Appendix B. Documentation Updates

B.1. January 18, 2012 (SLES 11 SP2)¶

Updates were made to the following sections. The changes are explained below.

B.1.1. Fibre Channel Storage over Ethernet Networks: FCoE¶

This section is new. Open Fibre Channel over Ethernet (OpenFCoE) is supported beginning in SLES 11.

B.1.2. GNU Licenses¶

This section is new.

B.1.3. LVM Configuration ¶

Location	Change
Section 4.6, “Tagging LVM2 Storage Objects”	This section is new.

Location

Change

Section 4.6, “Tagging LVM2 Storage Objects”

This section is new.

B.1.4. Managing Access Control Lists over NFSv4¶

This section is new.

B.1.5. Managing Multipath I/O for Devices¶

Location

Change

Section 7.4.5.5, “Configuring Default Multipath Behavior in /etc/multipath.conf”

The default getuid path for SLES 11 is /lib/udev/scsi_id.

Section 7.12, “Managing I/O in Error Situations”

Section 7.13, “Resolving Stalled I/O”

In the dmsetup message commands, the 0 value represents the sector and is used when sector information is not needed.

Table 7.6, “Multipath Attributes”

Recommendations were added for the no_path_retry and failback settings when multipath I/O is used in a cluster environment.

Table 7.6, “Multipath Attributes”

The path-selector option names and settings were corrected:

round-robin 0

least-pending 0

service-time 0

queue-length 0

B.1.6. Mass Storage over IP Networks: iSCSI ¶

Location	Change
Section 13.4, “Using iSCSI Disks when Installing”	This section is new.
Section 13.5.4, “iSCSI Targets Are Mounted When the Configuration File Is Set to Manual”	This section is new.

Location

Change

Section 13.4, “Using iSCSI Disks when Installing”

This section is new.

Section 13.5.4, “iSCSI Targets Are Mounted When the Configuration File Is Set to Manual”

This section is new.

B.1.7. Overview of File Systems on Linux¶

Location

Change

Section 1.2.1, “BtrFS”

This section is new. BtrFS is fully supported in SLES 11 SP2 and later.

Section 1.2.4, “ReiserFS”


The ReiserFS file system is fully supported for the lifetime of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 specifically for migration purposes. SUSE plans to remove support for creating new ReiserFS file systems starting with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.

Section 1.2.6, “Feature Comparison”

This section is new.

Section 1.4, “Large File Support in Linux”

The values in this section were updated to current standards.

Section 1.5, “Managing Devices with the YaST2 Partitioner”

This section is new.

B.1.8. Resizing File Systems¶

Location	Change
Section 5.1, “Guidelines for Resizing” Section 5.4, “Decreasing the Size of an Ext2 or Ext3 File System”	The resize2fs command allows only the Ext3 file system to be resized if mounted. The size of an Ext3 volume can be increased or decreased when the volume is mounted or unmounted. The Ext2/4 file systems must be unmounted for increasing or decreasing the volume size.

Location

Change

Section 5.1, “Guidelines for Resizing”

Section 5.4, “Decreasing the Size of an Ext2 or Ext3 File System”

The resize2fs command allows only the Ext3 file system to be resized if mounted. The size of an Ext3 volume can be increased or decreased when the volume is mounted or unmounted. The Ext2/4 file systems must be unmounted for increasing or decreasing the volume size.

B.1.9. Resizing Software RAID Arrays with mdadm¶

Location	Change
Section 11.2.2, “Increasing the Size of the RAID Array”	The --assume-clean option is new.

Location

Change

Section 11.2.2, “Increasing the Size of the RAID Array”

The --assume-clean option is new.

B.2. July 12, 2011¶

Updates were made to the following section. The changes are explained below.

B.2.1. Managing Multipath I/O for Devices¶

Location	Change
Section 7.2.3, “Using LVM2 on Multipath Devices” Section 7.8, “Configuring Multipath I/O for an Existing Software RAID”	Running mkinitrd is needed only if the root (/) device or any parts of it (such as `/var`, `/etc`, `/log`) are on the SAN and multipath is needed to boot.

Location

Change

Section 7.2.3, “Using LVM2 on Multipath Devices”

Section 7.8, “Configuring Multipath I/O for an Existing Software RAID”

Running mkinitrd is needed only if the root (/) device or any parts of it (such as /var, /etc, /log) are on the SAN and multipath is needed to boot.

B.3. June 14, 2011¶

Updates were made to the following section. The changes are explained below.

B.3.1. Managing Multipath I/O for Devices¶

Location	Change
??? in Table 7.6, “Multipath Attributes”	The default setting changed from multibus to failover in SLES 11.

B.3.2. What’s New for Storage in SLES 11¶

Location	Change
Section 2.3.12, “Change from Multibus to Failover as the Default Setting for the MPIO Path Grouping Policy”	This section is new.

B.4. May 5, 2011¶

This release fixes broken links and removes obsolete references.

B.5. January 2011¶

Updates were made to the following section. The changes are explained below.

