VERITAS Volume Manager 4.1 Administrator's Guide

Understanding VERITAS Volume Manager
How VxVM Handles Storage Management
Chapter 110
See “Disk Device Naming in VxVM” on page 64 and “Changing the
Disk-Naming Scheme” on page 78 for details of the standard and the
enclosure-based naming schemes, and how to switch between them.
Virtual Objects
Virtual objects in VxVM include the following:
• VM Disks
• Disk Groups
• Subdisks
• Plexes
• Volumes
The connection between physical objects and VxVM objects is made
when you place a physical disk under VxVM control.
After installing VxVM on a host system, you must bring the contents of
physical disks under VxVM control by collecting the VM disks into disk
groups and allocating the disk group space to create logical volumes.
NOTE To bring the physical disk under VxVM control, the disk must not be
under LVM control. For more information on how LVM and VM disks
co-exist or how to convert LVM disks to VM disks, see the VERITAS
Volume Manager Migration Guide
Bringing the contents of physical disks under VxVM control is
accomplished only if VxVM takes control of the physical disks and the
disk is not under control of another storage manager such as LVM.
VxVM creates virtual objects and makes logical connections between the
objects. The virtual objects are then used by VxVM to do storage
management tasks.