Preface

The Solstice DiskSuite Tool 4.0 User's Guide provides all information necessary for using the DiskSuite Tool to create and manipulate Solstice^(TM) DiskSuite^(TM) 4.0 configurations.

The Solstice DiskSuite software package offers a pseudo device driver (called a metadisk driver) that provides better performance, greater capacity, and improved availability of data.

Solstice DiskSuite allows for up to three-way mirroring of any file system including root (/), /usr, and swap. Other features of DiskSuite include online concatenation of physical drives, online expansion of file systems, disk striping, hot spares, RAID, creation of disksets, and UFS logging.

Who Should Use This Book

System administrators and others with the task of administering disk configurations and performing disk maintenance will find this manual to be a valuable resource. Much of the information in this book is targeted towards administrators with experience performing disk maintenance. This manual is not meant to be used by junior administrators.

How This Book Is Organized

This document has 11 chapters and three appendixes.

Chapter 1, "Introduction," introduces the basic concepts of DiskSuite Tool, lists the peripherals supported, and defines the general terminology used in this document.

Chapter 2, "Installation and Setup," provides information on what you need to do before using DiskSuite Tool, including installation and initial setup instructions for the software.

Chapter 3, "Overview of DiskSuite Tool," offers a high-level overview of the functionality included with DiskSuite and the DiskSuite Tool. The various screens you will use when using DiskSuite Tool are shown and explained.

Chapter 4, "Concatenating and Striping," provides conceptual details and procedures for using DiskSuite Tool to create metadevices consisting of either concatenations, stripes, or concatenated stripes.

Chapter 5, "Mirroring," includes information on the operation of mirrors, using mirrors to recover from a single-component failure, and the configuration of mirrors.

Chapter 6, "UFS Logging," provides information on using DiskSuite Tool to set up and use the UNIX^(R) file system logging facility.

Chapter 7, "Hot Spares," describes how to define and use hot spare pools and includes information on conditions to avoid when using hot spares.

Chapter 8, "Administering Metadevices in Disksets," gives the procedure for displaying disksets using DiskSuite Tool.

Chapter 9, "RAID Devices," discusses redundant arrays of inexpensive disk (RAID) device configuration information.

Chapter 10, "State Database Replicas," provides an overview of the state database and discusses proper use.

Chapter 11, "Expanding a File System," provides instructions for expanding mounted UNIX file systems.

Appendix A, "Example Use of DiskSuite Tool," gives a complete example of how to configure a DiskSuite configuration using DiskSuite Tool.

Appendix B, "DiskSuite Tool Messages," explains the status, error, and log messages displayed by DiskSuite Tool and the underlying DiskSuite software.

Appendix C, "Man Page," is a printed copy of the man page for the metatool(1M) command, which is also included on the installation CD-ROM.

Related Books

You must use the Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 Administration Guide with this manual. The Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 Administration Guide contains in-depth discussions of all parts of the DiskSuite product in addition to the command-line usage.

Other Sun documentation related to disk maintenance and configuration includes the Solaris 2.4 File System Administration manual.

What Typographic Changes Mean

The following table describes the typographic changes used in this book.

Table P-1

Typeface or Symbol	Meaning	Example
AaBbCc123	The names of commands, files, and directories; on-screen computer output	Edit your .login file. Use ls -a to list all files. machine_name% You have mail.
AaBbCc123	What you type, contrasted with on-screen computer output	machine_name%su Password:
AaBbCc123	Command-line placeholder: replace with a real name or value	To delete a file, type rm filename.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new words or terms, or words to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in User's Guide. These are called class options. You must be root to do this.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P-2

Shell	Prompt
C shell prompt	machine_name%
C shell superuser prompt	machine_name#
Bourne shell and Korn shell prompt	$
Bourne shell and Korn shell superuser prompt	#