vxdisk(1M)																vxdisk(1M)

NAME

       vxdisk - define and manage Veritas Volume Manager disks

SYNOPSIS

       vxdisk [-g diskgroup] addregion region_type disk offset length

       vxdisk [-g diskgroup] check disk ...

       vxdisk [-fd] classify [ctrl=ctlr[,ctlr...]]  [disk=disk[,disk...]]  [udid=udid[,udid...]]

       vxdisk [-g diskgroup] [-o clearkey=key] clearhost disk ...

       vxdisk clearimport accessname ...

       vxdisk [-f] define accessname [attribute ...]

       vxdisk [-f] define accessname type=simple [attribute ...]

       vxdisk [-f] define accessname [type=auto] format=cdsdisk [attribute ...]

       vxdisk [-f] define accessname [type=auto] format=hpdisk [attribute ...]

       vxdisk [-f] destroy accessname

       vxdisk [-f] flush accessname

       vxdisk getctlr accessname

       vxdisk [[-o coordinator] -f] init accessname [attribute ...]

       vxdisk [-f] init accessname type=simple [attribute ...]

       vxdisk [-f] init accessname [type=auto] format=cdsdisk [attribute ...]

       vxdisk [-f] init accessname [type=auto] format=hpdisk [attribute ...]

       vxdisk [-g diskgroup] [-o alldgs] [-o listreserve] [-o tag=[~]name[=[~]value]]
	   [-bcepqsv] list [disk ...]

       vxdisk [-g diskgroup] [-q] [-o tag=[~]name[=[~]value]]
	   listtag [disk ...]

       vxdisk offline accessname ...

       vxdisk -a online

       vxdisk online accessname ...

       vxdisk [-g diskgroup] path

       vxdisk [-f] [-g diskgroup] resize disk [length=value]

       vxdisk rm accessname ...

       vxdisk [-g diskgroup] rmregion region_type disk offset [length]

       vxdisk rmtag disk site= | name ...

       vxdisk [-f] scandisks [new | fabric | [!]device=device_list |
	   [!]ctlr=controller_list |
	   [!]pctlr=physical_ controller_list]

       vxdisk [-g diskgroup] set disk [attribute ...]

       vxdisk [-f] settag disk site=siteid | name[=value] ...

       vxdisk [-f] [-g diskgroup] updateudid disk ...

DESCRIPTION

       The vxdisk utility performs basic administrative operations on disks.  Operations include initializing and replacing disks, as well as tak-
       ing care of some book-keeping necessary for the disk model presented by Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM).

       vxdisk usually accesses a disk based on its disk access name (accessname), which is a system-specific name that relates to a disk  address.
       Disk media names are usually based on the name of the disk group (for example, mydg01 in the disk group mydg).  A disk does not have a disk
       media name until it has been initialized by VxVM.  For vxdisk operations on an initialized disk (disk), the disk may be specified either by
       its disk access name or by its disk media name.

       In HP-UX 11i v3, disks may be identified either by their legacy device name, which takes the form c#t#d#, or by their persistent (or agile)
       device name, which takes the form disk##.  In a legacy device name, c# specifies the controller, t# specifies the target ID, and d#  speci-
       fies the SCSI logical unit number.  For example, the device name c0t0d0 is the entire hard disk that is connected to controller number 0 in
       the system, with a target ID of 0, and physical disk number of 0.  The equivalent persistent device name might be disk33.

       The persistent forms of disk devices are located in the /dev/disk and /dev/rdisk directories.  To maintain  backward  compatibility,  HP-UX
       also creates legacy devices in the /dev/dsk and /dev/rdsk directories.

       VxVM  recreates disk devices for all paths in the operating system's hardware device tree as metadevices (DMP nodes) in the /dev/vx/dmp and
       /dev/vx/rdmp directories.  The dynamic multipathing (DMP) feature of VxVM uses a DMP node to represent a disk that can be accessed  by  one
       or  more physical paths, perhaps via different controllers.  The number of access paths that are available depends on whether the disk is a
       single disk, or is part of a multiported disk array that is connected to a system.  DMP nodes are not used by the native multipathing  fea-
       ture of HP-UX.

       Enclosure-based	naming	is  an alternative way of referring to disk access names.  If enabled by using the vxdiskadm or vxddladm commands,
       this scheme maps disk access names relative to their enclosure.	For example, disks in the enclosure ENC0 would be  assigned  access  names
       ENC0_0, ENC0_1 and so on.

