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VXDISK (1M)

Maintenance Commands

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
KEYWORDS
- Hardware-Specific Note
- DISK TYPES
  NAME
  vxdisk - define and manage Veritas Volume Manager disks
  
  SYNOPSIS
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup] addregion region_type disk offset length
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup] check disk ...
  vxdisk [-fd] classify [ctrl=ctlr[,ctlr...]] [disk=disk[,disk...]] [udid=udid[,udid...]]
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup] [-o clearkey=key] clearhost disk ...
  vxdisk clearimport accessname ...
  vxdisk [-f] define accessname [attribute ...]
  vxdisk [-f] define accessname type=simple [attribute ...]
  vxdisk [-f] define accessname [type=auto] format=cdsdisk [attribute ...]
  vxdisk [-f] define accessname [type=auto] format=aixdisk [attribute ...]
  vxdisk [-f] destroy accessname
  vxdisk [-f] flush accessname
  vxdisk getctlr accessname
  vxdisk [[-o coordinator] -f] init accessname [attribute ...]
  vxdisk [-f] init accessname type=simple [attribute ...]
  vxdisk [-f] init accessname [type=auto] format=cdsdisk [attribute ...]
  vxdisk [-f] init accessname [type=auto] format=aixdisk [attribute ...]
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup] [-o alldgs] [-o listreserve] [-o tag=[~]name[=[~]value]]
      [-bceqsv] list [disk ...]
  vxdisk [-x attr] [-p] list [disk ...]
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup] [-q] [-o tag=[~]name[=[~]value]]
      listtag [disk ...]
  vxdisk offline accessname ...
  vxdisk -l filename offline
  vxdisk online accessname ...
  vxdisk -a online
  vxdisk -l filename online
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup] path
  vxdisk reclaim disk|enclosure|diskgroup [[disk|enclosure|diskgroup] ...]
  vxdisk [-f] [-g diskgroup] resize {accessname|medianame} [length=value]
  vxdisk rm accessname ...
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup] rmregion region_type disk offset [length]
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup] rmtag {disk {site=siteid | name} [name\...]|
      {site|name} {disk|{e|encl|enclr}:enclosure} [{disk|{e|encl|enclr}:enclosure}\.\.\.]}
  vxdisk [-f] scandisks [new | fabric | [!]device=device_list |
      [!]ctlr=controller_list |
      [!]pctlr=physical_ controller_list]
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup] set disk [attribute ...]
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup] [-f] settag {disk {site=siteid | name[=value]} [name[=value]\...]|
      {site=siteid|name[=value]} {disk|{e|encl|enclr}:enclosure} [{disk|{e|encl|enclr}:enclosure}\.\.\.]}
  vxdisk -o thin list
  vxdisk [-f] [-g diskgroup] updateudid disk ...
  
  DESCRIPTION
  The vxdisk utility performs basic administrative operations on disks. Operations include initializing and replacing disks, as well as taking care of some book-keeping necessary for the disk model presented by Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM).
  accessname refers to the disk access name, while disk represents the disk media name. vxdisk accesses disks based on disk access names, which are system-specific names that relate to disk addresses. Disk access names are in the form hdisk## for the block-access device and rhdisk## for the character-access device, and relate directly to device node names in the /dev directory.
  VxVM 3.2 introduced enclosure-based naming as an alternative way of referring to disk access names. If enabled, this scheme maps disk access names relative to their enclosure. For example, disks in the enclosure ENC0 would be assigned access names ENC0_0, ENC0_1 and so on.
  Operations that take an accessname argument (see the SYNOPSIS section) accept only disk access names, as defined in the previous paragraph. Operations that take a disk argument can take disk access names or disk media names (for example, disk01). For such operations, a disk group can be specified with -g to disambiguate disk media names that are used in more than one disk group.
  Physical disks in VxVM are assumed to be movable, and are usually identified by a unique disk ID stored on the physical disk, rather than by a disk device node. This allows disks to be moved to different SCSI target IDs or to different controllers without affecting correct operation.
  VxVM maintains information about disk device addresses as disk access records. Disk access records are used to identify physical disks from disk IDs that are stored on the disks themselves. The name of a disk access record is based on the corresponding disk access name.
  Physical disks contain public regions, which are used for allocating subdisks. They can also contain private regions, which are used for storing private Veritas Volume Manager information. Private regions are configured and maintained entirely by VxVM. See the PRIVATE REGIONS section for more information about the layout of private regions.
  The behavior of the vxdisk utility depends upon the keyword specified as the first operand.
  
