1. Nigel Griffiths Power Systems Advanced Technology Support IBM Europe
AIX Virtual User Group VIOS Shared Storage Pool 6 Reminder of the Basics & Advanced Topics & Demo
Nigel Griffiths
Power Systems
Advanced Technology Support
IBM Europe

2. Agenda
Info: Benefits, Videos & Blogs, class 101 Reminder
Four Frequently Ask Questions
SSP phase 5 – Tiers reminder
SSP phase 6 – 8 New features
Five new-ish free SSP commands from Nigel
Under the cover secrets

3. Shared Storage Pool terminology
Cluster = set of co-operating VIOSs
Pool = set of LUNs connected to the cluster
So every VIOS sees every LUN
LU = Logical Unit = SSP virtual disk out of the pool
Space allocated in “chunks” of 1MB
VIOS vSCSI connection to virtual machines: AIX, Linux, IBMi
Special LUN called a Repository disk for cluster config
Typically, 1 or 2 GB is size. Can be rebuilt in seconds.
SSP commands are simple to use
cluster, lscluster, lu, pv, failgrp, lssp & tier (new)

4. Shared Storage Pools = SSP
We are at Phase 6 which means:
Six years of development & releases
Lots of concepts & features
Covering the basics takes much more than 1 hour
Pre-Requistes for this SSP session
Technical Uni Session by Linda Flanders
Or Power Systems SSP Webinars on
Phase mins
Phase mins
Or 1 years+ Hands-On with SSP

5. Nigel’s YouTube Videos
YouTube search: ”Shared Storage Pools Nigel Griffiths”
~16,100 YouTube views in total
SSP Intro mins 2600
SSP2 Getting Started mins 721
SSP2 Thin Provisioning Alerts mins 278
SSP3 New Features mins 1200
Looking Around a SSP mins 591
Live Partition Mobility (LPM) with SSP mins 1295
Recover a Crashed Machine's LPAR to Another Machine 25 mins 627
Migrating to SSP & then LPM mins 1028
SSP 4 Concepts mins 2041
SSP 4 Hands On mins 1041
PowerVC with SSP mins 1488
SSP in 3 Commands in 3 Minutes mins 625
SSP Repository is bullet proof mins 522
SSP Remote Pool Copy Activation for Disaster Recovery 23 mins 617
PowerVM VUG : VIOS Shared Storage Pool mins 620
Power Systems VUG 50: VIOS Shared Storage Pool mins 544
VIOS Shared Storage Pool phase mins 269

6. Nigel’s AIXpert Blog topics on SSP
VIOS Shared Storage Pool phase 6 - New Readme Content
VIOS Shared Storage Pool phase 6 - New Features
Shared Storage Pools - Migrating to New Disk Subsystem
Shared Storage Pools question on two pools?
Shared Storage Pool 5 - VIOS upgrade status script
Shared Storage Pools 5 - advanced lu -list the search continues
Shared Storage Pools - Hands-On Fun with Virtual Disks (LU) by Example *
Download my SSP tools from this Blog
5000+ Views
Shared Storage Pool 4 - Best Practice & FAQ *
Updated to cover SSP6
13,660+ Views
Shared Storage Pools 4 - Growing the Pool using LUN Expansion
Shared Storage Pools 4 - Cheat Sheet *
Command summary by example
How many Shared Storage Pools in the world?
VIOS Shared Storage Pool Single Repository Disk = Not a Problem *
VIOS Shared Storage Pool phase 4 - How fast is the disk I/O ?
. . .

7. Marketing: VIOS Shared Storage Pools
Enormous reduction in storage man-power
Sub-second disk space allocate & connect a VM
lu command: create, map, unmap, remove
lu level snapshot: create/delete/rollback
Easy to live assimilate a local disk VM for I/O boost
Autonomic disk mirrors & resilver with zero VM effort
Avoid troublesome Linux mirrors and AIX stale mirror hunting
Live Partition Mobility ready by default
Simple Pool management: pv & failgrp, lssp, lscluster/cluster, alert  HMC logs
DR capability to rebuild the whole SSP & a VM quickly
HMC GUI for fast SSP disk setup across dual VIOS
No more: VIOS slot numbers, Cnn or vhosts
Tiers: separate groups of LUNs with different disk properties
For mixed SSD/HDD and live migrate VM to different disks
As fast as NPIV (takes a little more VIOS CPU but look at the functions you get)
Independence from underlying SAN technology & team! 