B.5.1. LVM Configuration¶

Location	Change
Section 4.3, “Creating Volume Groups”	LVM2 does not restrict the number of physical extents. Having a large number of extents has no impact on I/O performance to the logical volume, but it slows down the LVM tools.

B.5.2. Managing Multipath I/O for Devices¶

Location	Change
Tuning the Failover for Specific Host Bus Adapters	This section was removed. For HBA failover guidance, refer to your vendor documentation.

B.5.3. Resizing File Systems¶

Location	Change
Section 11.3.1, “Decreasing the Size of the File System”	Decreasing the size of the file system is supported when the file system is unmounted.

B.6. September 16, 2010¶

Updates were made to the following sections. The changes are explained below.

B.6.1. LVM Configuration¶

Location	Change
Section 4.2, “Creating LVM Partitions”	The discussion and procedure were expanded to explain how to configure a partition that uses the entire disk. The procedure was modified to use the Hard Disk partitioning feature in the YaST Partitioner.
All LVM Management sections	Procedures throughout the chapter were modified to use Volume Management in the YaST Partitioner.
Section 4.7, “Resizing a Volume Group”	This section is new.
Section 4.8, “Resizing a Logical Volume with YaST”	This section is new.
Section 4.10, “Deleting a Volume Group”	This section is new.
Section 4.11, “Deleting an LVM Partition (Physical Volume)”	This section is new.

B.7. June 21, 2010¶

Updates were made to the following sections. The changes are explained below.

B.7.1. LVM Configuration¶

Location	Change
Section 4.2, “Creating LVM Partitions”	Details were added to the procedure.

B.7.2. Managing Multipath I/O¶

Location	Change
Section 7.4.5.3, “Configuring User-Friendly Names or Alias Names in /etc/multipath.conf”	Using user-friendly names for the root device can result in data loss. Added alternatives from TID 7001133: Recommendations for the usage of user_friendly_names in multipath configurations.

B.7.3. Managing Software RAIDs 6 and 10 with mdadm¶

Location	Change
Section 10.3.1.5, “Far Layout”	Errata in the example were corrected.

B.7.4. Mass Storage on IP NetWork: iSCSI¶

Location	Change
Section 13.5.1, “Hotplug Doesn’t Work for Mounting iSCSI Targets”	This section is new.

B.8. May 2010 (SLES 11 SP1)¶

Updates were made to the following sections. The changes are explained below.

B.8.1. Managing Multipath I/O for Devices¶

Location	Change
Section 7.2.3, “Using LVM2 on Multipath Devices”	The example in Step 3 was corrected.
Section 7.2.6, “SAN Timeout Settings When the Root Device Is Multipathed”	This section is new.
Section 7.3.2, “Multipath I/O Management Tools”	The file list for a package can vary for different server architectures. For a list of files included in the multipath-tools package, go to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Technical SpecificationsPackage Descriptions Web page, find your architecture and select Packages Sorted by Name, then search on “multipath-tools” to find the package list for that architecture.
Section 7.4.1, “Preparing SAN Devices for Multipathing”	If the SAN device will be used as the root device on the server, modify the timeout settings for the device as described in Section 7.2.6, “SAN Timeout Settings When the Root Device Is Multipathed”.
Section 7.4.5.2, “Verifying the Setup in the etc/multipath.conf File”	Added example output for -v3 verbosity.
Section 7.7.1.1, “Enabling Multipath I/O at Install Time on an Active/Active Multipath Storage LUN”	This section is new.
Section 7.7.1.2, “Enabling Multipath I/O at Install Time on an Active/Passive Multipath Storage LUN”	This section is new.

B.8.2. Mass Storage over IP Networks: iSCSI¶

Location	Change
Step 7.g in Section 13.2.2, “Creating iSCSI Targets with YaST”	In the YaSTNetwork ServicesiSCSI Target function, the Save option allows you to export the iSCSI target information, which makes it easier to provide this information to consumers of the resources.
Section 13.5, “Troubleshooting iSCSI”	This section is new.

B.8.3. Software RAID Configuration¶

Location	Change
Section 8.4, “For More Information”	The Software RAID HOW-TO has been deprecated. Use the Linux RAID wiki instead.

B.8.4. What’s New¶

Location	Change
Section 2.2, “What’s New in SLES 11 SP1”	This section is new.

Location

Change

Section 2.2, “What’s New in SLES 11 SP1”

This section is new.

B.9. February 23, 2010¶

Updates were made to the following sections. The changes are explained below.

B.9.1. Configuring Software RAID for the Root Partition¶

Location	Change
Section 9.1, “Prerequisites for the Software RAID”	Corrected an error in the RAID 0 definition..

B.9.2. Managing Multipath I/O¶

Location	Change
Section 7.9, “Scanning for New Devices without Rebooting”	Added information about using the `rescan-scsi-bus.sh` script to scan for devices without rebooting.
Section 7.10, “Scanning for New Partitioned Devices without Rebooting”	Added information about using the `rescan-scsi-bus.sh` script to scan for devices without rebooting.

