VERITAS Storage Foundation 4.1 Release Notes

VERITAS Storage Foundation Release Notes

New and Enhanced Features

For operations that require a disk group, the system-wide default disk group will be used if the

VxVM command is not specified with the -g option. The main benefit of creating a default disk

group is that the VxVM commands default to the default disk group and you will not need to use

the -g option. To verify the default disk group after it has been created, enter the command:

# vxdg defaultdg

For further information, see the “Administering Disk Groups” chapter of the VERITAS Volume

Manager Administrator’s Guide.

Simplification of vxinstall

Because VxVM no longer requires a rootdg disk group to be configured, vxinstall has been

much simplified, and you can no longer use this command to configure disk groups on your system

after installation. You should now use vxdiskadm or the VERITAS Enterprise Administrator.

Instant Snapshots

Instant (copy-on-write) snapshots are easier to configure and offer more flexibility of use than

traditional third-mirror break-off snapshots. Once created, an instant snapshot is immediately

available for use. For preference, new volumes should be configured to use instant snapshots, but

this also requires rewriting of administration scripts that assume the traditional third-mirror

snapshot model. Legacy volumes can also be reconfigured to use instant snapshots.

Multi-Device Support

Multi-Device Support allows several volumes to be represented by a single logical object. All I/O

to and from the underlying logical volume is directed via the I/O interfaces of the volume sets. This

feature is designed primarily for the multi-device file system enhancement for VERITAS File

System VxFS.

Configuration Backup and Restore Support

Configuration Backup and Restore support allows you to backup and restore or replicate all VxVM

configuration data for disk groups and volumes. This applies only to VxVM configuration data and

does not apply to user and application data.

Cross-platform Data Sharing

Cross-platform Data Sharing (CDS) allows the sharing of data between heterogeneous systems

where each system has direct access to the physical devices that are used to hold the data. Because

CDS is very rich in functionality, there is a new separate Administrator’s Guide titled the VERITAS

Storage Foundation Cross-Platform Data Sharing Administrator’s Guide.