SECTION 5 Configure and Use Novell Storage Services
In this section you learn to use Novell Storage Services (NSS).
Objectives
1. Identify How NSS Works
2. Configure NSS 3. Manage NSS
Introduction
One of the greatest demands you face is the need for more storage, the ability to store large files, more efficient file management, and faster volume mounting speed. NSS is a 64-bit file storage system that meets these needs.
It is a scalable and flexible file system that lets you configure, mount, and maintain large volumes without disrupting work.
NSS is an efficient way to use all your storage space. NSS is best suited for networks that need to store and maintain large volumes, numerous files, or large databases.
NSS is the default for NetWare 6. You use it for traditional and NSS volumes. NSS is compatible with DOS, Macintosh, UNIX, and long name spaces.
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Objective 1 Identify How NSS Works
With NSS, you use partitions, storage pools, logical volumes and, optionally, traditional volumes. You create logical volumes in storage pools using free space from your server’s storage devices.
x The ability to create storage pools and logical volumes is new to NetWare 6.
NSS uses free space from multiple storage devices. You can mount up to 255 volumes and store up to 8 trillion files in a volume—up to 8 terabytes in size.
When you install NSS, it creates a storage pool named SYS and an equal sized volume named SYS:
Figure 5-1 Storage Devices Free CD-ROM Space Free Space = Storage Deposit
Partitioned Free Free Free Free Space Space Space Space
Storage Storage Pool Pool
Volume size can equal storage pool size Logical Logical Logical Traditional NSS Vol1 Vol2 Vol3 Vol4 Vol5 (Read-Only)
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To fully understand how NSS works, you must understand
■ Storage Pools
■ Logical Volumes
■ NSS Features and Benefits
■ Advantages of NSS over the Traditional File System
■ NSS Limitations
Storage Pools
A storage pool is a specific amount of space you obtain from one or more storage devices in your server.
Figure 5-2
+ +=
You create storage pools after you create partitions on your storage devices, but before you create volumes. After a pool is created, you can add storage devices to your server and add their free space to a storage pool as needed.
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Logical Volumes
A logical volume is an NSS volume that is analogous to a traditional volume used in previous versions of NetWare. Logical volumes can be set to a specific size, or set to grow dynamically according to the amount of physical space you have.
Figure 5-3
Because of this, you can add storage devices to your system without needing to create new volumes.
x A volume cannot be larger than the storage pool because all NSS logical volumes must reside in a storage pool.
NSS Features and Benefits
NSS provides the following features and benefits:
■ Multiple Logical Volumes in a Single Storage Pool
■ Overbooking
■ Logical Volume and Storage Pool Maintenance
■ Error Correction and Data Recovery
■ Flush Files Immediately
■ File Snapshot
■ Modified File List
■ Clustering
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■ File Compression
■ Data Shredding
■ User Space Restrictions
■ Directory Space Restrictions
■ CD Support
■ Hot Fix
■ Software RAID Support
Multiple Logical Volumes in a Single Storage Pool
NSS allows you to create multiple logical volumes in a single pool.
Figure 5-4 Logical Volumes
Storage Pools
Aggregation function ()
Partition Segments
Network Disks
Although you can associate a partition with only one storage pool, you can create many logical volumes in a single storage pool.
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Overbooking
Overbooking is a feature that allows the sum of the sizes of each volume in a partition to exceed the partition size.
x The size of a logical volume cannot exceed the size of a storage pool.
Figure 5-5 Vol1
10 GB
Vol2
10 GB Partition
30 GB Vol3
10 GB
Vol4
10 GB
This feature can help you manage your file system efficiently.
For example, you might have users assigned to volumes with a limited amount of space. You can assign volumes that collectively exceed the pool size if not all users fill up their volumes.
NSS can borrow space from other volumes in the pool as long as volumes are not filled to the limit. As a result, it is not necessary to add disk space when some users reach or exceed their volume limit.
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Logical Volume and Storage Pool Maintenance
From time to time, you might need to temporarily prevent user access to storage pools or volumes to perform maintenance tasks.
Figure 5-6
Instead of bringing down the server, you can deactivate individual storage pools and use the various NSS management utilities.
x When you deactivate a storage pool, users cannot access the volumes in that pool.
Error Correction and Data Recovery
NSS can quickly recover data after a file system crash. Instead of scanning an entire volume for corruption, NSS reviews the last known set of changes to the file system to make sure they were written correctly.
The file system either recovers the changed information, or it returns the data to its original settings before the transaction began. This is beneficial for applications such as mail services because there is less server downtime.
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Flush Files Immediately
By default, when file changes are saved, NetWare 6 stores those saved changes in memory until processor utilization is low. At that point, NetWare 6 writes those changes to disk (flushes them).
This valuable feature is efficient; however, there is a risk that those changes could be lost (for example, if there is a power outage).
The Flush Files Immediately feature saves your file data to disk immediately after you save the file instead of waiting for the next flush cycle. This ensures that your data is not at risk of being lost between flush cycles.
File Snapshot
The File Snapshot feature allows your backup utility to keep a consistent copy of all files. This is done by having the file system keep an original copy of all open files.
For example, if your system backs up or crashes when you are modifying a file, the backup could contain both old and new data. Snapshot captures the most recent closed copy of the file.
It ensures that if you lose data between backup cycles, you still have a valid copy of the previously saved file.
Modified File List
The Modified File List (MFL) is a list of files that changed since the previous backup. The backup utility accesses this list instead of searching the entire file system.
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Clustering
NSS volumes can be shared for clustering. Clustering is covered in Section 7.
File Compression
NSS supports file compression. When enabled, NSS compresses the files in your volumes to create additional space. After you enable file compression, you cannot turn it off without recreating the volumes.
Data Shredding
Data shredding adds a measure of security to your network. Data shredding, when enabled, overwrites purged disk blocks with random patterns of characters.
Data shredding prevents unauthorized individuals from recovering purged files from the hard disk using a disk editor. You can place up to 7 data shred patterns over deleted data.
User Space Restrictions
User space restrictions let you limit the space users have on volumes. This is beneficial for systems that have a large number of users, such as students. When you create volumes, you can select the User Space Restriction option in ConsoleOne.
Directory Space Restrictions
Directory space restrictions let you limit the space users can have in a directory or subdirectory.
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CD Support
NSS has full CD support for ISO 9660 and HFS formats.
Hot Fix
As your file system constantly reads and writes data to disk, some disk storage blocks lose their ability to reliably store data. NSS uses Hot FixTM to prevent data from being written to unreliable blocks.
If an unreliable block is encountered on a hard disk, Hot Fix redirects the original block of data (still in memory) to the Hot Fix Redirection Area of the partition, where the data can be stored correctly.
To redirect a block of data, the operating system records the address of the defective block. Then the server no longer attempts to store data in that block.
You need to set up Hot Fix when you create the partition. If you do not, no data redirection can occur.
To add Hot Fix later, you must delete the volumes from the partition, add Hot Fix, and then restore the volumes from a backup.
Hot Fix is associated with the NSS partition mirroring feature. When you enable Hot Fix, you also enable mirroring for that partition.
By default, 2% of a disk’s space is set aside as the Hot Fix Redirection Area. You can increase or decrease this amount.
If Hot Fix is enabled, it is always active unless the disk fails or the redirection area is full. You can view Hot Fix activity use Monitor by selecting Storage Devices and then a Hot Fix partition.
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Software RAID Support
Previously, you were required to purchase a RAID board for RAID support. However, now RAID functionality, provided by NetWare 6 through NSS, is a software configuration that emulates a hardware RAID system.
About RAID
RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks.
(When the term first came into use, it actually stood for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.)
RAID is a method, used industry-wide, for storing the same data in different places on multiple hard disks.
The various RAID configurations, defined later, provide one or both of the following benefits, depending on the level of RAID you implement.
■ Increased Disk Performance. By reading and writing data across multiple disks, disk I/O processes can be spread and balanced, significantly improving the performance of your storage system.
■ Fault Tolerance. Some RAID configurations can store data redundantly on multiple hard disks, creating a degree of fault-tolerance. If one hard disk in the array fails, another disk in the array, containing the same data as the first, can step in.
Using a RAID array has little impact on users. To them, the array appears to be a single hard disk.
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Mirroring with NSS
NSS lets you protect your data by mirroring your partitions. Mirroring stores the same data on separate disks using the same controller channel (see Figure 5-7).
Figure 5-7
You can mirror both traditional and NSS partitions.
The following is a list of requirements for mirroring partitions:
■ Mirrored partitions must be of the same partition type. You can only mirror NSS partitions to other NSS partitions; traditional partitions can only mirror other traditional partitions.
■ You can only mirror partitions. However, you might want to mirror an entire storage pool. Because you can have only one storage pool on a partition, the only way to mirror that storage pool is to mirror all of the partitions the pool resides on.
■ Mirroring must be enabled when you create a partition—you cannot enable mirroring after a partition is created.
■ Mirrored partitions should be the same size. The file system adjusts the Hot Fix size to make the data area identical to the other partitions in the mirror group.
■ If one partition in a mirrored pair has been marked sharable for clustering, the other partition in the pair must also be marked sharable for clustering.
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Software RAID 0 with NSS
NSS also lets you stripe data across multiple disk drives on your system. This RAID configuration occurs at the software level instead of using a RAID hard disk interface board.
Striping involves partitioning each drive’s storage space into units ranging from 512 bytes up to several megabytes. The stripes on all disks are interleaved and addressed in order.
You can have up to 8 segments on a RAID device. The file system places data on the RAID disks sequentially. This is called disk striping. The RAID stripe size is the amount of data the file system places on a disk before moving to the next disk.
The size of the stripe units depends on the application for which the array is used. For example, if the system will store large files, such as graphics or digital video, the stripes are generally small, around 512 bytes.
The small size of the stripes ensures that a single file spans as many disks as possible. This ensures that the file can be manipulated quickly because modifying the file will require reading or writing to all disks in the array at the same time.