  KEYWORDS
  addregion
  
  Adds a new entry to the table of contents in a disk's private region. The new entry defines a region of disk that is relative to the public region, and that is reserved for a particular use. The offset and length operations indicate the location and extent of the region. Currently, the only region type that can be defined is:
  
  reserve
  
  Masks out a region of disk that should be reserved for purposes other than use by VxVM. This could be used, for example, to mask out a boot file system that cannot be used for subdisk allocation, or to mask out a region containing blocks that are used for bad-block or bad-track replacement.
  
  Adding a region fails if a subdisk or region is already allocated over the requested region.
  Note: The addregion functionality is currently unimplemented for any of the existing disk types.
  
  check
  
  Determines the usability of the specified disks. A disk is considered usable if VxVM can write and read back at least one of the disk headers that are stored on the disk. If a disk in a disk group is unusable, VxVM detaches it from its disk group, and all subdisks stored on the disk become invalid. The subdisks remain invalid until the unusable disk is replaced or the disk media record is reassigned to a different physical disk.
  For shared disks, VxVM detaches an unusable disk only if the disk group's detach policy is set to global. If the disk group detach policy is local, the disk is not detached. However, if hosts in the cluster do not indicate that a disk is usable, the disk is detached from the entire cluster. See vxedit(1M) for more information on setting disk group detach policies.
  
  classify
  
  Initiates disk classification by the VxVM configuration daemon, vxconfigd. The disks to be processed can be constrained to a combination of controllers, disk names and unique disk identifiers (UDIDs) that are specified as arguments to the optional ctlr, disk and udid attributes. The command determines the disk attributes, and, if the -d option is specified, displays the attributes obtained by vxconfigd. To force a full scan of the OS device tree, specify the -f option.
  
  clearhost
  
  Clears the stale disk reservation key, as specified by the argument to the -o clearkey option, from a disk.
  Note: This key is slightly different from the I/O fencing key that is specified using the -o groupreserve option to the vxdg import and init commands. The disk reservation key that is specified to clearhost also contains the node ID of the host encoded in the first byte.
  See the vxdg(1M) manual page for more information about I/O fencing.
  
  clearimport
  
  Clears the host-specific import information stored on the indicated disks, and in the configurations stored on those disks. This command may be necessary in cases where import information stored for a disk group becomes unusable, due to host failures, or due to a disk group being moved from one machine to another.
  This operation cannot be applied to disks that are in imported disk groups.
  
  define
  
  Defines a disk access record, but do not initialize it. In order for VxVM to scan a disk, a disk access record must be defined for it. Thus, if you want to see what is on a new disk or you want to move a disk with a valid disk group from one system to another, you must first make it accessible by using vxdisk define. You can use vxdisk list to see what is on the disk, or vxdg import to import a disk group that is on the disk.
  Attributes can be specified to define the access characteristics of the disk device. The following attributes define the disk type:
  
  type=disk_type
  
  Specifies the access type for the disk device. See the description of the init operation and the DISK TYPES section for more details.
  
  format=format
  
  For auto-configured disks (type=auto), specifies one of the supported formats that is to be used with the disk. See the section Auto-Configured Disks for details.
  
  The various disk types support additional attributes for the define operation. See the DISK TYPES and ATTRIBUTES sections for details.
  
  destroy
  
  Uninitializes a disk from VxVM by removing the private region and CDS disk labels, which were placed on the disk by an init operation. The -f option forcibly uninitializes a disk.
  
  flush
  
  Rewrite all Cross-Platform Data Sharing (CDS) ID information to the specified disk that has at least one valid VxVM ID block. Unlike the vxdg flush command, the disk is brought online if required.
  The -f option may be specified to forcibly rewrite the 1 coexistence label and VxVM ID block. By default, these are not overwritten.
  
  getctlr
  
  Returns the name of the controller associated with a given disk access name.
  
  init
  
  Initializes regions of a disk used by VxVM. This involves installing a disk header and writing an empty configuration on the disk. The accessname operand identifies the disk. Normally, this command fails if the disk already contains an apparently valid disk header. The -f option can be used to override this and to force initialization of the disk. A disk that is a member of an imported disk group cannot be initialized.
  The vxdisk init operation creates a disk access record for a disk (if one does not already exist), and sets its state to online. Disks can be initialized when vxconfigd is in its disabled state, in which case the disk header is initialized, but the disk is not added to the list of known disks until vxconfigd is re-enabled.
  Any attribute operands override default values assigned for various disk attributes. Some attributes that can be set are:
  
  type=disk_type
  
  Specifies the access type for the disk device. This type identifies the class of strategies that can be used to access the disk, and to manage its private and public regions.
  For example, a disk type can indicate a networked disk or a volatile RAM disk that does not require the storage of any private data.
  See the description of the init operation and the DISK TYPES section for more details.
  
  format=format
  
  For auto-configured disks (type=auto), specifies one of the supported formats that is to be used with the disk. See the section Auto-Configured Disks for details.
  Note: If a format is not specified, and the target disk already has a valid auto format, this is assumed to be the desired format.
  
  The various disk types support additional attributes for the init operation. See the DISK TYPES and ATTRIBUTES sections for details.
  The combined -o coordinator -f options are used to forcibly remove the coordinator flag from a disk. This flag indicates that the disk is a member of the coordinator disk group used with the I/O fencing feature of Veritas Cluster Server (VCS). Caution: Only use these options if a disk is no longer to be used as a coordinator disk.
  
  list
  
  Lists path type and states along with the detailed information on the specified disks. The state is listed as enabled or disabled.
  If one or more disk arguments are specified, a full description of the contents of the disk header and of the table of contents for each named disk is displayed.
  If no disk arguments are specified, a one-line summary for all disk access records known to the system is displayed.
  If no disk arguments are specified, but a disk group is specified with -g, information is displayed about only those disks that have been added to the specified disk group.
  The -b option can be used to display length and offset values in 512-byte units, regardless of platform. If this option is not specified, values are displayed in units of sectors, the size of which can vary between different platforms.
  If the -e option is specified, an additional 2 column is displayed. First column shows the OS-based disk access name. This option is useful if you have enabled enclosure-based naming. Second column shows the Device specific extended attributes. This attributes are specific to device, like type of hardware mirroring on the disk, type of dynamic provisioning on disk , etc.
  If the -s option is specified, important information from the disk header is displayed. With the -s option, the output format is the same whether or not accessname arguments are specified. The information printed with -s includes the disk ID, the host ID (if the disk is or was imported), and the disk group ID and disk group name (if the disk is a member of a disk group).
  The -c option has the same effect as the -s option except that the output fields are delimited by colon (:) characters.
  The -p option lists the discovered properties of a disk, including the disk ID, vendor ID, unique disk identifier (UDID), array port ID, array port worldwide number (WWN), name of the array support library (ASL) that claimed the device, array type, and array name.
  If the -x attr option is used with -p, then the specified attributes are printed in a horizontal format. There can be multiple -x attributes specified in one vxdisk -p list command. For example, vxdisk -x vid -x pid -p list displays, device name and its vid and pid in a horizontal format.
  If the -q option is specified, no header is printed that describes output fields. This option has no effect with the long formats that are generated for the -s option or for accessname arguments.
  The -v option causes all disk tags and their values to be listed for a specified disk argument under the "Annotations:" heading. If this option is not specified, no disk tags are displayed.
  When -o alldgs is specified without the -s and -g options, a one line summary shows all associations between disks and disk groups. The disk group column shows imported disk groups as normal and shows all other disk groups in parentheses.
  Auto-configured disks are shown with their type (auto) qualified by their format. For example, auto:cdsdisk indicates an auto-configured disk that is formatted as a CDS disk. See the Auto-Configured Disks section for more details.
  The -o thin option lists the information about thin disks. The attributes shown are the physically allocated storage size on the LUN, allocation unit size, and the type of the disk. The type of the disk is thin provision disk or the thin provision reclaimable disk.
  You can use the -o listreserve option to discover if I/O fencing has been enabled for a disk group. If I/O fencing is enabled, the command also displays the current reservations and registered keys for the disks in the disk group. See the vxdg(1M) manual page for more information about I/O fencing.
  If the udid_mismatch flag is set on a disk, this indicates that the current unique disk identifier (UDID) that is known to the device discovery layer (DDL) does not match the UDID that is stored in the disk's private region. This usually means that the disk has been copied from another disk. For example, a disk may be copied by creating a hardware snapshot or clone, by using dd or some other command to replicate the disk, or by building a new logical unit (also known as a LUN or virtual disk device) from the space that was previously used by a deleted LUN. Such duplicated disks are usually prevented from being imported to avoid the duplicate disk ID condition.
  If udid_mismatch is set on a disk, and other disks with the same disk identifier are found in the disk group being imported, the disk can only be imported into a disk group by specifying the -o useclonedev=on option to the vxdg import command.
  If the clone_disk flag is set on a disk, this indicates that the disk was imported into a disk group when the udid_mismatch indicator was set. The vxdisk set clone=on command can also be used to set the flag.
  If the keepmeta flag is set on a disk, this indicates that the disk should be used to contain the configuration copies database and the kernel log copies when the disk is added to a disk group.
  The -o tag option can be used to list only those devices that match a specified tag name and optional tag value. A "~" character placed before a tag name or tag value inverts the selection.
  A disk with a duplicated UDID can be imported along with its disk group if the -o useclonedev=on option is specified to the vxdg import command. If multiple clones of a disk exist, one of these cloned disks can be imported provided that the same tag name and optional tag value have been set on all the disks, and that the tag name and optional tag value are also specified to the vxdg import command.
  Note: If the vxdisk list command is run on a cluster node, the output shows the local state of the disk on that node, and not the cluster state of the disk.
  
