11.1 Creating a Pool

  1. In iManager, click Storage>Pools.

    For instructions, see Section 3.1.6, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.

  2. Select a server to manage.

    For instructions, see Section 3.1.7, Selecting a Server to Manage.

    A list of pools appears in the Pools list.

    Sample Pool Management Page

  3. To create a new pool, click New.

    The New Pool wizard opens to guide you through the process.

  4. Specify a name for the new storage pool, then click Next.

    For guidelines about naming pools, see Section 4.5, Naming NSS Storage Objects.

  5. Specify device parameters and the space to use, then click Next.

    1. Select the check box next to one or more of the available devices you want to use in the pool.

    2. In Used Size, specify the amount of space in megabytes (MB) to add to the pool from each device you selected, up to the amount of free space available for that device.

      To update the Total Pool Size as you enter the device’s Used Size, click anywhere within the wizard dialog box. If any entry exceeds a device’s available space, the pool expansion fails and returns an error message.

      You can obtain space from one or more of the devices listed. Only devices that have free space appear in the list. If no devices are listed, there is no space available to increase the size of the pool. Cancel the wizard, add more devices to the server or free up space on existing devices, then return to the Pool Management page to increase the size of this pool.

      NSS recognizes devices up to 2 terabytes (TB) in size, so the free space available is 2 TB or less. The pool itself can be up to 8 TB. To create an 8 TB pool, you would use least four segments of free space of up to 2 TB each.

    3. If the device is shareable, the Cluster Enable on Creation check box is automatically selected so it can be shared in a cluster configuration. Deselect the check box if you do not want to cluster-enable this pool for sharing.

    4. Select the Activate on Creation check box to activate the device automatically after it is created. This parameter is automatically enabled. Deselect the check box to turn it off.

      Sample of the Enable on Creation Option for Pools on Shared Devices

    5. If the pool is cluster-enabled, click Next to specify its cluster parameters; otherwise, click Finish.

  6. If the Cluster Enable on Creation check box is selected, an additional page appears to enable you to specify the cluster information.

    Sample Cluster Information for a New Pool

    Fill in the following shared pool clustering parameters:

    • Virtual Server Name: The name assigned by NetWare to the virtual server that represents the shared pool in the cluster.

      When you cluster-enable a pool, a virtual Server object is automatically created in eDirectory and given the name of the Cluster object plus the name of the cluster-enabled pool. For example, if the cluster name is cluster1 and the cluster-enabled pool name is pool1, then the default virtual server name will be cluster1_pool1_server. You can edit the field to change the default virtual server name.

    • CIFS Virtual Server Name: The name assigned by NetWare to the virtual server for handling CIFS (Common Internet File System) requests. This is the name of the server as it appears in a Windows system. (For OES Linux, Windows network access is via Samba.)

    • IP Address: The IP address that you want to assign the virtual server.

      Each cluster-enabled NSS pool requires its own IP address. The IP address is used to provide access and failover capability to the cluster-enabled pool (virtual server). The IP address you assign to the pool remains assigned to the pool regardless of which server in the cluster is accessing the pool.

      IMPORTANT:The IP address for the virtual server must be in the same IP subnet as the server nodes in the cluster where you plan to use it.

      To specify an IP address, tab between the different entries; no dot is required in the fields. For example, if the IP address is 192.168.1.1, type 

      192 168 1 1

    • Advertising Protocols: Protocols that give users native file access to data.

      Specify one or more advertising protocols by selecting the check boxes of the protocols you want to enable for data requests to this shared pool.

      NOTE:For OES Linux, the CIFS and AFP check boxes can be selected, but CIFS and AFP functionality does not apply to Linux. Selecting the checkboxes has no effect.

      • NetWare Core Protocol™ (NCP™) is the Novell networking protocol used by the Novell Client. It is selected by default. Selecting NCP causes commands to be added to the pool-resource load and unload scripts to activate the NCP protocol on the cluster. This lets you ensure that the cluster-enabled pool you are creating is highly available to Novell clients.

      • CIFS is the Windows networking protocol. This option applies only to NetWare servers. Samba is used for OES Linux.

      • Apple* File Protocol (AFP) is the Macintosh networking protocol. This option applies only to NetWare servers. AFP is not supported on OES Linux.

  7. Click Finish.