dxlsm(8X)dxlsm(8X)NAMEdxlsm - Graphical interface, also called the Visual Administrator, for
the Logical Storage Manager (LSM)
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/X11/dxlsm [-options]
OPTIONS
Specifies the color of the window's background (color displays only).
The default is white. Specifies the display screen on which dxlsm dis‐
plays its window. If the display flag is not specified, dxlsm uses the
display screen specified by your DISPLAY environment variable. The
display variable has the format hostname:number. Using two colons (::)
instead of one (:) indicates that DECnet is to be used for transport.
The default is :0. For more information, see X(1X). Specifies the
color of the text (color displays only). The default is black. Speci‐
fies the width, length, and location of the dxlsm window. If the geome‐
try flag is not specified, dxlsm uses default values. The geometry flag
has the format =[width][xlength][x][y]. For more information about the
screen coordinate system, see X(1X). Brings up a help screen that dis‐
plays the dxlsm flags. Uses a monochrome display instead of color.
Instead of using color to differentiate icons, the display uses bitmap
patterns of varying textures and shades. Specifies the title for the
dxlsm window. Sets the specified X resource for the current dxlsm ses‐
sion. See the X DEFAULTS section of this reference page for a list of
the resources you can set. Suppresses a reminder message that is
issued by default when dxlsm is used in a TruCluster Production Server
or TruCluster Available Server configuration. Unless suppressed, this
message is displayed each time dxlsm starts up and whenever the config‐
uration is changed.
DESCRIPTION
The Visual Administrator (dxlsm) is a graphical user interface (GUI)
for LSM. The Visual Administrator interface provides the user with
graphical elements such as icons, windows, and menus to ease the task
of manipulating the LSM configuration. Note that the Visual Adminis‐
trator software is included with the base system software, but it
requires a separate LSM license to run.
The graphical interface is designed primarily for disk and volume oper‐
ations. For example, you can use it to add and rename disks; to ini‐
tialize and remove diskgroups; to mirror volumes, and to create,
change, and remove volumes, plexes, and subdisks. You can also use
dxlsm to display information about disks and volumes. In addition to
the disk and volume operations, the Visual Administrator provides a
limited set of file system operations. For example, you can create and
mirror file sytems.
The Visual Administrator interface provides a consistent view of the
LSM configuration. If a configuration or its objects are changed while
a Visual Administrator session is running, the icons representing those
objects automatically alter themselves to reflect such changes. The
icons adjust themselves in this manner, regardless of whether the
changes were made by the Visual Administrator itself or by another LSM
interface.
Before you can start the LSM Visual Administrator, you must be logged
into an account that has superuser privileges. To start the Visual
Administrator from the command line, enter the dxlsm command as fol‐
lows:
# dxlsm
When dxlsm comes up, it displays the main LSM Visual Administrator win‐
dow, called the root window, and the View of rootdg window.
Mouse Buttons
A two- or three-button mouse is required in order to use dxlsm. The
following table describes the default mouse buttons, referred to as the
MB1, MB2, and MB3 buttons.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Virtual 3-Button 2-Button Function
Mouse But‐ Access Access
ton
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
MB1 Left Left Selects a single icon.
MB2 Middle Ctrl-Left Selects either one or multiple
icons simultaneously.
MB3 Right Right Views properties of an object.
If the icon is not undergoing
analysis, it displays the prop‐
erties form for that object.
If the icon is undergoing anal‐
ysis, it displays the analysis
statistics form for that
object.
Shift-MB1 Shift-Left Shift-Left Toggles between minimizing or
maximizing an icon.
Shift-MB2 Shift-Middle Ctrl-Right Toggles between starting or
stopping projection on the
selected icon.
Shift-MB3 Shift-Right Shift-Right Displays the properties form
for the object, regardless of
whether analysis is in effect.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Icons
The Visual Administrator interface uses icons to represent the follow‐
ing LSM objects: volumes plexes subdisks disks
Disk groups are represented as view windows rather than icons.
The icons representing LSM disks, volumes, and other objects belonging
to a particular disk group are all displayed within the view of the
disk group. The following list describes the icons and their charac‐
teristics. Physical disks appear as cylindrical icons labeled PD.
These icons represent physical disks known to dxlsm. Physical disk
icons appear in the View of Disks window. Partitions appear as rectan‐
gular icons within physical disk icons. The partition icon is labeled
with the device name. If a disk has been added to a disk group, the
corresponding partition icon is shaded. Partition icons appear in the
View of Disks window. LSM disks appear as cylindrical icons labeled D
usually contain subdisks, which are represented as rectangles. LSM disk
icons represent disks that are both under LSM control and assigned to a
disk group. LSM disk icons are labeled with the disk name, by default.
