DiskSuite GUI problem on a 280R

[dmarsee]

I have just loaded OS 8 + DiskSuite 4.2.1 on a 280R with 2x36 GB internal drives. I am initiating DiskSuite, which only seems to work properly from the commandline; e.g.
1. controllers do not show up in GUI
2. any attempt to use a slice descriptor in the GUI to create database replicas returns "Slice does not exist"
3. replica databases are created at the command line (so the slices DO exist and are not mounted); then controller and disks show up in graphic tool, but state of metadata in GUI remains CRITICAL (metadb at the commandline shows the replicas, but doesn't seem to give any status info).

Has anyone had similar difficulties with the GUI ... ??

Thanks, in advance for advice... NOTE: I am new to DiskSuite, can you tell??

Don

 

[NavinB]

Hi,
In GUI,u can click Disk View to see the disks and if u are trying to attach a slice that has a mounted filesystem on it to a meta-database then it returns some error.However if u attach a blank slice to it,it will add that to the database.I have done like this:
Made a partition of 15MB each on slice 7 of the 2-internal disks.Then u can make copies of database to be kept on each slice .For eg. metadb -a -f -c 2 c0t0d0s7 would make two copies of database on slice 7 of c0t0d0.
Secondly,the state of database is shown critical because the database ideally needs to be on 3 diff controllers.However, u can ignore that if u have meta-database on slice 7 of both disks.
I hope this helps......

 

[dmarsee]

Thanks, NB. That is not how the manual directs me, but it did show the controller and one disk (only the one with the replicas on it - not the second disk. I have now added replicas to that disk also.)

Strange thing is, 'disk information' shows really bizarre numbers, to wit:
Status: OK
In Use: 487.43 %
Capacity: 0.01 Mbytes
Unallocated:-387.43%

Is your disk information valid??

Thanks for your interest... Don

 

[mikeclark]

One potential problem with having replicas on 2 disks is that when the system boots it checks that half + one of the replicas match. If you lose the mirror disk, even if the boot disk is OK, DiskSuit won't let the system boot because you would have 2 replicas showing which fails the half + one test. If you have a system disk, which is mirrored to a second disk and you have a seperate data area then it is an idea to create a replica on the data disk. That way if you lose either the system disk or the mirror disk, the replica on the data disk will give you 3 out of five and the system can still boot.