Under other circumstances, such as a file server with many users who primarily work on small word-processor documents, maximum performance is achieved from the array by creating a stripe size large enough to hold an average-sized file.
Set up a RAID device by obtaining space from all your physical storage devices and then putting segments on the combined space. A RAID segment is the amount of space you obtain from each storage device.
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When configuring a RAID system using NSS, keep the following in mind:
■ You can use the software RAID 0 on both logical and traditional volumes.
■ Each element in the RAID configuration should come from a different storage device. NSS lets you obtain RAID elements from the same device, but doing this severely impedes the performance of your file system.
■ The stripe size ranges from 4 KB to 256 KB in increments of 2 KB.
Advantages of NSS over the Traditional File System
Although NSS has been available since NetWare 5, the current version has the following significant differences:
■ New NSS Management Tools
■ No Additional Memory Required for Mounting Volumes
■ You Must Repair Storage Pools Instead of Individual Volumes
New NSS Management Tools
ConsoleOne and Remote Manager are the primary utilities used to configure and maintain both traditional and NSS logical volumes.
NWCONFIG and NSS Menu, used to manage NSS in prior versions of NetWare, are not compatible with the current version of NSS.
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No Additional Memory Required for Mounting Volumes
When you mount volumes using the traditional file system, it scans every file and directory when mounting. Then it loads the FAT, which lists all files on the volume, into memory for quick access.
If you increase the number or size of files, the traditional file system allocates memory from your available pool. In systems that store many files, add more server memory to maintain performance.
NSS doesn’t require additional memory to mount large volumes because it doesn’t scan the entire file system when mounting. After mounting is complete, NSS doesn’t load the FAT for files into memory until you access them. Increasing volume size or the number of files it stores does not require additional memory.
You Must Repair Storage Pools Instead of Individual Volumes
NSS keeps a journal of all file system transactions. After a crash, NSS scans the journal to make sure transactions are completed or undone. This way volumes don’t require repair when you mount them after the crash.
For logical volumes, you use VERIFY and REBUILD on storage pools. VERIFY checks file system integrity for an NSS pool by searching for inconsistent data blocks or other errors. REBUILD verifies and uses existing leaves of a tree to rebuild the other trees.
Before you run REBUILD you deactivate pools (and volumes in the pools) so users don’t access the volumes.When you deactivate a storage pool, the volumes in the pool automatically deactivate.
These utilities are not the same as VREPAIR. Use REBUILD only as a last resort to recover the file system after data corruption.
x If you use REBUILD to recover from data corruption, you can lose data.
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NSS Limitations
The following features are available in the traditional NetWare file system but are not supported by NSS:
■ Block suballocation
■ Auditing
Objective 2 Configure NSS
NSS is installed by default during NetWare 6 installation; however, you must configure it later. To configure NSS, you
■ Meet System Requirements
■ Set Cache Buffers
■ Create an NSS Volume
■ Create a Traditional Volume
■ Convert a Traditional Volume to an NSS Volume
■ Mount a DOS Partition as an NSS Volume
■ Configure Software RAID with NSS
Meet System Requirements
NSS has the following requirements:
■ A server running NetWare 6
■ At least 10 MB free space to create an NSS storage pool and logical volume
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Set Cache Buffers
A cache buffer is a 4 KB block of server RAM that temporarily stores data. When you install NSS, by default it consumes 60% of the cache buffers and keeps those cache buffers available for its use.
Although NSS use 60% by default, you can change this allocation.
Evaluate this setting on each server. If most volumes on a server are NSS volumes, consider allocating the full 60% of NSS allocated cache buffers. Doing so optimizes server performance and leaves sufficient cache buffers available for non-NSS tasks.
x Adjust your NSS cache buffer allocation according to the number of NSS volumes on the corresponding server.
The following are options for changing the cache buffers:
■ You can set a maximum of 1,048,576 cache buffers.
■ You can set the buffers in percentages rather than integers. This means that if you want to allocate 60% of available cache buffers (the full amount allocated to NSS by default), you set NSS to consume 100% of NSS allocated cache buffers.
You can change the NSS cache buffer allocation by using Monitor (Server Parameters > Novell Storage Services) or by using the following commands at the server console:
NSS /MinBufferCacheSize=value between 256 and 1048576 NSS /CacheBalance=value between 1 and 99
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Cache buffers can also be configured using the following SET commands:
SET NSS MINIMUM CACHE BUFFERS = value between 256 and 1048576
SET NSS CACHE BALANCE PERCENT = value between 1 and 99
This sets the minimum number of cache buffers allocated for NSS file system access. The range is 256 to 1,048,576.
Create an NSS Volume
To create an NSS volume, do the following:
■ Create a Partition
■ Create a Storage Pool
■ Create Logical Volumes
Create a Partition
First create partitions for NSS storage pools and logical volumes:
1. Start ConsoleOne.
2. Authenticate as your Admin user.
3. Browse to your server object.
4. Right-click the server object and select Properties.
5. Select Media > Partitions.
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The following screen appears:
Figure 5-8
6. Select New. The following screen appears:.
Figure 5-9
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7. Select a device to create a partition on.
