16.4 Managing Pools with iManager

16.4.1 Creating a Pool

In iManager, click Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.

A list of pools appears in the Pools list.
To create a new pool, click New.

The New Pool Wizard opens to guide you through the process.
Specify a name for the new storage pool, then click Next.

NSS supports only NSS64 pool type. NSS64 pools use 64-bit block addressing and supports upto 8 EB (exabyte) of pool size. All NSS64-bit pools are by default AD media upgraded.

For guidelines about naming pools, see Section 6.4, Naming NSS Storage Objects.

In the following example, the device is not shared, so the Cluster Enable on Creation check box is not displayed.
Specify device parameters and the space to use, then click Next.
1. Select the check box next to one or more of the available devices you want to use in the pool.
2. In Used Size, specify the amount of space in megabytes (MB) to add to the pool from each device you selected, up to the amount of free space available for that device.
  
  To update the Total Pool Size as you enter the device’s Used Size, click anywhere within the Wizard dialog box. If any entry exceeds a device’s available space, the pool expansion fails and returns an error message. When expanding a pool, the devices that have at least 1 MB of free space is displayed in the list because NSS pools can only be expanded on a MB boundary.
  
  The pool can be up to 8 EB.
  
  You can obtain space from one or more of the devices listed. Only devices that have free space appear in the list. If no devices are listed, it might be because you need to initialize a recently added device, or it might be that there is no space available on any devices. Cancel the Wizard, add more devices to the server or free up space on existing devices, then return to the Pools page to increase the size of this pool.
3. Select Activate on Creation (Mount on Creation for Linux) to activate (mount) the device automatically after it is created.
  
  This parameter is automatically enabled. Deselect the check box to turn it off.
4. If the selected device is shareable, the Cluster Enable on Creation check box is automatically selected so the pool can be shared in a cluster configuration. Deselect the check box if you do not want to cluster-enable this pool for sharing.
5. If the pool is cluster-enabled, click Next to specify its cluster parameters. Otherwise, skip ahead to Step 7.
6. Select Force Create, when you are creating a shared cluster pool that is media upgraded to support AD users, all cluster nodes from where the pool may be accessed must be upgraded to OES 2015 or later. If you have a mixed cluster node environment, where all your cluster nodes are not on OES 2015 or later, select the Force Create check box to force the pool creation. This shared cluster pool cannot be loaded on nodes earlier than OES 2015.
  
  IMPORTANT:If all nodes in the cluster are not upgraded to OES 2015 or later, the pool will not load in cluster nodes older than OES 2015. As a workaround, configure preferred nodes for each media-upgraded cluster resource so that these resources load on OES 2015 or later nodes. For more information on Configuring Preferred Nodes and Node Failover Order for a Resource, see the OES 23.4: OES Cluster Services for Linux Administration Guide.
If the Cluster Enable on Creation check box is selected, an additional page appears that allows you to specify the cluster information.

Specify the following shared pool clustering parameters:
- NCP Virtual Server Name: The name assigned to the virtual server that represents the shared pool in the cluster.
  
  When you cluster-enable a pool, a virtual Server object is automatically created in NetIQ eDirectory and given the name of the Cluster object plus the name of the cluster-enabled pool. For example, if the cluster name is cluster1 and the cluster-enabled pool name is pool1, then the default virtual server name will be cluster1_pool1_server. You can edit the field to change the default virtual server name.
- CIFS Virtual Server Name: The name assigned to the virtual server for handling CIFS (Common Internet File System) requests. This is the name of the server as it appears in a Windows system. For CIFS Virtual Server Name, the maximum supported character length is 15.
  
  NOTE:If the NCP Virtual Server Name is less than or equal to 15 characters and CIFS check-box is enabled under the Advertising Protocols, the CIFS Virtual Server Name is auto-populated with the same name as NCP Virtual Server Name. You can edit the field to change the CIFS virtual server name.
- IP Address: The IP address that you want to assign the virtual server.
  
  Each cluster-enabled NSS pool requires its own IP address. The IP address is used to provide access and failover capability to the cluster-enabled pool (virtual server). The IP address you assign to the pool remains assigned to the pool regardless of which server in the cluster is accessing the pool.
  
  IMPORTANT:The IP address for the virtual server must be in the same IP subnet as the server nodes in the cluster where you plan to use it.
  