LSM disk icons typically appear in a disk group view. Subdisks appear
within LSM disks (and often within plexes) as rectangular shaped icons.
Subdisk icons typically appear in disk group views or in the View of
Volumes window. Log subdisks (used to log recent disk activity) have
icons with double borders to distinguish them from regular subdisk
icons. Plexes appear either alone or within volumes as relatively
large rectangles containing subdisks. Plex icons have a heavy border to
distinguish them from partition or subdisk icons. Plex icons typically
appear in disk group views or in the View of Volumes window. Volumes
appear as cylindrical icons labeled V. These icons often contain plex
and subdisk icons. Volume icons are distinguished from disk icons by a
heavy border. Volume icons typically appear in disk group views or in
the View of Volumes window. With some operations, icons are updated
almost instantly to reflect the results of the operation just per‐
formed. During other operations, it may take awhile for a particular
icon to update itself. While being updated, icons are prevented from
accepting input or undergoing configuration changes. Since an icon
that is busy being updated should not be selected or manipulated, dxlsm
greys out the text in that icon so that the user is aware that it is
temporarily inaccessible. No input is accepted by an icon while it is
greyed out. As soon as the icon is fully updated, it returns to its
normal visual state and accepts input again. Icons that are temporarily
greyed out in this manner are also referred to as blocked icons.
There are two ways to manipulate icons, as described here: The user
first selects an icon by positioning the pointer on it and then click‐
ing MB1 (when selecting a single icon) or MB2 (when selecting multiple
icons) button. The mouse or keyboard can then be used to choose an
operation (typically from a menu) to be applied to the selected icons.
The user drags an icon and then drops it elsewhere. An icon is dragged
by holding down MB1 and then moving the mouse, which moves an outline
of that icon. The icon can then be positioned in a different location
or on top of another icon and dropped there by releasing MB1. The
resulting operation depends on the icon type and drop location.
Depending on the type of monitor you are using, the Visual Administra‐
tor employs color or bitmap patterns to indicate the following: State
of an icon Activity level of an icon Relationships between icons Fail‐
ure of an operation
It is possible for a single icon to be in multiple states represented
by different colors or patterns at once. For example, a given icon may
be both selected and under projection at the same time. In such cases,
the reflects the color or pattern that represents the highest priority.
The following is the priority list for possible icon states, starting
with the highest priority: Blocked Error Selected Projected Analyzed
Enabled
An icon that is in the blocked state (highest priority) is one that is
currently busy and cannot allow any mouse or keyboard input. The text
within a blocked icon is greyed out to indicate that it is inaccessi‐
ble.
If a color monitor is used, the default colors are red, yellow, grey
and green. If a monochrome monitor is used, bitmap patterns of varying
textures and shades are used instead of colors. By default, standard X
Window System bitmaps (typically located in either
/usr/include/X11/bitmaps or are used to create these patterns.
The following table describes the values for the default colors and
bitmap patterns associated with icons under different conditions. See
the X DEFAULTS section of this reference page for information about
changing the default colors and patterns.
────────────────────────────────────────────────
Situation Color Bitmap Pattern
────────────────────────────────────────────────
selected icon royal blue gray3
disabled icon light grey stripe4
alarmed icon red gray1
free subdisk icon light grey root_weave
projection deep pink root_weave
analysis: low green cross_weave
analysis: medium yellow root_weave
analysis: high red wide_weave
────────────────────────────────────────────────
Windows and Views
Once you start the Visual Administrator, any of the view windows can be
accessed via the root window. Views are special windows that display
icons representing all LSM objects or a subset of objects currently
known to LSM.
When the Visual Administrator comes up, it displays the main Visual
Administrator window (also known as the root window). The root window
contains a menu bar and a set of buttons. The set of buttons varies
slightly depending on whether you have RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inde‐
pendent Disks) subsystems installed on your system. The menu bar con‐
tains the following pull-down menu items: Closes the current window or
exits the Visual Administrator interface completely Creates and manipu‐
lates user views Sets user preferences when using the Visual Adminis‐
trator GUI Accesses the help facility
From the Visual Administrator root window, you can use the pull-down
Views menu to get to the views windows. With views, you can examine
and manipulate different parts of the physical and logical storage sys‐
tems. You can add or remove icons from views only by using the LSM Vis‐
ual Administrator.
