2.2 What’s New (OES 11 SP2)

The NLVM and NSSMU management tools support Linux POSIX volumes on OES 11 SP2 running on 64-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 Service Pack (SP) 3.

NSSMU

In addition to bug fixes, the following changes and enhancements were made in NSSMU for Linux POSIX volume management in the OES 11 SP2 release.

General

Novell Type Partitions: NetWare type partitions are now referred to as Novell type partitions in guides, help, and error messages.

Devices

Unsharing a device: The NSSMU Devices page allows you to disable the Shareable for Clustering state for a device without stopping Novell Cluster Services on the node. The command fails if the device contributes space to an SBD partition, or to a shared pool or a cluster-enabled pool that is used in any cluster resource. Previously, it was necessary to temporarily stop Novell Cluster Services in order to unshare a device after you disabled clustering for a pool.

Linux Volumes

Creating Linux Volumes:
- Devices: The device selection was modified to allow you to alternatively select a shared device with no data partitions or an uninitialized device for a clustered LVM volume. Previously, only unshared initialized devices were available for selection.
- Enforcing Name Restrictions for NCP Enabled LVM Volumes: For NCP-enabled LVM volumes, the NSSMU utility has been modified to enforce the NCP length restriction of 14 characters and to use uppercase letters for the name in the Novell Cluster Services cluster resource scripts for a cluster-enabled LVM volume. Previously, a new LVM volume cluster resource would go comatose immediately after creation if the name specified with the NCP_VOLUME parameter in the script was more than 14 characters, or if it included lowercase letters.
  
  Availability for prior releases: November 2012 Scheduled Maintenance for OES 11 SP1
- Linux POSIX Volumes Are Not Supported on NSS Software RAIDs: Linux POSIX file systems should not be created on NSS software RAIDs. NSSMU has been modified to block NSS software RAIDs from being presented as device options when you create a Linux POSIX volume.
  
  Availability for prior releases: September 2012 Scheduled Maintenance for OES 11 and OES 11 SP1
Mounting a Linux volume: The NSSMU Linux Volumes menu option F7 allows you to mount non-LVM and LVM volumes in Linux using the mount parameters stored in the /etc/fstab file. You can optionally specify the mount options. If the Linux volume is NCP-enabled, it also automatically mounts the volume for NCP, and NCP assigns it a volume ID.
Unmounting a Linux volume: The NSSMU Linux Volumes menu option F7 allows you to unmount non-LVM and LVM volumes in Linux. If the Linux volume is NCP-enabled, it also automatically dismounts the volume for NCP before it dismounts it in Linux.
Logging NCP volume dismounts: NCP Server has been modified to automatically log dismounts of NCP-enabled volumes, including NSS volumes and NCP-enabled Linux volumes.

Availability for prior releases: January 2013 Scheduled Maintenance for OES 11 and OES 11 SP1

NLVM Commands

In addition to bug fixes, the following changes and enhancements were made in NLVM commands for Linux POSIX volume management in the OES 11 SP2 release. For information about NLVM commands and usage, see the OES 11 SP2: NLVM Reference.

General

Novell Type Partitions: NetWare type partitions are now referred to as Novell type partitions in guides, help, and error messages.
NLVM options: The following enhancements were made to NLVM Options:
- NLVM options can appear in any order in the command after nlvm. Previously, the NLVM options had to follow immediately after nlvm.
- The --terse option can be used with nlvm list commands to display the output in a format for parsing. Values are labeled in the format ParameterName=value. Information about a storage object is output in a single line. If the target object contains storage objects (such as partitions on a device or segments in a software RAID), subsequent lines contain information about each of its member objects.

Common options: The common options more and all were added for use with the following nlvm list commands to provide additional details beyond the standard output. You can use them with or without the --terse NLVM option.

nlvm [-t] list devices [exclude] [more|all]
nlvm [-t] list linux volumes [more|all]
nlvm [-t] list moves [more|all]
nlvm [-t] list partitions [device] [mask] [more|all]
nlvm [-t] list pools [exclude] [more|all]
nlvm [-t] list snaps [more|all]
nlvm [-t] list volumes [more|all]

See Common Options.

