DiskSuite Description

This subsection gives a brief overview of the DiskSuite functionality that is accessed using DiskSuite Tool. You should review the Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 Administration Guide for a complete description of the underlying functionality.

DiskSuite provides a metadisk driver which is implemented as a set of loadable, pseudo device drivers. The metadisk driver uses other physical device drivers to pass I/O requests to and from the underlying devices. The metadisk driver resides between the file system interface and the device driver interface and interprets information from both above and below.

A brief overview of the primary elements of the metadisk driver is given in the following subsections. The elements include:

• Metadevices
• Concatenation and striping
• Mirroring (mirrors and submirrors)
• UFS logging (trans)
• Hot spare pools
• Disksets
• RAID devices

Other parts of the DiskSuite software that are explained in the following subsections include:

• Metadevice state database replicas
• Expanding mounted file systems

Metadevices

Metadevices are the basic functional unit of the metadisk driver. After you create metadevices, you can use them like physical disk slices. These logical devices can be made up of one or more component slices. You can configure the component slices to use a single device, a concatenation of stripes, or stripe of devices.

Metadevices can provide increased capacity, higher availability, and better performance. To gain increased capacity, you create metadevices that are either concatenations, stripes, or RAID devices. Mirroring, UFS logging, and RAID devices provide higher availability. Disk striping can help performance.

Metadevices are transparent to application software and to component and controller hardware.

Metadevices can be configured from IPI and SCSI devices on all SPARC systems and on SCSI and IDE devices on all x86 systems.

Concatenations and Stripes

Each metadevice is either a concatenation or a stripe of component slices. Concatenations and stripes work much the same way the cat(1) program is used to concatenate two or more files together to create one larger file. When slices are concatenated, the addressing of the component blocks is done on the components sequentially. The file system can use the entire concatenation. Striping is similar to concatenation, except the addressing of the metadevice blocks is interlaced on the components, rather than addressed sequentially.

Use the information in Chapter 4 to create concatenations and stripes.

Mirroring

DiskSuite supports mirroring to as many as three separate metadevices. This enables the system to tolerate single-component failures with two-way mirroring and double failures with three-way mirroring. Mirroring can also be used for online backups of file systems.

To set up mirroring, you create a mirror. A mirror is a special type of metadevice made up of one or more other metadevices. Each metadevice within a mirror is called a submirror.

Complete information about mirroring is provided in Chapter 5.

UFS Logging

The UFS logging facility included with DiskSuite provides faster local directory operations, speeds up reboots, and decreases synchronous disk writes by safely recording file system updates in a log before they are applied to the UFS file system.

UFS is the standard Solaris file system. UFS file systems are created when Solaris is installed or by users with the newfs(1M) command.

Use the information in Chapter 6 to create UFS logs.

Hot Spares

DiskSuite's hot spare facility automatically replaces failed submirror or RAID components, provided that a suitable spare component (one as large as the component that is being replaced) is available and reserved. Hot spares are temporary fixes, used until failed components are either repaired or replaced. Hot spares automatically re-establish the original redundancy following a failure. This reduces the time data is vulnerable to a subsequent failure.

Chapter 7 provides information on how to create, use, and manipulate hot spares using DiskSuite Tool.

Disksets

DiskSuite's diskset feature lets you set up one or two host machines and a group of disk drives in which all of the hosts in the set are connected to all the drives in the set.

Chapter 8 contains information about administering metadevices in disksets.

RAID Devices

DiskSuite supports redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID) metadevice configurations. These are level 5 RAID devices. When implemented as metadevices, RAID is composed of three or more physical slices; each slice is referred to as a column. The slice of a RAID metadevice can be increased by concatenating additional slices to the metadevice.

RAID metadevices are covered in Chapter 9.

Metadevice State Database Replicas

State database replicas provide the nonvolatile storage necessary to keep track of configuration and status information for all metadevices, mirrors, trans devices, and hot spares. The replicas also keep track of error conditions that have occurred.

