-02

Step 5 : Off host snap shot.

vxdg split datadg offdg snapvol01

Step 6 : Deport the DG

vxdg deport offdg

Step 7 : On the remote host, import the DG and mount. Use this

copy to perform backup operations, MIS e.t.c.

Step 8 : Deport the dg on the remote host.

vxdg deport offdg

Step 9 : Import it back on the original host.

vxdg import offdg

Step 10 : Join the DG's

vxdg join offdg datadg

Step 11 : Start the snapshot vol

vxvol -g datadg startall

Step 12 : Refresh the snapshot volume with the original volume.

vxsnap -g datadg refresh snapvol01 vol01

2007-02-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

Difference between UFS and VxFS :-

The following differences summarize the tests done by veritas.

1. VxFS has faster recovery from unusual events like disk corruption.
2. VxFS is 8-20 % faster on database performance than UFS.
3. fsck on vxfs are 6 times faster than UFS with logging.
4. Performs better during multiprocess operations. 300% more than UFS during concurrent loads.
5. Emhanced Mount options like blkclear, closesync.
6. Administration is online, reszing, defragmentation e.t.c.

The most prominent difference is the extent based allocation thats default in vxfs as opposed to the block based allocation of UFS.

An extent is cluster of contigous blocks. Writes to extents is faster during multiple operations since more number of disks can respond. Also useful when files are large and when the fs is subjected to sequential i/o.

2007-02-04T02:36:00.000-08:00

SFCFS – Storage Foundation Cluster File System

SFCFS is a product for sharing a single file system among multiple nodes. Luns from a storage sub-system need to be shared amongst the various nodes in a cluster and SFCFS maintains consistency on the FS shared by multipe nodes.

Say node-A, node-B, node-C share a file system /users, and node-A goes down, users can still access the /users filesystem on node-B and node-C on the cluster.

How does SFCFS benefit??

Load balance applications.
Shared FS can be resized dynamically.
Extending clusters since the new node can simply mount the configuration FS.
Reduce downtime for planned maintainence on systems.

In this short tutorial, I would explain the key components of the SFCFS architecture and also a simple example and some caveats to be taken care duiring installation.

Part 1 – SFCFS key components

SFCFS includes component products like Veritas Cluster Server (VCS), Cluster File System (CFS) and cluster functionality of Veritas Volume Manager (VCM).

VCS manages the communication between nodes and the mechanism to add and register nodes.
CFS manages the coherency in metadata on the shared filesystem. The node that mounts the FS first becomes the primary node, and is responsible for updating the metadata on the shared FS.
CVM makes the logical volumes accessible throughout the cluster.

Part 2 – Membership ports

Each component in SFCFS registers with a membership port. Knowing the various ports and their significance helps in troubleshooting and ensuring approporiate membership.

port a – heartbeat membership.

port b – I/O fencing membership.

port f – Cluster file systems membership.

port u – temporary port used by CVM.

port v – CVM membership.

port q – used by CVM

Part 3 – Installing SFCFS

Although the entire installation process cannot be detiled in this tutorial, a few key steps will be highlighted.

Select a node (preferably the to be primary) to begin installation. Enable direct login via rsh to all other nodes from the primary node.

Mount the CDROM and proceed by running the installer script.

Enter the system names seperated by a space which are to be included in the cluster.

Select “n” for I/O fencing since it has to be manually configured later.

At our place we has uninstalled all Veritas components prior to installing SFCFS, if you have VxVM present on the systems, you will be asked to choose a new or exisiting configuraton.

Enter a cluster name : core_compute

Enter a cluster id : 123

Configure your heartbeat links appropriately. Heartbeat links are private channels used for communication by the VCS. Keep a list of interfaces ready for configuration as link1 and link2 for each node.