       Operations that take an accessname argument (see the SYNOPSIS section) accept only disk access names.  Operations that take a disk argument
       can take disk access names or disk media names.	For such operations, a disk group can be specified with  -g  to  disambiguate  disk  media
       names that are used in more than one disk group.

       Physical  disks	in VxVM are assumed to be movable, and are usually identified by a unique disk ID stored on the physical disk, rather than
       by a disk device node.  This allows disks to be moved to different SCSI target IDs or to different controllers  without	affecting  correct
       operation.

       VxVM  maintains	information  about  disk device addresses as disk access records.  Disk access records are used to identify physical disks
       from disk IDs that are stored on the disks themselves.  The name of a disk access record is based on the corresponding disk access name.

       Physical disks contain public regions, which are used for allocating subdisks.  They can also contain private regions, which are  used  for
       storing private Veritas Volume Manager information.  Private regions are configured and maintained entirely by VxVM.

       Private regions contain the following structures:

       Disk Header
		 Each  private	region	contains exactly two copies of a disk header, which defines the unique disk ID, disk geometry information,
		 and disk group association information.  Two copies are created so that one copy can be lost (due to I/O failures) without  caus-
		 ing  use  of the disk to be lost.  The primary copy of the disk header is stored in block zero of the private region.	The alter-
		 nate copy is stored within the first 256 sectors.  If the primary copy is unreadable or unusable, VxVM  searches  the	first  256
		 sectors of the private region for the alternate copy.

       Table of Contents
		 A linked list of blocks, pointed to by the disk header, that define additional structures in the private and public regions.  The
		 table of contents blocks define disk group configuration copy locations, log copy locations, and reserved regions carved from the
		 public  region.   Each  link block in the table of contents is replicated at the beginning and end of the private region.  If the
		 primary copy of any one link block is unreadable or unusable, the alternate copy of that link is used.

       Configuration Copies
		 A disk normally contains one disk group configuration copy, according to the number specified when the disk was initialized using
		 the  vxdisk  init  operation  (explained later).  When a disk is added to a disk group, the disk group's persistent configuration
		 records are written to each copy.  For disks that are not associated with a disk group, the  space  allocated	for  configuration
		 copies  is  unused.   Each  disk group requires at least one usable configuration copy.  Preferably there should be at least four
		 copies, allocated between at least two disks.	This allows one disk to be lost totally, while still preserving sufficient  redun-
		 dancy for recovering from simple read failures.

       Disk Group Log Copies
		 A  disk  normally  contains  one disk group log copy.	The number of log copies is set to the same as the number of configuration
		 copies for the disk (as explained in the Configuration copies section above).	These logs are written by the kernel when  certain
		 types	of  actions  are  performed:  transaction commits, plex detaches resulting from I/O failures, total dirty region log (DRL)
		 failures, the first write to a volume, and volume close.  After a crash or a clean  reboot,  this  log  information  is  used	to
		 recover the state of a disk group just prior to the crash or reboot.  Each disk group requires at least one usable disk group log
		 copy.	As with configuration copies, it is preferable to have at least four log copies, allocated between at least two disks.

       For a single disk, the disk header and the table of contents blocks are critical data structures.  At least one copy of	the  disk  header,
       and  at least one copy of each table of contents block, must be readable and usable, or else the disk itself is unusable and must be reini-
       tialized.

       Within disk groups, disk group configuration and log copies are critical data structures.  At least one complete configuration copy and log
       copy must be readable and usable, or the disk group is unusable and must be reinitialized.

       All  disk  group  association  information  is stored in the disk header within private regions.  This information consists of a disk group
       name, disk group unique ID, and a host ID.  When the system boots, VxVM scans for disks that are stamped with the system's host	ID.   Each
       represented  disk  group  is  imported automatically.  Disks with a non-matching host ID are not imported automatically, and cannot be used
       until the host ID is cleared with the clearimport operation.

       The behavior of the vxdisk utility depends upon the keyword specified as the first operand.

KEYWORDS

       addregion Adds a new entry to the table of contents in a disk's private region.	The new entry defines a region of disk that is relative to
		 the  public region, and that is reserved for a particular use.  The offset and length operations indicate the location and extent
		 of the region.  Currently, the only region type that can be defined is:

		 reserve   Masks out a region of disk that should be reserved for purposes other than use by VxVM.  This could be used, for  exam-
			   ple,  to  mask  out	a  boot file system that cannot be used for subdisk allocation, or to mask out a region containing
			   blocks that are used for bad-block or bad-track replacement.

		 Adding a region fails if a subdisk or region is already allocated over the requested region.

