Does Online JFS compare with Veritas Volume Manager

[Yogeeraj_1]

Hello experts,

Please guide.

1. Does Online JFS compare with Veritas Volume Manager?

2. What should i look for when purchasing a new server (that would run Oracle RDBMS) in term Logical Volume Management.

Thank you in advance for your guidances.

Best Regards
Yogeeraj

[Stefan Farrelly]

1. Online JFS is made by the same company as VVM - Veritas. OnlineJFS still works alongside HP's LVM (vgcreate, lvcreate etc.) but VVM replaces LVM with all new Vertias commands (so lots of new commands to learn). And VVM allows lots of neat new features, eg. using RAID5 via software (instead of hardware).

Personally I dont see the need for VVM, we use LVM and OnlineJFS v3.3 and is has all the functionality we need.

2. For LVM management for an Oracle server all you need is OnlineJFS (to do online resizing and performance tuning) and to have volume groups with large limits (increase max pe per pv and max pv) - and have as many controllers and disk as possible for performance.

[RAC_1]

Costs?

Give more, that is the veritas way.

[Yogeeraj_1]

Dear Mr. Stefan Farrelly,

Thank you for the reply.

One last question.

Can we say that Online JFS is a subset of VVM? Ignoring costs, is it better to have Online JFS or VVM?

Thank you again.

Best Regards
Yogeeraj

[Wodisch_1]

Hi,

well, the way you ask your question is *difficult* to answer (to say the least). Like "is it better to have the house or the furniture?" - you need both! (except you are japanese, then the house would be sufficient ;-)

For your applications to be maintainable without downtime you need "Online VxFS", maybe for speed (and the fancy Java-GUI) you would like to have "VVM". HP's LVM is stable and sufficiently fast, IMHO, so I would recommend the "Online VxFS" :-)

Just my $0.02,
Wodisch

[Yogeeraj_1]

Hi,

well, the way you ask your question is *difficult* to answer (to say the least). Like "is it better to have the house or the furniture?" - you need both! (except you are japanese, then the house would be sufficient ;-)

For your applications to be maintainable without downtime you need "Online VxFS", maybe for speed (and the fancy Java-GUI) you would like to have "VVM". HP's LVM is stable and sufficiently fast, IMHO, so I would recommend the "Online VxFS" :-)

Just my $0.02,
Wodisch

Thank you for the reply Mr. Wodisch.

If you look at the world map, you will see a small dot with a big label "Mauritius".
;)

We can now understand that VVM is a product with more functionalities than Online JFS. AND at the Operating System level, most of the thing we will need are already in the Online JFS.

Hence, the following will suffice:
hp-ux11i enterprise operating environment

- Mirror Disk/UX

Service Control enterprise:
- OpenView GlancePlus Pak 2000
- Online JFS 3.3
- Process Resource Manager
- EMS HA EMS HA

Thank you all

Best Regards
Yogeeraj

[Wodisch_1]

Hello Yogeeraj,

no offense meant (in case you are japanese ;-) !!!
The point I tried to make was that "VVM" and "VxFS" are products in totally different areas:
- VVM versa LVM (about logical disks)
- VxFS versa HFS (about filesystems)
So again, if you know your Oracle RDBMS well, then VxFS is still close to a "must" (IMHO), but VVM is more like "nice to have".

And at least for stamps (and collectors of those) you (the island) are as big as it can get! (and more important - I get the brown sugar from there).

Oh, please do not call my "Mr." - I am not that formal and "Wodisch" is my nickname, anyway... ;-)

Kind regards,
Wodisch

[Yogeeraj_1]

Dear Wodisch

thank you for the clarifications

Best Regards
Yogeeraj

PS. We don't make "Brown Sugar" here!! We produce sugar which is brown ;)

[Eric Buckner · Accepted solution]

Yogeeraj,

I use both VxVM and Online JFS (VxFS). As stated before they are 2 different products. VxVM is more akin to LVM in that it is for managing diskgroup(volume groups) and logical volumes.

We currently have 12 TB of disk space spinning for multiple Oracle databases. Online JFS(VxFS) makes resizing those filesystems much easier because I don't have to unmount the filesystem.

Now on to the advantages of VxVM over LVM. VxVM allows for multiple active paths per physical device. LVM only allows for 1 active and multiple passive paths. Meaning that VxVM will round robin between all the paths you give it for a device, LVM will use the primary path until it fails. VxVM support RAID 0,1,5 and then you can do what Veritas calls Layered layout, most notibly is RAID 0,1 and/or RAID 1,0 which are different but similar. LVM supports Mirroring via MirrorDisk-UX or Striping but not both at the same time. And there is no RAID5 support in LVM.

After saying all of that you still need LVM for VG00. And if you want to mirror VG00 you still need MirrorDisk-UX. LVM isn't a bad product for free. VxVM isn't cheap but if you are wanting performance and flexibility then it will serve you better in the long run. But if you want simplicity of use w/o the cost then stick with LVM.

Eric

[Donny Jekels]

Just a quick note, Muaritius is a beautifull island.

vg00 does not need LVM if you, want to use VxVM.

however /stand must be HFS. an swap must be SWAP+D

and your boot disk will be encapsulated. this measn the disk is under veritas's (vxvm)control.