Chapter 1Getting Started with Solaris Volume Manager
The Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide describes how to set
up and maintain systems using Solaris Volume Manager to manage storage for high availability,
flexibility, and reliability.
This chapter serves as a high-level guide to find information for certain Solaris Volume Manager
tasks, such as setting up storage capacity. This chapter does not address
all the tasks that you will need to use Solaris Volume Manager. Instead, it provides
an easy way to find procedures describing how to perform common tasks associated
with the following Solaris Volume Manager concepts:
What's New
Storage Capacity
Availability
I/O Performance
Administration
Troubleshooting
 Caution - If you do not use Solaris Volume Manager correctly, you can destroy
data. Solaris Volume Manager provides a powerful way to reliably manage your disks
and data on them. However, you should always maintain backups of your data,
particularly before you modify an active Solaris Volume Manager configuration.
Getting Started With Solaris Volume Manager
Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--What's New
Table 1-1 Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--What's New
Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Storage Capacity
Table 1-2 Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Storage Capacity
Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Availability
Table 1-3 Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Availablity
Task | Description | For Instructions |
|---|
Maximize data availability | Use Solaris Volume Manager's mirroring feature
to maintain multiple copies of your data. You can create a RAID 1 volume from
unused slices in preparation for data, or you can mirror an existing file
system, including root (/) and /usr. | How to Create a RAID 1 Volume From Unused Slices How to Create a RAID 1 Volume From a File System |
Add data availability with minimum
hardware cost | Increase
data availability with minimum of hardware by using Solaris Volume Manager's RAID 5
volumes. | How to Create a RAID 5 Volume |
Increase data availability for an existing
RAID 1 or RAID 5 volume | Increase
data availability for a RAID 1 or a RAID 5 volume, by creating a hot spare
pool then associate it with a mirror's submirrors, or a RAID 5 volume. | Creating a Hot Spare Pool Associating a Hot Spare Pool With Volumes |
Increase file system availability after
reboot | Increase overall file system
availability after reboot, by adding UFS logging (transactional volume) to
the system. Logging a file system reduces the amount of time that the fsck command has to run when the system reboots. | About File System Logging |
Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--I/O Performance
Table 1-4 Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--I/O Performance
Task | Description | For Instructions |
|---|
Tune RAID 1 volume read and write policies | Specify the read and write policies for a RAID 1 volume to improve performance
for a given configuration. | RAID 1 Volume Read and Write Policies How to Change RAID 1 Volume Options |
Optimize device performance | Creating RAID 0 (stripe)
volumes optimizes performance of devices that make up the stripe. The interlace
value can be optimized for random or sequential access. | Creating RAID 0 (Stripe) Volumes |
Maintain device performance within a RAID 0 (stripe) | Expands stripe or concatenation that has run out of space by concatenating
a new component to it. A concatenation of stripes is better for performance
than a concatenation of slices. | Expanding Storage Space |
Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Administration
Table 1-5 Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Administration
Task | Description | For Instructions |
|---|
Graphically
administer your volume management configuration | Use the Solaris Management Console to administer your volume management
configuration. | Online help from within Solaris Volume Manager (Enhanced Storage) node of the Solaris Management Console
application |
Graphically administer slices and file systems | Use the Solaris Management Console graphical user interface to administer your disks and file systems,
performing such tasks as partitioning disks and constructing UFS file systems. | Online help from within the Solaris Management Console application |
Optimize Solaris Volume Manager | Solaris Volume Manager performance
is dependent on a well-designed configuration. Once created, the configuration
needs monitoring and tuning. | Solaris Volume Manager Configuration Guidelines Working with Configuration Files |
Plan for future expansion | Because file systems
tend to run out of space, you can plan for future growth by putting a file
system into a concatenation. | Creating RAID 0 (Concatenation) Volumes Expanding Storage Space |
Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Troubleshooting
Table 1-6 Solaris Volume Manager Roadmap--Troubleshooting
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