  listtag
  
  Lists the tag names and tag values that are associated with the disks. The -o tag option can be used to list only those devices that match a specified tag name and optional tag value. A "~" character placed before a tag name or tag value inverts the selection.
  
  offline
  
  Declares the disk devices named by the accessname arguments to be in the offline state. This disables checking of the disk in searching for particular disk IDs, or for the set of disks in a particular disk group. This operation cannot be applied to disks that are members of an imported disk group.
  Take a disk offline if the disk is not currently accessible, and if accessing the disk has a negative impact on the system. For example, disk drivers on a some operating systems can cause system panics or hangs if an attempt is made to access disks that are not accessible. In other operating systems, attempts to access inaccessible drives may take several seconds or minutes before returning a failure.
  Using -l filename option, disk access names can be specified through a file. Each line in the file should contain one disk access name.
  
  online
  
  Clears the offline state for a disk device. This re-enables checking of the disk when searching for disk IDs, or for members of a disk group. This can be used for disks that are already in the online state, provided that they are not in imported disk groups. All internal information for an already online state disk is regenerated from the disk's private region.
  If -a is specified, re-online all online disks that are not currently in an imported disk group. This can be used to force VxVM to re-scan all disk headers.
  Using -l filename option, disk access names can be specified through a file. Each line in the file should contain one disk access name.
  
  path
  
  Lists the disk access name, disk media name, disk group and state that are associated with each subpath on the system. If a disk group is specified using the -g option, only subpaths that are associated with that disk group are listed.
  
  reclaim
  
  Performs storage reclamation on thin provision LUNs. The reclamation is done only on the disks associated to the mounted VxFS volumes. Volumes without a VxFS file system, and volumes which are not currently mounted, are not reclaimed. If a volume has a mix of thin provision disks and regular disks, the reclamation occurs only on the thin disks. The argument to the reclaim option is one or more disks, enclosures, or disk group.
  
