10.2 NSS Management Utility (NSSMU) Quick Reference

The Novell Storage Services Management Utility (NSSMU) is a console-based utility for managing NSS storage media on a server. You can use NSSMU at any time as an alternative to the browser-based iManager Storage plug-in.

NSSMU is installed when you install NSS. The Linux install creates symlinks in the /opt/novell/nss/sbin folder for common NSS utilities, including NSSMU. Symlinks allow the path to NSSMU to become part of the root user’s path, which allows you to run nssmu from a terminal console as the root user.

Table 10-11 identifies key functions available in NSSMU. This quick reference is also available in the nssmu(8) man page. To access the man page, enter the following at a terminal console prompt:

man 8 nssmu

Table 10-11 Summary of Management Options in NSSMU

Management Options

Description

Devices

  • F3 or I= Initialize device (Do not initialize your system device.)
  • F5 or F= Refresh display
  • F6, S or U = Share (shareable/not shareable for clustering)
  • Space = Select or unselect
  • Enter = Show partitions
  • Esc or Q = Previous menu

Use this option to initialize and maintain physical storage devices and software RAID devices available to this server. Use the Software RAID Devices option to create, repair, or delete RAIDs.

Initialize the selected device by erasing its partition table, effectively destroying all of its data. If devices are present but not showing up for creating pools and volumes, you should initialize the disk.

When you initialize a device, you can select the DOS or the GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioning scheme for a given device.

The DOS partitioning scheme supports devices up to 2 TB in size. It allows up to four partitions on a device.

The GPT partitioning scheme supports device sizes up to 2E64 sectors (that is, up to 8388608 petabytes (PB) based on the 512-byte sector size). It allows up to 128 partitions per disk. Each of its disks partitions is a logical device that is identified by a unique 128-bit (16-byte) GUID.

Partitions

  • Ins or + = Create an NSS partition (disabled)
  • Del or - = Delete an NSS partition
  • F3 or M = Mirror partition (that contains an existing pool)
  • F5 or F = Refresh details of the partition
  • F6 or L= Label
  • Enter =Show volumes
  • Esc or Q = Previous menu

Use this option to display details about partitions. All types of partitions are displayed, including those for Linux file systems.

The Create option is disabled. NSS partitions are automatically created for you as you define NSS pools or software RAIDs.

You can delete a single partition at a time when repairing a failed software RAID partition. To delete all partitions for a software RAID, you should delete the RAID itself from the Software RAIDs page; otherwise, the RAID is not cleanly deleted.

The Mirror option lets you specify 1 to 3 partitions to mirror an existing partition that contains an NSS pool. Effectively, you are creating a RAID1 mirror device for the pool. Each segment of the defined RAID is a complete mirror of the original pool and is the same size as the original partition. After you mirror the partition, manage the RAID from the Software RAIDs page.

If you widen the NSSMU display screen, it widens the Partitions list panel and allows you to see the partitions' full names.

Pools

  • Ins or + = Create a pool
  • Del or - = Delete a pool
  • F3 or E = Expand a pool (by adding space)
  • F4 or U= Update NDS/eDirectory
  • F5 or F= Refresh the pool list
  • F6 or R = Rename a pool
  • F7, A or D = Activate/deactivate a pool
  • S = Display pool segments, segment size, and devices
  • j = Join the cluster pool to the AD domain
  • g = Media upgrade a pool to support AD users
  • F8 or N = More (list more options)
  • F9 or V = Show deleted volumes (then salvage, purge, or pause/resume autopurging)
  • M = Move pool
  • Enter = Show volumes for a pool
  • Esc or Q = Previous menu
  • Space = Refresh details of the selected pool

Use this option to create, delete, rename, and expand NSS storage pools to efficiently use all free space in the available devices.