8. Select the type of partition you want to create (either NSS or traditional).
9. Enter the size of the partition in bytes (B), kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), or gigabytes (GB).
10. To reserve space for the Hot Fix error correction feature, select Hot Fix and enter the amount of space you want to reserve.
11. To mirror the partition, select Mirror and one of the following:
❑ Create New Mirror. Use to enable the partition to participate in a group. You do not create the group until you add a mirrored partition to the partition you create.
❑ Existing Mirror Group. Use to add this partition to a group in the list. This list shows groups compatible in data area size. If you select this option, also select the ID of the mirrored partition.
12. (Optional) Enter a label for the partition.
13. Select OK.
Create a Storage Pool
After creating and setting up your partitions, you create storage pools within the partitions. When you create a storage pool, NSS lets you determine how much space to use from each storage device on your server.
When you create storage pools, you use partitioned disk space. However, you can select unpartitioned space. Doing so creates a partition and makes the storage pool the same size as the partition.
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Do the following:
1. Start ConsoleOne.
2. Authenticate as your Admin user.
3. Browse to your server object.
4. Right-click the server object and select Properties.
5. Select Media > NSS Pools: The following screen appears:
Figure 5-10
6. Select New.
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The following screen appears:
Figure 5-11
7. Enter a name for the new storage pool; then select Next. The following screen appears:
Figure 5-12
8. Select the existing NSS partitions or unpartitioned free space that you want to use for the pool.
9. In the Used column, enter the amount of space you want to allocate from each NSS partition or from unpartitioned space and select Next.
10. Select Activate on Creation. This option activates your pool and any logical volumes when you create the pool.
11. Select Finish.
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Create Logical Volumes
After creating storage pools, you can create any number of logical volumes for the storage pools according to the physical space available. When you create a logical volume, you can either assign it a fixed size or configure it to expand to the pool size.
Recall that the size of a single volume cannot exceed the size of a storage pool. However, the combined sizes of multiple volumes can exceed the size of the storage pool.
Remember, NSS is compatible with DOS, Macintosh, UNIX, and long name spaces.
To create a logical volume, complete the following:
1. Start ConsoleOne.
2. Authenticate as your Admin user.
3. Browse to your server object.
4. Right-click your server object and select Properties.
5. Select Media > NSS Logical Volumes.
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The following screen appears:
Figure 5-13
6. Select New. The following screen appears:
Figure 5-14
7. Enter a name for the volume and select Next.
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The following screen appears:
Figure 5-15
8. Select the storage pool where you want to create the volume. You can also select unpartitioned space at this point. If you do, NSS creates an NSS partition and a storage pool for your volume.
9. Do one of the following:
❑ If you want to limit the size of the volume, enter a quota size for the volume.
❑ If you want the volume to expand to the size of the pool mark Allow volume quota to grow to the pool size.
10. Select Next.
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The following screen appears:
Figure 5-16
11. Select the attribute settings you want for the new logical volume. Choose from the following settings:
❑ Backup. Indicates if the volume should be backed up. Select this setting if the volume contains data you want to back up. Deselect this setting if the volume is empty or if backing up data is unnecessary. This setting works with third-party backup software packages. Check with your vendor to ensure compatibility.
❑ Compression. Select to activate file compression in the logical volume.
❑ Data Shredding. Select to activate the Data Shredding security feature. This scrambles any data that you delete to prevent anyone from accessing the information with a disk reader. Enter the number of times you want the data shredder to scramble your deleted files. You can select between 1 and 7 times.
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❑ Directory Quotas. Select to restrict the amount of space a directory can use.
❑ Flush Files Immediately. Select to activate the feature that immediately flushes all data in a file to disk when you close the file.
❑ Modified File List (MFL). Select to provide a list of all files modified since the previous backup. A third-party vendor must implement the MFL feature to take advantage of this functionality.
❑ Salvage Files. Select to salvage deleted files. The Salvage feature tracks deleted files and lets you retrieve the data for a time until the space is needed for other data.
❑ Snapshot-File Level (File Snapshot). Select to allow a backup utility to capture a snapshot of the last closed version of a file. For example, if your system backs up or crashes while you have a file open, this feature saves a copy of the file before you opened it. You might lose some new information, but you retain all previous information.
❑ User Space Restrictions. Select to activate the user space restrictions feature on the volumes you create.
❑ Activate. Select to activate logical volumes as soon as you create them.
❑ Mount. Select to mount logical volumes as soon as you create them.
12. Select Finish.
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Create a Traditional Volume
Although NSS is the default system in NetWare 6, you might want to maintain traditional partitions and volumes on your server. Keep the following in mind:
■ NWCONFIG is not compatible with traditional volumes in NetWare 6. You must use ConsoleOne or Remote Manger to create, mount, modify, and rename traditional volumes.
■ You must use VREPAIR to fix traditional volumes.