  resize
  
  Resizes a LUN with a SCSI interface that is presented by a smart switch, smart array or RAID controller. Following a resize operation to increase the length that is defined for a device, additional disk space on the device is available for allocation. The resize command provides a mechanism for notifying such a change to VxVM.
  If a disk media name rather than a disk access name is specified, the disk group must also be specified using the -g option.
  If you specify the new size by using the length attribute, its value must be entered as the number of sectors. Standard VxVM units cannot be used because the specified length must exactly match the disk size as reported by SCSI commands.
  If you do not specify a new size after growing a LUN, all the additional usable space on the device is claimed.
  If you shrink a LUN, you must specify the new length explicitly, as this cannot be obtained by querying the device. To avoid data loss, you should also follow the advice that is given in the following precautionary notices.
  Note: This facility is provided to support dynamic LUN expansion by updating disk headers and other VxVM structures to match a new LUN size. It does not resize the LUN itself. LUN resizing can be achieved by using the mechanism that is provided by the disk storage vendor.
  Note: Any volumes on the device should only be grown after the device itself has first been grown. Otherwise, storage other than the device may be used to grow the volumes, or the volume resize may fail if no free storage is available.
  Note: Resizing should only be performed on devices that preserve data. Consult the array documentation to verify that data preservation is supported and has been qualified. The operation also requires that only storage at the end of the LUN is affected. Data at the beginning of the LUN must not be altered. No attempt is made to verify the validity of pre-existing data on the LUN.
  Note: Although it is possible to resize LUNs that are online but not part of any disk group, this operation is primarily intended for use with devices that are in an imported disk group. The operation should be performed on the host where the disk group is imported (or on the master node for a cluster-shared disk group). It is not possible to resize LUNs that are in the boot disk group (aliased as bootdg), in a deported disk group, or that are offline, uninitialized, being reinitialized, or in an error state.
  Caution: Do not perform this operation when replacing a physical disk with a disk of a different size as data is not preserved.
  Caution: Before reducing the size of a device, any volumes on the device should first be reduced in size or moved off the device. By default, the resize fails if any subdisks would be disabled as a result of their being removed in whole or in part during a shrink operation.
  If the device that is being resized has the only valid configuration copy for a disk group, the -f option may be specified to forcibly resize the device.
  Caution: Resizing a device that contains the only valid configuration copy for a disk group can result in data loss if a system crash occurs during the resize.
  Caution: Resizing a virtual disk device is a non-transactional operation outside the control of VxVM. This means that the resize command may have to be re-issued following a system crash. In addition, a system crash may leave the private region on the device in an unusable state. If this occurs, the disk must be reinitialized, reattached to the disk group, and its data resynchronized or recovered from a backup.
  Note: A Storage Foundation license is required to use the vxdisk resize command.
  
  rm
  
  Removes the specified disk access records, by disk access name.
  
  rmregion
  
  Frees a region of space that is allocated in the private or public region for a particular use. Space that is freed from the public region becomes usable for subdisk creation. The arguments to rmregion must match the arguments used when adding the region with vxdisk addregion except for the optional length argument which can be excluded for the remove.
  Note: The rmregion functionality is currently unimplemented for any of the existing disk types.
  
  rmtag
  
  Removes the specified tags from a disk.
  
  scandisks
  
  Initiates rescanning of devices in the OS device tree by VxVM. If necessary, DMP reconfiguration is triggered. This allows VxVM to configure and multipath disks dynamically.
  By default, VxVM performs a full scan of the device tree when performing device discovery. To discover only newly added disks that are not already known to VxVM, specify the -f option.
  The following scandisks operations are also supported:
  
  scandisks [!]ctlr=controller_list
  
  Discovers devices that are connected to the logical controllers specified as a comma-separated list. If a ! is prepended to ctlr, all devices are discovered except those that are connected to the specified controllers.
  
  scandisks [!]device=device_list
  
  Discovers and configures the devices that are specified as a comma-separated list. If a ! is prepended to device, all devices except those listed are discovered.
  
  scandisks fabric
  
  Discovers fabric devices.
  
  scandisks new
  
  Discovers new disks (that is, disks not known to VxVM).
  
  scandisks [!]pctlr=physical_controller_list
  
  Discovers devices that are connected to the physical controllers specified as a list of items separated by + characters. If a ! is prepended to pctlr, all devices are discovered except those that are connected to the specified physical controllers.
  A list of physical controllers can be obtained by running the vxdmpadm listctlr all command.
  