  To specify an IP address, tab between the different entries; no dot is required in the fields. For example, if the IP address is 192.168.1.1, type the following:
```
192 168 1 1
```
- Advertising Protocols: Protocols that give users native file access to data.
  
  Specify one or more advertising protocols by selecting the check boxes of the protocols you want to enable for data requests to this shared pool.
  
  NOTE:For OES 2 and earlier, OES CIFS is not available. CIFS check box can be selected, but CIFS functionality does not apply to Linux. Selecting the check box has no effect.
  - NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) is the OES networking protocol used by the Client for Open Enterprise Server. It is selected by default. Selecting NCP causes commands to be added to the pool-resource load and unload scripts to activate the NCP protocol on the cluster. This lets you ensure that the cluster-enabled pool you are creating is highly available to Clients for Open Enterprise Server.
  - CIFS is the Windows networking protocol. Selecting CIFS causes commands to be added to the pool-resource load and unload scripts to activate the CIFS protocol on the cluster. This lets you ensure that the cluster-enabled pool you are creating is highly available to CIFS clients.
Click Finish.

For NSS, the create time might take longer than expected. Typically, the pool creation takes less than a minute, and the volume creation takes less than 10 seconds. However, if you have a large tree or the server does not hold an eDirectory replica, the create time can take up to 3 minutes.
Create a volume on the pool. For information, see Section 19.4.1, Creating Unencrypted NSS Volumes using iManager or Section 20.3, Creating an Encrypted Volume.

16.4.2 Activating and Deactivating Pools

You might need to temporarily restrict user access to an pool. Instead of bringing down the server, you only need to deactivate the specific pool.

The Activate option on the Pools page makes the selected pools and all the volumes in them available for user access. The Deactivate option on the Pools page takes the selected pools and all the volumes in them temporarily unavailable to users. It does not destroy volumes in the pools, nor does it destroy the data contained in the volumes.

To change the state of a pool:

In iManager, Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.
In the Pools list, select the pool that you want to activate or deactivate.

Wait for the page to refresh. It displays the pool’s details and enables management options. The State field shows whether the device is Active or Deactive.
Depending on the pool’s current state, to change the state of the pool:
- Click Actions > Activate.
- Click Deactivate > Actions.

16.4.3 Increasing the Size of a Pool

Using the Increase Size option on the Pools page expands the storage capacity of a selected pool by adding new partitions. You can increase the size of your storage pools, but you cannot reduce their size.

In iManager, click Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.
In the Pools list, select the pool that you want to expand.

Wait for the page to refresh. It displays the pools’s details and enables management options.
Click Increase Size.

This opens an Expand a Pool Wizard that guides you through the process of adding partitions from available devices.
Select the devices you want to use and the amount of space to use from each device.

In the Used Space field, type the amount of space in megabytes (MB) to add, up to the amount of free space available for that device. If any entry exceeds a device’s available space, the pool expansion fails and returns an error message.

Software RAID 1 (mirrored) devices can contain only one pool per device. If you select a RAID 1 device to add a partition to your pool, NSS automatically allocates all of the available space to the pool.

The Total Pool Size is the sum of the partitions you define plus the current pool size. Initially, the Total Pool Size field displays the current size of the pool. To update the Total Pool Size as you enter values in the Used Size field, click anywhere within the Wizard dialog box.

You can obtain space from one or more of the devices listed. Only devices that have free space appear in the list. If no devices are listed, there is no space available to increase the size of the pool. Cancel the Wizard, add more devices to the server or free up space on existing devices, then return to the Pools page to increase the size of this pool.
Click Finish, or click Cancel at any time to back out of the process.

16.4.4 Renaming a Pool

The Rename option on the Pools page lets you to modify the name of the selected pool. For example, you might want to assign a pool name that relates to a department name change. The pool must be in the active state when you rename the pool so that eDirectory can be updated.