		 Note: The addregion functionality is currently unimplemented for any of the existing disk types.

       check	 Determines the usability of the specified disks.  A disk is considered usable if VxVM can write and read back at least one of the
		 disk  headers	that are stored on the disk.  If a disk in a disk group is unusable, VxVM detaches it from its disk group, and all
		 subdisks stored on the disk become invalid.  The subdisks remain invalid until the unusable disk is replaced or  the  disk  media
		 record is reassigned to a different physical disk.

		 For  shared  disks,  VxVM  detaches  an unusable disk only if the disk group's detach policy is set to global.  If the disk group
		 detach policy is local, the disk is not detached.  However, if hosts in the cluster do not indicate that a disk  is  usable,  the
		 disk is detached from the entire cluster.  See vxedit(1M) for more information on setting disk group detach policies.

       classify  Initiates disk classification by the VxVM configuration daemon, vxconfigd. The disks to be processed can be constrained to a com-
		 bination of controllers, disk names and unique disk identifiers (UDIDs) that are specified as arguments  to  the  optional  ctlr,
		 disk  and  udid  attributes.	The  command  determines  the  disk  attributes,  and, if the -d option is specified, displays the
		 attributes obtained by vxconfigd.  To force a full scan of the OS device tree, specify the -f option.

       clearhost Clears the stale disk reservation key, as specified by the argument to the -o clearkey option, from a disk.

		 Note: This key is slightly different from the I/O fencing key that is specified using the -o  groupreserve  option  to  the  vxdg
		 import  and init commands.  The disk reservation key that is specified to clearhost also contains the node ID of the host encoded
		 in the first byte.

		 See the vxdg(1M) manual page for more information about I/O fencing.

       clearimport
		 Clears the host-specific import information stored on the indicated disks, and in the configurations stored on those disks.  This
		 command may be necessary in cases where import information stored for a disk group becomes unusable, due to host failures, or due
		 to a disk group being moved from one machine to another.

		 This operation cannot be applied to disks that are in imported disk groups.

       define	 Defines a disk access record, but do not initialize it.  In order for VxVM to scan a disk, a disk access record must  be  defined
		 for  it.   Thus,  if  you want to see what is on a new disk or you want to move a disk with a valid disk group from one system to
		 another, you must first make it accessible by using vxdisk define.  You can use vxdisk list to  see  what  is	on  the  disk,	or
		 vxdg import to import a disk group that is on the disk.

		 Attributes  can  be  specified to define the access characteristics of the disk device.  The following attributes define the disk
		 type:

		 type=disk_type
			   Specifies the access type for the disk device.  See the description of the init operation and the  DISK  TYPES  section
			   for more details.

		 format=format
			   For	auto-configured  disks	(type=auto), specifies one of the supported formats that is to be used with the disk.  See
			   the section Auto-Configured Disks for details.

		 The various disk types support additional attributes for the define operation.  See the DISK TYPES and  ATTRIBUTES  sections  for
		 details.

		 Normally,  a  define operation fails if the specified disk device is invalid, such as because no such disk currently exists.  The
		 -f option can be used to force definition of an unusable disk.  This can be useful if, for example, the disk device could be used
		 after a reboot.  For example, if you intend to add a new controller and intend to move some existing disks to the new controller,
		 you may need to define the new disk device addresses, even though they are not usable until you  shutdown  and  reconfigure  your
		 disks.

		 If  specified,  the -B option initializes the Veritas Volume Manager private region to begin at block number 2144.  This block is
		 designated as the private region offset for a Veritas Volume Manager root disk.  Without this option, the private region is  ini-
		 tialized to start at the default block number 128.

       destroy	 Uninitializes a disk from VxVM by removing the private region and CDS disk labels, which were placed on the disk by an init oper-
		 ation.  The -f option forcibly uninitializes a disk.

       flush	 Rewrite all Cross-Platform Data Sharing (CDS) ID information to the specified disk that has at least one  valid  VxVM	ID  block.
		 Unlike the vxdg flush command, the disk is brought online if required.

		 The  -f  option may be specified to forcibly rewrite the AIX coexistence label and VxVM ID block. By default, these are not over-
		 written.

       getctlr	 Returns the name of the controller associated with a given disk access name.

       init	 Initializes regions of a disk used by VxVM.  This involves installing a disk header and writing an  empty  configuration  on  the
		 disk.	The accessname operand identifies the disk.  Normally, this command fails if the disk already contains an apparently valid
		 disk header.  The -f option can be used to override this and to force initialization of the disk.  A disk that is a member of	an
		 imported disk group cannot be initialized.

