Managing Shared Disks

Installing shared disk components

This section tells you what you need to have or know before the install, what to install, and how to do the install.

First, you should understand the general installation process, which is:

1. Install AIX 4.3.3 or AIX 5L 5.1 on the control workstation and make it operational. Then be sure you have or install an appropriate level of AIX on all the nodes.

   Note:

   Remember, you can run earlier supported levels of the IBM Recoverable Virtual Shared Disk software in a coexistence environment but you will not get the latest level of functionality until the control workstation and all the virtual shared disk nodes in a system partition have AIX 4.3.3 or AIX 5L 5.1 and PSSP 3.4 with the prerequisite components.

2. Install PSSP 3.4 on the control workstation, including any optional components that when chosen are required to be on the control workstation, and make it operational.
3. Install the applicable software on the nodes.

Preparing to install

Before you begin installing the shared disk components, do the following:

• If you haven't already done it, read Planning to use the shared disk components and prepare your plan.
• Read the documentation that accompanies the installation media to make sure you have the appropriate version and level of all software. The "Read This First" document lists any required service updates (APARs) for the PSSP or AIX products that must be installed along with the file sets for the IBM Virtual Shared Disk, Hashed Shared Disk, and IBM Recoverable Virtual Shared Disk components.
• Install AIX 4.3.3 or AIX 5L 5.1 following procedures in the AIX publications. It must be installed, configured, and operational on the control workstation before you proceed.
• Decide which shared disk components you want to use and select both the required and optional PSSP file sets to install respectively. Keep in mind any dependencies that the options you choose might have on other optional components. Select file sets from the list in Installation file sets and the list in RS/6000 SP: Planning, Volume 2, Control Workstation and Software Environment.
• Be sure you have enough space. Use the space specifications in Detailed space requirements and in RS/6000 SP: Planning, Volume 2, Control Workstation and Software Environment to help you evaluate this.
• Install the required components of PSSP 3.4 and make them operational, file sets ssp.basic and ssp.sysctl in particular, following the procedures in PSSP: Installation and Migration Guide.

Installation file sets

The file sets involved are:

• For the IBM Virtual Shared Disk component:

  vsd.vsdd

  virtual shared disk device driver

  vsd.sysctl

  Sysctl commands

  vsd.cmi

  Centralized Management Interface (SMIT)

• For the Hashed Shared Disk component:

  vsd.hsd

  data striping device driver

• For the IBM Recoverable Virtual Shared Disk component:

  vsd.rvsd.rvsdd

  recovery manager

  vsd.rvsd.hc

  connection manager

  vsd.rvsd.scripts

  recovery scripts

Note:

The IBM Virtual Shared Disk Perspective component is in ssp.vsdgui. The PostScript file for this book and the man pages for related commands are contained in ssp.docs. They are in the ssp install image which should be installed on the control workstation.

Detailed space requirements

Use the information in this section to help you estimate the space you need in order to install the optional shared disk components of PSSP. See RS/6000 SP: Planning, Volume 2, Control Workstation and Software Environment to help you estimate the space for PSSP and other optional components.

The individual components require space in directories as specified in the following table:

Table 2. Space Used

Performing the install

Use either of the interfaces described in Table 3 for each of the components you have decided to install.

Table 3. Installation Interfaces

installp -a -d  /spdata/sys1/install/pssplpp/pssp-3.4
-X vsd

installp -l 
-d /spdata/sys1/install/pssplpp/pssp-3.4/pssp.installp

You can install all the virtual shared disk components at once, even if you do not intend to use them all, you can select files using a wildcard character (like vsd.*), or you can install individual file sets. Regardless of which way you do the installation, the following steps must be completed:

1. Install the IBM Virtual Shared Disk component on the control workstation. Note that installing vsd.cmi on the nodes as well may be beneficial as well.

   It must be on the control workstation for configuration management. The control workstation is neither a server nor a client.

   The files to install are:

   vsd.vsdd

   device driver

   vsd.sysctl

   Sysctl commands

   vsd.cmi

   Centralized Management Interface (SMIT)

   vsd.rvsd.rvsdd

   recovery manager

2. Install the IBM Virtual Shared Disk component on the virtual shared disk client and server nodes.

   The file sets required on the client and server nodes are vsd.vsdd, vsd.sysctl, vsd.rvsd.rvsdd, and vsd.rvsd.scripts. Although not required, IBM suggests installing vsd.cmi as well.

3. If you decided to use the Hashed Shared Disk component, install vsd.hsd on the client and server nodes.
4. The vsd.rvsd.hc connection manager is an optional file set most often used by database software. When needed, it should be installed on the control workstation and the client and server nodes.