Veritas Storage Foundation Intelligent Storage Provisioning 5.0.1 Administrators Guide, HP-UX 11i v3, First Edition, November 2009

■ The vxassist utility includes a number of hard-coded rules that it uses when
selecting storage. For example, vxassist may configure objects on separate
controllers without being instructed to do so. ISP requires that the selection
of storage is made explicit through rules, capabilities and templates.
■ Disk group split and join is supported at the level of storage pools. A snapshot
of an application volume should be created within a clone pool if it is to be
moved between disk groups.
Frequently asked questions about ISP
The following questions and answers provide general information about ISP:
■ What is the meaning of the new concepts that are introduced by ISP?
ISP introduces several new concepts in addition to those that are used with
traditional Veritas Volume Manager. The new concepts include storage pools,
capabilities, rules, volume templates and volume intent.
See “About ISP concepts” on page 32.
■ What is the relationship between a storage pool and a volume template?
Storage pools contain disks, VxVM objects such as volumes, and a set of volume
templates. A storage pool is defined by the volume templates that it contains.
The ISP Configuration Database contains a number of storage pool definitions
that you can use to create a storage pool object in VxVM. Each definition
contains a list of volume templates and the default policy settings for the pool
definition. When you create a storage pool object in a disk group from a storage
pool definition, these volume templates and policies also get installed.
■ When do I need to specify a template set?
A storage pool contains volume templates that define its characteristics. A
template set is simply a collection of related volume templates that you can
associate with a storage pool.
■ When do I need to specify a storage pool set?
A disk group that you want to use with ISP must be configured to contain one
data storage pool, and optionally one or more clone storage pools. You can use
a storage pool set definition to organize a disk group so that it contains data
and clone storage pools with well-defined characteristics.
■ If I create a storage pool using a storage pool definition, can I later create a
volume in that pool using a volume template other than those that are
associated with the pool?
The answer can be illustrated by an example. Suppose you create a storage
pool using the mirrored_volumes pool definition. This installs volume
templates that allow you to create mirrored volumes and volumes with similar
Understanding ISP
Frequently asked questions about ISP
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