5.2 Naming Conventions for Storage Objects

5.2.1 NSS Pool and Volume Names

Novell Storage Services (NSS) pool names and volume names must be unique from other pools and volumes on the server. In a cluster, the names of shared pools and volumes must be unique across all nodes in the cluster.

Pool and volume names can be 2 to 15 characters.

Uppercase letters A to Z, number characters 0 to 9, and underscore (_) are valid characters for all pools and volumes. Names cannot start or end in an underscore, and cannot contain double underscores. When you create an NSS pool or volume, the name you specify is automatically converted to uppercase.

If the pool is not shared, the pool name or volume name can also contain special characters:

!@#$%&()

Names that contain special characters must be enclosed in quotation marks in all commands and scripts.

The names cannot be reserved names such as con, com, lpt, pipe, all, and so on.

5.2.2 NSS Pool Snapshot Names

An NSS pool snapshot name must be a unique snap name on the server.

Pool snapshot names are 2 to 15 characters.

The naming conventions for a pool snapshot are the same as for NSS pools and volumes. When you create an NSS pool snapshot, the name you specify is automatically converted to uppercase.

5.2.3 NSS Software RAID Names

An NSS software RAID name must be unique from other devices on the server. In a cluster, the names of shared software RAIDs must be unique across all nodes in the cluster.

RAID names are 2 to 58 characters.

Names are preferred to use characters A to Z, a to z, 0 to 9, and underscore (_). Names cannot start or end in underscore, and cannot contain double underscores. Printable ASCII characters (see decimal codes 33 to 122 in a code chart) are valid. The name is case sensitive; it can contain uppercase and lowercase characters.

RAID names can contain special characters such as:

!@#$%&()

Names that contain special characters must be enclosed in quotation marks in all commands and scripts. On the BASH command line, each special character must be escaped by preceding it with a backslash character (\).

The RAID names cannot be reserved names such as con, com, lpt, pipe, all, and so on.

5.2.4 NCP Volume Names

NCP volume names can be up to 14 alphanumeric characters, using uppercase letters A through Z and numbers 0 through 9. Underscores (_) are allowed.

If you NCP enable a Linux volume as you create it with NSSMU or the nlvm create linux volume command, the NCP volume name is based on the specified Linux volume name, but all letters are capitalized. Ensure that the specified Linux volume name does not exceed 14 characters and does not use special characters. Letters A-Z, letters a-z, numbers 0-9, and underscores are supported.

5.2.5 Linux LVM Volume Group and Logical Volume Names

Consider the following conventions for naming Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) volume groups and logical volumes:

NLVM Requirements for LVM Names

NLVM requires that Linux LVM volume group names and logical volume names be unique from any volume, device, pool, RAID, and other Device Mapper name. The LVM group name is limited to 128 characters. The LVM logical volume name is limited to 64 characters.

When you create a Linux LVM logical volume without specifying an LVM volume group name, NLVM assigns the volume name to the volume group.

LVM2 Requirements for LVM Names

LVM2 allows volume group names and logical volume names to contain characters A to Z, a to z, 0 to 9, underscore (_), hyphen (-), dot (.), and plus (+). The names cannot begin with a hyphen.

Reserved names and character strings that are used internally by LVM cannot be used as volume group names or logical volume names. A volume group cannot be called anything that exists in /dev/ at the time of creation. It cannot be named '.' (a single dot) or '..' (double dot).

A logical volume cannot be named the following reserved words:

.  (a single dot)
.. (double dot)
snapshot
pvmove

The logical volume name also cannot contain the following strings:

_mlog
_mimage

Clustered LVM Requirements for LVM Names

In a Novell Cluster Services cluster, the names of clustered LVM volume groups and logical volumes must be unique across all nodes in the cluster.