NOTE:

  • Beginning with OES 2015, NSS supports two types of pools: NSS64 and NSS32. NSS32-bit pools use 32-bit block addressing and supports up to 8 TB; whereas, NSS64 bit pools use 64-bit block addressing and supports up to 8 EB (exabyte). All pools prior to OES 2015 use 32-bit block addressing and they are of type NSS32.

  • While creating a pool, specify the pool type, then specify a unique name for the pool. Ensure to choose the correct pool type as they can not be changed after pool creation. NSS64 bit pool types are by default AD media upgraded.

  • Creating NSS64-bit pools or media upgrading an existing NSS32-bit pools to support AD users in a mixed-node cluster environment is not recommended, because the pools will not be accessible from nodes older than OES 2015. You can still go ahead and create or AD media upgrade the pool by acknowledging the warning message by pressing 'y' (yes). As a workaround, configure preferred nodes for each media-upgraded cluster resource so that these resources load on OES 2015 or later nodes. For more information on creating preferred nodes, see Configuring Preferred Nodes and Node Failover Order for a Resourcein the OES 2015 SP1: Novell Cluster Services for Linux Administration Guide.

After you create a pool, you can expand it by adding free space from the same or different device to increase its size. Select from the available free space to allocate it to the pool. Each device can contribute a different amount of space to the pool. Devices that contribute space must be in the same share state as the pool, that is, Shared or Not Shared. You can increase the size of a pool, but you cannot reduce it. You can also media upgrade the pool to support AD users, and this is a one-time activity that cannot be reverted.

The join cluster pool option joins a cluster pool to the AD domain. When you join, you can choose to specify the container under which the pool object will be created or you could choose to use an existing pre-created object. You can choose to perform kinit before the launch of nssmu or during AD join process. kinit during the join process is valid for only one pool join as the kdestroy is performed for every join operation. For more information, see Section 10.2.1, Joining Cluster Pools to the AD Domain.

 

The move pool option moves an NSS pool from one location to another on the same system. The pool remains active during this process. All the segments in the pool are consolidated and moved to the specified device(s). If the specified device is larger than the original device, the pool is automatically expanded on the completion of move job.

If a clustered pool is moved, on performing cluster resource migration the Move pool job is resumed on other node. In the cluster setup, the exact status of the pool move can be seen only on the node where the pool move job is in progress.

For more information, see Section 16.12, Moving a Pool.

Volumes

  • Ins or + = Create a new volume
  • Del or - = Delete a volume
  • F2 or P = Rename mount point for the volume (new path with volume name)
  • F3 or C = View Compression Statistics
  • g = AD-enable a volume
  • F4 or U = Update NDS/eDirectory
  • F5 or F = Refresh details of the volume
  • F6 or R = Rename volume
  • F7, M or D = Dismount/mount a volume. If it is encrypted, the volume prompts for a password on the first mount after a system boot or reboot.
  • F8 or N = More (list more options)
  • F9 or S = Name Space - choose Long (default), UNIX, DOS, or Macintosh
  • Enter = View volume properties
  • Esc or Q = Previous menu

Use this option to create, delete, rename, activate/deactivate, and mount/dismount NSS volumes and to set their attributes. You can also AD-enable a volume to support AD users. These volumes must be active and must be part of an AD media upgraded pool. AD-enabling a volume is a one-time activity and cannot be reverted.

To store data in encrypted format, specify a password when you create the volume. This enables the Encryption attribute. The encryption setting persists for the life of the volume. The encryption password can be 2 to 16 standard ASCII characters, with a suggested minimum of 6. The password generates a 128-bit NICI key for encryption. On system reboot, specify the password when you activate the volume for the first time.

You can mount encrypted volumes only from NSSMU on the first time after a system reboot. Provide the password when needed. Until you provide a password for encrypted volumes, you cannot mount multiple encrypted volumes at a time.