Chapter 10 provides detailed information about state database replicas.

Expanding Mounted File Systems

You can expand all mounted UNIX file systems except root (/) by using DiskSuite Tool. The expansion can be performed without bringing down the system or performing a backup.

Mounted file systems can be expanded up to the new size of the metadevice on which the file system resides.

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Note - Once you have expanded a file system, you cannot shrink it.

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Expanding mounted file systems is covered in Chapter 11.

DiskSuite Tool's User Interface

The DiskSuite Tool user interface is based on Motif^(TM). The window border, however, is OPEN LOOK^(R). Thus the mouse behavior inside the DiskSuite Tool windows is that of Motif. There are noticeable differences in the look and feel between Motif applications and OPEN LOOK. The following list details the differences.

• The mouse model is different.

Table 3-1

Button	Function
Left	Enables you to select objects with a single click. By holding down the Control key and clicking the left button, you can select multiple objects. By holding down the Control key and clicking the left button, you can deselect objects that are selected. Additionally, you can drag objects by holding down the left button.
Middle	Drags selected objects. You can drop the object on an appropriate target. For example, concatenations can be mirrored using the drag and drop method. If a target is not appropriate, the international "no" sign displays while the cursor is over the target.
Right	Displays pull-down menus when the cursor is pointing at any title in the menu bar. Inside the canvas of the DiskSuite Tool windows or inside objects, the pop-up menu for a object is displayed.

• Pressing the Return key on DiskSuite Tool dialog boxes applies the default action, which may not be the desired action. The default action is in a highlighted button.
• Scrollbars look different under Motif than under OPEN LOOK. However, the left mouse button is still used to scroll up and down.
• Pushpins are not part of the Motif interface. Instead, the title bar contains the window menu on the left side rather than a pushpin. The choices on the menu include Close, Full Size, Move, Resize, Properties, Back, Refresh, Stick, and Quit.
• Small graphic symbols are used as cursors and in Dialog Boxes. An important cursor symbol is a small international "no" sign (a circle with a diagonal line), which indicates an action is not allowed. Some Dialog Boxes appear with question marks and others with warnings.
• The online help utility can be accessed using the Help menu on the menu bar of any DiskSuite Tool window or dialog box.

Starting DiskSuite Tool

DiskSuite Tool (metatool(1M)) offers a graphical user interface to the functionality provided by the DiskSuite 4.0 software package. DiskSuite Tool can be used to create and administer mirrors, concatenations, stripes, metadevice state database replicas, UFS logs, hot spares, and RAID devices.

All metadevices are represented in a graphical interface based on the Motif window manager, which is displayed in OPEN LOOK windows on Solaris 2.4.

The advantages of DiskSuite Tool over the previous command-line interface are the graphical representation of all metadevices and the convenient drag-and-drop interface.

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Note - Before you can commit metadevices created using DiskSuite Tool, a minimum of three metadevice state database replicas must exist on the system. Either use the instructions in the Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 Administration Guide or in Chapter 10, "State Database Replicas," in this manual to create the metadevice state database replicas.

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You must be root to use the DiskSuite Tool. To start the DiskSuite Tool, enter:

# metatool Initializing metatool... Done. Discovering drives and slices... Done. Discovering database replicas... Done. Discovering hot spare pools... Done. Discovering concat/stripes...Done. Discovering RAID devices... Done. Discovering mirrors... Done. Discovering trans devices... Done. Updating mount and swap information... Done.

The messages shown above are displayed each time you invoke metatool. This feedback tells you the product is working properly. If you invoke the command with the -s option, additional messages about the metaset will be displayed.

An overview of the windows, browsers, dialog boxes, and menus is given in the following subsections.

Metadevice Editor Window

When invoked, metatool displays the Metadevice Editor window, as shown in Figure 3-1. The Metadevice Editor window is where most manipulation and creation of metadevices takes place. From this window, you will access the other pieces of DiskSuite Tool.