		 The  vxdisk init operation creates a disk access record for a disk (if one does not already exist), and sets its state to online.
		 Disks can be initialized when vxconfigd is in its disabled state, in which case the disk header is initialized, but the  disk	is
		 not added to the list of known disks until vxconfigd is re-enabled.

		 Any attribute operands override default values assigned for various disk attributes.  Some attributes that can be set are:

		 type=disk_type
			   Specifies the access type for the disk device.  This type identifies the class of strategies that can be used to access
			   the disk, and to manage its private and public regions.

			   For example, a disk type can indicate a networked disk or a volatile RAM disk that does not require the storage of  any
			   private data.

			   See the description of the init operation and the DISK TYPES section for more details.

		 format=format
			   For	auto-configured  disks	(type=auto), specifies one of the supported formats that is to be used with the disk.  See
			   the section Auto-Configured Disks for details.

			   Note: If a format is not specified, and the target disk already has a valid auto format, this  is  assumed  to  be  the
			   desired format.

		 The  various  disk  types  support  additional attributes for the init operation.  See the DISK TYPES and ATTRIBUTES sections for
		 details.

		 If specified, the -B option initializes the Veritas Volume Manager private region to begin at block number 2144.  This  block	is
		 designated  as the private region offset for a Veritas Volume Manager root disk.  Without this option, the private region is ini-
		 tialized to start at the default block number 128.

		 The combined -o coordinator -f options are used to forcibly remove the coordinator flag from a disk. This flag indicates that the
		 disk  is a member of the coordinator disk group used with the I/O fencing feature of Veritas Cluster Server (VCS).  Caution: Only
		 use these options if a disk is no longer to be used as a coordinator disk.

       list	 Lists path type and states along with the detailed information on the specified disks.  The state is listed as  enabled  or  dis-
		 abled.

		 If  one  or more disk arguments are specified, a full description of the contents of the disk header and of the table of contents
		 for each named disk is displayed.

		 If no disk arguments are specified, a one-line summary for all disk access records known to the system is displayed.

		 If no disk arguments are specified, but a disk group is specified with -g, information is displayed about only those  disks  that
		 have been added to the specified disk group.

		 The  -b  option can be used to display length and offset values in 512-byte units, regardless of platform.  If this option is not
		 specified, values are displayed in units of sectors, the size of which can vary between different platforms.

		 If the -e option is specified, an additional column is displayed that shows the OS-based disk access name.  This option is useful
		 if you have enabled enclosure-based naming.

		 If the -s option is specified, important information from the disk header is displayed.  With the -s option, the output format is
		 the same whether or not accessname arguments are specified.  The information printed with -s includes the disk ID,  the  host	ID
		 (if the disk is or was imported), and the disk group ID and disk group name (if the disk is a member of a disk group).

		 The -c option has the same effect as the -s option except that the output fields are delimited by colon (:) characters.

		 The  -p  option lists the discovered properties of a disk, including the disk ID, vendor ID, unique disk identifier (UDID), array
		 port ID, array port worldwide number (WWN), name of the array support library (ASL) that claimed  the	device,  array	type,  and
		 array name.

		 If the -q option is specified, no header is printed that describes output fields. This option has no effect with the long formats
		 that are generated for the -s option or for accessname arguments.

		 The -v option causes all disk tags and their values to be listed for a specified disk argument under the "Annotations:"  heading.
		 If this option is not specified, no disk tags are displayed.

		 When  -o  alldgs  is  specified  without  the -s and -g options, a one line summary shows all associations between disks and disk
		 groups.  The disk group column shows imported disk groups as normal and shows all other disk groups in parentheses.

		 Auto-configured disks are shown with their type (auto) qualified by their format.  For example, auto:cdsdisk indicates  an  auto-
		 configured disk that is formatted as a CDS disk. See the Auto-Configured Disks section for more details.

		 You  can  use	the -o listreserve option to discover if I/O fencing has been enabled for a disk group. If I/O fencing is enabled,
		 the command also displays the current reservations and registered keys for the disks in the disk group.  See the vxdg(1M)  manual
		 page for more information about I/O fencing.

		 If  the  udid_mismatch  flag is set on a disk, this indicates that the current unique disk identifier (UDID) that is known to the
		 device discovery layer (DDL) does not match the UDID that is stored in the disk's private region.  This usually  means  that  the
		 disk  has been copied from another disk.  For example, a disk may be copied by creating a hardware snapshot or clone, by using dd
		 or some other command to replicate the disk, or by building a new LUN from the space that was previously used by a  deleted  LUN.
		 Such duplicated disks are usually prevented from being imported to avoid the duplicate disk ID condition.