8. SSP Architecture

9. SSP5 Webinar Architecture Initial setup = EASY
LUNs+Zone & online in VIOSs
cluster –create
cluster -addnode (of each VIOS)
failgrp –create
Have a mirrored SSP
lu -create -lu xyz -size 64G -vadapter vhost st VIOS
1 sec later: disk online in VM
lu -map -lu xyz -vadapter vhost66
1 sec later: dual VIOS 2nd VIOS
pv -add more-LUNs

10. SSP5 Webinar Architecture Initial setup = EASY 3 Advanced Functions
LPM by default
Adopt old VM into SSP
Simple VM recovery

11. Are my disks supported by SSP?
FAQ 1: Supported?
Are my disks supported by SSP?
If supported by VIOS then they are good for SSP
webapp/set2/sas/f/vios/documentation/datasheet.html
How do I get Shared Storage Pools 6?
SSP6 delivered as VIOS fix packs
So just upgrade your VIOS
Does SSP support NPIV?
No it does not, never will and it is impossible! What a silly question 
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011

12. FAQ 2: Rate in terms of high speed Disks
Quiz Time!!
Local VIOS disk via vSCSI
LU over SSP
SAN LUN over NPIV
FC LUN via vSCSI

13. Rate in terms of Disk speed
Shocking, right!
Benchmarked at IBM Montpellier to prove it
I/O per second
Latency
Notes:
1 SSP does take a little more CPU than NPIV but SSP has drastically less SysAdmin time
2 NPIV itself has no automatic mirrors & resilver, sub-second create and assign
3 NPIV disk subsystem might have snapshots, simple cloning, thin provisioning
4 VM with single LU/LUN SSP faster
SSP 
NPIV
LUN via vSCSI
Local disk via vSCSI

14. SSP5 Tiers - a quick dip

15. Phase 5 – November 2015 SSP Tiers (multiple pools, only better)
9 tiers (think disk grouping - not hierarchy of levels)
Systems tier (with meta data) or User tier (data only)
failgrp (mirroring) at tier level [was whole pool level]
tier -create -tier blue: <list of LUNs>
lu -create -lu fred -size 32G -tier blue
SSP LU move a LU between tiers
Command: lu -move -lu vm42 -dsttier blue
SSP LU Resize (grow only, saves admin time)
Command: lu -resize-lu vm42 –size 128G
SSP + Tier support in HMC Enhanced+ view
VIOS alerts escalated to HMC for Tiers

16. What is good Tier use? It is about the underlying disks
Key:
Green – Storage Speed
Red – Location
Blue – Protection(RAS)
It is about the underlying disks
Fast, medium, slow
highlight the LUNs have different performance
IBM, HDS, EMC
remind yourself of the underlying disk unit vendor and implications of that
Prod, in-house, test
make sure you know different policies are in place for the important data
V7000a, V7000b
you know explicitly which disk unit the data is in to reduce risks
Room101 & Room102, datacentre1 & datecentre2
clarify where (geographically) the LUNs are placed
Remote-mirror, Local-mirror, Un-mirrored
separate disk remotely mirrored (failgrp in SSP terms), locally mirrored or not mirrored
Bad use of Tiers:
rootvg & data VG
RDBMS data & logs

17. VIOS tier related command
How to mirror a tier?
failgrp -create -tier tiername . . .
failgrp -create -tier red -fg mirrorb: hdisk30 hdisk31
How to move a LU between tiers? lu -move -lu luname -dsttier tiername
lu -move -lu vm42boot -dsttier red
How to grow a tier in size? pv -add -tier tiername
pv -add -tier red -fg mirrora: hdisk22 –fg mirrorb: hdisk32

18. SSP6 What’s New?

19. Phase 6 – November 2016 Available with VIOS 2.2.5 – 11th Nov
Increased SSP VIOS nodes from 16 to 24
Fully support the DeveloperWorks SSP Disaster Recovery software
RAS (Reliable, Available & Serviceable)
3a Cluster Wide Snap Automation
3b Asymmetric Network Handling
3c Lease by Clock Tick
lu -list -attr provisioned=<true/false>
HMC further GUI support for SSP  Arrives with HMC 860
HMC Performance & Capacity Metrics (SSP Performance stats)

20. SSP 6 – VIOS nodes Increased SSP VIOS nodes from 16 to 24 In Practice:
With the normal Dual VIOSs = 12 Servers
Note: Live Partition Mobility within the 12 Servers
Need more? Use more than one SSP
This limits the failure domain
Largely a Test & Support Statement
Large effort for SSP development test
They assume worst case extremely high disk I/O rates
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011

21. SSP 6 – 24 VIOS nodes Low I/O rates = no problem
Nigel Notes on SSP Overall disk I/O rates:
Low I/O rates = no problem
Can go to higher than 24  but it’s not Supported
Medium I/O rate SSP = no problem
May demand higher VIOS CPU + RAM
Use VIOS “part” command to monitor them
High or Extreme I/O rate = take care
See the VIOS Installation Readme or my notes on it AIXpert blog: VIOS SSP phase6 New Readme Content
SYSTEM (metadata) tier on SSD or Flash
Monitor whole SSP disk I/O rates (see item 5)
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011

22. VIOS “part” - checks continue to grow
SSP Details

23. VIOS “part” - checks continue to grow
SSP Details

24. 2 – Disaster Recovery Available for a few years as DevWorks scripts
Was “at-your-own-risk”  Now Fully Supported
On a site failure you can rebuild your SPP
Mirror or remote copy SSP LUN’s to other site (using SAN disk subsystem features)
Backup SSP config with: viosbr -autobackup
Run viosbr -dr to fix up config file to use alternative
VIOS nodes,
LUN disk names &
LU to Virtual Machine mappings.
viobr -restore from the fixed backup file
New SSP running as on the original site
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011

25. 2 – Disaster Recovery Check out the manuals for these viosbr options
viosbr -dr -clustername clusterName
-file FileName -type devType
-typeInputs name:value [,...]
-repopvs list_of_disks [-db]
viosbr -autobackup {start | stop | status}
[ -type {cluster | node} ]
viosbr -autobackup save
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011

26. Phase 6 – RAS: Cluster snap
3a Cluster Wide Snap Automation
It seems every PMR’s first response from support is: “Can we have a snap?”
Capturing 16 (or now 24) VIOS snaps is tricky
clffdc collects snap data from every node in the SSP cluster
Single cluster snapshot (csnap), compressed tar, time co-ordinated
See manual pages for details
Example: all data and priority=medium
As padmin: clffdc -c FULL -p 2
Saves to /home/ios/logs/ssp_ffdc/ snap_ _090336_by_full_Med_c33.tar.gz
“c33” co-ord counter
Expect LARGE files so make /home LARGE

27. Phase 6 – RAS: Asymmetric Network Handling
3b New internal algorithm
Normally, a managing node decides
who is in the cluster,
who gets expelled &
who can join
Rare condition: cluster manager has a partial network issue
i.e. can communicate with some nodes but not all nodes [asymmetric]
Now the manager node double checks if the good nodes can talk to the missing nodes
Result: during flaky network issues, we get fewer unnecessary expelled nodes = SSP stability While you fix the network.
The “managing node” is one of the VIOS & moves around as VIO Servers start & stop