Figure 3-1

An explanation of the parts of the Metadevice Editor window follows:

• Menu bar - The menu bar offers pull-down menus titled File, Selected, Edit, Browse and Help. Point to the title and press the left button to see the choices available. Some choices may be grayed out at certain times, if the functionality provided is not appropriate. A listing of the menu choices and functions are given in Table 3-2.

Table 3-2

Menu	Choices	Functions
File	Save to File Restore from File Exit	Save uncommitted configurations to a file Display configurations from a file Exit DiskSuite Tool
Selected	Info Expand Collapse Evaluate Put Away Commit	Displays appropriate information window. Displays entire selected device. Collapses the selected device view completely. Displays errors and warning in the Configuration Log and presents report. Returns selected (committed) metadevice to device list. Writes changes made to selected metadevices to all state database replicas and may update the /etc/vfstab file. (Note: The above choices apply to any selected object on the canvas. Objects are selected when you click on them.)
Edit	Undo Last Undo All Duplicate Delete Create Select All Clean Up Canvas	Will undo most previous actions. Will undo any actions performed since the last time you clicked on Commit. Makes copies of the selected objects. Removes the selected objects. Opens templates for Trans, RAID, Mirror, Concat/Stripe, and Spare Pools. Selects all the objects on the canvas. Rearranges the objects on the canvas.
Browse	Disk View Slices Metadevices Hot Spare Pools Find Configuration Log Problem List	See page 38 See page 46 See page 46 See page 46 See page 49 See page 53 See page 54 (Note: See the specified page for illustrations and details about the menu items.)
Help	On Help On Window	Displays help on the DiskSuite Tool Help system. Displays help for the Metadevice Editor Window.

• Window title bar - The title of the DiskSuite Tool window is displayed in the title bar. For example, "DiskSuite Tool v4.0 - Metadevice Editor [dino]" is displayed in Figure 3-1. The title of the window is followed by the name of the system where metatool is running. It is important to remember to check the host name before configuring metadevices.
• Button panel - The selections along the button panel provide a quick way to view the Disk View window, Slice Browser window, to Commit changes, to Put Away metadevices, and to Update Status. Click on a button to invoke an action. To select an object on the canvas to Commit or Put Away, first point to the object and select it by clicking the left mouse button, then point to the appropriate button and click the left button.

  The Commit and Put Away functions work on all the objects that are selected. There are two ways to select multiple objects on the Metadevice Editor canvas, as follows:

  · Draw a rubber band box around the objects. This is done by pointing to a corner of the canvas and pressing the left button. Then drag the cursor to encompass the objects.

  · Point to the top of the first object and click the left button. Press and hold down the Control key and point to the top of other objects and click the left button.

  Changes made to disks are only recognized when you click on the Update Status button.

  The button panel selections are shown in Figure 3-2.

Figure 3-2

• Templates - This region contains graphical representations that are the source for new objects. These objects can be used as templates when creating trans devices (UFS logging), RAID devices, mirrors, concatenations (stripes), or hot spare pools. To move the objects to the canvas, you either click once on a template or drag it to the canvas. The template objects are shown in Figure 3-3.

Figure 3-3

• Message line - When the cursor is over an area of the Metadevice Editor window, a message about that area is displayed in the message line. For example, when the cursor is pointed at the RAID template, the following message appears: "Click or drag to create a new RAID device." A complete list of messages is given in Appendix B, "DiskSuite Tool Messages."
• Template object - Clicking on one of the templates opens a template object. Slices from the Slice Browser window and metadevices from the device list can be dropped into the template objects. For example, Concat/Stripe objects can be dropped into a Mirror template to create mirrors.
• Canvas - This region is where graphical objects are displayed and manipulated. The canvas has horizontal and vertical scrollbars for scrolling the visible portion of the canvas. The panner (in the lower right corner of the metatool window) also can be used to scroll the visible portion of the canvas. You can drag objects from the Disk View window, the device list, or

from the Templates to the canvas. Click on the objects on the canvas to select them. When an object is selected, the border becomes dark or is highlighted in orange. You can drag the object to a new location on the canvas.