For further help refer the installation and admin guides for SFCFS on seer.support.veritas.com

Part 4 – Verifying the installation

a. LLT

The following files are important

1. /etc/llthosts – This file is just like /etc/hosts, except instead of IP->hostnames, it does llt node numbers (as set in set-node). You need this file for VCS to start. It should look like this:

0       coredev05

1       coredev06

2. /etc/llttab - low-latency transport configuration file

 # this sets our node ID, must be unique in cluster

set-node 0

 # set the heartbeat links

link hme1 /dev/hme:1 - ether - -

# link-lowpri is for public networks

link-lowpri hme0 /dev/hme:0 - ether - -

 # set cluster number, must be unique

set-cluster 123

b. GAB

GAB requires only one configuration file, /etc/gabtab.

This file lists the number of nodes in the cluster.

/sbin/gabconfig -c –n3

 c. Who’s the master??

 Type vxdctl –m mode on any node to view if it’s a master or slave.

Part 5 - IO Fencing

IO Fencing is a great and reliable way to prevent split brain during jeopardy.
Imagine if all heartbeat links fail, then you would have data corruption since the nodes
would’nt be able to update metadata appropriately.

IO Fencing needs a odd number of disks and alteast 3 of them to be configured
as co-ordinator disks. The co-ordinator disks need to suppport SCSI3-PGR reservations.
Choose 20 MB Luns as co-ordinator disks. You could even use smaller Luns
but we have run into problems with small Luns.

We nowadays use 50 MB Luns to avoid any last minute blues.

Use the vxfentsthdw utility to test disks for SCSI3-PG reservations.
Use this tool carefully since it wipes out all data from the disks.

Add all the selected disks to a disk group using VxVM commands, on any node

# vxdg init coorddg disk01=c7t11d3 disk02=c7t11d4 disk03=c7t11d5

Deport the disk group vxfendg

# vxdg deport coorddg

Re-import the disk group with the –t (temporary) option to prevent it from auto import
during reboot.

# vxdg –t import coorddg

Deport it again to prevent access by anybody.

# vxdg deport coorddg

Add the co-ord disk group to the file /etc/vxfendg on each system.

# echo “coordg” /etc/vxfendg

On each system start IO fencing.

/etc/init.d/vxfen start

This creates a file /etc/vxfentab and lists the disks in the DG listed in /etc/vxfendg.
In this example the /etc/vxfentab would consist of the following

/dev/rdsk/c7t11d3

/dev/rdsk/c7t11d4

/dev/rdsk/c7t11d5

 Part 6 – Regualar Operations

That was all about installation and configuring IO fencing.
Now to share and mount data disk groups.

a. To add a disk group bijudg and vol1 to the configuration and mount it, the
following steps need to be performed.

#cfsmntadm add bijudg vol1 /testmount all=rw

This will associate the mount point /testmount with the cluster.

# cfsmount /testmount

# df –k /testmount

/dev/vx/dsk/bijudg/var-crash  15482443      10 15327609     1%    /testmount

b. Resizing a FS

Just verify that you are resizing the FS on the primary node for that filesystem

# vxdctl –c mode

# fsclustadm –v showprimary /testmount

Use the vxresize command

# vxresize –g bijudg vol1 +5g


Thats all folks..!

2007-01-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

Calculating BB credits for a link ??

The brocade FC101 is a great resource to start learning SAN design. The other day I was just revising my SAN design course and thought of just adding some more explanations to the FC101 material via this blog.

LATENCY OF LIGHT WAVE = 5 nsec/m or 5 Usec/km

So for 10 km = 10 x 5 = 50 Usec one way or 50 x 2 = 100 Usec round trip.

For a 20 Kbyte frame propagation delay @ 100 MB/sec is T = D/S

(2 x 10^3) / (100 x 10^6) = [2 x 10^(-5)] = [20 x 10^(-6)] = 20 Usec

So to keep a 10 km "pipe" full, the switch would need atleast

100Usec/20Usec = 5 E_Port credits.

Proportionally, a 2 KB frame at 50 k needs (5 E_Port credits for 10 km x 5) = 5 x 5 = 25

At high speeds more buffers are needed, at 200 MB/sec, it would be 40 USec

For 10 km at 200 MB/sec, we would need 10 E_Port buffers.

