SUMMARY: Volume Manager vs. DiskSuite?

From: Jim Napier (jnapier@soemail.ucsd.edu)
Date: Tue Nov 19 1996 - 17:22:48 CST


Opinions were varied on this question. People seemed to like what they
were using. The most important opinion came from my local Sun sales
rep, who had this to say:

"...you are better off sticking with Volume Manager at least for the
time being. Volume Manager offers better functionality with the SSA,
it's cross platform (licensed from Veritas), and Sun has no plans to
EOL (end of life) the product. Disksuite's future on the other hand, is
a little less certain. Again, we have no plans to EOL the product,
however it does not seem to be keeping up as fast as Volume Manager."

The other opinions express are attached. Thanks to:

David Lee <T.D.Lee@durham.ac.uk>
Kevin Sheehan <Kevin.Sheehan@uniq.com.au>
Glenn Satchell <Glenn.Satchell@Uniq.com.au>
Ron Loftin <rloftin@engsys.mc.xerox.com>

My original post-

>We will probably be upgrading our S1000 in the next few months to
>Solaris 2.5. When we do we will re-evaluate the software we use for our
>SSA management. We we purchased this system 2 years ago when the
>combination of hardware and software we ran made this a moot point.
>Volume Manager was our only choice. Disk Suite's capabilities have been
>improved since then. I'd like to hear pros and cons from the group
>about choosing one over the other. It's worth pointing out that our SSA
>usage is fairly simple at the moment. Currently, we simply mirror disks
>and databases. However, this could change so I'd like flexibility in
>the future.

<-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-<*>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=->
  Jim Napier jnapier@soe.ucsd.edu
  Systems Administration (619)534-5212
  School of Engineering
  UC San Diego

    "Man is nature's way of demonstrating that a little knowledge can
     be dangerous."
<-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-<*>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=->

>From T.D.Lee@durham.ac.uk Wed Nov 13 02:30:49 1996
From: David Lee <T.D.Lee@durham.ac.uk>
To: Jim Napier <jnapier@soemail.ucsd.edu>
Subject: Re: Volume Manager vs. DiskSuite?
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Length: 2556

On Tue, 12 Nov 1996, Jim Napier wrote:

> Platform: Sparc S1000E with 2 Sparc Storage Arrays
> OS: Solaris 2.4
> Database: Sybase 11
> SSA Management: Volume Manager 2.1
>
> We will probably be upgrading our S1000 in the next few months to
> Solaris 2.5. When we do we will re-evaluate the software we use for our
> SSA management. We we purchased this system 2 years ago when the
> combination of hardware and software we ran made this a moot point.
> Volume Manager was our only choice. Disk Suite's capabilities have been
> improved since then. I'd like to hear pros and cons from the group
> about choosing one over the other. It's worth pointing out that our SSA
> usage is fairly simple at the moment. Currently, we simply mirror disks
> and databases. However, this could change so I'd like flexibility in
> the future.

A year ago we got our first SSAs. The supplied documentation was for VM.
We were just about to start with this when a visiting Sun engineer
said in passing "Have you considered Solstice Disk Suite [SDS]?".
So we then approached Sun to ask the pros and cons.

Eventually we decided for SDS:

1. Because it appears to be Sun's strategic product;

2. Our own experience from a few months running both indicated that SDS
   was easier to set up and maintain. (Apparently the next release
   of SDS may also assist with establishing disk-partitioning.) We are
   now completely SDS, and happy. (We did have one nasty experience, when
   recovering from an earlier RAID problem, which probably involved some
   pilot-error on my part using the GUI; a similar recovery using the
   command-line interface was fine. How much was pilot-error and whether
   VM would have been different is unknown.)

Our environment is pure UNIX fileserving (local and via NFS). You mention
Sybase: we don't have this (it's a database isn't it?). Give Sun a ring:

1. Ask their opinion of VM vs. SDS;

2. Mention Sybase. I say this because I see (but don't necessarily
   read in detail!) various messages on this list and others of the form
   "we have such-and-such a problem ... note that we have Sybase".

Hope that helps.