• Device list - The names of the mirrors, concatenations, RAIDs, trans devices, concatenations, stripes, hot spare pools, and the metadevice state database are shown in the device list. To move these objects to the canvas for manipulation, click on the item and drag it to the canvas or double-click on the object. Horizontal and vertical scrollbars allow scrolling the visible portion of the list.

Figure 3-4

On color monitors, the objects in the device list are displayed in different colors when a problem has occurred. The following colors are used:

• Critical - Red
• Urgent - Orange
• Attention - Yellow

There is a discussion about each of the types of errors (critical, urgent, and attention) at the end of each chapter that describes a metadevice. For example, refer to "Checking the Status of Concatenations and Stripes" on page 91 for a listing of the errors for concatenations and stripes.

Gray scale monitors operate the same as color monitors, however the colors are displayed in gray scales. On monochrome monitors, the status rectangle is black. You must scroll the device list horizontally to view the status associated with the devices.

• Device list filter button - This button offers a filter that changes the information displayed in the device list. The choices on the filter include: All, Metadevices, Hot Spare Pools, and Problems.
• Panner - The panner is a miniature view of the canvas and shows small representations of the objects currently displayed on the canvas. The black rectangle in the panner represents the portion of the canvas currently displayed on the screen. To change the view, point inside the white region and click the left button. Another method of changing the view is to point to the black rectangle, press and hold down the middle button, and drag the view area to a new location.

Figure 3-5

Disk View Window

The Disk View window shows how metadevices (logical devices) correspond to physical devices. It also serves as a drag-and-drop source for slices and a drag-and-drop target for metadevices. The Disk View window is shown in Figure 3-6.

Figure 3-6

An explanation of the parts of the Disk View window follows:

• Menu bar - The menu bar offers pull-down menus titled File, Selected, View, and Help. Point to the menu option and press the left button to see the choices available. Some choices may be grayed out at certain times.

Table 3-3

Titles	Choices	Functions
File	Close	Closes the Disk View window.
Selected	Info Associations Expand Collapse	Displays information window. Displays a logical devices list. Enlarges view (or size) of the selected device. Restores view (size) of the selected device. (Note: The above choices apply to any selected devices on the canvas. Devices are selected when you click on them.)
View	Device Mappings Device Status	Toggles Disk View to display logical-to-physical mappings. Toggles Disk View to display status of the slices instead of mappings.
	Expand All Collapse All View All Controllers Put Away All Controllers	Expands all object views on the canvas. Collapses all object views on the canvas. Displays all controllers on the canvas. Removes all controllers from the canvas.
	Drop Site Colors Replica Slice	Enables selection of colors for slices. Displays replica slice.
Help	On Help On Window	Displays help on the DiskSuite Tool Help system. Displays help for the Disk View Window.

• Window title bar - The title is followed by the name of the system where DiskSuite Tool is running. Be sure to check the host name before configuring devices.
• Button panel - There are two buttons in the button panel region, Sort Controllers and Update Status. The Sort Controllers button specifies the controller sort order on the canvas. The values for the pulldown menu are Sequentially, Drop Site 1, Drop Site 2, Drop Site 3, Drop Site 4, Available Slices, Critical, Urgent, and Attention. Sequentially is the default. The Update Status button updates the status on all parts of the DiskSuite Tool.

• Controller list - All controllers that are part of the current context are shown in the controller list. The graphical representations of the controllers in the list act as toggle switches. You open or close a controller by pointing to the object in the list and clicking the left button.
• Drop site - Any metadevice (or group of metadevices) can be dropped on the color drop sites. Dropping the object on a specific color causes that color to be used for the mapping. The drop site shows the color assignments for logical-to-physical mappings.