28. Phase 6 – RAS: Lease by Clock Tick
3c Lease by Clock Tick
The SSP VIOS’s heartbeat each other to spot an unresponsive node & eventually expel it from the cluster
When the VIOS returns it needs to catch up on SSP config and LU meta data, so its information is current
In the past: If a user changes the time/date/zone it looks like a massive time jump = data is very out of date & forces an expel & rejoin
You had to know to offline the VIOS & client LU’s using: clstartstop -stop … ; change date+time; clstartstop -start …
Once at VIOS st service pack you can change the date time at any time 

29. 4) lu -list -attr provisioned=<true/false>
If you say mapped when you read the word provisioned you can work out what this does!
$ lu -list -attr provisioned=false  Not mapped to any VM
POOL_NAME: spiral
TIER_NAME: SYSTEM
LU_NAME SIZE(MB) UNUSED(MB) UDID
test c043c90a91d434178a
test efe7e54f79af7af67
test b cebd7357bd658
$ lu -list -attr provisioned=true  is mapped to a VM
test de85f8af711f93a7a288
test ec547808deeba80398 $
Unfortunately, it does not say where test3 or test 5 are mounted  later nmap

30. 5) HMC SSP on the new Enhanced+ User GUI
DEMO

31. 5) HMC SSP on the new Enhanced+ User GUI

32. 6) HMC REST API for SSP performance stats
Is you SSP used lightly, moderate or hammered?
Difficult to overview SSP I/O stats
nmon from 24 VIOSs = hard work to merge!
Same LUN has different hdiskNN on each VIOS
VIOS might be doing non-SSP disk I/O
DEMO

33. 6) HMC REST API for SSP performance stats
POWER8
VIOS
Sysadmin “home” Server
Linux or AIX & python v3
HMC interactions via REST API
Logon put
Preferences get XML
Switch on stats post XML
Request filenames get XML
Request files get XML
Files in JSON (50MB!)
Reformat into webpage Googlechart .html/Javascript …

34. 6) HMC REST API for SSP performance stats
POWER8
VIOS
300 line Python script to handle XML and JSON
HMC can provide 3 data types
Raw – painful to use (deltas / seconds)
Processes last 2+ hours every 5 minutes
Aggregated: min, max, averages for different capture rates
Also can limit by date/time or row count
JSON include five levels of detail: Whole SSP  VIOS node  Tier  Failgrp  Individual disks
Stats size+free, read + write: IOPS, KB/s, service-times, error, timeouts
Outputs CSV file the processed but simple Ksh to generate the graph webpage. …

35. 6) HMC REST API for SSP performance stats

36. 6) HMC REST API for SSP VIOS level stats

37. Are you interested in trying this 
I am willing to help you (if I get sample data)
AIXpert Blog entry
Short Term Issues:
Blog not finished yet = just a few hints and graphs.
Plan to finish this tomorrow or Monday 27th Feb 2017
But there are a few “teething problems” at the moment!
Some of the numbers are not right
SSP Developers are working on this & hopefully resolved in the next few days/weeks.
When the fixes are available, I will add the details to the Blog.

38. Five New Useful SSP commands from Nigel

39. New SSP commands from Nigel
ncluster status of all VIOS
nlu improved lu replacement
npool storage pool use
nmap finds if a lu is online (mapped) on any VIOS
nslim copy a fat LU backup to a now THIN LU
Hands-up – how many of you have read this AIXpert Blog
Shared Storage Pools Hands-On Fun with Virtual Disks (LU) by Example
DEMO

40. ncluster – Check the good status of all VIOS?
No State Repos Pool Role ---Upgrade-Status--- Node-Name
1 OK OK OK DBN ON_LEVEL bronzevios1.ibm.com
2 OK OK OK ON_LEVEL silvervios1.ibm.com
3 OK OK OK ON_LEVEL goldvios1.ibm.com
4 OK OK OK ON_LEVEL orangevios1.ibm.com
5 OK OK OK ON_LEVEL redvios1.ibm.com
Can take 10 seconds run
Ksh, 2 lines based on: cluster -status -verbose
UP_LEVEL means not yet all VOIS’s on higher ioslevel
DBN= database node – the one that writes to the repository

