6.1 Syntax Overview

Novell Linux Volume Manager can be used to manage NSS file systems or Linux POSIX file systems on your OES 11 SP3 server. This section describes the general syntax and conventions for NLVM.

6.1.1 Syntax

Using commands for the NLVM program requires root user privileges. NLVM options must follow immediately after nlvm.

nlvm [nlvm_options] <command> <command_options>

6.1.2 Syntax Conventions

When issuing NLVM commands, consider the following general syntax conventions:

NSS Pool and Volume Names

All NSS pool names and NSS volume names are automatically converted to uppercase.

NSS Software RAID Names

NSS software RAID names are case sensitive.

NCP Volume Names

When you create an NCP volume, the name is automatically converted to uppercase.

Order of Command Options

Command options can be specified in any order except where it is otherwise noted. Options with an equal sign (=) can be in any order.

Sizes

All sizes are in bytes and can be specified with one of the following multipliers: K, M, G, and T. Multipliers are case insensitive and are multiples of 1024. If no multiplier is specified, it is assumed to be G by default. If ‘max’ is entered, all of the free unpartitioned space on the device is used. All sizes can be entered as whole numbers or with fractional parts such as 200.45G and 3.98T.

Examples for common command options:

size=20 (If no multiplier is used, it is assumed to be G (gigabytes).)

size=20G (You can also specify max instead of a value and multiplier.)

size=3.98T (You can specify a value with decimal places.)

Name Format

Examples for common name formats used in command options:

device=sdb (You can specify the leaf node name of the device, including multipath names.)

device=/dev/mapper/mpatha (You can specify the full Linux path of the device.)

device=anydisk (You can specify anydisk or anyshared keywords if the command allows it.)

part=sdc1.1 (You can specify only the partition node name, not the full Linux path.)

part=cluster1.sbd

name=MYPOOL1 (All NSS pool names and NSS volume names are converted to uppercase.)

6.1.3 Documentation Conventions

In the command syntax for NLVM, the mandatory command options are surrounded by angle brackets (<>). The optional command options are surrounded by square brackets ([]). The brackets are not used when you issue the command. For example, the command syntax conventions are:

nlvm [nlvm_options] command <mandatory_value> [options]

6.1.4 Files

The following are key files used by NLVM:

/etc/opt/novell/nss/nlvm.conf

Location of the NLVM configuration file.

/opt/novell/nss/sbin/nlvm

Location of the NLVM utility. It also has a link in the sbin directory so that it is in the search path.

/var/opt/novell/nss/debug

Location of the debug log files.