Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:
List the basic features of Solstice Disksuite
Describe the three Solstice DiskSuite object
Describe the use of metadevice state-database replicas
Describe the basic operation of the Solstice DiskSuite graphical user interface(GUI) and command-line interface(CLI)
Create and manipulate state-database replicas
Create simple, concatenated, striped, redundant array of independent disks-(RAID)5,mirrored, and metatrans devices
Describe the logical-to-physical relationship of a metadevice and a disk partition
Describe the differences between Veritas Volume Manager and Solstice DiskSuite

Solstice DiskSuite Features
Disk management software that provides the following features:
  Increasing storage capacity
  Enterprise-class storage management
  Support for disk devices

Solstice DiskSuite uses logical disks called metadevices
Metadevices are logical devices that made up of one or more phusical disk partitions

 

Solstice DiskSuite Objects
You can create three basic types of objects with Solstice DiskSuite:
  State-database replicas-Information stored on disk about the state of the Solstice DiskSuite configuration
  Metadevices-A group of physical slices that appear to the system as a single, logical device
  Hot-spare pools-A collection of disk slices that are automatically substituted in case of slice failure in mirrors and RAID 5 metadevices

 

Simple Metadevices
Concatenations and stripes are simple metadevices in that they are composed of slices
Simple metadevices can either be used directly or as building blocks for mirrors or metatrans devices
Ensure the slice has sufficient free space to accommodate the desired length of the new metadevice

 

Mirroring a Metadevice
Mirroring improves system availability by maintaining multiple copies of the data on multiple devices
Metamirrors are composed of striped or concatenated metadevices called submirrors
A metamirror can contain a maximum of three submirrors
Place each submirror on a different disk and, when possible, on different disk controllers
For further reliablility, use mirroring in combination with hot-spares
Mirroring has a high disk-storage cost

 

RAID-5 Metadevices
Solstice DiskSuite RAID metadevices are RAID-5 configurations
RAID 5 is stripping, with a parity block to provide redundancy
  It requires minimum of three slices
  The slices should be the same size and, ideally, attached to different controllers
Partitions accessed during a Solaris 2 installation or upgrade(root, swap, /usr, /var, and /opt) cannot be RAID-5 metadevices

 

Metatrans Devices
A metatrans device enables UFS logging
UFS logging records UFS updates in a log before the updates are applied to the UNIX file system
A metatrans device can increase overall file system availability after reboot
The amount of time required to run fsck when the system reboots is reduced
A metatrans device has two componens: a master device and a logging device
The master device contains the UFS file system

 

Comparing Solstice DiskSuite with Volume Manager
Both Solstice DiskSuite and Veritas Volume Manager are software RAID packages that perform similar functions. This comparison outlines the two packages and each of their functions and limitations.
Solstice DiskSuite is preferred when you are managing your enterprise server internal storage or your external storage system is small.This is because Solstice DiskSuite works best at the raw slice leve.