Veritas Filesystem

http://www.datadisk.co.uk/html_docs/veritas/veritas_file_system.htm

Veritas File System

Veritas Filesystem ( VxFS) is an extent based, intent logging file system. VxFS is geared toward Unix environments
that require high performance and availability and deal with large amounts of data.
VxFS features: Extent based allocation
Extent attributes
Fast filesystem recovery
Access control lists (ACL)
Online administration
Online backup
Enchanced I/O and mount options
Improved synchronous writes
Support for large filesystems (up to 2 terabytes)
Support for large files (up to 1 terabytes)
Veritas quicklog
Version 4 disk Layout
The VxFS version 4 disk layout divides the entire file system space into fixed sized allocation units. The first
allocation unit starts at block zero and all allocation units 32K blocks. All structural information are contained in
files. So expanding the filesystem structures simply requires extending the appropriate structural files. All version 4
structural files reside in the structural fileset.
The structural files in version 4 disk layout are:

Object location Table file

Contains the object location table (OLT). The OLT, which referenced from the superblock is used to
locate the other structural files.

Label File

Encapsulates the super-block and super-block replicas. Although the primary location of the
super-block is known, the label file can be used to locate upper-block copies ifthere is structural
damage to the filesystem.

Device File

Records device information such as volume length and volume label and contains pointers to other
structural files.

Fileset Header File

Hold information on a per- fileset basis. This may include the inode of the filesets inode list file,
the maximum number of inodes allowed, an indication of whether the filesystem supports large
files and the inode number of quotas file if the filesetsupports quotas.
When a filesystem is created, there are two filesets, the structural fileset, whichdefines the file
system structure and the primary fileset which contains user data.

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Inode List File

Both the structural fileset and the primary fileset have their own inode lists which are stored in
inode list files. Increasing the number of inodes involves increasing the size of the file after
expanding the inode allocation unit file.

Inode Allocation Unit File

Hold the free inode map, extended operations map and a summary of the inode resources.

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Log File

Maps the block used by the filesystem intent log.

Extent Allocation Unit State File

Indicates the allocation state of each AU by defining whether each AU is free allocated as a whole
(no bitmaps allocated) or expanded, in which case the bitmaps associated with each AU determine
which extents are allocated.

Extent Allocation Unit Summary

File

Contains the AU summary for each allocation unit, which contains the number of free extents of
each size. The summary for an extent is created only when an allocation unit is expanded for use.

Free Extent Map File

Contains the free extent maps for each of the allocation units.

Quotas File

If the filesystem supports quotas, there is a quotas file, which is used to track the resources
allocated to each user.

Creating a Filesystem
The mkfs command creates veritas filesystems by writing to a special character device.
mkfs F vxfs o largefiles /dev/vx/rdsk/appdg/samba_vol
mkfs

Create

[-F vxfs] [ generic_option] [-o special_option] device [size]

generic_option
special_option
device
size

Options common to other filesystem types

Options specific to VxFS filesystem
disk device or Veritas volume
the size in sectors

Mounting/ Unmounting a Filesystem

Mount a VXFS filesystem

mount F vxfs o largefiles /dev/vx/rdsk/appdg/samba_vol /samba

Umount a VXFS filesystem

umount /samba

Displaying a Filesystem

Information

mount -v
mount -p

How created

mkfs -F vxfs -n N <filesystem>

mkfs -F vxfs -m <character device>

Identifying Filesystem types

Identify filesystem type

fstyp -v /dev/vx/dsk/appdg/samba_vol
fstyp -v /dev/vx/rdsk/appdg/samba_vol

(block device)
(raw device)

Shrink/grow a Filesystem
Shrink a filesystem

/usr/lib/vxfs/fsadm -b 102400 /samba

Grow a filesystem

/usr/lib/vxfs/fsadm -b 204800 /samba

Reorganise a Filesystem

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Use the fsadm ro reorganise (defrag) a filesystem:

Report on extent fragmentation:

/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsadm -E /samba

Report on directory fragmentation:

/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsadm -D /samba

Reorganise extents:

/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsadm -e /samba

Reorganise directories:

/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/fsadm -d /samba

Create and Mount a snapshot filesystem

Use the mount command to create the snap shot filesystem then use vxdump (or tar, dd, cpio) to backup the
filesystem to tape:

Create the snapshot filesystem:

mount -F vxfs -o snapof=/dev/vx/dsk/appdg/samba_vol snap,size=208400 \

/dev/vx/dsk/rootdg/snapshot/snapshot

Backup the filesystem:

vxdump -cf /dev/rmt/1cbn /snapshot

Restore the filesystem (to /restore

filesystem):

vxrestore -vx /restore

Using quotas
Turn on a quota for a filesystem (make sure
filesystem has been mounted with quota option):

vxquotaon <mount_point>

To setup a users quota

vxedquota <username>

To view a users quota:

vxquota -v <username>

Note: a file will be created called quotas (it's a text file)

vxquotaoff <mount_point>

To turn off quota on a filesystem:

Note: The quota file is not removed.

VxFS consistancy
Full check

fsck -F vxfs -o full,nolog <volume>

Two f/s in parallel

fsck -F vxfs -o p <raw-device>,raw-device>

Intent Log
The intent log is uded to speed up recovery

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Create

fsadm -F vxfs -o log=size,logdevice=<device>

Mount

mount -F vxfs -o log

mount -F vxfs -o delaylog

(integrity)
(performance)

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