  Only one scandisks operation may be specified at a time. For example, a command such as vxdisk scandisks new fabric results in an error.
  
  set
  
  Changes some set of attributes for a disk. The attributes are either simple names (used to turn on an on/off attribute), or can be of the form attrname=value, to indicate a value for a particular attribute.
  
  settag
  Sets or updates the tag names and optional tag values for a disk. The tag name and tag value are strings of up to 128 characters. The string must not include space or tab characters.
  The -f option must be specified if the tag name is already set on the disk.
  The earlier command syntax is supported only for backward compatibility. The earlier command syntax is:
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup]] settag {disk name[=value] [name[=value]\.\.\.]
  The new command syntax is:
  vxdisk [-g diskgroup]] settag name[=value] disk1 [disk2\.\.\. encl:encl_name1 encl:encl_name2]
  Note: The tag names site, udid and vdid are reserved for use by VxVM. The udid and vdid tags cannot be used.
  Use the tag name site to identify to which site in a Remote Mirror configuration the specified disk or enclosure belongs.
  updateudid
  
  Updates the unique disk identifier (UDID) for one or more disks that are specified either by their access names or media names. The current value of the UDID that is stored in the Device Discovery Layer (DDL) property database is used to correct the value that is stored in the private region.
  If the udid_mismatch flag is not set on a disk, you must specify the -f option to forcibly update the UDID value for the disk.
  Hardware-Specific Note
  Some environments provide guidelines to optimize VxVM's interaction with intelligent storage systems. If these guidelines are present, VxVM follows them when initializing disks, creating volumes or allocating space for volumes. These rules cannot be overridden.
  
  DISK TYPES
  Three disk types are supported for use with VxVM: simple, nopriv, auto with format set to aixdisk, cdsdisk or none.
  The default type is auto with format set to cdsdisk for disks other than EFI disks. If required, this default can be overridden in the /etc/default/vxdisk file. If an EFI disk is initialized, the default format is aixdisk.
  Nopriv Disks
  The simplest disk type is nopriv, which defines a disk that has no private region, and that consists only of space for allocating subdisks. Configuration and log copies cannot be stored on such disks, and such disks do not support reserved regions defined with vxdisk addregion. Because nopriv disks are not self identifying, VxVM cannot track the movement of such disks on a SCSI chain or between controllers.
  nopriv devices are most useful for defining special devices (such as volatile RAM disks) that you wish to use with VxVM, but that cannot store private regions. A RAM disk cannot store a meaningful private region, because data written to a RAM disk may not survive a reboot.
  Initializing a nopriv device with vxdisk init creates a disk access record internally to VxVM's configuration, but no information is written to disk. The disk ID for nopriv devices is stored in the private structure of the disk access record.
  Attributes that can be used with the define operation for nopriv disks are diskid, publen, puboffset and volatile.
  Attributes that can be used with the init operation for nopriv disks are publen, puboffset and volatile.
  Simple Disks
  The simple type presumes that the public and private regions are stored on the same disk, with the public region following the private region.
  Attributes that can be defined with vxdisk define for simple disks are listed in the ATTRIBUTES section.
  Auto-Configured Disks
  On some systems, VxVM can ask the operating system for a list of known disk device addresses. On such systems, some device addresses are auto-configured when vxconfigd is started.
  From release 4.0 of VxVM, auto-configured disks are of type auto that can take one of the following formats:
  
  aixdisk
  
  The disk is formatted for use with VxVM on 1. This format can be applied to disks that can be used to boot the system. If the disk is not initialized as a boot disk, space is reserved on the disk to allow it to be converted to cdsdisk format if required.
  
  cdsdisk
  
  The disk is formatted as a CDS disk that is suitable for moving between different operating systems. This is the default format for most disks, but it is not suitable for boot disks or EFI disks.
  Note: As the CDS format is applied to the entire disk and is unsuitable for boot disks, attributes that relate to slices or to booting are not applicable.
  
  none
  
  The disk is an unformatted auto-configured disk.
  
  Auto-configured devices can be removed, if necessary, by using the vxdisk rm command. When removed, explicitly defined devices can be defined to override any auto-configured devices. When the system reboots, no auto-configured disk devices are added to the VxVM configuration if that meant that they would share a disk with an explicitly configured disk device.
  Auto-configured devices can be disabled and re-enabled using the offline and online operations. However, the offline state is not stored persistently. If you need to persistently offline a device at a particular address, convert the address to use an explicit device record. To do this, remove the auto-configured device, and use vxdisk define to create an explicitly configured device.
  Attributes that may be defined for auto-configured disks are listed in the ATTRIBUTES section.
  The default format for auto-configured disks may be overridden by a suitable entry in the /etc/default/vxdisk file. See the DEFAULTS FILE section for details. A value specified on the command line takes precedence over both the value in the defaults file and the inbuilt value.
  Note: If a format is not specified, and the target disk already has a valid auto format, this is assumed to be the desired format.
  \"
  