  The colors used for each of the four drop sites in the Disk View window may be changed while DiskSuite Tool is running. Any changes made to the selection of these colors will not be maintained when you exit DiskSuite Tool. Eight colors are available for drop sites on color systems: blue, green, magenta, cyan, purple, medium sea green, firebrick, and tan.

  To change the colors used for the four drop sites, choose the option "Drop Site Colors" from the View pull-down menu from the Disk View menu bar. This option is a cascading menu, and has four additional cascading menus, one for each drop site. Each of the menus for each drop site contains a menu of eight colors. Each available color is in the form of a toggle button. The currently selected color is indicated by the selected toggle. Release the cursor over the desired color. All references to this color throughout the Disk View window will be updated to use the selected color.

  The drop site is illustrated in Figure 3-7.

Figure 3-7

• Canvas - The physical devices and mappings are displayed on the canvas. The canvas has horizontal and vertical scrollbars for scrolling the visible portion of the canvas. To select a disk on the Disk View canvas, click on the top of the disk. To select a slice, click inside the slice rectangle. After the object is selected you can drag the object to a template on the Metadevice Editor canvas and add or replace slices in that template.

  The canvas is also a destination for drag and drop. When devices are dropped on the canvas they take on the next available color. If all dropsites are in use, a window is displayed that enables you to select a dropsite. Also, if any object is selected on the editor canvas and the Disk View window is invoked, the objects will automatically take on the color of the next available dropsite.

  The graphical representations of objects on the Disk View canvas are shown in Figure 3-8.

Figure 3-8

• Legend - The legend region of the Disk View window can be turned on and off using the Show Legend toggle button. On color systems, the legend contains four color drop sites that provide color cues for mappings. Each color can be hidden or exposed using the Show toggle button to the right of each color box. On monochrome systems, only one drop site is available, which is black.

Figure 3-9

• Slice filter - A fifth component of the legend region is the "Slices available for" option menu. The menu enables you to filter the slices to view those available to be Metadevice Components, Hot Spares, Replicas, Trans Logs, or Anything. The default value is Metadevice Components.
• Message line - When the cursor is over an area of the Disk View window, a message about that area is displayed in the message line. For example, when the cursor is pointed at the canvas, the following message appears: "Drop objects onto color drop sites to show mappings." A complete list of messages is given in Appendix B, "DiskSuite Tool Messages."

Information Windows

Several information windows are associated with DiskSuite Tool. These information windows include:

• Disk Information Windows (see page 43)
• Slice Information Windows (see page 44)
• Concat Information Windows (see page 87)
• Stripe Information Windows (see page 89)
• Mirror Information Windows (see page 137)
• Trans Information Windows (see page 163)
• Hot Spare Information Windows (see page 188)
• RAID Information Windows (see page 214)
• Metadevice State Database Information Windows (see page 231)

The Disk Information and Slice Information windows are discussed in this overview. Overviews of the other information windows are presented in the chapters where the information is discussed.

Disk Information Window

By pointing to a disk on the Disk View canvas and pressing the right button, a menu enables you to bring up an information window. This window, the read-only Disk Information window, provides information about a disk and its slices.

Figure 3-10

Table 3-4 lists the functionality provided by the Disk Information screen.

Table 3-4

Field	Functions
Device name	The physical device name, for example, c6t0d4.
Status	The status is reported as OK, or Failed.
Type	The type of the disk as listed in the /etc/format.dat file, for example SUN0535, SUN1.05, or DEFAULT.
In Use	The percentage of the disk that is currently in use as a metadevice, metadevice state database replica, or a mounted file system.
Capacity	The logical capacity of the disk.
Unallocated	The percentage of the disk available for use.
Size	The area where you can change the size units represented in the capacity field and the information under the Size column in the Slice region. Choices include: Gbytes, Mbytes, Kbytes, Sectors, and Cylinders. The default is Mbytes.
Show Slices	A radio button that expands and collapses the slice view. The number of non-zero slices on the disk is shown in parentheses on the button.
Slice Info	A button that brings up the Slice Information window for each selected slice. Point to the slice area and click the left button to select a slice. To select multiple slices, either press and hold down the Control key while pointing to the slices and clicking the left button or hold down the left button and drag the cursor over slices.