2006-12-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

Slow backups can be a pain, they occupy drives and reduce the throughput of the LTO drives. The possible reasons for a slow Windows client backup

1. Tracker.exe : Disable tracker.exe permanently; u need to edit the registry settings or msconfig of Windows 2000.
2. Thousands or lakhs of files.
3. Network duplex settings. Check if ur card is 100 Mbps FULL duplex.

Use SSO whenever huge SAN backups are involved. MPX levels can affect duplications.

2006-08-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

How to find bad medias/tapes

Keep checking this file for any new entries

/usr/openv/netbackup/db/media/errors

Also keep a watch on /var/adm/messages, if u suspect such issues.

2006-08-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

Seems like this blog will swell up in this stint at netbackup.

Heres a real good script/command to find the first file contained in a image:

bpflist -U -d $1 -client $3 -backupid $i -rl 10 |sed 's/.*P=$.*$D=.*/\1/;'|egrep '^\/'|sed 1q

Inputs required 1. start date 2. end date 3. client name and 4. backup type.

Credits to Sto Rage for the inputs on veritas-bu list.

Its worth joining the veritas-bu mailing list
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu

2006-08-24T08:57:00.000-07:00

To delete vxfiVspCacheFile_0.tmp files created in windows while backing up open files.

This technote from Symantec is helpful.

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/270127.htm

This technote uses a third party tool

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

for deleting the file.

The other way to remove this file is to reboot the server. We have had cache files upto 23 GB i a drive virtually threatenning to crash the application.

2006-08-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

Slow backups are always a concern, they load the netbackup system and put all plans in a jeopardy.

These technotes are all related to troubleshooting slow backups, take a look at all of them before beginning a long journey

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/232929.htm

http://support.veritas.com/docs/240607

http://support.veritas.com/docs/267253

2006-08-20T01:21:00.000-07:00

One more link with amazing netbackup commands

http://blog.lowbox.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?action=browse&diff=3&id=NetbackupCommands

These also include some awk/sort/uniq pipes to get the most out of the netbackup cli.

2006-08-20T01:01:00.000-07:00

A real Good Netbackup Link

http://home.earthlink.net/~jdykzeul/docs/veritas_nbu_examples.txt

This link contains a brief description of useful netbackup commands.

2006-08-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

Changing the media speed settings of your p570/p520 nic.

Bring the interface down

ifconfig en0 down;

Detach the driver

ifconfig en0 detach;

Change charecs of the interface

chdev -l 'ent0' -a media_speed='100_Full_Duplex'

Using Smitty : do the following ->

smitty chdev
-> Communication
Then adapter - etc and change 'media speed' by selecting with F4

ifconfig en0 attach;

ifconfig en0 up;

2006-07-24T02:20:00.000-07:00

Most of you must be aware of the vxtask list option, but I would like to document and interesting option which helps estimate time of the running operation and also helps know the current progress.

root@Xdog # vxtask list
TASKID PTID TYPE/STATE PCT PROGRESS
164 ATCOPY/R 35.57% 0/25821056/9185792 SDMV flash22-01 flash56-01 sprime01dg
177 ATCOPY/R 61.69% 0/8388608/5175296 SDMV flash28-07 flash57-03 sprime01dg
root@Xdog # vxtask -l list
Task: 164 RUNNING
Type: ATCOPY
Operation: SDMV Subdisk flash22-01 Subdisk flash56-01 Dg sprime01dg
Started: Sat Jul 22 07:13:48 2006
Throttle: 0
Progress: 35.69% 9216384 of 25821056 Blocks
Work time: 26 minutes, 28 seconds (47:41 remaining)

Task: 177 RUNNING
Type: ATCOPY
Operation: SDMV Subdisk flash28-07 Subdisk flash57-03 Dg sprime01dg
Started: Sat Jul 22 07:37:31 2006
Throttle: 0
Progress: 64.04% 5371904 of 8388608 Blocks
Work time: 2 minutes, 45 seconds (01:32 remaining)