41. nlu - improved lu replacement, format, ordered
SizeMB UsedMB Used% Type Tier Name
% THIN SYSTEM AIX735_b
% THICK SYSTEM JUNK2
% THIN SYSTEM blue_backupvg
% THIN SYSTEM blue_rootvg
% THIN SYSTEM blue_scratchvg
% THIN SYSTEM blue_webvg
% THIN SYSTEM emerald3
% THIN SYSTEM emerald3
% THICK SYSTEM orange5a
% THIN SYSTEM purple3boot
% THIN SYSTEM purple3files
% THIN SYSTEM ruby32boot
% THIN SYSTEM ruby32data1
% THIN SYSTEM vm100
Removed hex ID numbers & mixed in snapshots
You can re-order by column name

42. nlu - improved lu replacement, format, ordered
$ nlu –usedmb
SizeMB UsedMB Used% Type Tier Name
. . .
% THIN SYSTEM vm100
% THIN SYSTEM vm91_mirror
% THIN SYSTEM vm61c
% THIN SYSTEM vm36
% THIN SYSTEM vm61a
% THIN SYSTEM AIX735_b
% THIN SYSTEM emerald3
% THIN SYSTEM vm18boot
% THIN SYSTEM vm23a
% THIN SYSTEM vm24a
% THIN SYSTEM purple3boot
% THIN SYSTEM ruby32boot
% THIN SYSTEM vm27b
% THIN SYSTEM vm21a
10 lines of ksh, based on lu -list –field
nlu  like lu and reorder on a column
nlu [-sizemb | -usedmb | -used | -type | -tier | -name (default)]

43. nmap - Is a LU mapped to a vhost somewhere
Ksh, 30 lines uses clcmd to run lsmap cluster wide
$ nmap -h
Nigel's nmap to find if a LU (virtual disk) is mapped anywhere on the SSP to a LPAR/VM
nmap lu-name
nmap ALL
$ nmap vm21
Seach the SSP for vm21
NODE diamondvios2.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
NODE diamondvios1.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
NODE greenvios2.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
NODE greenvios1.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
NODE limevios2.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
vhost6:U A V-V4-C8:vm21a.5cc155a78dbc3d1b a70ec0788
NODE limevios1.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
vhost7:U A V-V1-C6:vm21a.5cc155a78dbc3d1b a70ec0788
NODE purplevio2.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
NODE purplevio1.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
NODE rubyvios2.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
NODE emeraldvios2.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
NODE emeraldvios1.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
NODE rubyvios1.aixncc.uk.ibm.com
NODE indigovios1.aixncc.uk.ibm.com

44. npool - storage pool use
name = globular
Pool Pacific
Pool-Size= MB
Pool-Used= MB =64.94%
Pool-Free= MB =35.06%
Allocated to client VMs = MB
Allocated compared to Pool=117.46%
Used to Allocate Ratio =55.29%
Overcommit= MB
Ksh, 9 lines, using cluster & lssp
No “ntier” command better to use: tier -list -verbose

45. Let talk about Sparse Files
Hands up who knows about then?
Open a file A, write 4K, lseek() to 500 KB, write 4k, close it
Then how big is the file A?
Answers:
500 KB +4 KB = 504 KB
4 KB + 4 KB = 8 KB
Make a copy: cp A B
How big is file B?
500 KB +4 KB = 504KB
500 KB
Zero all through here
4KB
4KB
SSP Thick provisioned LU is a full fat file = every block allocated
SSP Thin provisioned LU is a sparse file but at a 1 MB chunk size

46. nslim - copy a fat LU backup to a now THIN LU
C code, 96 lines
# ./nslim -h
Usage: ./nslim (v3) is a filter style program using stdin & stdout         It will thinly write a file (only copy non-zero blocks)         It uses 1MB blocks         If a block is zero-filled then it is skipped using lseek()         If a block has data then it will write() the block unchanged Example:         ./nslim   <AIX.lu   >SSP-LU-name Flags:         -v for verbose output for every block you get a W=write or .=lseek on stderr                 ./nslim -v   <AIX.lu   >SSP-LU-name                  this gives you visual feedback on progress         -t like verbose but does NOT actually write anything to stdout                  this lets you passively see the mix of used and unused blocks                 ./nslim -t   <AIX.lu         -h or -? outputs this helpful message! Warning:          Get the redirection wrong and you will destroy your LU data
Very Dangerous

