Lucent Technologies 585-210-940 manual Introduction to Disk Mirroring1, Disk mirroring defined

Introduction to Disk Mirroring	CentreVu CMS Release 3 Version 8 Disk-Mirrored Systems
Disk mirroring defined	1
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Introduction to Disk Mirroring1

This chapter introduces you to “disk mirroring,” an optional feature of CentreVu Call Management System (CMS) that provides you with a completely redundant set of data, helping to ensure data security. To use disk mirroring, you must have a Sun* Enterprise* 3000 or Sun Enterprise 3500 platform running CMS r3v8.

Disk mirroring defined

Metadevices

“Mirrors” are a feature of the Solstice DiskSuite* software package. They allow you to build a hard disk system containing two—or even three— complete sets of data. Having such data redundancy greatly reduces the risk of data loss should a hard disk drive fail or your system crash. While mirrors greatly reduce the risk of losing data, however, they are not meant to be a substitute for regular backups. Mirrored systems must be

backed up just as often as unmirrored systems.

The Solstice DiskSuite software package allows multiple disk partitions to be logically combined to create a single large partition. Using the Solstice DiskSuite package allows CMS databases to span multiple disks, and so grow quite large.

Solstice DiskSuite uses virtual disks to manage physical disks and their associated data. In Solstice DiskSuite, a virtual disk is called a metadevice. To a software application, a metadevice is identical to a physical disk drive. Solstice DiskSuite handles all I/O requests directed at a metadevice, converting them into I/O requests for the underlying disks.

Solstice DiskSuite metadevices are built from slices (disk partitions). A system controlled by Solstice DiskSuite may contain any number of metadevices, each of which may comprise any combination of disk partitions.

Once a metadevice has been set up, the underlying disk partitions can be accessed only through the metadevice.

*Sun, Enterprise, and Solstice DiskSuite are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc.