44Understanding Veritas Volume Manager

Volume layouts in VxVM

Figure 1-18 Striped-mirror volume laid out on six disks

Underlying mirrored volumes

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Mirror

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Striped plex

Striped-mirror volume

See Creating a striped-mirror volume” on page 254 for information on how to create a striped-mirrored volume.

As shown in Figure 1-19, the failure of a disk in a mirrored- stripe layout detaches an entire data plex, thereby losing redundancy on the entire volume. When the disk is replaced, the entire plex must be brought up to date. Recovering the entire plex can take a substantial amount of time. If a disk fails in a striped-mirror layout, only the failing subdisk must be detached, and only that portion of the volume loses redundancy. When the disk is replaced, only a portion of the volume needs to be recovered. Additionally, a mirrored-stripe volume is more vulnerable to being put out of use altogether should a second disk fail before the first failed disk has been replaced, either manually or by hot- relocation.