47. nslim - copy a fat LU backup to a now THIN LU
Examples
# nslim  -v   <$SSP/VOL1/old99.*    >$SSP/VOL1/new42.*
# ./nslim  -t  <$SSP/VOL1/new77.*
Processing
W W...WWWWWWWWW W
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.WWWWWWWWWWW.....WWWWWWWWW.....WWWWWWWWWW....WW..WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW….
Very Dangerous

48. nslim v4 – outputs 1 line per GB
# /home/padmin/nslim_v4 -V <TEMP32G.6bfd6b0dd9c975c8cae0f69bf >vm99.32bcf97e86fad24f9dca0400cebe06d3 Counting 1 Written= 980 Skipped= 44 2 Written= 989 Skipped= 35 3 Written= 407 Skipped= Written= 4 Skipped= Written= 881 Skipped= Written= 393 Skipped= Written= 106 Skipped= Written= 0 Skipped= Written= 87 Skipped= Written= 0 Skipped= Written= 149 Skipped= Written= 0 Skipped= Written= 248 Skipped= Written= 0 Skipped= Written= 102 Skipped= Written= 0 Skipped= Written= 279 Skipped= Written= 0 Skipped= Written= 98 Skipped= Written= 0 Skipped= Written= 216 Skipped= Written= 0 Skipped= Written= 7 Skipped= Written= 1 Skipped=1023 Percent Written=20.27% Skipped=79.73% Done

49. Under the covers Shhh. This is bit is secret
Under the covers Shhh! This is bit is secret! Loads more info in the AIXpert blog

50. What is that VIOS filesystem about?
$ df
Filesystem blocks Free %Used Iused %Iused Mounted on
/dev/hd % % /
/dev/hd % % /usr
/dev/hd9var % % /var
/dev/hd % % /tmp
/dev/VMLibrary % % /var/vio/VMLibrary
/dev/hd % % /home
/dev/hd11admin % % /admin
/proc /proc
/dev/hd10opt % % /opt
/dev/livedump % % /var/adm/ras/livedump
/ahafs % /aha
/var/vio/SSP/spiral/D_E_F_A_U_L_T_ % - -
Never ever create a file in /var/vio/SSP/ …
Treat it like /dev !!!

51. LUfile’s & hidden snapshots
Backup LU from VIOS
$ df Filesystem 512-blocks Free %Used Iused %Iused Mounted on /dev/hd % % / /dev/hd % % /usr /dev/hd9var % % /var /dev/hd % 386 1% /tmp /dev/hd % % /home /dev/hd11admin % 5 1% /admin /proc /proc /dev/hd10opt % % /opt /dev/livedump % 4 1% /var/adm/ras/livedump /dev/VMLibrary % 8 1% /var/vio/VMLibrary /dev/fslv % 7 1% /scratch /ahafs % /aha /var/vio/SSP/stellar/D_E_F_A_U_L_T_ % - - /var/vio/SSP/stellar/D_E_F_A_U_L_T_ # cd /var/vio/SSP/stellar/D_E_F_A_U_L_T_ # ls -l total 24 drwxr-xr-x 2 root system 4096 Aug 21 13:43 IM drwxr-xr-x 7 root system 512 Jun 06 21:47 VIOSCFG drwxr-xr-x 2 root system 8192 Oct 03 17:14 VOL1 #
PowerVC Deploy Images
Dragons!
LUfile’s & hidden snapshots