Each view window title includes the name of the machine on which the
session is running.
The Visual Administrator root window provides a view button area con‐
taining a button for every view on the system. Views are accessed by
clicking MB1 on one of the view buttons in the views subwindow.
The Visual Administrator allows for two types of views: default views
and user-created views. Both types function identically, but certain
restrictions are placed on default views. Default views cannot be
removed or renamed by the user, as user-created views can.
Click on the mouse buttons to access the default view windows described
in the following table.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Menu Buttons Window Access
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Disks View of Disks Displays all physical disks on
the system
Volumes View of Volumes Displays all volumes, as well as
plexes and associated subdisks,
on the system
World View of World Displays everything on the sys‐
tem including physical and LSM
disks, volumes, and other
objects
rootdg View of rootdg Displays everything in the
default disk group, rootdg ,
including LSM disks, volumes,
and other objects
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
A user-created view is a view window that focuses on a particular part
of a physical and a logical mass storage system, as defined by the sys‐
tem administrator. The system administrator can create views consisting
of a selected collection of icons. For example, a user might create a
special view to correspond to a physical or logical grouping (such as a
view for the accounting department). User-created views enable the
user to isolate part of the mass storage subsystem to observe or moni‐
tor that part of the configuration.
User-created views differ from default views in that they contain
copies of icons from default views. Operations performed on these icon
copies are reflected in the default views that display the affected
icons. However, icons that appear in user-created views are not always
updated whenever those icons are altered in the corresponding default
view.
User-created views can be created using the Views pull-down menu from
the Visual Administrator root window. Once created, icons can be added
to a new view window by copying them over from existing views via the
Icon menu.
The rootdg Window
By default, the View of rootdg window, which contains objects belonging
to the rootdg disk group, appears immediately after the Visual Adminis‐
trator window displays.
You should perform operations in the View of rootdg window or in
another disk group view whenever possible.
The View of rootdg window has a menu bar containing the following menu
items: Closes the current window or exits the Visual Administrator com‐
pletely Accesses basic volume, file system, and disk operations
Accesses advanced operations involving volumes, disks, and other LSM
objects Analyzes and displays the activity level of objects Illustrates
the relationships between certain objects Sets user preferences for
using the GUI. Also displays the Command Info window Manipulates icons
Accesses the help facility
Disk Operations
This section lists the disk operations you can perform using the Visual
Administrator.
Disk groups are represented visually as disk group views rather than
icons. To view the objects in a particular disk group, click MB1 on the
appropriate disk group button in the Visual Administrator window. A
View of Disks window appears. Physical disk icons containing partition
icons are displayed in this window. Disks under LSM control contain
partition icons that are colored or patterned. Note that the View of
rootdg window is the view of the disks that belong to the rootdg disk
group.
To display information about for a particular LSM disk, in the View of
rootdg or appropriate disk group view, click MB3 on the disk icon whose
properties you want to view. The disk's properties form appears, dis‐
playing detailed information about the disk. For example, the proper‐
ties form includes a field that shows the maximum free space available
on that disk.
It is possible to alter certain characteristics of the disk by editing
the appropriate properties form field and then clicking MB1 on Apply.
For example, you can use the properties form to change the name of a
disk.
For the following operations, in the appropriate view window, begin by
selecting Disk Group from the Advanced-Ops menu. Add a disk to a disk
group Deport a disk group Import a disk group
Note that you can be in any view window to import a disk group.
Remove a disk from a disk group
After you remove a disk from a disk group, select the Disk menu
from the Advanced-Ops menu and select Remove Disk.
See the manual Logical Storage Manager for more information on disk
operations.
Volume Operations
The volume operations are performed from the View of rootdg window for
the rootdg disk group or from the appropriate disk group view for other
disk groups.
To display information about a volume, in the View of rootdg or appro‐
priate disk group view, click MB3 on the volume icon whose properties
you want to view. The volume's properties form appears, displaying
detailed information about the volume. It is possible to alter certain
characteristics of the volume (such as its name) by editing the appro‐
priate properties form field and then clicking MB1 on Apply.
To perform the following volume operations using the Visual Administra‐
tor, from the appropriate disk view, select Volume Operations from the
Basic-Ops menu: Create a simple volume
If you want to specify the disk where the volume will reside,
click MB1 on the desired disk icon, before selecting Volume
Operations from the Basic-Ops menu. Otherwise, LSM will select
the disk for you. Create a striped volume Mirror a volume
Resize a volume, either by extending or shrinking it Remove a
volume
To back up a volume, follow these steps: In View of rootdg or the
appropriate disk group view, select the volume you want to back up.