For an NSS pool, NLVM must unload and reload the pool in order to rename it. Depending on the pool’s load-time behavior and share state, the pool might be in a deactive state after the rename and require administrator action to reload the pool and its volumes. Because the volumes are temporarily unavailable, it is best to perform a pool rename during a period of little or no user activity. See Table 16-2 to determine what actions to take after renaming a pool:

Table 16-2 Actions Required after Renaming an NSS Pool

Pool Share State	Pool Load-Time State	Pool State After a Rename	Action Required
Unshared	Autoloaded	Active with volumes dismounted	Mount the pool’s volumes
Unshared	Not autoloaded	Deactive	Activate the pool, then mount its volumes
Shared	Load and unload is controlled by OES Cluster Services. Before you rename a cluster-enabled pool, make sure to offline the pool resource, activate the pool by using iManager or NSSMU instead of using the load script, then you can rename the pool by using iManager or NSSMU.	Deactive	Online the pool resource to activate the pool and its volumes. OES Cluster Services automatically updates the pool resource load and unload scripts to reflect the name change. Also, NSS automatically changes the Pool Resource object name in eDirectory.

Because renaming involves changing information in the Pool object in eDirectory, you must ensure that the shared pool is active on a cluster node that has its NCP server object in the same context as the Pool object of the pool you are going to rename.

In iManager, click Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.
In the Pools list, select the pool that you want to rename.

Wait for the page to refresh and display the details.
If the pool is deactive, activate it by clicking Activate.

Wait for the page to refresh and display the details.
Click Rename.

This opens the Rename a Pool Wizard that guides you through the process.
Specify a name, then click Finish.

If the name is valid and unique, the pool is successfully renamed.

If not, you receive an error, and you must repeat the process. For information about valid pool names, see Section 6.4, Naming NSS Storage Objects.
If the Pools page does not automatically update to show the new name for the pool, in Roles and Tasks, click Pools to refresh the current page.
Activate the pool if it is deactive, then mount the pools’s volumes.

16.4.5 Deleting a Pool

You might need to delete an NSS pool to create more free space for other pools. The Delete option on the Pools page removes one or more selected pools from the server, including all member partitions and the data on them. Deleting a pool removes the ownership of the space it occupied, freeing the space for reassignment. If the pools you want to delete are active, deactivate them before you delete them.

WARNING:Deleting a pool destroys all the volumes and data in it. These volumes cannot be restored.

If the pool is created on RAID1 device, deleting the pool will also delete the RAID1 device.

Prerequisites for Deleting a Pool

If the pool is shared in a OES Cluster Services cluster, you must offline the cluster resource before you attempt to delete the clustered pool or its cluster resource.

If the pool has pool snapshots, you must delete the pool snapshots before you delete the pool. For information, see Section 18.11, Deleting a Pool Snapshot using NSSMU or iManager.

Procedure

In iManager, click Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.
In the Pools list, select one or more pools that you want to delete.

Wait for the page to refresh. It displays the pools’s details and enables its management options.
Click Delete.
Click Yes to confirm the deletion, or click No to cancel the deletion.

WARNING:If you click Yes, the pool and all the volumes and data on it are immediately destroyed.

16.4.6 Managing Fstrim on a Pool

Using the Fstrim option on the Pools page you can trim the unused blocks on the selected NSS pool. This process runs in the background. For more information on the trimmed size in bytes, see fstrim Last Trimmed Size on the Pools Details area of the Pools page display information about a selected pool. You can also view the fstrim status information at /var/log/messages.

In iManager, click Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.
In the Pools list, select the pool on which fstrim has to be executed.
Click Fstrim. A pop-up message is displayed. Click OK to continue.

The fstrim request is submitted successfully.
Click OK to return to iManager welcome page or click Repeat Task to return to Pools page.

16.4.7 Viewing Pools on a Server

In iManager, click Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.

When the page refreshes, a list of pools appears in the Pools list. Depending on the number of pools, this can take a few seconds. Avoid clicking again in the page until it refreshes and displays the Pools list.