52. PowerVC horrid LU names!
# ls –s /var/vio/SSP/stellar/D_E_F_A_U_L_T_061310/VOL1 total bronze2a.9e2d5cb119e0ee278be433fc39072e64 4 .bronze3a fbcfb2148a08869a bronze4a dd6f bbfabc497b bronze5a.f98b27fc9f947484ff4a66757e764f28 4 .bronze6a.1488d ed51495e3c70bcc6ef57 4 .fred.63a f9f7ffdd851041f4bd1af 4 .volume-ScratchDisk.2c4bfdae192bdecb196399a0e9688c24 4 .volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A11-vm613cb6f0e0df0841ecbfaff86f2cc385f volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A11-vm63a44d94e4e1034b45b1da9c75056c6bd volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A11-vm8560dc473b76fd42a78fe26fb2c6a02e volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A31-VM64e7f5cbaeb b2ff690daf6c806a volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A31-vm f28a3463cb124678d0640ae5a volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A31-vm82a64fc3ca9a91492b8a000c27d20c5b volume-vm63_backup.b c0ec90529c58bc930460d50e bronze2a.9e2d5cb119e0ee278be433fc39072e bronze3a fbcfb2148a08869a bronze4a dd6f bbfabc497b bronze5a.f98b27fc9f947484ff4a66757e764f bronze6a.1488d ed51495e3c70bcc6ef57 0 fred.63a f9f7ffdd851041f4bd1af 0 volume-ScratchDisk.2c4bfdae192bdecb196399a0e9688c volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A11-vm613cb6f0e0df0841ecbfaff86f2cc385f volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A11-vm63a44d94e4e1034b45b1da9c75056c6bd volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A11-vm8560dc473b76fd42a78fe26fb2c6a02e volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A31-VM64e7f5cbaeb b2ff690daf6c806a volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A31-vm f28a3463cb124678d0640ae5a volume-boot-8203E4A_10E0A31-vm82a64fc3ca9a91492b8a000c27d20c5b volume-vm63_backup.b c0ec90529c58bc930460d50e
Start with “.” = Meta data
Never ever touch these!
Regular LU names
PowerVC horrid LU names!
Raw LU files – some Thin and some Thick Provisioned

53. Nine useful internal SSP operations
1) Rename a Thick Provisioned LU
Stop the VM then lu -create to make new LU virtual disk with the new name
dd if=oldLUfile of=newLUfile bs=1m
lu -unmap the old LU then lu -map the new LU and restart
2) Rename a Thin   Provisioned LU
nslim <oldLUfile >newLUfile
3) Backup a virtual disk LU
Stop the VM
dd if=LUfile of=/tmp/mylu bs=1m
Restart the VM
LUfile is the file from = /var/vio/SSP/SSPname/D_E_F_A_U_L_T_061310/VOL1

54. Nine useful internal SSP operations
4) Recover a previous Thick Provisioned Backup
Stop the VM
dd if=/tmp/mylu of=LUfile bs=1m
Restart the VM
5) Recover a previous Thin   Provisioned Backup
lu -unmap -lu LUname
lu -remove -lu Luname
lu -create -lu newLU
nslim </tmp/LUbackup >newLU
6) Live Backup a point in time safe LU using a SSP
snapshot -create -lu Luname File hidden from ls output
dd of=/temp/backup
snapshot -delete
LUfile is the file from = /var/vio/SSP/SSPname/D_E_F_A_U_L_T_061310/VOL1
DEMO

55. Nine useful internal SSP operations
7) Have a look at the 1MB blocks in use within a Thin Provisioned LU
nslim -t <LUfile
8) Slimming down a Thin Provisioned LU that got too Thick (AIX only)
Reduce the file-systems to minimum size: chfs -a size=-1G /home (run many times)
Create new max size LV
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/LV bs=1m
Remove the LV
Stop the VM
dd if=LUfile of=/tmp/mylu bs=1m
nslim </tmp/mylu >LUfile
Restart VM and remove the /tmp/mylu
9) To move a Thin Provisioned LU from a remote SSP LU to a local SSP
scp $SSPlocal/VOL1/LUfile
LUfile is the file from = /var/vio/SSP/SSPname/D_E_F_A_U_L_T_061310/VOL1

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