		 If  udid_mismatch is set on a disk, and other disks with the same disk identifier are found in the disk group being imported, the
		 disk can only be imported into a disk group by specifying the -o useclonedev=on option to the vxdg import command.

		 If the clone_disk flag is set on a disk, this indicates that the disk was imported into a disk group when the udid_mismatch indi-
		 cator was set.  The vxdisk set clone=on command can also be used to set the flag.

		 If  the  keepmeta flag is set on a disk, this indicates that the disk should be used to contain the configuration copies database
		 and the kernel log copies when the disk is added to a disk group.

		 The -o tag option can be used to list only those devices that match a specified tag name and optional tag value.  A "~" character
		 placed before a tag name or tag value inverts the selection.

		 A  disk with a duplicated UDID can be imported along with its disk group if the -o useclonedev=on option is specified to the vxdg
		 import command.  If multiple clones of a disk exist, one of these cloned disks can be imported provided that the  same  tag  name
		 and  optional	tag  value  have been set on all the disks, and that the tag name and optional tag value are also specified to the
		 vxdg import command.

		 Note: If the vxdisk list command is run on a cluster node, the output shows the local state of the disk on that node, and not the
		 cluster state of the disk.

       listtag	 Lists	the tag names and tag values that are associated with the disks.  The -o tag option can be used to list only those devices
		 that match a specified tag name and optional tag value.  A "~" character placed before a tag name or tag value inverts the selec-
		 tion.

       offline	 Declares  the	disk  devices named by the accessname arguments to be in the offline state.  This disables checking of the disk in
		 searching for particular disk IDs, or for the set of disks in a particular disk group.  This operation cannot be applied to disks
		 that are members of an imported disk group.

		 Take  a disk offline if the disk is not currently accessible, and if accessing the disk has a negative impact on the system.  For
		 example, disk drivers on a some operating systems can cause system panics or hangs if an attempt is made to access disks that are
		 not  accessible.   In	other operating systems, attempts to access inaccessible drives may take several seconds or minutes before
		 returning a failure.

       online	 Clears the offline state for a disk device.  This re-enables checking of the disk when searching for disk IDs, or for members	of
		 a  disk  group.   This  can  be  used for disks that are already in the online state, provided that they are not in imported disk
		 groups.  All internal information for an already online state disk is regenerated from the disk's private region.

		 If -a is specified, re-online all online disks that are not currently in an imported disk group.  This can be used to force  VxVM
		 to re-scan all disk headers.

       path	 Lists the disk access name, disk media name, disk group and state that are associated with each subpath on the system.  If a disk
		 group is specified using the -g option, only subpaths that are associated with that disk group are listed.

       resize	 Resizes a virtual disk device with a SCSI interface presented by a smart switch, smart array or  RAID	controller.   Following  a
		 resize  operation to increase the length that is defined for a device, additional disk space on the device is available for allo-
		 cation.  You can optionally specify the new size by using the length attribute.

		 If a disk media name rather than a disk access name is specified, the disk group must also be specified using the -g option.

		 Note: This facility is provided to support dynamic LUN expansion by updating disk headers and other VxVM structures  to  match  a
		 new LUN size. It does not resize the LUN itself.

		 Note: Any volumes on the device should only be grown after the device itself has first been grown.  Otherwise, storage other than
		 the device may be used to grow the volumes, or the volume resize may fail if no free storage is available.

		 Note: Resizing should only be performed on devices that preserve data.  Consult the  array  documentation  to	verify	that  data
		 preservation  is  supported  and  has	been  qualified.  The  operation  also requires that only storage at the end of the LUN is
		 affected. Data at the beginning of the LUN must not be altered. No attempt is made to verify the validity of pre-existing data on
		 the LUN.

		 Note: Although it is possible to resize LUNs that are online but not part of any disk group, this operation is primarily intended
		 for use with devices that are in an imported disk group.  The operation should be performed on the host where the disk  group	is
		 imported  (or	on  the master node for a cluster-shared disk group).  It is not possible to resize LUNs that are in the boot disk
		 group (aliased as bootdg), in a deported disk group, or that are offline, uninitialized, being  reinitialized,  or  in  an  error
		 state.

		 Caution: Do not perform this operation when replacing a physical disk with a disk of a different size as data is not preserved.

		 Caution: Before reducing the size of a device, any volumes on the device should first be reduced in size or moved off the device.
		 By default, the resize fails if any subdisks would be disabled as a result of their being removed in whole or in  part  during  a
		 shrink operation.

