VERITAS File System 4.1 (HP OnlineJFS/JFS) Release Notes (September 2005)

VERITAS File System 4.1 Release Notes
Software Issues in VxFS
Chapter 1 23
If you try to convert a sparse file to a Quick I/O file, the Oracle instance can fail if Oracle
tries to write into an unallocated block. Specifically, datafiles used by the Oracle8i and
Oracle9i temporary tablespace may be sparse files, so do not convert these to Quick I/O
files. See the VERITAS Storage Foundation 4.1 for Oracle Database Administrator’s
Guide for more information.
• PHCO_33308 Required for LVM Commands to Recognize Disk Layout Version 6
When reducing a volume, LVM checks the volume to prevent any part of the existing file
system from being thrown away. Likewise, when an LVM physical volume is created, LVM
ensures that it is not clobbering an existing file system. However, LVM does not recognize
a VxFS 4.1 file system with disk layout Version 6, which is the default disk layout version
in VxFS 4.1. Install PHCO_33308 for LVM to work with disk layout Version 6.
• PHCO_33238 Required for swapon Command to Recognize Disk Layout Version
6
The swapon command does not recognize a VxFS file system with disk layout Version 6,
and therefore does not produce a warning while using a device that has such a file system.
Install PHCO_33238 to enhance the swapon command to recognize the VxFS disk layout
Version 6.
• Applications using statvfsdev(3C) interface need to relink with new LIBC
The applications which use statvfsdev(3C) interface on a device name, need to relink
with the new LIBC to be able to understand Disk Layout Version 6, supported by VxFS
4.1. If the applications are not relinked, they will not be able to recognize Disk Layout
Version 6 filesystem. However, they would continue to recognize Disk Layout Version 4
and Disk Layout Version5 filesystem.
• System Hang Occur on Systems With Less Cache Memory
VxFS allocates a fixed amount of memory. The amount of memory allocated can be
changed using the tunables vx_ninode and vx_bc_bufhwm. After long hours of operation,
low-memory systems, slow down or hang due to memory pressure. To solve this problem,
lower the values of vx_ninode and vx_bc_bufhwm to limit VxFS memory consumption.
NOTE VxFS consumes a fixed percentage of memory for the default values of
tunables such as vx_ninode and vx_bc_bufhwm. VxFS consumes nearly
10% of total physical memory for the default value of vx_ninode. If the
system has 512 MB of memory, VxFS will require up to 52 MB to store the
VxFS inode cache. Therefore it is necessary to tune the tunables according
to the type of load on the system.
• Tuning Down the Inode Cache