RDF System Management Manual for H-Series RVUs (RDF 1.8)

NOTE: A single updater process can only work on 500 files at any time. If you have a
virtual disk that has a number of physical disks in its pool, and if the number of files that
need to be updated by the updater assigned to that virtual disk exceeds 500, the updater
will close some files in order to work on files it does not already have open. If this updater
must regularly work on more than 500 files, the performance of the updater will be impacted.
For optimal updater performance, you should ensure that no single updater has to work on
more than 500 files on a regular basis. This might mean that you have to reduce the number
of physical disks in a pool.
• Map many virtual disks to a single physical disk Create SMF pools where each is comprised
of a single physical disk and create SMF virtual disks from these pools. In this configuration,
all the files on a given virtual disk reside on one physical disk allowing you to have a very
large physical disk volume subdivided into a number of smaller logical volumes. In this
way it is possible to have multiple partitions of a file residing on a single physical volume,
with each partition of the file stored on a different logical volume.
Both of these configurations are supported by RDF. There are some restrictions when using SMF
on the backup system which are described in detail later in this chapter.
Configuring an SMF Environment on the Primary System
When configuring an SMF environment on an RDF primary system, make sure that SMF catalog
files are not replicated by RDF to the backup system. The SMF catalogs on the primary and
backup systems must remain independent of each other. There are three ways to do so:
• Place the SMF catalog on a primary system volume that is not protected by RDF.
The extractor ignores any audit generated by disks outside the RDF configuration, and hence
will not replicate any changes to the SMF catalog on the primary system. With this option,
you can store the catalog in either the default SMF catalog subvolume or your own
subvolume.
• Place the SMF catalog in the default SMF catalog subvolume on a volume that is protected
by RDF.
The extractor automatically filters out changes to the SMF catalog if the catalog is in the
default SMF catalog subvolume. If you store the catalog in your own subvolume, the extractor
will try to replicate changes to the catalog, which could have an adverse affect on RDF and
any SMF catalogs with the same subvolume name on the backup system.
• Place the SMF catalog in a subvolume that is explicitly excluded from RDF protection.
INCLUDE and EXCLUDE clauses are described in Chapter 11 (page 261).
Configuring an SMF Environment on the Backup RDF System
RDF supports the replication to SMF logical volumes on the backup system, with the following
restrictions:
• When replicating to an SMF logical volume, the logical volume must belong to an SMF pool
that contains 15 or fewer physical volumes, hence each updater can apply audit to up to 15
physical disks.
• The RDF/IMP product limits the total number of physical or virtual UPDATE volumes to
255. RDF/IMPX and ZLT have no such limitation, other than the limit of 255 updaters and
each updater only being able to work on a maximum of 15 physical volumes.
• Image trail volumes cannot reside on SMF logical volumes.
There are no restrictions on the placement of SMF catalog files on the backup system. If the
backup system could ever become a primary (such as after an RDF takeover, for example, or as
the result of a planned switchover), then the restrictions described in the preceding topic for
primary systems also apply.
Using SMF With RDF 71