Slice Information Window

The slice information window displays information about a specific slice. There are three ways to display this window:

• Select a slice on the Disk Information window by pointing to it and pressing the left button. Then point to the Slice Information button and click the left button.
• Point to a slice of a disk displayed on the Disk View window's canvas. Press and hold down the right button to bring up the menu for the slice and select the Info option.

• Point to a slice inside any metadevice displayed on the Metadevice Editor's canvas. Press and hold down the right button to bring up the menu for the slice and select the Info option.

Figure 3-11

Table 3-5 gives an explanation of the Slice Information screen.

Table 3-5

Field	Functions
Device name	The physical device name, for example, c0t3d0s0.
Status	The status is reported as OK, Resyncing, Enabled, Critical, Spared, Urgent, or Attention.
Size	The size of the slice.
Start block	The block on which the slice begins. If the slice has a label, there will be additional information about the label in this field.
End block	The block on which the slice ends.
Use	The current use of the slice, for example, file system or swap. If the use is hot spare, a Show HSPs button is available on the right side of the Use field. This button opens a dialog that shows a list of Hot Spare Pools with which the slice is associated.
Enable	This button enables the slice. The button is available only if the data on the slice is replicated in a mirror or RAID. Also, the slice could be a hot spare that is currently out of service.
Disk Information	Opens the Disk Information window.

Browsers

Four browsers can be accessed from the Browse menu on the Metadevice Editor window. These include:

• Slice Browser
• Metadevice Browser
• Hot Spare Pool Browser
• Find Browser

The first three browsers provide the same functionality: enabling you to view all information about the slices, metadevices, and hot spare pools and drag these objects to the Metadevice Editor's canvas for manipulation. The find browser is used to locate an object in the metadevice editor's window, or locate the device associated with a specified mount point.

The first three browsers have many similar characteristics. The only noticeable differences are found in some of the information displayed and in the Set Filter windows.

The Slice Browser window is show in Figure 3-12.

Figure 3-12

The Slice, Metadevice, and Hot Spare Pool browsers all have the same window title bar and choices on the menu bar. The File menu enables you to exit the browser. The Filters menu enables you to set the filters and turn them on and off. The View menu enables you to change the order in which information is displayed in the device list. However, there are some subtle differences on the dialog boxes used to set the filters.

The device list varies in the following ways:

• Slice Browser Device List - To view additional information about the slices listed here, point to a slice and double-click the left mouse button. The Slice Information window displays information about the slice and provides access to the Disk Information window. The Slice Browser device list contains the information shown in Table 3-6.

Table 3-6

Field	Function
Name	The physical device name, for example, c0t3d0s0.
Size	The size of the device.
Disk Type	The type of the disk as listed in the /etc/format.dat file, for example, SUN0535, SUN1.05, or DEFAULT
Status	Reported as OK, Resyncing, Enabled, Critical, Spared, Urgent, or Attention.
Use field	Contains one of the following values: Unassigned, Trans Log, Trans Master, MetaDB Replica, Component, File System currently mounted on slice, Overlap, or Hot Spare.

• Metadevice Browser Device List - To view additional information about the metadevices listed, point to a metadevice and double-click the left mouse button. An information window that contains information about the

type of metadevice is displayed (and the object is opened on the Metadevice Editor's canvas). The Metadevice Browser device list contains the information shown in Table 3-7.