		 If  the  device  that	is being resized has the only valid configuration copy for a disk group, the -f option may be specified to
		 forcibly resize the device.

		 Caution: Resizing a device that contains the only valid configuration copy for a disk group can result in data loss if  a  system
		 crash occurs during the resize.

		 Caution:  Resizing a virtual disk device is a non-transactional operation outside the control of VxVM. This means that the resize
		 command may have to be re-issued following a system crash.  In addition, a system crash may  leave  the  private  region  on  the
		 device  in  an unusable state.  If this occurs, the disk must be reinitialized, reattached to the disk group, and its data resyn-
		 chronized or recovered from a backup.

		 Note: A Storage Foundation license is required to use the vxdisk resize command.

       rm	 Removes the specified disk access records, by disk access name.

       rmregion  Frees a region of space that is allocated in the private or public region for a particular use.  Space that  is  freed  from  the
		 public  region  becomes  usable  for  subdisk	creation.  The arguments to rmregion must match the arguments used when adding the
		 region with vxdisk addregion except for the optional length argument which can be excluded for the remove.

		 Note: The rmregion functionality is currently unimplemented for any of the existing disk types.

       rmtag	 Removes the specified tags from a disk.

       scandisks Initiates rescanning of devices in the OS device tree by VxVM.  If necessary, DMP reconfiguration is triggered.  This allows VxVM
		 to configure and multipath disks dynamically.

		 By  default,  VxVM  performs a full scan of the device tree when performing device discovery.	To discover only newly added disks
		 that are not already known to VxVM, specify the -f option.

		 The following scandisks operations are also supported:

		 scandisks [!]ctlr=controller_list
			   Discovers devices that are connected to the logical controllers specified  as  a  comma-separated  list.   If  a  !	is
			   prepended to ctlr, all devices are discovered except those that are connected to the specified controllers.

		 scandisks [!]device=device_list
			   Discovers  and configures the devices that are specified as a comma-separated list.	If a ! is prepended to device, all
			   devices except those listed are discovered.

		 scandisks fabric
			   Discovers fabric devices.

		 scandisks new
			   Discovers new disks (that is, disks not known to VxVM).

		 scandisks [!]pctlr=physical_controller_list
			   Discovers devices that are connected to the physical controllers specified as a list of items separated  by	+  charac-
			   ters.  If a ! is prepended to pctlr, all devices are discovered except those that are connected to the specified physi-
			   cal controllers.

			   A list of physical controllers can be obtained by running the vxdmpadm listctlr all command.

		 Only one scandisks operation may be specified at a time.  For example, a command such as vxdisk scandisks new fabric  results	in
		 an error.

       set	 Changes  some set of attributes for a disk.  The attributes are either simple names (used to turn on an on/off attribute), or can
		 be of the form attrname=value, to indicate a value for a particular attribute.

       settag	 Sets or updates the tag names and optional tag values for a disk.  The tag name and tag value are strings of up  to  128  charac-
		 ters.	The string must not include space or tab characters.

		 The -f option must be specified if the tag name is already set on the disk.

		 Note: The tag names site, udid and vdid are reserved, and cannot be used.

       updateudid
		 Updates  the  unique disk identifier (UDID) for one or more disks that are specified either by their access names or media names.
		 The current value of the UDID that is stored in the Device Discovery Layer (DDL) property database is used to correct	the  value
		 that is stored in the private region.

		 If the udid_mismatch flag is not set on a disk, you must specify the -f option to forcibly update the UDID value for the disk.

   Hardware-Specific Note
       Some environments provide guidelines to optimize VxVM's interaction with intelligent storage systems. If these guidelines are present, VxVM
       follows them when initializing disks, creating volumes or allocating space for volumes. These rules cannot be overridden.

DISK TYPES

       Three disk types are supported for use with VxVM: simple, nopriv, auto with format set to hpdisk, cdsdisk or none.

       The default type is auto with format set to cdsdisk for disks other than EFI disks.  If required, this default can  be  overridden  in  the
       /etc/default/vxdisk file.  If an EFI disk is initialized, the default format is hpdisk.

   Nopriv Disks
       The simplest disk type is nopriv, which defines a disk that has no private region, and that consists only of space for allocating subdisks.
       Configuration and log copies cannot be stored on such disks, and such disks do not support reserved regions defined with  vxdisk addregion.
       Because nopriv disks are not self identifying, VxVM cannot track the movement of such disks on a SCSI chain or between controllers.

       nopriv  devices	are  most useful for defining special devices (such as volatile RAM disks) that you wish to use with VxVM, but that cannot
       store private regions.  A RAM disk cannot store a meaningful private region, because data written to a RAM disk may not survive a reboot.

