Top-Down Volume Creation Processes
The top-down volume creation process provides flexibility by offering the following processes:
A fully automated end-to-end process through which you can specify needed constraints and have the necessary volumes created when the command completes
A more granular process with breakpoints at which you can write to an XML-based file
The following figure shows how the metassist command supports end-to-end processing based on
command-line input and input files. The figure also shows how the metassist command
supports partial processing, which allows you to provide file-based data or to check volume
characteristics.
Figure 22-1 Processing Options for Top-Down Volume Creation
For an automatic, hands-off approach to volume creation, use the command line to
specify the quality-of-service characteristics you require. The metassist command automatically creates the
requested volumes for you. For example:
# metassist create -s storagepool -S 10Gb
This command creates a stripe volume of 10 Gbytes in size in
the storagepool disk set. The command uses available storage that exists in the
storagepool disk set.
Alternatively, you can use a volume request file to define the characteristics of a volume.
Then, you can use the metassist -F request-file command to create a volume
with those characteristics.
You can use the metassist -d command to produce a volume specification file.
You can use this file to assess the intended implementation and edit the
file, if needed. The volume specification file can then be used as input
to the metassist command to create volumes.
Finally, you can use the metassist -c command to create a command file.
The command file is a shell script that implements the Solaris Volume Manager device
configuration specified by the metassist command. You can use this file for repeated volume
creation and edit the file, as appropriate.
When you use the metassist command to create these files, you learn what
the metassist command does and how it makes decisions. This information can be
useful for troubleshooting some of the following:
Why a volume was created in a certain way
Why a volume was not created
What volumes the metassist command would create, without actually creating the volumes
