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QIO_GETDBFILES_SYB (1)
User Commands

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NAME

qio_getdbfiles_syb, qio_convertdbfiles_syb - converts VxFS files to Quick I/O files

SYNOPSIS

/opt/VRTSsybed/bin/qio_getdbfiles_syb [ -d database_name | -m master_device_pathname ]
/opt/VRTSsybed/bin/qio_convertdbfiles_syb [ -a | -f | -h | -u ]

AVAILABILITY

These commands are part of VERITAS Storage Foundation for Sybase. These commands are supported only on Sybase ASE version 12.0 or later. In order to take advantage of the performance benefit offered by Quick I/O files, the Sybase DSYNC flag should be set to true. To find out if these commands are installed on a Solaris system, enter:

pkginfo -l VRTSsybed

DESCRIPTION

These commands are the Sybase-specific version of the qio_getdbfiles and qio_convertdbfiles commands, which are available in the /opt/VRTSsybed/bin directory. These commands are used to identify Sybase database files and convert them to use Quick I/O.

In a Sybase environment, these commands are called directly by the qio_getdbfiles and qio_convertdbfiles commands. To use these commands, the SYBASE and DSQUERY environment variables must be set.

For general information on the qio_getdbfiles or qio_convertdbfiles commands, see the corresponding man pages.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported for the qio_getdbfiles_syb command:
-d database_name
Includes files used by database devices. The default behavior is to include all database device files that are part of the ASE server. Only Sybase database device files with the dsync flag set to true will be converted to Quick I/O.

-m master_device_pathname
Specifies the full pathname of the master device for the Sybase ASE server. In the Sybase ASE server, the master device physical pathname is stored as d_master in the catalog. qio_getdbfiles_syb will attempt to obtain the master device's pathname from the default Sybase startup file $SYBASE/ASE-12_0/install/RUN_servername. However, if the user does not use the standard startup file or the startup file is out-of-date, qio_getdbfiles_syb can put the wrong master device pathname in the mkqio.dat file. Users can use the -m flag to pass in the correct master device path in such a situation.

The following options are supported by the qio_convertdbfiles_syb:
-a
Changes regular files to Quick I/O files using absolute pathnames. Use this option when symbolic links need to point to absolute pathnames. The default behavior is to use relative pathnames, which are more portable when moving database directories or recovering from backup.
-f
Reports on current fragmentation levels for files listed in the mkqio.dat file. Fragmentation is reported at four levels: not fragmented, slightly fragmented, fragmented, and highly fragmented.
-h
Shows help information.
-u
Changes Quick I/O files back to regular files. Use this option to undo changes made by a previous run of the qio_convertdbfiles command.

Converting existing database files to Quick I/O files may not be the optimal thing to do if these files are fragmented. In this case, creating new files with the qiomkfile command (which are guaranteed to not be fragmented) and converting the data in from the old files (using a command such as dd ) is recommended.

USAGE

You must be logged in as the Sybase Database Administrator (normally, the user sybase) to run these commands. The qio_getdbfiles_syb command must query the database to gather a list of datafiles to be converted, which requires direct access to the database. The qio_convertdbfiles_syb command expects all files to be owned by the Database Administrator.

Running the qio_convertdbfiles_syb command with any option but -f while the database is up and running can cause severe problems with your database, including data loss and corruption. Make sure the Sybase ASE server is shut down before running this command.

qio_getdbfiles_syb and qio_convertdbfiles_syb connect to the Sybase ASE server via a Sybase sa account. It is important to protect the sa password so that it is not visible to other users. By default, both commands will ask users to type in the Sybase sa password. The Sybase tools used in these commands will receive the password without displaying it on the screen. To run these commands in a non-interactive mode, you can create a file /opt/VRTSsybed/.private/sa_password_dataserver_name, which contains the Sybase sa password for the corresponding ASE server. dataserver_name is the content of the DSQUERY variable set by the user. Only the Sybase DBA user should have access to the .private directory and sa_password_dataserver_name file. If the sa_password_dataserver_name file is present, qio_getdbfiles_syb and qio_convertdbfiles_syb will read the Sybase sa password from the file and run in non-interactive mode.

EXAMPLES

For example, while processing a file named /sybdev/dbfile, the qio_convertdbfiles command (with no options specified) renames the file dbfile to .dbfile and creates a symbolic link to the .dbfile file with the Quick I/O extension. By default, the symbolic link uses a relative pathname. 



example% cd /sybdev
example% ls -l
-rw-r----- 1 sybase sybase 104857600 May 2 13:42 dbfile

example% /opt/VRTSsybed/bin/qio_getdbfiles_syb
example% cat mkqio.dat
/sybdev/dbfile 104857600

\# shutdown the Sybase ASE server
example% /opt/VRTSsybed/bin/qio_convertdbfiles_syb

example% ls -alL d* .d*
-rw-r----- 1 sybase sybase 104857600 May 2 13:42 .dbfile
crw-r----- 1 sybase sybase 45, 1 May 3 12:18 dbfile

example% ls -al d* .d*
-rw-r----- 1 sybase sybase 104857600 May 2 13:42 .dbfile
lrwxrwxrwx 1 sybase sybase 17 May 3 12:18 dbfile -> .dbfile::cdev:vxfs:

\# Startup the Sybase ASE server

SEE ALSO

qio_getdbfiles(1M), qio_convertdbfiles(1M), qio_recreate(1M), vxgrowfs(1M), sybase_edition(7)

VERITAS Storage Foundation for Sybase Administrator's Guide

Last updated: 4 Nov 2004
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