  ATTRIBUTES
  
  clone={on|off}
  
  The clone_disk flag indicates whether a disk is a duplicate of another disk (usually created by a hardware cloning mechanism).
  This flag is usually set automatically to on for a disk that is detected as being a duplicate, or when the -o updateid option is specified to the vxdg import command and the udid_mismatch flag has been set on the disk being imported.
  
  configlen=length
  
  The size to reserve for each copy of the configuration stored on the disk. The default size is based on the size of the private area and the number of configuration copies requested, and leaves some space free for uses other than the configuration copies.
  
  diskid=newdiskid
  
  For a nopriv disk, this defines the value newdiskid for the disk ID in the disk access record.
  
  keepmeta={default|always}
  
  If set to default, a configuration copy and a log copy are written to the specified disk when it is added to a disk group if this is accord with the standard placement policy.
  If set to always, a configuration copy and a log copy are written to the specified disk when it is added to a disk group irrespective of the standard placement policy.
  
  loglen=length
  
  The size to reserve in the private region for each log region. This size limits the number of kernel-initiated detach operations that can be logged against the disk group. The default is about 15% of the size of the configuration copies. It is advised that the log sizes be kept as 15% of the configuration copy size.
  
  nconfig=count
  
  The number of configuration copies to store on the disk. This defaults to 1. Setting this value to 0 indicates that no configurations are to be stored on the disk.
  VxVM automatically enables and disables the configuration copy. It maintains a level of redundancy in configuration copies that allows the configuration to be recovered from the loss of multiple disks.
  See the description of the nconfig parameter on the vxdg(1M) manual page for more information.
  
  nlogs=count
  
  The number of log regions to allocate on the disk. Log regions are used for storing any plex detaches that happen within the disk group. This number defaults to 1.
  VxVM automatically enables and disables the configuration copy. It maintains a level of redundancy in configuration copies that allows the configuration to be recovered from the loss of multiple disks.
  See the description of the nlog parameter on the vxdg(1M) manual page for more information.
  
  offline
  
  If specified, creates disk in the offline state for the define operation, or leaves the device in the offline state initially for the init operation. This attribute is used only if a new disk access record is being defined.
  
  privlen=length
  
  The length of the private region. If this is not specified, then a default is chosen. For the simple and cdsdisk types, the default size is 32MB. The maximum possible size of the private region is 524288 blocks.
  The default value of privlen may also be overridden by a suitable entry in the /etc/default/vxdisk file. See the DEFAULTS FILE section for details. A value specified on the command line takes precedence over both the value in the defaults file and the inbuilt value.
  
  publen=length or len=length
  
  For disk types other than nopriv, the length of the public region. If not specified, the length of the public region is computed from available system-specific disk size information. If no such information is available, a public region length must be specified in this command. The default public region length is adjusted to account for the private region, or for any specified public or private region offsets.
  For nopriv disks, the usable length of the device. This is required if there is no system-defined procedure for determining the disk length; otherwise, a suitable default is computed.
  
  puboffset=offset or offset=offset
  
  For nopriv disks, the offset within the device for the start of the usable region. The default value of this offset defaults to 1. This can be changed if it is necessary to skip over some region that is reserved for use by the operating system. If an offset is specified, the default disk length is adjusted accordingly.
  
  volatile
  
  For a nopriv disk, this marks the contents of the disk as being volatile (that is, the disk contents are not expected to remain consistent across a system reboot). Subdisks and plexes defined on disks with the volatile attribute inherit that attribute. The vxvol start operation interprets volatile plexes as requiring complete revival from other plexes in the same volume.
  
  DEFAULTS FILE
  The /etc/default/vxdisk file can be used to set the default values of the format and privlen attributes for the vxdisk and vxdisksetup commands. Values in this file override inbuilt values, and may themselves be overridden by values specified on the command line.
  The following attributes may be specified in the defaults file:
  
  format=format
  
  Defines the default format for auto type disks. Supported values of format are aixdisk and cdsdisk. The setting of this attribute is considered for the define and init operations.
  
  privlen=length
  
  Defines the default length for the private region. See the ATTRIBUTES section for a full definition. The setting of this attribute is considered for the init operation only.
  