■ You cannot put traditional volumes in an NSS storage pool.
■ Previous versions of NetWare cannot mount a traditional volume created by a NetWare 6 server. However, if you have a traditional volume that was created by a NetWare 6 server, you can back up the volume and restore it on a legacy NetWare server. In addition, you can create a traditional volume on a legacy NetWare server and then perform a file copy from the NetWare 6 volume to the legacy volume.
To create a traditional volume, complete the following:
1. Start ConsoleOne.
2. Authenticate as your Admin user.
3. Browse to your server object.
4. Right-click the server object and select Properties.
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5. Select Media > Traditional Volumes:
Figure 5-17
6. Select New. The following screen appears:
Figure 5-18
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7. Enter a name for the volume; then select Next. The following screen appears:
Figure 5-19
8. Select either an existing partition or unpartitioned space.
9. In the Used column, enter a size for the volume; then select Next. The following appears:
Figure 5-20
10. Select a block size.
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11. Select from the following:
❑ Compression
❑ Suballocation
❑ Mount Volume on Creation
12. Select Finish.
Convert a Traditional Volume to an NSS Volume
NSS allows you to convert traditional volumes to logical volumes using VCU.NLM.
x VCU.NLM is not an in-place conversion utility. You must have enough space to transition from a traditional volume to a logical volume.
The conversion utility copies the data (keeping the same file structure) from a traditional volume to an NSS logical volume in an NSS storage pool. Therefore, if you want to convert a 2 GB traditional volume, you need to have at least 2 GB of available space.
x VCU affects server performance. As a result, perform volume conversions only when server demands are low (such as after working hours).
The original volume is renamed volumename_old. The new logical volume keeps the original volume name.
After you copy the traditional volume to a logical volume, restart the server to ensure the volume converted properly. If the volume converted, you can remove the traditional volume.
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x After you copy traditional volume data to a logical volume in NetWare 6, you cannot access the new logical volume under prior versions of NetWare.
The volume conversion utility can convert volumes with long names.
To convert a volume, load VCU.NLM and specify the volume to convert and then specify the NSS pool where you want to store the data from the volume.
For example, to convert a traditional volume named APPS to an NSS volume in a pool named POOLONE, enter the following at the server console prompt:
VCU APPS POOLONE
The following screen appears:
Figure 5-21
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The syntax for VCU.NLM is as follows:
VCU /p /l /i /d /r originalVolume nssPool [ds_container [ds_volName]]
■ /p: Do not print directory file names.
■ /l: Do not write errors to log file (Dst_Vol:ERROR.OUT).
■ /i: Keep file COMPRESS_FILE_IMMEDIATELY_BIT.
■ /d: Delete the original volume if the copy process is successful. If you delete the traditional volume, the new volume retains the name of that volume.
x Do not be alarmed if this process returns an error. The traditional volume has a hidden system file that will not be copied. As a result, this process will return an error.
■ /r: Remove xxx_new NSS volume and restore xxx traditional volume (use to keep the original volume name for the new logical volume name).
■ ds_container: Designate the original volume of the eDirectory container.
■ ds_volumeName: If specified, the VCU conversion utility uses this name to rename or delete the original volume’s eDirectory object. Otherwise, VCU.NLM uses servername_originalVolName as the default eDirectory name.
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Mount a DOS Partition as an NSS Volume
NSS lets you mount existing DOS partitions on your NetWare 6 server as NSS volumes. To do this, at the server console prompt, enter LOAD DOSFAT.NSS.
After DOSFAT.NSS is loaded, DOS partitions on the server are mounted and made available as logical volumes. The volume name displayed is DOSFAT_X, where X is the drive letter; such as DOSFAT_C, as shown in Figure 5-22:
Figure 5-22
The following are features of the DOSFAT.NSS module:
■ Support for long filenames. The module uses the Windows 95/98 method for placing long file names onto a DOS FAT partition.
■ Support for NetWare trustee rights. User access to the volume can be managed using eDirectory rights assignments.
■ Support for NetWare utilities. Any client or server utility that accesses or manages NetWare volumes can do the same with volumes created with the DOSFAT.NSS module.
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Configure Software RAID with NSS
NSS lets you create a RAID 0 device by striping data across multiple drives on your system. This RAID configuration occurs at the software level. You can use this RAID feature for both logical and traditional volumes.
Create a Software Raid 0 Array
1. Start ConsoleOne.
2. Authenticate as your Admin user.
3. Browse to your server object.
4. Right-click the server object and select Properties.
5. Select Media > Raid Devices; then select New:
Figure 5-23
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6. When the following screen appears, enter the amount of space you want to obtain from each storage device in megabytes.
Figure 5-24
7. Mark the devices to be used in the array; then select Next. The following screen appears:
Figure 5-25
8. Select the stripe size and RAID type.
9. Select Finish.
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Increase the Size of a RAID Device
You can increase the size of a RAID device by adding segments from another storage device.
(Don’t place more than one RAID segment on a disk. This impedes file system performance and does not provide redundancy. For example, partitioning your drive and mirroring the partitions serves no purpose and affects overall system performance.)
