I asked if I can move ADVFS domains between physical devices while
the system is live with addvol and rmvol, and got four responses
saying yes, no problem. Three are reproduced below plus the original
question. The fourth was labeled confidential so I have not copied it.
My managers are also wondering what happens if the system crashes
while rmvol is moving the data. We hope ADVFS would recover properly;
does anyone know if that is or is not the case?
- Jerry Berkman, UC Berkeley, jerry_at_uclink.berkeley.edu
1-510-642-4804
====================================================================
From: John P Speno <speno_at_isc.upenn.edu>
Subject: Re: Moving ADVFS filesets
I presume that's the addvol/rmvol trick?
If so, yes, I've done this and it worked fine. No downtime on the system,
just a little bit of sluggishness during the transition.
AdvFS is nice like that.
====================================================================
From: alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com
One of the more useful features of AdvFS is its ability to
allow the additional and removal of space dynamically. Using
addvol/rmvol to migrate a file system from one device to
another simply takes advantage of this core feature.
If the domain is very old, with respect to multiple operating
system versions it may be wise to run verify on it before
using this method. Older versions would allow subtle file
system corruptions to sneak in that wouldn't be noticed until
you did a wholesale move of data like this. I've done this
sort of migration on a number of versions and haven't had
any problem, but the file systems tended to have a low I/O
volume.
====================================================================
From: Oisin McGuinness <oisin_at_sbcm.com>
Your message doesn't make it clear which utilities you are referring to.
If you are referring to the utilities addvol and rmvol, then yes, I
have used them on live systems with no problems. You do need
the AdvFS Utilities license for these utilities though.
It is a very convenient way to increase the size of a domain on
the fly, or (as you intend to do) move data from 1 physical volume to
another.
Oisin McGuinness
====================================================================
Original Question :
We are about to move several ADVFS domains from a RAID-5 group on an
RA-7000 to new disks configured as mirrored pairs. In the on-line
ADVFS manual:
http://www.tru64unix.compaq.com/faqs/publications/base_doc/DOCUMENTATION/V40F_HT ML/SUPPDOCS/ADVFSADM/TITLE.HTM#TofC0
Chapter 2, "Moving Files to Different Devices" tells how to do a move
"without concern that files are being added, deleted,
or modified while the move is occurring."
The domains are mail folders, stored in the Simeon/Messaging Direct
mail server (like Cyrus) with one message per file and control files
which are continually being updated.
We'd like to know if others have done this on a live system and whether
it works as advertised, or if there are other things we need to know.
- Jerry Berkman, UC Berkeley
jerry_at_uclink.berkeley.edu, 1-510-642-4804
Received on Wed Jul 19 2000 - 23:43:09 NZST