       Initializing a nopriv device with vxdisk init creates a disk access record internally to VxVM's configuration, but no information is  writ-
       ten to disk.  The disk ID for nopriv devices is stored in the private structure of the disk access record.

       Attributes that can be used with the define operation for nopriv disks are diskid, publen, puboffset and volatile.

	      Attributes that can be used with the init operation for nopriv disks are publen, puboffset and volatile.

   Simple Disks
       The  simple  type  presumes  that  the public and private regions are stored on the same disk, with the public region following the private
       region.

       Attributes that can be defined with vxdisk define for simple disks are listed in the ATTRIBUTES section.

   Auto-Configured Disks
       On some systems, VxVM can ask the operating system for a list of known disk device addresses.  On such systems, some device  addresses  are
       auto-configured when vxconfigd is started.

       From release 4.0 of VxVM, auto-configured disks are of type auto that can take one of the following formats:

       cdsdisk	 The  disk  is formatted as a CDS disk that is suitable for moving between different operating systems. This is the default format
		 for most disks, but it is not suitable for boot disks or EFI disks.

		 Note: As the CDS format is applied to the entire disk and is unsuitable for boot disks, attributes that relate to  slices  or	to
		 booting are not applicable.

       hpdisk	 The  disk  is formatted for use with VxVM on HP-UX.  This format can be applied to disks that can be used to boot the system.	If
		 the disk is not initialized as a boot disk, space is reserved on the disk to allow it	to  be	converted  to  cdsdisk	format	if
		 required.

       none	 The disk is an unformatted auto-configured disk.

       Auto-configured	devices  can  be  removed,  if necessary, by using the vxdisk rm command.  When removed, explicitly defined devices can be
       defined to override any auto-configured devices.  When the system reboots, no auto-configured disk devices are added to the VxVM configura-
       tion if that meant that they would share a disk with an explicitly configured disk device.

       Auto-configured	devices  can be disabled and re-enabled using the offline and online operations.  However, the offline state is not stored
       persistently.  If you need to persistently offline a device at a particular address, convert the address to use an explicit device  record.
       To do this, remove the auto-configured device, and use vxdisk define to create an explicitly configured device.

       Attributes that may be defined for auto-configured disks are listed in the ATTRIBUTES section.

       The  default format for auto-configured disks may be overridden by a suitable entry in the /etc/default/vxdisk file.  See the DEFAULTS FILE
       section for details.  A value specified on the command line takes precedence over both the value in  the  defaults  file  and  the  inbuilt
       value.

	      Note: If a format is not specified, and the target disk already has a valid auto format, this is assumed to be the desired format.

ATTRIBUTES

       clone={on|off}
		 The clone_disk flag indicates whether a disk is a duplicate of another disk (usually created by a hardware cloning mechanism).

		 This  flag is usually set automatically to on for a disk that is detected as being a duplicate, or when the -o updateid option is
		 specified to the vxdg import command and the udid_mismatch flag has been set on the disk being imported.

       configlen=length
		 The size to reserve for each copy of the configuration stored on the disk.  The default size is based on the size of the  private
		 area and the number of configuration copies requested, and leaves some space free for uses other than the configuration copies.

       diskid=newdiskid
		 For a nopriv disk, this defines the value newdiskid for the disk ID in the disk access record.

       keepmeta={default|always}
		 If set to default, a configuration copy and a log copy are written to the specified disk when it is added to a disk group if this
		 is accord with the standard placement policy.

		 If set to always, a configuration copy and a log copy are written to the specified disk when it is added to a	disk  group  irre-
		 spective of the standard placement policy.

       loglen=length
		 The size to reserve in the private region for each log region.  This size limits the number of kernel-initiated detach operations
		 that can be logged against the disk group.  The default is about 15% of the size of the configuration copies.	It is advised that
		 the log sizes be kept as 15% of the configuration copy size.

       nconfig=count
		 The number of configuration copies to store on the disk.  This defaults to 1.	Setting this value to 0 indicates that no configu-
		 rations are to be stored on the disk.

		 VxVM automatically enables and disables the configuration copy.  It maintains a level of redundancy in configuration copies  that
		 allows the configuration to be recovered from the loss of multiple disks.