16.4.8 Viewing Pool Details

The Pool Details area of the Pools page displays information about a selected pool in the Pools list, as described in the following table:

Table 16-3 Explanation of Pool Details

Device Detail	Description
Name	The descriptive pool name assigned by the administrator.
Pool Type	Specifies the type of pool. NSS supports only the NSS64 pool type. NSS64 pools use 64-bit block addressing and supports upto 8 EB (exabyte).
Mount Point	On your Linux system, this is the mount location for the NSS pool. The default mount location is /opt/novell/nss/mnt/.pools/ poolname, where poolname is the name of the selected pool.
Partitions	A list of all of the partitions that are part of the selected pool. To view information about any of the partitions, select the partition in the drop-down list, then click the View Details icon.
Number of Partitions	The total number of partitions currently assigned to the selected pool.
State	The current state of the selected pool, as Active or Deactive. Active pools are available to the users; deactive pools are not available to users.
LSS Type	The type of Loadable Storage System, such as ZLSS, CDDVD, or DOSFAT.
Share State	Shows whether the selected pool is on a device that is marked as Shareable for Clustering or as Not Shareable for Clustering. The system pool cannot reside on a device that is shareable for clustering. Use the Devices page to set this device attribute.
Volumes	A list of all existing volumes residing in the selected pool. To view information about any of the volumes or to manage any of the volumes, select the volume in the drop-down list, then click the View Details icon. You can also select a pool, then click Volumes in Roles and Tasks.
Number of Volumes	The total number of volumes residing in the selected pool.
AD Media Upgrade	Specifies whether the pool media is upgraded to support AD users. NSS64 pools are by default Trustee Index media (includes AD media) upgraded.
Devices	A list of the descriptive device names of all logical devices contributing space in the selected pool.
Number of Devices	The total number of devices currently assigned to the selected pool.
Total Space	The total amount of space assigned to the selected pool.
Free Space	The total amount of space that is currently not in use on the selected pool.
Used Space	The total amount of space that is in use on the selected pool. Purgeable Space: The total amount of space in the selected pool that is currently in use as a salvage area or partitioned space that is not yet otherwise assigned. Other In-Use Space: The total amount of space in the selected pool that is currently in use and cannot be easily deleted without destroying data.
Fstrim Status	Displays whether the fstrim command is running on the selected pool.
Fstrim Last Trimmed Size	The total size trimmed when the fstrim was last executed on the selected pool.
Fstrim Last Executed Time	The timestamp (date and time) that fstrim was last executed on the selected pool.
Block Size	The maximum amount of data committed to a single write. Possible sizes include 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 KB. The default setting for NSS is 4 KB.
Creation Date	The time stamp (date and time) that the pool was created.
Last Update	The time stamp (date and time) that the pool was last modified by a management action.

Procedure

In iManager, click Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.
In the Pools list, select a pool to view its details.

Wait for the page to refresh and display the pool’s details.
The pool must be active to display its details. If the Details area is empty, select the pool, then click Activate.

When the page refreshes, you can view the pool’s details.

16.4.9 Viewing Partition Information for a Pool

Although NSS abstracts the partitions underlying the pool structure, you can view information about those partitions.

In iManager, click Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.
In the Pools list, select the pool you want to manage.

Wait for the page to refresh and display the details. The pool must be active to see partition details.
If the pool is deactive, make sure the pool is selected, then click Activate.

After the page refreshes, the Partitions drop-down list is available.
Click on the arrow next to the Partitions drop-down list to expand the list.
To view details about a partition, select the partition, then click View Details.

A Partition Information page opens where you can view details about the partition.

16.4.10 Viewing Volume Information for a Pool

In iManager, click Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.
In the Pools list, select a pool.

Wait for the page to refresh and display the details in the Details area.
To view the volumes in the pool, use one of these methods:
- In the Details area, click the arrow on the Volumes drop-down list.
  
  To view details for a volume in the list, select the volume, then click View Details. The Volumes page opens with the server and volume preselected.
- Click Storage > Volumes.
  
  The Volumes page opens with the server preselected. To view details for a volume in the Volumes list, select the volume, then wait for the page to refresh.

For information about Volume management, see Managing NSS Volumes.

16.4.11 Viewing Device Information for a Pool

In iManager, click Storage > Pools.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.5, Accessing Roles and Tasks in iManager.
Select a server to manage.

For instructions, see Section 10.2.6, Selecting a Server to Manage.

When the page refreshes, a list of pools appears in the Pools list.
In the Pools list, select a pool.

Wait for the page to refresh and display the pool’s details in the Details area.
To view the list, in the Details area, click the arrow on the Devices drop-down list.
(Optional) Select the device, then click View Details to view its details.

The Devices page opens with the server and device preselected. Wait for the page to refresh to view the device’s details.

For information about device management, see Managing Devices.