1. Start ConsoleOne.
2. Authenticate as your Admin user.
3. Browse to your server object.
4. Right-click the server object and select Properties.
5. Select Media > Raid Devices.
6. Select the RAID device whose size you want to increase.
7. When the following screen appears, select Increase Size:
Figure 5-26
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8. When the following screen appears, select the device you want to add to the RAID configuration:
Figure 5-27
9. Select Finish.
10. Select Restripe. After you add another physical storage device to your RAID device, restripe the array. This creates stripes on the new device and redistributes the data across all devices.
x The restriping process takes some time to complete, depending on the size of the disk devices involved. As a result, file system performance is impacted during the restriping process.
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Exercise 5-1 Create an NSS Logical Volume
In this exercise you do the following:
■ Part I: Create an NSS Partition
■ Part II: Create an NSS Pool
■ Part III: Create an NSS Logical Volume
Part I: Create an NSS Partition
1. Access the Media Properties page for your server object: a. Start ConsoleOne. b. If necessary, authenticate as Admin. c. Browse to DA1. d. Right-click DA1 and select Properties. e. Select the Media tab.
2. Create a new NSS partition: a. Select the Partitions subtab. b. Select New. c. In the Create a New Partition screen, select NSS in the Type field. d. In the Size field, enter 2 GB. e. Mark Hot Fix. f. In the Label field, enter DA1 Partition; then select OK.
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Part II: Create an NSS Pool
1. From the Media tab, select the NSS Pools subtab.
2. Select New.
3. In the Create a New Pool screen, enter DA1_NSS_POOL in the Name field; then select Next.
4. In the Storage Information screen, mark the DA1 Partition you created in Part I; then select Next.
5. In the Attribute Information screen, make sure Activate on Creation is marked; then select Finish.
Part III: Create an NSS Logical Volume
1. From the Media tab, select the NSS Logical Volumes subtab.
2. Select New.
3. In the Create a New Logical Volume screen, enter DATA in the Name field; then select Next.
4. In the Storage Information screen, select the DA1_NSS_Pool you created in Part II.
5. Mark Allow Volume Quota to Grow to the Pool Size; then select Next.
6. In the Attribute Information screen, mark the following:
❑ Backup
❑ Compression
❑ Data Shredding
❑ Directory Quotas
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❑ Flush Files Immediately
❑ Modified File List
❑ Salvage Files
❑ Snapshot
❑ User Space Restrictions
❑ Activate
❑ Mount
7. Select Finish.
8. Close the server object properties window by selecting Cancel.
9. Verify that the volume was created and mounted by entering VOLUMES at the server console.
(End of Exercise)
Objective 3 Manage NSS
After your NSS partitions, pools, and logical volumes are created, you can perform the following to troubleshoot problems, tune file system performance, and manage user access:
■ Set Up File Snapshot
■ Set Up User Space Restrictions
■ Set Up Directory Space Restrictions
■ Rebuild NSS Storage Pools and Volumes
■ Delete NSS Pools or Logical Volumes
■ Restore or Purge Deleted Logical Volumes
■ Troubleshoot NSS Problems
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Set Up File Snapshot
When you enable File Snapshot on a volume, the backup utility copies information about the individual file, such as owner, creation date and time, and modification date and time.
During write requests, only the data that is being written is copied. NSS recognizes how to return the appropriate data when read requests come in for the real file or the Snapshot file.
To enable File Snapshot, choose from the following:
■ Use the following NSS command at the server console: NSS /FileCopyOnWrite=volume_Name
■ Use the following NSS command at the server console: NSS /FileCopyOnWrite=all
■ When the volume is created, select File Snapshot in the Volume Creation Wizard.
To disable File Snapshot, enter NSS /NoFileCopyOnWrite.
After you set up File Snapshot on your volumes, you must deactivate and then reactivate and remount the volumes. This ensures that there are no open files without a snapshot.
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Set Up User Space Restrictions
Setting up user space restrictions is beneficial for systems that have a large number of users, such as students or contractors.
1. When you create the volume, be sure to select the User Space Restrictions option.
2. Start ConsoleOne.
3. Authenticate as your Admin user.
4. Browse to the volume where you want to establish space restrictions.
5. Right-click the volume.
6. Select Properties > Attributes > NSS Attributes.
7. When the following screen appears, select User Space Restrictions:
Figure 5-28
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8. When the following screen appears, select the Users with Space Restrictions tab:
Figure 5-29
9. Select the users you want to apply space restrictions to: a. Select Add. b. Browse to the user you want. c. Double-click the user. The User Space Restriction dialog opens. You can enter or modify the User Space Restriction parameters in this box.
Figure 5-30
10. Select OK; then select Apply.
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Set Up Directory Space Restrictions
To limit the amount of space the files in a directory can use,
1. Start ConsoleOne.
2. Authenticate as your Admin user.
3. Browse to the directory you want to establish restrictions for.
4. Right-click the directory.
5. When the following screen appears, select Properties > Facts:
Figure 5-31
6. Select Restrict Size, enter the size limit; then select Apply.
7. Select Close.
Rebuild NSS Storage Pools and Volumes
To repair storage pools and logical volumes, NSS uses the VERIFY and REBUILD utilities.