2006-07-13T00:33:00.000-07:00

REAL GOOD SAN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

==============================================================================
1. The HP Team installed a VA7400 at our location, connecting it directly to N class server. The armdiscover command was run and the storage was visible. My function was to confiure a SAN Fabric with Brocade switches and connect both the Storage and the N class servers to it, this was not under the Hp contract. I'am new to brocade and SAN, after the connections looked fine, ran the armdiscover command on the HP server, to my surprise did not find any storage connected. Here's some output that may help u troubleshoot my problem.

results of nsshow is as follows:

The Local Name Server has 4 entries {
Type Pid COS PortName NodeName TTL(sec)
N 011000; 3;50:06:0b:00:00:10:77:0c;50:06:0b:00:00:10:77:0d; na
FC4s: FCP
Fabric Port Name: 20:00:00:60:69:50:0e:d8
N 011100; 3;50:06:0b:00:00:10:77:b4;50:06:0b:00:00:10:77:b5; na
FC4s: FCP
Fabric Port Name: 20:01:00:60:69:50:0e:d8
NL 01122a; 3;50:06:0b:00:00:15:44:4c;50:06:0b:00:00:09:2f:37; na
FC4s: FCP [HP A6189A HP16]
Fabric Port Name: 20:02:00:60:69:50:0e:d8
NL 011327; 3;50:06:0b:00:00:15:42:44;50:06:0b:00:00:09:2f:37; na
FC4s: FCP [HP A6189A HP16]
Fabric Port Name: 20:03:00:60:69:50:0e:d8
}

ioscan -fnC disk shows this:

disk 21 1/0/0/0.1.19.0.0.0.0 sdisk CLAIMED DEVICE HP A6189A
disk 20 1/0/0/0.1.20.39.0.0.0 sdisk NO_HW DEVICE HP A6189A
disk 19 1/0/0/0.8.0.110.0.0.0 sdisk NO_HW DEVICE HP A6189A
==============================================================================

2. The questions below refer to the foll switchshow output

port 0: sw Online F-Port 50:06:0b:00:00:08:0b:68
port 1: sw Online L-Port 1 private, 11 phantom
port 2: sw Online L-Port 1 private, 11 phantom
port 3: sw No_Light
port 4: sw No_Light
port 5: sw Online F-Port 50:06:0b:00:00:06:89:a6
port 6: sw Online L-Port 1 public
port 7: sw Online F-Port 50:06:0b:00:00:08:5b:cc
port 8: sw Online F-Port 50:06:0b:00:00:06:89:7c
port 9: sw No_Light
port 10: sw Online L-Port 1 public
port 11: sw Online F-Port 50:06:0b:00:00:10:d1:ea
port 12: sw Online F-Port 20:00:00:e0:69:c0:0d:4d
port 13: sw Online F-Port 20:00:00:e0:69:c0:0d:52
port 14: sw Online F-Port 50:06:0b:00:00:10:ef:9c
port 15: sw Online E-Port (unknown)

a. Please help me create a >>recomended<< zoning config for the target connected to (port 11) and initators on (ports 12 and 13).

b. What is difference between port 1 and port 6, although both are "L" ports??

c. Should I zone port 15.
==============================================================================

3. The porterrshow output is appended below. Can you help me draw any conclusions.

Switch:admin> porterrshow

tx rx in err shrt long eof out c3 rjt fail sync sig

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 2.0k 1.8k 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 1 2 0 0
1: 1.2k 1.9k 0 0 0 0 0 25 0 0 0 3 0 0 0
2: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
7: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

2006-01-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

Configuring QLogic (2340) on Solaris (sparc)

Well I aint gonna discuss, howto install a qlogic card on solaris but just howto configure and give visibilty for a set of LUN's. We will use the "SanSurfer CLI utilities" or "scli" for easily setting up persistent binding of LUNS to a particular HBA.

I found that configuring a Qlogic was really easy, compared to JNI and FCAW cards. But hey I never regret working on those since I learnt quite a few fundas abt SAN working on them. The more primitive the technology the more u learn (not always though).