Table 3-7

Field	Function
Name	Presents the metadevice is represented as dn, where the default value for n is a number in the range 0 to 127.
Size	The size of the metadevice.
Type	The type is reported as either Trans, Concat/Stripe, Mirror, or RAID.
Status	The status is reported as OK or Failed.
Use	The use is either Unassigned, Submirror of dn, name of a file system, Master of dn or Trans Log.

• Hot Spare Pool Device List - To view additional information about the hot spare pools listed, point to a hot spare pool and double-click the left mouse button. The Hot Spare Information window is displayed, showing a list of the metadevices that have an association with the hot spare pool. It also shows information about the disks in the pool. The Hot Spare Pool device list contains the information shown in Table 3-8.

Table 3-8

Field	Function
Name	The name of the hot spare pool is displayed as hspnnn, where nnn is a number in the range 000 to 999.
Min Size	The size of the smallest slice in the hot spare pool.
Max Size	The size of the largest slices in the hot spare pool.
Spares	The number of hot spares in the pool.
Spares in Use	The number of hot spares currently in use.
Status	The status is OK, Empty (there are no slices in the hot spare pool), Broken (if all slices in the hot spare pool are broken), or Attention (if one or more slices are in use).

• Find Browser - To locate an object inside the Metadevice Editor window, select the Find choice and enter the name or mount point in the appropriate text fields of the Find window (see Figure 3-13). If the object is anywhere on

the canvas, it is placed in the upper left corner. The object will become the current selection (any previously selected objects will be deselected.) If the object is in the Device List, it is opened and placed in the upper left corner of the canvas. The text fields are not case sensitive. Wildcard character support includes both the asterisk (*) and question mark (?). The asterisk matches zero or more characters and the question mark matches one character.

Figure 3-13

Setting Browser Filters

The first three browsers previously described have configurable Filter windows that are available using the Set Filters choice in the Filter item on the menu bar. The filters are used to change the way information is displayed in the device list. The Slice Filters window is shown in Figure 3-14.

Figure 3-14

An explanation of the Slice Filter window items is given in Table 3-9.

Table 3-9

Window Region	Function
Use	Three toggle buttons in this region enable you to filter the display to only show the following: Available for use as - The menu selections here include: Anything, Hot Spare, Replica, Metadevice Component or Trans Log. Anything is the default. Currently in use as - The menu selections here include: Anything, File System, Swap, Replica, Metadevice, Hot Spare, Component, or Trans Log. Anything is the default. Don't care - The filter is ignored.
Name toggle button	Turning on the name toggle button enables you to specify a device name. The two choices on the menu enable you to search for names that match or do not match. Wildcard character support includes both the asterisk (*) and question mark (?), which match any number of characters and any single character respectively. Matches is the default.
Size toggle button	Turning on the size toggle button enables you to specify a size for the filter. The menu button selections include: from (a field is added for specifying a "to" range), greater than, less than, equal to, and not equal to. The default is equal to. A size menu button enables you to specify Gbytes, Mbytes, Kbytes, and Sectors.
Disk Type toggle button	Turning on the Disk Type toggle button enables you to select the types of disks you wish to have displayed in the browser. The menu always enables you to select Any, but the other selections depend on the types of disks attached to your system.
Broken toggle button	Searches for only slices that have a "broken" status.

Accessing Objects in the Browsers

All objects in the device list of any of the three browsers can be moved to the Metadevice Editor's canvas for manipulation. To move the objects:

1. Point to the appropriate slice, metadevice, or hot spare pool on the device list and click the left mouse button. The object is selected.

2. Point to the selected object. Press and hold down the middle mouse button.

3. Drag the object to the Metadevice Editor's canvas.

Alternatively, pointing to the object and double-clicking causes the information window to pop up and the object to appear on the canvas. If the object is a component of another metadevice, the parent metadevice will be displayed.

Dialog Boxes

DiskSuite Tool displays feedback to users via four different types of dialog boxes at various times. Dialog boxes block user input to DiskSuite Tool until they have been dismissed.