Linux Volumes

  • Ins or + = Create
  • Del or - = Delete
  • F3 or R = Rename
  • F5 or F = Refresh details of the Linux volumes
  • F7, M or D = Mount or Dismount
  • Esc or Q = Previous menu

Use this option to create and manage the Linux volumes. For more information, see Managing Linux Volumes with NSSMU in the OES 2015 SP1: Linux POSIX Volume Administration Guide.

RAID Devices

  • Ins or + = Create a software RAID
  • Del or - = Delete a software RAID device
  • F3 or E = Expand a RAID device (add partitions)
  • F4, S or M = Restripe (S) (to restripe or resume restriping for paused RAID 0 or RAID 5). Remirror (M) (to remirror or resume remirroring for paused RADI 1)
  • F5 or F = Refresh details of the software RAID device
  • F6 or R = Rename a RAID device
  • Enter = Show segments (list member partitions for selected device)
  • Esc or Q = Previous menu
  • F8 or N = More (list more options)
  • Space = Status Refresh

Use this option to create and manage NSS software RAID devices. A software RAID device emulates a hardware RAID device. RAID devices combine partitioned space on multiple physical devices into a single virtual device that you manage like any device. Each member device contributes an equal amount of space and only a single partition to the RAID.

Pressing F6 would either restripe or remirror based on the chosen RAID device.

NOTE:If the RAID 1 is already synchronized, pressing F6 will not show any remirroring progress.

Snapshot

  • Ins or + = Create a pool snapshot
  • Del or - = Delete a pool snapshot
  • F5 or F = Refresh display
  • F7, M or D = Mount or dismount the pool snapshot as an active pool. The snapshot functions continue whether the snapshot is mounted or dismounted.
  • Esc or Q = Previous menu

Use this option to create, delete, mount, and dismount pool snapshots for NSS pools.

Snapshots are stored on a separate partition that you specify, not another pool. After it is created, the partition for the snapshot pool cannot be expanded.

The default unit for setting and displaying the volume quota or pool size is Gigabyte (GB). However, the following units will also be displayed relative to the storage size:

Pool / Volume Quota Size

Displayed Unit

<= 1023 KB

KB

>= 1024 KB and <= 1023 MB

MB

>= 1024 MB and <= 1023 GB

GB

>= 1024 GB

TB

NOTE:

  • The pool size is not displayed in KB as the minimum allowed pool size should be at least 12 MB.

  • When the volume quota is entered without specifying any units, the volume quota size is assumed to be in GB. For example, specifying a value of 1 will be considered as 1 GB, 2 as 2 GB and 0.5 as 512 MB. Specifying the value of 'ALL' will create a pool consuming the entire disk space or LUN size.

10.2.1 Joining Cluster Pools to the AD Domain

This section describes the procedures to join cluster NSS resources to an AD domain so that they are accessible to AD users. Joining a cluster resource to the AD domain does not enable the pools and volumes for AD user access. NSS AD Media upgrade for pools and AD-enabling at volume must be done separately following the instructions at Section A.13.1, NSS Media Upgrade Commands and Volume AD-enabling.

You could also use the novell-ad-util CLI tool for the domain join. For more information, see novell-ad-util Command Line Utility in the OES 2015 SP1: NSS AD Administration Guide.

  1. Ensure that your cluster node is joined to the AD domain. You should find an entry for the cluster node object created in the Active Directory Users and Computers screen of the AD server. Also ensure that the shared pool has at least one active volume for a successful domain join operation.

  2. Launch NSSMU, select the shared pool that you want to join to the AD domain, then press j.

  3. Specify the AD container where the computer object will be created. If you already have a pre-created computer object, select Yes, then specify the container where the pre-created computer object exist.

  4. Select Proceed.

  5. Perform kinit if not done already, then specify the appropriate AD user credentials for the domain join operation to complete. This user should have the following rights on the AD server: create computer objects, change password and reset password.

  6. After a successful domain join operation, you should find your cluster pool computer object in the Active Directory Users and Computers screen of the AD server.