--

: David Lee I.T. Service : : Systems Programmer Computer Centre : : University of Durham : : Phone: +44 191 374 2882 (ddi) South Road : : Fax: +44 191 374 3741 Durham : : Internet: T.D.Lee@durham.ac.uk U.K. :

>From kevin@uniq.com.au Wed Nov 13 13:26:00 1996 From: Kevin.Sheehan@uniq.com.au (Kevin Sheehan {Consulting Poster Child}) To: jnapier@soemail.ucsd.edu (Jim Napier) Subject: Re: Volume Manager vs. DiskSuite? Content-Length: 229

Disk Suite. My experience anyway says that the drivers don't eat up as much, and it isn't quite as stubborn and monolithic. Also, when things go wrong, it's been a lot easier to fix.

l & h, kev

>From glenn@uniq.com.au Wed Nov 13 16:39:45 1996 From: Glenn Satchell - Uniq Professional Services <Glenn.Satchell@Uniq.com.au> To: jnapier@soemail.ucsd.edu Subject: Re: Volume Manager vs. DiskSuite? Content-Length: 2904

My personal preference is fo rDisksuite for a number of reasons.

1. You can administer it very easily usin gcommand line programs - means you don't need access to XWindows at 2am when someone phones/pages you with a problem.

2. In some limited testing we did it has much lower system overhead than volum,e manager.

3. Comes free with Solaris 2.4, 2.5, 2.51 server kits.

4. I just like the way it works.

As a bonus, I wrote an agent for SunNet Manager that can be uses to monitor metadevice status. Available from zippy.telcom.arizona.edu:/pub/snm/contrib using either anonymous ftp or http. Despite what the readme file in that directory says it works fine with Disksuite 4.0.

Also DS 4.1 was recently announced with a whole stack of new features that might be worth following up with your Sun rep.

regards, -- Glenn Satchell glenn@uniq.com.au | There's a fine line Uniq Professional Services Pty Ltd ACN 056 279 335 | between fishing and PO Box 70, Paddington, NSW 2021, (Sydney) Australia | standing on the shore Phone 02 380 6360 Pager 016 287 000 Fax 02 380 6416 | looking like an idiot. VISIT OUR NEW WEB SITE http://www.uniq.com.au

> From jnapier@soemail.ucsd.edu Wed Nov 13 17:22:55 1996 > Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 16:06:07 -0800 (PST) > From: jnapier@soemail.ucsd.edu (Jim Napier) > Reply-to: jnapier@soemail.ucsd.edu (Jim Napier) > To: sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov > Subject: Volume Manager vs. DiskSuite? > Comment: *** You are subscribed to the connect.com.au local list exploder > Comment: *** Please send admin requests to majordomo@connect.com.au, > Comment: *** NOT the actual list. > X-Lines: 25 > > Platform: Sparc S1000E with 2 Sparc Storage Arrays > OS: Solaris 2.4 > Database: Sybase 11 > SSA Management: Volume Manager 2.1 > > We will probably be upgrading our S1000 in the next few months to > Solaris 2.5. When we do we will re-evaluate the software we use for our > SSA management. We we purchased this system 2 years ago when the > combination of hardware and software we ran made this a moot point. > Volume Manager was our only choice. Disk Suite's capabilities have been > improved since then. I'd like to hear pros and cons from the group > about choosing one over the other. It's worth pointing out that our SSA > usage is fairly simple at the moment. Currently, we simply mirror disks > and databases. However, this could change so I'd like flexibility in > the future. > > <-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-<*>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> > Jim Napier jnapier@soe.ucsd.edu > Systems Administration (619)534-5212 > School of Engineering > UC San Diego > > "Man is nature's way of demonstrating that a little knowledge can > be dangerous." > <-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-<*>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> >

>From rloftin@engsys.mc.xerox.com Thu Nov 14 05:54:41 1996 From: rloftin@engsys.mc.xerox.com (Ron Loftin) To: jnapier@soemail.ucsd.edu Subject: Re: Volume Manager vs. DiskSuite? Content-Length: 526

I have used both, and for the SSA I prefer the Veritas Volume Manager. It has all the disk management/configuration stuff available in the GUI, where the DiskSuite GUI only does the stripe/mirror management. With DiskSuite, you still have to do all the command-line stuff with the "format" program to partition the disks and create filesystems. Veritas is also more flexible with respect to disk partitioning, as it will allow you to define partitions that overlap, where DiskSuite will get very fussy about such things.



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