First Task : Install SANsurfer FC HBA CLI for Solaris SPARC

Download the qlogic cli utilities for Solaris Sparc from
http://download.qlogic.com/drivers/36071/scli-1.06.16-38.SPARC-X86.Solaris.pkg.Z

$ uncompress scli-1.06.16-38.SPARC-X86.Solaris.pkg.Z
$ pkgadd -d ./scli-1.06.16-38.SPARC-X86.Solaris.pkg

Second Task : Connect the storage JBOD/Array via FC

Third Task : Find the instance of qlogic card connected to the desired storage.

$ cat /etc/path_to_inst|grep ql

Here I found that the instance is zero.

Fourth Task : Checking and Configuring

$ scli -t 0


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
HBA Port 0 - QLA2340 OS: 0 Port Name: 21-00-00-E0-8B-1C-A9-9A Port Id: 00-00-E8
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Path                       : 0
Target                     : 0
Device ID                  : 0x00
Port ID                    : 00-00-EF
Product Vendor             : NEXSAN
Product ID                 : ATAbeastF  
Product Revision           : 8239
Node Name                  : 20-03-00-04-02-E8-0C-FE
Port Name                  : 50-00-40-20-03-E8-0C-FE
Product Type               : Disk
Number of LUN(s)           : 5
Target OS Name             :
Status                     : Online
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now run the foll command

$ scli -p 0 20-03-00-04-02-E8-0C-FE 50-00-40-20-03-E8-0C-FE 00-00-EF 0

Info: Running dynamic update, please wait...

Configuration saved on HBA port 0. Changes have been saved to persistent storage.

ie.

$ scli -p

$ scli -p

Check the binding

$ scli -p 0 view

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
HBA Port 0 - QLA2340 OS: 0 Port Name: 21-00-00-E0-8B-1C-A9-9A Port Id: 00-00-E8
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bind Type     Device Node Name         Device Port Name         Port ID   ID
---- -------  -----------------------  -----------------------  --------  ---
Yes    Disk   20-03-00-04-02-E8-0C-FE  50-00-40-20-03-E8-0C-FE  00-00-EF  0

Thats it voila, run echo | format to see the new LUNS in format.

26. c3t0d0 
         /pci@1f,4000/fibre-channel@2/sd@0,0
     27. c3t0d1 
         /pci@1f,4000/fibre-channel@2/sd@0,1
     28. c3t0d3 
         /pci@1f,4000/fibre-channel@2/sd@0,3
     29. c3t0d4 
         /pci@1f,4000/fibre-channel@2/sd@0,4
     30. c3t0d25 
         /pci@1f,4000/fibre-channel@2/sd@0,19

Post your queries as comments.

2006-01-08T10:14:00.000-08:00

Netapp Upgrade

Part 1 : Ontap + Adding disk shelves

This was the second ONTAP upgrade within a years length. This time around we added two SATA disk
shelves and upgraded to ONTAP 7.0.3 to get the benefits of flexvol.

ONTAP upgrade was pretty simple, we just downloaded the software for FAS900 series from now.netapp.com and extracted it in a particular directory.

The root of the filer (vol0) was mounted on /mnt

./install_netapp -k /mnt

The upgrade was smooth, as simple as copying files.

we then connected a laptop to the NAS filer, on the filer prompt

Disabled the autosupport, since this was a scheduled downtime

Disabled the cluster with the following command

cf disable

The executables need to be copied to the boot blocks of the filer

download

A message would appear informing that the boot blocks were sucessfully copied to the disks.

and fired the halt command. The system came to the
ok:prompt

Fired the bye command to reboot
ok bye

On the other filer perform the same upgrade.

We then connected each disk shelf to each to one controller. There was no interconnect since cf is disable.

Checked whether the new set of disks could be detected by the filer using
sysconfig -a

Upgraded the disk firmware, this firmware is packaged with the new ONTAP upgrade.

disk_fw_update

Enabled the cluster

cf enable

Interconnect the new disk shelves to either filers.

Part 2: Creating Aggregate volumes.

Aggregates are the new feature that was enabled as a result of the ONTAP upgrade. We created a 14 disk aggregate with 13 disks. Sounds confusing but I'll try explain

We purchased a 2 x 14 disk shelves, one disk needs to be a spare as a Best practice policy (A good point to be noted is that spares are'nt global), so effectively we had 13 disks. The Aggregate options normally recommend 6-14-28 disks. So we went ahead with 14.

This aggregate can be expanded to 28 on the fly.

Now we would be creating Flex vols out of the aggregate. Here each vol would span 13 disks thus giving better performance. The Flex vols can be resized on the fly. Caution to be excercised is that for the volume to be resized it shd be arnd 20% free.

Netapp stood upto its name of a storage appliance, just 2 hrs to complete the upgrade. No wonder its got an order of 20 Petabytes.

2006-01-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

Veritas Layered Volumes


Layered volumes are VxVM objects made on top of other VxVM volumes. They advantage is that they offer greater
redundancy.

Examples are

1. Stripe Pro OR (Raid 1 + 0) OR stripe-mirror
2. Concat Pro

The difference is that Concat Pro is concat LV over mirrored volumes and the former being stripe LV over mirrored
volumes.

To convert from a non-layered to layered use the vxassist convert option.
Relayout works only between non-layered formats. For example we can relayout from stripe to concat.

Use the -o ordered option to gain some control over the disk assignment during layered volume creation.

The following command will create a layered volume as shown below

vxassist -g oradg -o ordered make oravol 150g layout=stripe-mirror ncol=2 mydisk01 mydisk02 mydisk03 mydisk04

    stripe
 mydisk01-01  mydisk02-01
mirror      mirror
 mydisk03-01  mydisk04-01

Heres a classic case from VxVM mailing list, I have modified it a bit to make things clear
and bring some brevity in the content presented.

Case : Converting Stripe volume to Stripe pro volume.

I need to set up a Stripe Pro (RAID 1+0) volume, I'm using 14 drives of a 22  drive Sun A5200 disk array (JBOD).

We have added a back plane with equal number of disks to the array. The front plane already has 6 disks in a stripe volume oravol.

I need to convert the oravol volume to a stripe pro for better redundancy.

FRONT:                   |     BACK:

-------------------            --------------------

c3t32  [oradb01] <-->  c3t48  [oradb02]

c3t33  [oradb03] <-->  c3t50  [oradb04]

c3t36  [oradb05] <-->  c3t52  [oradb06]

c3t37  [oradb07] <-->  c3t53  [oradb08]

c3t38  [oradb00] <-->  c3t54  [oradb10]

c3t40  [oradb11] <-->  c3t56  [oradb12]

c3t42  [oradb13]         c3t58  [oradb14] --------------à Spare

Any Ideas how to do this via actual command line recommendations?

Solution

Mirror all the disks on the other half, thus creating a mirrored stripe:

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    # vxassist mirror oravol init=active \

    alloc=oradb02,oradb04,oradb06,oradb08,oradb10,oradb12


    Use vxassist to convert layout from RAID 0+1 to 1+0

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    # vxassist  -g oradg  convert oravol layout=stripe-mirror,nolog

2006-01-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

Here are some examples compiled with input from various searches on google.

Case 1: A power failure in the storage pulled some disks out of control of volume manager.

If the vxprint command shows that the plexes have a kernel state of NODEVICE.

Then it seems that the disks have gone offline as a result of the operation.

Vxreattach is the command for help.

Solution :

First check whether vxreattach is possible.

vxreattach –c c#t#d#s#

Example vxreattach -c c2t29d10s2

This will hopefully show what the disk_name used to be.

If so then run (re-attach in background).

vxreattach -br c2t29d9s2

Find the plexes that are in the DISABLED RECOVER state.

