On Wed, 7 Aug 1996 17:02:07 -0700, Tom La Porte wrote:

>Interesting that this should come up on today's list digest. Yesterday
>we began to set up an ADSM server on our SP2, and we were preparing all
>of our DASD, which we had hoped to allocate in 2GB file chunks (we had
>prepared the disks by formatting them into 2GB partitions). dsmfmt,
>however, refused to format anything larger than 1000MB.
>
>We tried everything listed in the Administrator's Reference -- we tried
>specifying in kilobytes and megabytes, with the same result, and we
>tried using an asterisk (*) as our file size, and were prompted with an
>"invalid file size specification error." Error no. 27 (or maybe it was
>no. 28) was reported each time we tried to dsmfmt with a size larger
>than 1000 MB, but we had no way of determining what that error code was.
>
>Has anyone ever seen this problem? Does the asterisk as a file size
>specifier actually work?
>
>Thanks. -- Tom
>
>Thomas A. La Porte
>DreamWorks SKG                            Voice: 818-733-6328
>100 Universal Plaza, Bldg. 601            Fax:   818-733-6318
>Universal City, CA 91608                  <tlaporte AT dreamworks DOT com>
>
Tom,
Check the Max File Size setting for the user that is trying to create the 2G 
file.  Make sure it is
set to 4194302.  We had the exact same problem (and we were doing the DSMFMT 
from the
root userid) - it defaults to 1G max file size.
>>
>> Date:    Tue, 6 Aug 1996 09:12:31 PDT
>> From:    "Andrew M. Raibeck" <araibeck AT VNET.IBM DOT COM>
>> Subject: Re: AIX Servers:  Use SMIT or DSMFMT for logical volumes?
>>
>> Micheal Tramont had questions about using DSMFMT vs. SMIT to create ADSM
>> volumes.
>>
>> Just to clear up a possible point of confusion: DSMFMT does not create raw
>> volumes, as SMIT does. Rather, DSMFMT creates and formats regular JFS files
>> for ADSM to use.
>>
>> Unless there is a compelling reason to use raw volumes, I *strongly* 
>> recommend
>> that you use JFS volumes. Raw volumes provide little to no benefit. The usual
>> argument for raw volumes is performance. But since we cache database and
>> recovery log pages in memory, raw volumes generally don't offer much of a
>> performance benefit. The downside to raw volumes is that they don't enjoy the
>> same file system level of protection that JFS offers.
>>
>> As far as how to allocate the volumes goes: ADSM does not support volumes
>> that are 2 GB or larger. Thus your volumes must be LESS THAN 2 GB (support of
>> volumes 2 GB and greater is a known requirement).
>>
>> It is probably better to allocate a smaller number of larger volumes rather
>> than a large number of small volumes. This is because for each volume that
>> ADSM mounts (database, recovery log, storage pool), a separate process or
>> thread is created, which does consume some of the system's resources. As I
>> mentioned above, the only caveat is that each volume must be less than 2 GB.
>>
>> Andy Raibeck
>> ADSM Level 2 Support
>> 408-256-0130

Todd Mitchell
Wagner and Brown, Ltd.
300 N. Marienfeld
Midland, Texas 79701
915-682-7936
mitcht AT marshill DOT com