• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
Configuring LVM Filesystems for Maximimum Disk Availability
Audience: Systems Administrators
Date: March 1999

The following item was found on an internal IBM web site. It describes how to configure RS/6000 disk drives for the maximum AVAILABILITY. You will note that these settings tradeoff I/O performance for availability.

1. Use 3 copies.
2.Write-verify: YES. Verify each write by performing a follow-up read.
3.INTER-policy: MINIMUM. This specifies that only as many physical volumes as there are

copies should be used to
4. contain the logical volume.

5.Scheduling Policy: SEQUENTIAL. This requires the write of each copy to be performed
sequentially, increasing the likeliness that at least one copy completes prior to a system failure.
(Comment: this setting limits reads from only the primary mirror. In contrast, the PARALLEL
option allows reads to occur from any mirror copy, which can improve read performance.)

6.Allocate each logical partition copy on a separate disk: YES. This setting will not allow any
two copies of the same data to reside on the same disk.
AIX Tip of the Week: Configuring LVM Filesystems for Optimum Performance
Audience: Systems Administrators
Date: March 1999

Last weeks tip involved configuring disks for optimum availability. This tip covers configuring disks for optimum performance. To configure an RS/6000 system for the highest disk I/O performance, create the logical volumes using the following guidelines.

1. Create logical volumes with only 1 copy (do not mirror partitions)
2. Set "write-verify": NO
3. INTRA-policy: CENTER
4. INTER-policy: MAXIMUM

Note the tradeoffs between higher performance and availability. Typical systems are configured
somewhere between the two extremes presented in the AIX Tips. The following attachment explains the
reasoning behind each of these selections.

(From IBM ITEM Q494227)
AIX Tip of the Week: Customizing Modems in AIX with Hayes Commands
Audience: AIX Administrators
Date: June 11, 1999

Modem settings often need to be customized using Hayes commands. The following tip demonstrates one method of sending Hayes commands to a modem in AIX. In this example, we assume we want to enable a dial-in line ontty0.

Step 1: Configure tty0 via "smit mktty". Set "Enable Login" to "enable". Set the remaining parameters as
appropriate.
Step 2:Define tty0 to UUCP by adding the following line to the/e tc/uucp/De vices file. UUCP is part of
the base AIX operating system, which may or may not be installed by default depending on AIX level.
Note the characters are case sensitive.
Direct tty0 - 9600 direct
Step 3: Disable the port to allow Hayes commands to be sent to the modem: pdisable tty0.
Step 4: Send Hayes commands using the "cu" command. The "cu" command starts an interactive session
with the modem. In this case, the Hayes command tells the modem to autoanswer after one ring. The
session is terminated with a "tilde" followed by a "period".

cu -ml tty0
ats0=1
~.

Step 5: Enable the tty0 port: penable tty0
AIX Tip of the Week: Viewing a Remote Screen Using the AIX
portmirCommand
Audience: AIX Administrators and End Users
Date: May 1999

The AIXportm ir command can be used to mirror a remote screen on a local terminal. This is a useful
diagnostic tool for viewing a remote end user's screen, or possibly mirroring consoles. As a practical
matter, both local and remote terminal should be of the same type to avoid screen formatting problems.
Theportm ir command is available in AIX 4.2.1+. See the AIX documentation for more information.

Comment: although theportmir documentation lists "tty's" as the supported terminal type, I've been able
to get pseudo-terminals (pts) to work by substituting the appropriate "pts/n" for "ttyn."
Reconfiguring AIX's System Dump
Audience: AIX Administators
Date: July 24, 1999
I generally recommend changing the default setup for AIX's system dump facility. The default setting
stops the system from rebooting after an unexpected halt.

A system dump copies selected areas of the kernel to disk (or tape) if the system halts unexpectedly. The
default dump location is the page space. When a system attempts to reboot after an unexpected halt, it
stops to warn the operator the page space contains a dump. The reboot stops until the operator tells the
system what do to with the dump.

The dump facility can be reconfigured to reboot automatically by changing the dump device from the
page space to a raw partition on the disk. The procedure for making this change is in the attached HTML
file. See your AIX documentation for more information.

Managing System Dump Devices [manage.dump.32-42.cmd]
Managing System Dump Devices
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents

About this document
Related documentation
Managing system dump devices
Determining proper size for dump device
Setting a tape drive as a dump device
Extended options in AIX 4.x
Dumping a mirrored logical volume
Remote dumps over to a network

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About this document
This document discusses how to manage storage devices used by AIX to store a

system dump in the event of a catastrophic operating system software failure.
Its intent is to help the system administrator ensure that a system dump will
be complete and usable for troubleshooting purposes.
This document applies to AIX versions 3.2 and 4.x.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related documentation
For more in-depth coverage of this subject, the following IBM documents are

recommended:
o AIX Version 4.1 Software Problem Debugging and Reporting for the RISC

System/6000 (GG24-2513)
o Common Diagnostics and Service Guide (SA23-2687)
o Diagnostic Information For Micro Channel Bus Systems (SA23-2765)
o Diagnostic Information for Multiple Bus Systems (SA38-0509)
o Problem Solving Guide and Reference (SA23-2204) (SA23-2606)
o System Management Guide, V3.2 (SC23-2457)
o System Management Guide, V4 (SC23-2525)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...