Here we consider that the volume automation is disabled and that the plex automation-01 is in DISABLED

For all DISABLED RECOVER plexes, perform the commands:

# vxmend -o force off (automation-01)

# vxmend on (automation-01)

# vxmend fix clean (automation-01)

# vxvol start (automation)

fsck the volume before mounting.

Case 2:

From vxprint -ht:

v  bm-u1        -            ENABLED  ACTIVE   60817408 SELECT   -        fsgen

pl bm-u1-01     bm-u1        DISABLED TEMPRMSD 60817408 CONCAT   -        RW

sd raid60-v2-03 bm-u1-01     raid60-v2 49872896 60817408 0       fabric_5 ENA

pl bm-u1-02     bm-u1        ENABLED  STALE    60817408 CONCAT   -        WO

sd raid-82-vol1-11 bm-u1-02  raid-82-vol1 358612992 60817408 0   fabric_1 ENA

I want to remove this volume, it's not mounted anywhere and the usual

commands says:

# vxvol stop bm-u1

vxvm:vxvol: ERROR: Volume bm-u1 in use by another utility

# vxtask list

TASKID  PTID TYPE/STATE    PCT   PROGRESS

# vxassist remove volume bm-u1

vxvm:vxassist: ERROR:  Volume bm-u1 is adding a mirror

How do I get rid of it?  (data is of no importance)

Solution:

1) vxmend -g disk_group -r clear all bm-u1

2) vxedit -r rm bm-u1

Case 3:

Recovering a RAID5 volume, incase of one disk failure, should happen automatically. But things may not seem to work right sometimes. Largely this is due to parity corruption. Here are the steps to check and recover in such a sittuation.

If you run /etc/vx/bin/vxr5check on a volume and it tells you that the parity is bad, here is a procedure that allows you to rebuild it.

1.       # vxvol -g  stop

2.       # vxmend -g  fix empty

3.       # vxvol -g  start

 Don't worry about the "fix empty stage deleting data". It will not. This procedure taken from Sun SRDB 12266.

2005-12-22T21:54:00.000-08:00

Veritas Checkpoints -

SNAPSHOTS are a point in time copy of a filesystem.

Create:
mount –F vxfs –o snapof=origfs[,snapsize=size] destination snap_mount_point

Refresh:
mount –F vxfs –o remount, snapof=origfs[,snapsize=size] destination snap_mount_point

Remove:
umount snap_mount_point

Checkpoints are still better, they are persistent across a reboot and utilise fewer resources.

Primer by Par Botes

Here is a quick primer on checkpoints: (can you tell I really think
they
should be used instead of snapshots... :)

Checkpoints take
fewer resources than snapshots, they are persistent, you can
independently write to a checkpoint and they will survive a reboot.

Having said all of that... Both of them can handle multi terabyte
filesystem. Checkpoints will do it better and with fewer resource
consumption.

Create checkpoint:
fsckptadm -n create "a_name" /from_running_filesystem

List checkpoints:
fsckptadm list /from_running_filesystem

Mount checkpoint (default is readonly):
(note that each checkpoint get a pseudo /dev/vx/dsk/dg/ name)
mount -F vxfs -o ckpt=a_name /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup/volname:a_name
/checkpoint_mount
Mounting it read/write:
mount -F vxfs -o ckpt=a_name,rw /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup/volname:a_name
/checkpoint_mount

Umounting the checkpoint:
Umount /checkpoint_mount

Page 68 and onwards  in the vxfs administration guide is a really good
read on checkpoint functionality.

-Par

This was posted by Par on the veritas mailing list.

2005-12-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

WELCOME TO SANUNIX

This is small place I'am trying to fill with computer literature, mostly about SAN and UNIX, well I'll also include Linux and a few notes on NAS too.

So if you are interested in the following, just keep peeking up this place for more

1. Veritas.
2. SUN Solaris.
3. HP Storage.
4. EMC(square).
5. Netapp Filers.
6. IBM AIX and IBM Storage.
7. Redhat Linux and other topics.
8. SNIA
9. iSCSI
10. FCIP
.................................and more

Regards
BIJUCYBORG