Viewing Error Code Messages: The NSS utility now provides an /err switch that can be used from the command prompt. You can use this option to view an error message if a failed NLVM command line operation provides an error code without a corresponding message.
```
nss /err=<error_code_number>
```
For information about error codes, see NLVM Error Codes.

Availability for prior releases: November 2012 Scheduled Maintenance for OES 11 SP1

Devices

Unsharing a device: The nlvm unshare <device_name> command allows you to disable the Shareable for Clustering state for a device without stopping Novell Cluster Services on the node. The command fails if the device contributes space to an SBD partition, or to a shared pool or a cluster-enabled pool that is used in any cluster resource. Previously, it was necessary to temporarily stop Novell Cluster Services in order to unshare a device after you disabled clustering for a pool.

Partitions

Creating a partition: The type=<partition_type> option in the nlvm create partition command added support for partition type 1ac for snap partitions.

Linux Volumes

Creating a Linux volume: The following enhancements and changes were made to the nlvm create linux volume command:
- Devices option: The device=<device_name> option was modified to allow you to alternatively specify a shared device with no data partitions or an uninitialized device for a clustered LVM volume. Previously, you could specify only an unshared initialized device.
- Partition option: The part=<partition_name> option allows you to specify an existing partition as the location for a non-clustered Linux volume. It can be used instead of the device and size options.
- Size: The minimum size for a Linux volume was increased from 1 MB to 8 MB. This change is consistent with the minimum size allowed in NSSMU.
- NCP volume ID for clustered LVM volumes: The volid=<ncp_volume_id> option can be used in combination with the shared and ncp options to specify an NCP volume ID for an NCP-enabled clustered LVM volume. If the volid option is not used, an ID is automatically assigned by Novell Cluster Services when the resource is created. This allows you to assign an NCP volume ID that is unique across all nodes in a cluster, and across all nodes in every peer cluster in a Business Continuity Cluster.
- Enforcing name restrictions for NCP-enabled LVM volumes: For NCP-enabled LVM volumes, the nlvm create linux volume command has been modified to enforce the NCP length restriction of 14 characters, and to use uppercase letters for the name in the Novell Cluster Services cluster resource scripts for a cluster-enabled LVM volume. Previously, a new LVM volume cluster resource would go comatose immediately after creation if the name specified with the NCP_VOLUME parameter in the script was more than 14 characters, or if it included lowercase letters.
  
  Availability for prior releases: November 2012 Scheduled Maintenance for OES 11 SP1
- Linux POSIX Volumes Are Not Supported on NSS Software RAIDs: Linux POSIX file systems should not be created on NSS software RAIDs. NLVM commands have been modified to block NSS software RAIDs from being used as a device when you create a Linux POSIX volume.
  
  Availability for prior releases: September 2012 Scheduled Maintenance for OES 11 and OES 11 SP1
Listing details for a Linux volume: The nlvm list linux volume <lx_volume_name> command displays detailed information for a specified Linux volume.
Mounting a Linux volume: The nlvm linux mount <lx_volume_name> command allows you to mount non-LVM and LVM volumes in Linux using the mount parameters stored in the /etc/fstab file. You can optionally specify the mount options. If the Linux volume is NCP-enabled, it also automatically mounts the volume for NCP, and NCP assigns it a volume ID.
Unmounting a Linux volume: The nlvm linux unmount <lx_volume_name> command allows you to unmount non-LVM and LVM volumes in Linux. If the Linux volume is NCP-enabled, it also automatically dismounts the volume for NCP before it dismounts it in Linux.

Linux Volume Support in SLES 11 SP3

For information about Linux volume support changes in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3, see What’s New in SLES 11 SP3 in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Storage Administration Guide.