VERIFY checks the file system integrity for an NSS pool by searching for inconsistent data blocks or other errors. This utility indicates if there are problems with the file system. REBUILD verifies and rebuilds the file system.
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Using VERIFY
VERIFY performs a read-only assessment of a pool. Run VERIFY before running a REBUILD process. To run VERIFY, do the following:
1. At the server console enter NSS /POOLVERIFY=poolname. The following appears:
Figure 5-32
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2. When prompted that volumes will be dismounted, select Yes:
Figure 5-33
While the VERIFY process is running, the following appears:
Figure 5-34
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When VERIFY is complete, a results screen appears:
Figure 5-35
3. When the rebuild process is complete, at the server console, enter MOUNT ALL.
Using REBUILD
When severe errors occur, you might need to rebuild the NSS pool using REBUILD. Before you run REBUILD, deactivate pools and volumes in the pools. Users must not have access to volumes you are rebuilding.
REBUILD copies errors and transactions into a file named volume_name.RLF at the root of SYS. Every time you rebuild an NSS volume, its previous error file is overwritten.
Do not confuse REBUILD with VREPAIR, used with traditional volumes. REBUILD and VREPAIR are not equivalent utilities.
Only use REBUILD as a last resort to recover the file system. If you use it to recover from data corruption, you can lost data.
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To run REBUILD, do the following:
1. At the server console enter NSS /POOLREBUILD=poolname. The following appears:
Figure 5-36
2. When prompted that volumes in the pool will be dismounted, select Yes:
Figure 5-37
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During the rebuild process, a status screen appears.
Figure 5-38
3. When the rebuild process is complete, at the server console enter MOUNT ALL.
This verifies and accounts for all blocks in the system. If the volume has errors, the errors appear on screen. The NSS volume remains in maintenance mode; otherwise, it reverts to the active state. You then need to remount the volume.
Delete NSS Pools or Logical Volumes
From time to time, you might need to delete a storage pool or a logical volume.
When you delete a logical volume or a traditional volume from a partition, that partition is still intact. However, you can reassign its space to another storage pool or traditional volume.
If you delete a volume from a pool, you can, for a time, restore it. However, if you delete a storage pool, you cannot restore the volumes in that pool.
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To delete an NSS pool or logical volume, do the following:
1. Start ConsoleOne.
2. Authenticate as your Admin user.
3. Browse to your server object.
4. Right-click the server object and select Properties.
5. Select Media > NSS Pools or Logical Volumes.
6. Select a pool or volume and select Delete.
Restore or Purge Deleted Logical Volumes
If you delete a volume, it is removed from the storage pool. However, for a specified amount of time, called the Purge Delay time, you can review and even restore the contents of the volume you deleted.
You must retrieve the volume before the delay time elapses; otherwise, the volume is purged from the system and you can no longer restore it.
x If you delete a storage pool, you delete all volumes in that pool. Volumes deleted in this manner cannot be restored.
The default setting for the Purge Delay time is 2 days. After this time expires, NSS purges the volume. You can change the Purge Delay time to extend or reduce the time for the automatic purging cycle.
To change the Purge Delay time, at the server console enter NSS /logicalVolumePurgeDelay=delay_time_in_seconds
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x The Purge Delay change command is not persistent. The parameter is lost if the server is restarted. To make the change permanent, add the command to the server’s AUTOEXEC.NCF file.
You can also manually purge deleted volumes. You purge or restore volumes in the Deleted Logical Volumes or purge the Pool screen in ConsoleOne.
To restore or purge a deleted logical volume, do the following:
1. Start ConsoleOne.
2. Authenticate as your Admin user.
3. Browse to your server object.
4. Right-click the server object and select Properties.
5. Select Media > NSS Pools.
6. Select Deleted Volumes.
7. Select one of the following:
❑ Purge. Use to immediately purge all deleted volumes.
❑ Prevent Purge/Allow Purge. Use to stop the volume purging process.
❑ Salvage. Use to restore the deleted volume.
❑ Refresh. Use to rescan the volumes that have been deleted and update the list in the panel.
8. Select Close.
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Troubleshoot NSS Problems
The following describes problems you might experience with NSS and provides suggestions for solving the problems:
Table 5-1 Problem Explanation Solution
NSS does not NSS can only use what the At the server console, recognize a Media Manager enter SCAN FOR NEW device. recognizes. DEVICES. Then enter LIST DEVICES. If the device in question is not listed or is shown as an “Unbound Object,” the device is likely malfunctioning or a driver for the device is not loaded. Make sure the appropriate board driver (*.HAM) and device driver (*.CDM) are loaded.
