Appendix C

Installing and Configuring VERITAS Volume Manager

Install and configure your local and multihost disks for VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM) by using the procedures in this appendix, along with the planning information in Planning Volume Management. See your VxVM documentation for additional details.

The following procedures are in this appendix.

• How to Install VERITAS Volume Manager Software and Encapsulate the Root Disk

• How to Mirror the Encapsulated Root Disk

• How to Install VERITAS Volume Manager Software Only

• How to Create a rootdg Disk Group on a Nonroot Disk

• How to Create and Register a Disk Group

• How to Assign a New Minor Number to a Disk Device Group

• How to Verify the Disk Group Configuration

• How to Unencapsulate the Root Disk

Installing and Configuring VxVM Software

Before you begin, have available the following information.

• Mappings of your storage disk drives.

• The following completed configuration planning worksheets. See Planning Volume Management for planning guidelines.

  • Local File System Layout Worksheet

  • Disk Device Group Configurations Worksheet

  • Volume Manager Configurations Worksheet

The following table lists the tasks to perform to install and configure VxVM software for Sun Cluster configurations.

Table C-1 Task Map: Installing and Configuring VxVM Software

Task	Instructions
1. Plan the layout of your VxVM configuration.	Planning Volume Management
2. Determine how you will create the rootdg disk group on each node.	Setting Up a rootdg Disk Group Overview
3. Install VxVM software and create the rootdg disk group:
Method 1 - Install VxVM software and encapsulate the root disk by using the scvxinstall command, and optionally mirror the encapsulated root disk.	How to Install VERITAS Volume Manager Software and Encapsulate the Root Disk How to Mirror the Encapsulated Root Disk
Method 2 - Install VxVM software and create rootdg on local, nonroot disks.	How to Install VERITAS Volume Manager Software Only How to Create a rootdg Disk Group on a Nonroot Disk
4. Create disk groups and volumes.	How to Create and Register a Disk Group
5. If necessary, resolve any minor-number conflicts between disk device groups by assigning a new minor number.	How to Assign a New Minor Number to a Disk Device Group
6. Verify the disk groups and volumes.	How to Verify the Disk Group Configuration
7. Configure the cluster.	Configuring the Cluster

Setting Up a rootdg Disk Group Overview

Each cluster node requires the creation of a rootdg disk group after VxVM is installed. This disk group is used by VxVM to store configuration information, and has the following restrictions.

• Access to a node's rootdg disk group must be restricted to only that node.

• Remote nodes must never access data stored in another node's rootdg.

• Do not use the scconf(1M) command to register the rootdg disk group as a disk device group.

• Whenever possible, configure the rootdg for each node on a nonshared disk.

Sun Cluster software supports the following methods to configure the rootdg disk group.

• Encapsulate the node's root disk - This method enables the root disk to be mirrored, which provides a boot alternative if the root disk is corrupted or damaged. To encapsulate the root disk you need two free disk slices as well as free cylinders, preferably at the beginning or the end of the disk.

• Use local nonroot disks - This method provides an alternative to encapsulating the root disk. If a node's root disk is encapsulated, certain tasks you might later perform, such as upgrade the Solaris operating environment or perform disaster recovery procedures, could be more complicated than if the root disk is not encapsulated. To avoid this potential added complexity, you can instead initialize or encapsulate local nonroot disks for use as rootdg.

  A rootdg disk group that is created on local nonroot disks is local to that node, neither globally accessible nor highly available. As with the root disk, to encapsulate a nonroot disk you need two free disk slices as well as free cylinders at the beginning or the end of the disk.

See your VxVM installation documentation for more information.