Select Basic-OPs → Volume Operations → Snapshot → Snapstart. For UFS
volumes, you may want to unmount the file system briefly, to ensure
that the snapshot data on disk is consistent and complete. Select
Basic-Ops → Volume Operations → Snapshot → Snapshot. In the Snapshot
Form, either accept the default snapshot name or fill in a new name,
then click MB1 on Apply to complete the backup snapshot. Note that
normal usage of the original volume can now resume. Back up the snap‐
shot volume to tape. Remove the snapshot volume by first selecting it
and then selecting the following menu items:
Basic-Ops → Volume Operations → Remove Volumes Recursively
See the manual Logical Storage Manager for more information on volume
operations.
File System Operations
The file system operations are performed from the View of rootdg window
for the rootdg disk group or from the appropriate disk group view for
other disk groups.
To perform the following file system operations, from the appropriate
disk view, first select UFS Operations from the Basic-Ops menu: Create
a file system on a simple or striped volume Make a file system
This operation is different from creating a file system, in that
in this operation, the volume on which you create the file sys‐
tem already exists. Mount a file system Umount a file system
Display a mounted file system
To mirror a file system, select the following: Basic-Ops → Volume Oper‐
ations → Add Mirror
See the manual Logical Storage Manager for more information on file
system operations.
Analyze Menu
The Analyze menu, available from the View of rootdg and other disk
group views, allows you to display statistics about the performance of
LSM objects. Note that only volume and LSM disk icons can be selected
for analysis.
To start analysis, select one or more LSM disk and volume icons and
then select Start from the Analyze menu. Select Parameters from the
Analyze menu to specify user preferences for analysis. For example, you
can specify the cutoff values for coloring or patterning of the icons
under analysis.
When an icon is under analysis, you can display the Analysis Statistics
form for that icon by clicking the MB3 button on the icon. Because the
MB3 button is normally used to access an icon's properties form, use
the Shift-MB3 button to access the properties form of an icon undergo‐
ing analysis instead.
See the manual Logical Storage Manager for more information on the Ana‐
lyze menu.
Projection
Projection is the technique that the Visual Administrator uses to show
relationships between icons that represent LSM objects. Projection is
illustrated using color (deep pink is the default) or bitmap patterns.
Projection highlights those objects that the selected object is com‐
posed of and illustrates the relationship between the objects. For
example, if a volume is selected for projection, the corresponding sub‐
disks are highlighted within the volume icon and also on the appropri‐
ate disk icons. If the selected icon has no associated objects, the
Visual Administrator issues a warning to this effect.
To show the projection of a particular icon, click the MB2 button on
the icon while holding down the Shift key (Shift-MB2). To stop projec‐
tion, press Shift-MB2 again. You can also start and stop projection by
selecting an icon and then using the Icon Projection submenu of the
Projection menu.
Volume, plex, subdisk, and LSM disk icons can be selected for projec‐
tion. Projection does not apply to physical disk or partition icons.
Projection may be requested in any view. When an icon is highlighted by
projection, all icons representing that object in all view windows
where it appears are highlighted.
See the manual Logical Storage Manager for more information on projec‐
tion.
RESTRICTIONS
The Disk Operations menu under the Basic Ops menu is not currently sup‐
ported. For disk operations, use the disk menus under the Advanced Ops
menu.
X DEFAULTS
This section lists X resources that can be used to configure the Visual
Administrator according to personal preferences and system require‐
ments.
The Visual Administrator resources and associated preferences can be
specified in your file. A file with default dxlsm entries is located in
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/DXlsm. The entries in this file are com‐
mented out. You can uncomment the lines that you want to enable. Refer
also to your X window system documentation on X resources for further
information.
The default values specified here correspond to those defaults compiled
into the Visual Administrator. Preferences specified in the system's
app-defaults file may change these defaults.
The entries in the file should take the following form:
DXlsm*resource: value
For example, the color used to represent a disabled icon can be altered
from the default color (light grey) to orange by editing the file to
include the following line:
DXlsm*disabledPixel: orange
The dxlsm-related resources can also be specified for a single session
only by invoking the Visual Administrator using the following syntax:
dxlsm-xrm dxlsm*resource: value
The default values can be changed according to user preferences. The
resources are listed to the left with their default values to the
right. Each resource-value pair is followed by a brief description.