  The attributes and their values may be defined in any order in the file, the attribute keyword must start in the first column, and no white-space characters are allowed around the = character. If an attribute is defined multiple times, only the final occurrence in the file is used. Commands silently ignore any definition line that has an invalid format.
  
  PRIVATE REGIONS
  Private regions contain the following structures:
  
  Disk Header
  
  Each private region contains exactly two copies of a disk header, which defines the unique disk ID, disk geometry information, and disk group association information. Two copies are created so that one copy can be lost (due to I/O failures) without causing use of the disk to be lost. The primary copy of the disk header is stored in block zero of the private region. The alternate copy is stored within the first 256 sectors. If the primary copy is unreadable or unusable, VxVM searches the first 256 sectors of the private region for the alternate copy.
  
  Table of Contents
  
  A linked list of blocks, pointed to by the disk header, that define additional structures in the private and public regions. The table of contents blocks define disk group configuration copy locations, log copy locations, and reserved regions carved from the public region. Each link block in the table of contents is replicated at the beginning and end of the private region. If the primary copy of any one link block is unreadable or unusable, the alternate copy of that link is used.
  
  Configuration Copies
  
  A disk normally contains one disk group configuration copy, according to the number specified when the disk was initialized using the vxdisk init operation. When a disk is added to a disk group, the disk group's persistent configuration records are written to each copy. For disks that are not associated with a disk group, the space allocated for configuration copies is unused. Each disk group requires at least one usable configuration copy. Preferably there should be at least four copies, allocated between at least two disks. This allows one disk to be lost totally, while still preserving sufficient redundancy for recovering from simple read failures.
  
  Disk Group Log Copies
  
  A disk normally contains one disk group log copy. The number of log copies is set to the same as the number of configuration copies for the disk (as explained in the Configuration copies section above). These logs are written by the kernel when certain types of actions are performed: transaction commits, plex detaches resulting from I/O failures, total dirty region log (DRL) failures, the first write to a volume, and volume close. After a crash or a clean reboot, this log information is used to recover the state of a disk group just prior to the crash or reboot. Each disk group requires at least one usable disk group log copy. As with configuration copies, it is preferable to have at least four log copies, allocated between at least two disks.
  
  For a single disk, the disk header and the table of contents blocks are critical data structures. At least one copy of the disk header, and at least one copy of each table of contents block, must be readable and usable, or else the disk itself is unusable and must be reinitialized.
  Within disk groups, disk group configuration and log copies are critical data structures. At least one complete configuration copy and log copy must be readable and usable, or the disk group is unusable and must be reinitialized.
  All disk group association information is stored in the disk header within private regions. This information consists of a disk group name, disk group unique ID, and a host ID. When the system boots, VxVM scans for disks that are stamped with the system's host ID. Each represented disk group is imported automatically. Disks with a non-matching host ID are not imported automatically, and cannot be used until the host ID is cleared with the clearimport operation.
  
  EXAMPLES
  Use the getctlr keyword to return the controller associated with a disk that is specified by its enclosure-based disk access name.
```
vxdisk getctlr JBOD0_5
```
  FILES
  
  /etc/default/vxdisk
  
  Defaults file used by the vxdisk and vxdisksetup utilities.
  
  NOTES
  Auto-configured disks of type auto with the cdsdisk format cannot be used as boot, root, or swap disks. Such disks can also only be created and used in a disk group that has a version number greater than or equal to 110.
  To ensure that the disk partition table and the disk format are in agreement, it is recommended that you use the vxdisksetup -i command to initialize disks in preference to the vxdisk init command.
  The default private region size increased from 512KB to 1MB in release 3.2, and from 1MB to 32MB in release 5.0.
  
  SEE ALSO
  vxcdsconvert(1M), vxconfigd(1M), vxdg(1M), vxdisksetup(1M), vxedit(1M), vxintro(1M), vxvol(1M)
  Last updated: 7 Aug 2006
  Copyright ©2009 Symantec Corporation
  All rights reserved.

VXDISK (1M)

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