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Caution - Read and understand the dialog boxes before responding. You can inadvertently lose data.

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An example of a warning dialog box is shown in Figure 3-15.

Figure 3-15

The types of dialog boxes and the information they display are shown in Table 3-10.

Table 3-10

Type	Information Presented
Error	When you attempt to perform an action that will result in an error, an error dialog box appears with a notification of the error.
Warning	When you attempt to perform an action that results in a warning, you are given the opportunity to cancel the action. Appendix B, "DiskSuite Tool Messages" offers a listing of the error messages and the corrective action.
Confirmation	These provide a way for you to confirm an action that has been selected. These will appear when an action you initiated cannot be undone. The message string in each dialog varies according to the operation.
Information	These provide a helpful message. These dialog boxes appear with a large "i" on the left side of the message. There is only one button on the bottom of this dialog: OK.

Configuration Log Window

The Configuration Log window provides a history of all top-level DiskSuite operations.

Figure 3-16

Selections on the File menu enable you to clear the scrolling list, logging the messages to a user-designated file, and closing the window. Double-clicking on an entry in the list brings up the information dialog window for the device and opens the device on the Metadevice Editor's canvas.

Problem List Window

The Problem List window contains a scrolling list of the current metadevice problems. The list does not provide a history of the problems that have been encountered. The list is updated each time DiskSuite Tool learns of a change in status. Each item on the list is given a time stamp.

Figure 3-17

Selections on the File menu enable you to log the messages to a user-designated file and close the window. The Update Status button updates the status of devices to the current date and time. The text field on the right side of the button displays the date and time of the most recent update.

Double-clicking on an entry in the list brings up the information window for the device and opens the device on the Metadevice Editor's canvas.

Accessing and Using Help

An important part of the DiskSuite Tool is the online help utility. The help program provides detailed information about the DiskSuite Tool and the functionality it provides. The DiskSuite Tool help utility is shown in Figure 3-18.

Figure 3-18

To access the help utility from any of the DiskSuite Tool windows:

1. Point to Help on the menu bar.

2. Press the left mouse button.

3. Select either "On Help" or "On Window" from the menu.

4. The Help window is displayed.

To access the online help from a DiskSuite Tool dialog box:

1. Click on the Help button.

2. The Help window is displayed.

The Help titles displayed in the top window pane identify the list of subjects available for each level of help.

The Help text displayed in the bottom window pane describes information about using the current menu or command.

Use the scrollbars to the right of each pane to scroll through the help information displayed.

On the left side of the Help utility are buttons used to find information and navigate through the help system. The buttons are described in Table 3-11.

Table 3-11

Button	Click On This Button To...	Then...
Topics How To Reference	Display a list of conceptual topics Display a list of step-by-step procedures Display a list of references	Click on a title in the top window pane to view the accompanying help text.
Previous	Return to the last-accessed help topic	The help viewer returns to the previous screen.
Done	Exit the online help system	The help system is closed.

DiskSuite Recovery and Guidelines

Not all information about DiskSuite has been reproduced in this manual. You should use the Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 Administration Guide in conjunction with this manual.

Certain topics that are important to the operation of DiskSuite are included in the following subsections.

Recovery From Failed Boots

Because DiskSuite Tool supports mirroring and logging the root (/), swap, and /usr file systems, special problems can arise when you are booting your system, either if a hardware failure occurs or if you have not followed all instructions.

The primary problems that can happen include:

• Metadevice state databases that contain invalid (stale) data
• Improper /etc/vfstab entries

• Boot device failure

Appendix C of the Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 Administration Guide presents examples of such problems and provides possible solutions.

Configuration Guidelines

Consider the following factors building DiskSuite configurations using DiskSuite Tool:

• Performance
• Availability
• Capacity
• Security
• Compatibility
• Labeled slices

Chapter 12 of the Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 Administration Guide gives more information.