		 See the description of the nconfig parameter on the vxdg(1M) manual page for more information.

       nlogs=count
		 The  number  of  log  regions to allocate on the disk.  Log regions are used for storing any plex detaches that happen within the
		 disk group.  This number defaults to 1.

		 VxVM automatically enables and disables the configuration copy.  It maintains a level of redundancy in configuration copies  that
		 allows the configuration to be recovered from the loss of multiple disks.

		 See the description of the nlog parameter on the vxdg(1M) manual page for more information.

       offline	 If specified, creates disk in the offline state for the define operation, or leaves the device in the offline state initially for
		 the init operation.  This attribute is used only if a new disk access record is being defined.

       pftostate={enabled|disabled}
		 Indicates whether Powerfail Timeout (PFTO) is enabled or disabled. The setting is persistent.

       privlen=length
		 The length of the private region. If this is not specified, then a default is chosen. For  the  simple  and  cdsdisk  types,  the
		 default size is 32MB.	The maximum possible size of the private region is 524288 blocks.

		 The  default  value of privlen may also be overridden by a suitable entry in the /etc/default/vxdisk file.  See the DEFAULTS FILE
		 section for details.  A value specified on the command line takes precedence over both the value in the  defaults  file  and  the
		 inbuilt value.

       publen=length or len=length
		 For disk types other than nopriv, the length of the public region.  If not specified, the length of the public region is computed
		 from available system-specific disk size information.	If no such information is available, a public region length must be speci-
		 fied  in this command.  The default public region length is adjusted to account for the private region, or for any specified pub-
		 lic or private region offsets.

		 For nopriv disks, the usable length of the device.  This is required if there is no system-defined procedure for determining  the
		 disk length; otherwise, a suitable default is computed.

       puboffset=offset or offset=offset
		 For  nopriv disks, the offset within the device for the start of the usable region.  The default value of this offset defaults to
		 1.  This can be changed if it is necessary to skip over some region that is reserved for use by the operating system.	If an off-
		 set is specified, the default disk length is adjusted accordingly.

       volatile  For  a  nopriv disk, this marks the contents of the disk as being volatile (that is, the disk contents are not expected to remain
		 consistent across a system reboot).  Subdisks and plexes defined on disks with the volatile  attribute  inherit  that	attribute.
		 The vxvol start operation interprets volatile plexes as requiring complete revival from other plexes in the same volume.

DEFAULTS FILE

       The /etc/default/vxdisk file can be used to set the default values of the format and privlen attributes for the vxdisk and vxdisksetup com-
       mands.  Values in this file override inbuilt values, and may themselves be overridden by values specified on the command line.

       The following attributes may be specified in the defaults file:

       format=format
		 Defines the default format for auto type disks.  Supported values of  format  are  hpdisk  and  cdsdisk.   The  setting  of  this
		 attribute is considered for the define and init operations.

       privlen=length
		 Defines  the  default	length	for  the  private  region.  See the ATTRIBUTES section for a full definition.  The setting of this
		 attribute is considered for the init operation only.

       The attributes and their values may be defined in any order in the file, the attribute keyword must start  in  the  first  column,  and	no
       white-space  characters	are  allowed  around the = character.  If an attribute is defined multiple times, only the final occurrence in the
       file is used. Commands silently ignore any definition line that has an invalid format.

EXAMPLES

       This example sets the powerfail timeout on disk01.

	      vxdisk set disk01 pfto=seconds

       Use the getctlr keyword to return the controller associated with a disk that is specified by its enclosure-based disk access name.

	      vxdisk getctlr JBOD0_5

FILES

       /etc/default/vxdisk Defaults file used by the vxdisk and vxdisksetup utilities.

NOTES

       Auto-configured disks of type auto with the cdsdisk format cannot be used as boot, root, or swap disks.	Such disks can also only  be  cre-
       ated and used in a disk group that has a version number greater than or equal to 110.

       To  ensure that the disk partition table and the disk format are in agreement, it is recommended that you use the vxdisksetup -i command to
       initialize disks in preference to the vxdisk init command.

       The default private region size increased from 512KB to 1MB in release 3.2, and from 1MB to 32MB in release 5.0.   The  exception  is  VxVM
       boot  disk  groups  where  the  private	region size is limited to 1MB.	This restriction is necessary to allow the boot loader to find the
       /stand file system during Maintenance Mode Boot.

SEE ALSO

       pfto(7), vxcdsconvert(1M), vxconfigd(1M), vxdg(1M), vxdisksetup(1M), vxedit(1M), vxintro(1M), vxvol(1M)

VxVM 5.0.31.1							    24 Mar 2008 							vxdisk(1M)