NSS does not ■ Your storage devices ■ Make sure you have let you create a might not have enough enough free space to storage pool or free space to create create another storage logical volume. more storage pools or pool or logical volume. logical volumes. ■ Before you create a ■ All logical volumes logical volume, create might not be part of the a storage pool. same storage pool. ■ Create an NSS ■ NSS might not own the partition for your free space you want to storage pools and use for a storage pool. logical volumes.
You cannot NSS might not have ■ Add another storage configure a enough free space for device. logical volume. another logical volume. ■ Delete a logical or traditional volume to free up space for a storage pool.
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(continued) Table 5-1 Problem Explanation Solution
You cannot You didn’t choose the file Apply the file compression compress a file. compression option when option to an existing logical you created a logical volume. volume. From ConsoleOne, select Media > NSS Logical Volumes > Properties > Attributes > NSS Attributes; then select Compression.
b For more information, see the Novell Knowledgebase at support.novell.com
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Exercise 5-2 Create and Convert a Traditional Volume
In this exercise you do the following:
■ Part I: Create a Traditional Volume
■ Part II: Convert a Traditional Volume into an NSS Volume
Part I: Create a Traditional Volume
1. Access the Media Properties page for your server object: a. If necessary, start ConsoleOne and authenticate as Admin. b. Browse to your server object. c. Right-click the server object and select Properties. d. Select the Media tab.
2. Create a traditional volume: a. Select the Traditional Volumes subtab; then select New. b. In the Create a New Traditional Volume screen, enter MAIL in the Name field; then select Next. c. Select the Unpartitioned line. d. Double-click the Used field and enter 2048. e. Select Next.
3. Configure the traditional volume’s attributes: a. In the Attribute Information screen, select a block size of 64 KB.
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b. Select the following items:
❑ Compression
❑ Suballocation
❑ Mount Volume on Creation
4. Select Finish.
5. At the warning window, select Yes.
Part II: Convert a Traditional Volume into an NSS Volume
1. Access the Media tab for your server object.
2. Create an NSS partition equal in size to the traditional volume’s partition you created in Part I: a. Select the Partitions subtab. b. Select New. c. In the Create a New Partition screen, enter NSS in the Type field. d. In the Size field, enter 2 GB. e. Select Hot Fix. f. In the Label field, enter NSS Partition; then select OK. g. Note the new partition.
3. Create an NSS pool in the partition you just created: a. Select the NSS Pools subtab. b. Select New. c. In the Create a New Pool screen, enter NEW_NSS_POOL in the Name field; then select Next.
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d. In the Storage Information screen, select the NSS Partition you created previously; then select Next. e. In the Attribute Information screen, make sure Activate on Creation is selected; then select Finish.
4. Convert the traditional volume to an NSS volume in the pool you just created: a. At the server console, enter VCU MAIL NEW_NSS_POOL b. When prompted to rename volumes, enter Y. c. When prompted, press any key to continue. d. Verify the configuration by entering VOLUMES at the server console prompt.
5. Upgrade the new NSS volume into the Directory: a. At the server console, enter NWCONFIG. b. Select Directory Options. c. Select Upgrade Mounted Volumes into the Directory. d. If prompted to place any volume other than the new NSS volume created in this exercise, including the old traditional volume, into the Directory, select No. e. When prompted to place the converted volume into the directory, select Yes. f. Authenticate as Admin. g. Exit NWCONFIG.
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6. Delete the old traditional volume: a. In ConsoleOne, select the Traditional Volumes subtab. b. Select Refresh. c. Select the old traditional volume. d. Select Delete.
7. Verify the configuration by entering VOLUMES at the server console prompt.
8. Run an unattended full repair to fix any errors.
9. Repeat steps 3-7 to migrate volume SYS from DA1 to an NSS volume.
10. Restart your server.
(End of Exercise)
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Summary
Objective 1 Identify How NSS Works NSS uses the following components to provide a fast, scalable storage solution for NetWare 6:
■ NSS Partitions
■ NSS Pools
■ NSS Logical Volumes The features and benefits of NSS include the following:
■ Multiple Logical Volumes in a Single Storage Pool
■ Overbooking
■ Logical Volume and Storage Pool Maintenance
■ Error Correction and Data Recovery
■ Flush Files Immediately
■ File Snapshot
■ Modified File List
■ Clustering
■ File Compression
■ Data Shredding
■ User Space Restrictions
■ Directory Space Restrictions
■ CD Support
■ Hot Fix
■ Software RAID Support
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Objective 2 Configure NSS Creating an NSS logical volume involves these main tasks:
■ Creating an NSS partition
■ Creating an NSS pool
■ Creating an NSS logical volume In addition, you can also
■ Create a traditional volume
■ Convert a traditional volume into an NSS volume
■ Mount a DOS partition as an NSS volume
■ Configure a software RAID array
Objective 3 Manage NSS To manage NSS you perform the following tasks:
■ Set Up File Snapshot
■ Set Up User Space Restrictions
■ Set Up Directory Space Restrictions
■ Rebuild NSS Storage Pools and Volumes
■ Delete NSS Pools or Logical Volumes
■ Restore or Purge Deleted Logical Volumes
■ Troubleshoot NSS Problems
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