Color Resources
The following resources apply only when the Visual Administrator is run
on a color monitor: The color of icons that have been selected. The
color of icons that are disabled and cannot be used by Visual Adminis‐
trator (for example, detached plexes). The color of icons that have
been selected when an error occurs (for example, incorrectly selected
icons). The color of subdisk icons that are free (unassociated) when
Show Free Subdisks has been turned on. The color of icons that are
projecting (displaying object relationships) when Icon Projection has
been turned on for that icon or a related icon. The color of icons
that have a low usage level (as defined in the Analysis Properties
Form) when analysis has been turned on for that icon or a related icon.
The color of icons that have a medium usage level (as defined in the
Analysis Properties Form) when analysis has been turned on for that
icon or a related icon. The color of icons that have a high usage
level (as defined in the Analysis Properties Form) when analysis has
been turned on for that icon or a related icon. When True is speci‐
fied, the Visual Administrator is forced to operate in monochrome
(black and white) mode, whether or not a color monitor is being used.
Monochrome Resources
The following resources apply only when the Visual Administrator is run
on a monochrome monitor: The bitmap pattern for icons that have been
selected. The bitmap pattern for icons that are disabled and cannot be
used by the Visual Administrator (detached plexes, for example). The
bitmap pattern for icons that have been selected when an error occurs
(incorrectly selected icons, for example). The bitmap pattern for sub‐
disk icons that are free (unassociated) when Show Free Subdisks has
been turned on. The bitmap pattern for icons that are projecting (dis‐
playing object relationships) when Icon Projection has been turned on
for that icon or a related icon. The bitmap pattern for icons that
have a low usage level (as defined in the Analysis Properties Form)
when analysis has been turned on for that icon or a related icon. The
bitmap pattern for icons that have a medium usage level (as defined in
the Analysis Properties Form) when analysis has been turned on for that
icon or a related icon. The bitmap pattern for icons that have a high
usage level (as defined in the Analysis Properties Form) when analysis
has been turned on for that icon or a related icon.
Icon Resources
The following resources relate to icons: When True is specified, volume
icons will be minimized when created, by default. When True is speci‐
fied, plex icons will be minimized when created, by default. This fea‐
ture is useful to display structures within volumes, but to hide
details about the subdisk structure that makes up the plex. When True
is specified, disk icons will be minimized when created, by default.
When True is specified, physical disk icons will be minimized when cre‐
ated, by default. When True is specified, icons selected for an opera‐
tion are automatically deselected when the operation completes. If set
to False, icons are remain selected until the user decides to deselect
them, making it possible to perform multiple operations on the same set
of selected icons.
Miscellaneous Resources
The following are miscellaneous dxlsm-related resources: The color in
which all foreground items are displayed. This typically applies to
icon outlines and text. The color that serves as the background for
all windows in the Visual Administrator. When True is specified to
IsvalHelp, the Visual Administrator displays a help message (including
command line option usage information) in a window at program start up.
This is the title of the application's root window. This describes the
font to be used for all text within the Visual Administrator. Use this
to specify the number of command silos supported. A command silo is a
set of sequentially dependent commands (like file system create, fol‐
lowed by file system mount). A larger number of silos supports a
larger number of concurrent operations that can be run, but also
requires the Visual Administrator to use more memory. Use commandHis‐
torySize to specify the number of commands that the Visual Administra‐
tor should remember and display in the history portion of the Command
Info Window. Use defaultViewWindow to specify the name of the disk
group to be popped up by default when the Visual Administrator is run.
Use chkMntptInterval to specify how often, in seconds, the Visual
Administrator should check the system mount table to accurately display
information about mounted file systems. When True is specified to
twoButtonMouse, the Visual Administrator remaps the mouse buttons for a
two button mouse.
Window Adjustments
On small displays (such as those with a graphical resolution of
640x480), some windows or forms may be too long to fit entirely on the
screen and the bottom area of these windows/forms may not be visible.
If this is the case, the window manager's move function (ALT-F7, by
default) can be used to move the window or form so that all areas and
form buttons are visible.
Another technique that may allow forms to fit better on a small screen
is to start up dxlsm as follows:
# dxlsm-xrm dxlsm*propertiesForm*marginHeight: 1
This resource specification causes forms to appear shorter than normal.
To achieve similar results, you can add the following lines to your
$HOME/.Xdefaults file:
dxlsm*propertiesForm*marginHeight: 1 dxlsm*propertiesForm*marginWidth:
1
FILESSEE ALSOX(1X), volassist(8), volintro(8)
Logical Storage Manager
dxlsm(8X)