Veritas Volume Manager 5.1 SP1 Administrator"s Guide (5900-1506, April 2011)

of the desired volume as input. Additionally, the vxassist command can modify
existing volumes while automatically modifying any underlying or associated
objects.
The vxassist command uses default values for many volume attributes, unless
you provide specific values. It does not require you to have a thorough
understanding of low-level VxVM concepts, vxassist does not conflict with other
VxVM commands or preclude their use. Objects created by vxassist are compatible
and inter-operable with objects created by other VxVM commands and interfaces.
Using vxassist
You can use the vxassist utility to create and modify volumes. Specify the basic
requirements for volume creation or modification, and vxassist performs the
necessary tasks.
The advantages of using vxassist rather than the advanced approach include:
■ Most actions require that you enter only one command rather than several.
■ You are required to specify only minimal information to vxassist. If necessary,
you can specify additional parameters to modify or control its actions.
■ Operations result in a set of configuration changes that either succeed or fail
as a group, rather than individually. System crashes or other interruptions do
not leave intermediate states that you have to clean up. If vxassist finds an
error or an exceptional condition, it exits after leaving the system in the same
state as it was prior to the attempted operation.
The vxassist utility helps you perform the following tasks:
■ Creating volumes.
■ Creating mirrors for existing volumes.
■ Growing or shrinking existing volumes.
■ Backing up volumes online.
■ Reconfiguring a volume’s layout online.
vxassist obtains most of the information it needs from sources other than your
input. vxassist obtains information about the existing objects and their layouts
from the objects themselves.
For tasks requiring new disk space, vxassist seeks out available disk space and
allocates it in the configuration that conforms to the layout specifications and
that offers the best use of free space.
Creating volumes
Using vxassist
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