This section provides the following scenarios to help you determine whether you need to modify the install to use EVMS for the system device.
Table A-1 Scenarios for Storage Deployment
|
Scenario |
System Device |
Data Device |
Install for System Device |
|---|---|---|---|
|
System Device with LVM and Data Devices with EVMS (Recommended) |
LVM or other non-EVMS |
EVMS |
Normal. Do not configure data devices during the install. |
|
EVMS |
EVMS |
Modified. For information, see Configuring the System Device to Use EVMS |
|
|
EVMS |
No device |
Modified. For information, see Configuring the System Device to Use EVMS |
|
|
LVM or other non-EVMS |
No device or non-EVMS |
Normal. Do not configure data devices during the install. |
We recommend that you use two or more logical or physical storage devices for your server. Use one for the system device and the others for data devices.
A device can be a single hard disk, multiple hard disks configured as a hardware RAID 1 or RAID 5 device, or a logical device. If you have only a single device, carve it into at least two logical devices before beginning the install. Use a third-party tool for disk carving, such as fdisk or a tool provided by the device vendor.
In this recommended solution, use an LVM or another volume manager for the system device, then use EVMS to manage other devices on the system. Use the normal install procedure to implement this storage deployment plan.
Reserve one of the available devices for use as a system device that contains only the Linux boot (/boot), swap, and root (/) partitions for your Linux server. Use space from this device for the boot, swap, and root partitions. Use any volume manager as the volume manager of the system device, such as LVM (default), EVMS, or third-party volume managers.
The system device should be about 20 GB, depending on the following:
The size of the boot partition (about 300 MB recommended)
The size of the swap partition (128 MB or larger, according to your anticipated performance needs)
The size of the system volume (allow at least 2 GB (minimum) or up to 10 GB (recommended), depending on the OES services that you intend to install)
The size needed for any planned kernel extensions or services to be added post-install
Reserve at least one device for use only with NSS file systems and manage the device with EVMS. During the install, leave the devices where you plan to use NSS volumes as unallocated free space.
IMPORTANT:Do not configure the data devices during the install.
If you reserve a device for use only with traditional Linux file systems, you can use any volume manager for it. If you use EVMS, the NSS tools can see unallocated free space on the device and you could easily use the space for NSS volumes at any time after the install.
NSS file systems and traditional Linux file systems can coexist on the same devices, but you must manage the Linux file systems with EVMS in this deployment scenario. After the install, for any data devices where you plan to create NSS volumes, make sure to create at least one NSS volume on the device before you create any traditional Linux volumes. Use the Storage management plug-in to iManager or NSSMU to create the pools and volumes. The order of creation and the toolset you use helps ensure that EVMS automatically controls the device.
If you create traditional Linux file systems first on the devices, YaST sets up the device to use LVM by default, and you must take additional steps to move the device to EVMS control. For information, see Making Devices Available to EVMS
in the Novell Storage Services File System Administration Guide for OES.
Use EVMS GUI or other Linux tools to optionally create traditional Linux file systems with unallocated free space on devices managed by EVMS.
If you want to use EVMS for the system and data devices, modify the install to use EVMS to manage the system device, and make sure to leave unallocated free space available for NSS file systems on it. For information, see Configuring the System Device to Use EVMS.
Follow the guidelines for data devices and tools in System Device with LVM and Data Devices with EVMS (Recommended).
Use a single device if you have only a single device that cannot be carved into at least two logical devices before beginning the install. A device can be a single hard disk or multiple hard disks configured as a hardware RAID 1 or RAID 5 device.
If your storage deployment plan meets the following device configuration plan, modify the install to use EVMS to manage the device, and make sure to leave unallocated free space available for NSS file systems. For information, see Configuring the System Device to Use EVMS.
Modify the install to configure the Linux boot (/boot), swap, and root (/) partitions to work under EVMS.
The total combined space of the system partitions should be about 20 GB, depending on the following:
The size of the boot partition (about 300 MB recommended)
The size of the swap partition (128 MB or larger, according to your anticipated performance needs)
The size of the system volume (allow at least 2 GB (minimum) or up to 10 GB (recommended), depending on the OES services that you intend to install)
The size needed for any planned kernel extensions or services to be added post-install
During the install, leave the remainder of space on the device to use for NSS file systems or traditional Linux file systems.
After the install, use the Storage management plug-in to iManager or NSSMU to create NSS pools and volumes in the unallocated free space. Use EVMS GUI or other Linux tools to optionally create traditional Linux file systems with unallocated free space.
In this scenario, you choose to use LVM or another non-EVMS volume manager for your devices. You understand the limitations for using a non-EVMS volume manager with NSS that are discussed in Does NSS Work with Non-EVMS Volume Managers?.
If your storage deployment plan meets the following device configuration plan, use the normal install procedure to implement this storage deployment plan.
During the install, configure the Linux boot (/boot), swap, and root (/) partitions to work under LVM (or other non-EVMS volume manager).
The total combined space of the system partitions should be about 20 GB, depending on the following:
The size of the boot partition (about 300 MB recommended)
The size of the swap partition (128 MB or larger, according to your anticipated performance needs)
The size of the system volume (allow at least 2 GB (minimum) or up to 10 GB (recommended), depending on the OES services that you intend to install)
The size needed for any planned kernel extensions or services to be added post-install
During the install, leave the remainder of space on the device to use for NSS file systems or traditional Linux file systems.
Create partitions and pools with the Linux mkfs command, then use NSSMU and NSS volume management commands to manage the volumes. For information, see Using NSS on Devices Managed by Non-EVMS Volume Managers
in the Novell Storage Services File System Administration Guide for OES.