Installation guide

Table 8–1: LSM Features and Benefits (cont.)
Feature Benefit
Protects against
data loss
Protects against data loss due to hardware malfunction by
creating a mirror (duplicate) image of important file systems
and databases.
Increases disk
performance
Improves disk I/O performance through the use of striping,
which is the interleaving of data within the volume across
several physical disks.
This chapter provides an overview of LSM concepts and some commonly
used commands. The volintro
(8) reference page provides a quick
reference of LSM terminology and command usage. Refer to the manual
Digital UNIX Logical Storage Manager for more complete information on
LSM concepts and commands.
8.2 Understanding the LSM Components
LSM consists of physical disk devices, logical entities, and the mappings
that connect the physical and logical objects.
LSM builds virtual disks, called volumes, on top of UNIX system disks. A
volume is a special device that contains data managed by a UNIX file
system, a database, or other application. LSM transparently places a
volume between a physical disk and an application, which then operates on
the volume rather than on the physical disk. A file system, for instance, is
created on the LSM volume rather than a physical disk. Figure 8–1 shows
disk storage management in an LSM configuration.
8–2 Administering the Logical Storage Manager