Hello
I use raw and TSM mirroring because I was told that idf I had a problem and
used OS mirroring TSM did not support that. If I wanted TSM support I would
need to do TSM mirroring.  So make sure!
Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Deschner [mailto:rogerd AT UIC DOT EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 12:30 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: WRONG Answer: dsmfmt file size


Yes, I am too easy to satisfy. That's because after a weekend of
dsmfmt-ing, I'm declaring the thing BROKEN worse than before. I take
back those nice things I said last Friday.

I'm not using raw LVs because I want to use OS mirroring on my disk
storage pools. Also the ITSM Administrator's Guide goes to some length
to convince you not to use Raw LVs, and I tend to believe the basic
manual for any product when they come out and say something and are that
sure of it.

What bewilders me now about dsmfmt is two questions:

1) Why does the error message tell me how big to specify for some disks
and not for others? The Logical Volumes are identical except for size.
On a 72gb disk, if I overestimate, it says how big to use. On a 36gb
disk, it's like before, where I get to guess, and then wait several
hours to find out if I guessed right or not.

2) Why is it's calculated number so low? After dsmfmt was done, the Unix
df command showed that filesystem only 94% full, with nearly 5gb showing
free on df on a 72gb disk. That's a lot of waste! I'm not so sure this
new feature is such a great idea if it is going to forbid me from
getting my disk as full as possible. By the old method of trial and
error and waiting for hours, I could usually get it well over 99% full,
according to the Unix df command.

Now I really want that option you suggest - use it all (I mean, really
use it all) and tell me how much space I've got when I'm done. The
current state of affairs in V5.1 is worse than just wasting a lot of my
time; now it is wasting my disk space as well, and it is behaving
inconsistently.

A consistently-behaving, easy to use to allocate all of something,
version of dsmfmt is VITAL to disaster recovery capabilities!

Roger Deschner      University of Illinois at Chicago     rogerd AT uic DOT edu


On Fri, 3 Oct 2003, Joel Fuhrman wrote:

>You are to easy to satisfy.  I would like an option which says to use it
all
>and tell me what was used.  That way I only have to do the dsmfmt once.