B.10. December 1, 2009¶

Updates were made to the following sections. The changes are explained below.

B.10.1. Managing Multipath I/O for Devices¶

Location	Change
Section 7.2.3, “Using LVM2 on Multipath Devices” Section 7.8, “Configuring Multipath I/O for an Existing Software RAID”	The -f mpath option changed to -f multipath: mkinitrd -f multipath
prio_callout in Table 7.6, “Multipath Attributes”	Multipath prio_callouts are located in shared libraries in `/lib/libmultipath/lib*`. By using shared libraries, the callouts are loaded into memory on daemon startup.

Location

Change

Section 7.2.3, “Using LVM2 on Multipath Devices”

Section 7.8, “Configuring Multipath I/O for an Existing Software RAID”

The -f mpath option changed to -f multipath:

mkinitrd -f multipath

prio_callout in Table 7.6, “Multipath Attributes”

Multipath prio_callouts are located in shared libraries in /lib/libmultipath/lib*. By using shared libraries, the callouts are loaded into memory on daemon startup.

B.10.2. Resizing File Systems¶

Location	Change
Section 5.1.1, “File Systems that Support Resizing”	The resize2fs utility supports online or offline resizing for the ext3 file system.

Location

Change

Section 5.1.1, “File Systems that Support Resizing”

The resize2fs utility supports online or offline resizing for the ext3 file system.

B.10.3. What’s New¶

Location	Change
Section 2.3.10, “Location Change for Multipath Tool Callouts”	This section is new.
Section 2.3.11, “Change from mpath to multipath for the mkinitrd -f Option”	This section is new.

Location

Change

Section 2.3.10, “Location Change for Multipath Tool Callouts”

This section is new.

Section 2.3.11, “Change from mpath to multipath for the mkinitrd -f Option”

This section is new.

B.11. October 20, 2009¶

Updates were made to the following sections. The changes are explained below.

B.11.1. LVM Configuration¶

Location	Change
Section 4.1, “Understanding the Logical Volume Manager”	In the YaST Control Center, select System+Partitioner.

Location

Change

Section 4.1, “Understanding the Logical Volume Manager”

In the YaST Control Center, select System+Partitioner.

B.11.2. Managing Multipath I/O for Devices¶

Location	Change
Section 7.4.5.4, “Blacklisting Non-Multipathed Devices in /etc/multipath.conf”	The keyword devnode_blacklist has been deprecated and replaced with the keyword blacklist.
Section 7.4.5.5, “Configuring Default Multipath Behavior in /etc/multipath.conf”	Changed getuid_callout to getuid.
Section 7.6.2.1, “Understanding Priority Groups and Attributes”	Changed getuid_callout to getuid.
???	Added descriptions of least-pending, length-load-balancing, and service-time options.

B.11.3. What’s New¶

Location	Change
Section 2.3.9, “Advanced I/O Load-Balancing Options for Multipath”	This section is new.

Location

Change

Section 2.3.9, “Advanced I/O Load-Balancing Options for Multipath”

This section is new.

B.12. August 3, 2009¶

Updates were made to the following section. The change is explained below.

B.12.1. Managing Multipath I/O¶

Location	Change
Section 7.2.5, “Using --noflush with Multipath Devices”	This section is new.

Location

Change

Section 7.2.5, “Using --noflush with Multipath Devices”

This section is new.

B.13. June 22, 2009¶

Updates were made to the following sections. The changes are explained below.

B.13.1. Managing Multipath I/O¶

Location	Change
Section 7.7, “Configuring Multipath I/O for the Root Device”	Added Step 4 and Step 6 for System Z.
Section 7.10, “Scanning for New Partitioned Devices without Rebooting”	Corrected the syntax for the command lines in Step 2.
Section 7.10, “Scanning for New Partitioned Devices without Rebooting”	Step 7 replaces old Step 7 and Step 8.

Location

Change

Section 7.7, “Configuring Multipath I/O for the Root Device”

Added Step 4 and Step 6 for System Z.

Section 7.10, “Scanning for New Partitioned Devices without Rebooting”

Corrected the syntax for the command lines in Step 2.

Section 7.10, “Scanning for New Partitioned Devices without Rebooting”

Step 7 replaces old Step 7 and Step 8.

B.13.2. Managing Software RAIDs 6 and 10 with mdadm¶

Location	Change
Section 10.4, “Creating a Degraded RAID Array”	To see the rebuild progress while being refreshed every second, enter watch -n 1 cat /proc/mdstat

Location

Change

Section 10.4, “Creating a Degraded RAID Array”

To see the rebuild progress while being refreshed every second, enter

watch -n 1 cat /proc/mdstat

B.13.3. Mass Storage over IP Networks: iSCSI ¶

Location	Change
Section 13.3.1, “Using YaST for the iSCSI Initiator Configuration”	Re-organized material for clarity. Added information about how to use the settings for the Start-up option for iSCSI target devices: Automatic: This option is used for iSCSI targets that are to be connected when the iSCSI service itself starts up. This is the typical configuration. Onboot: This option is used for iSCSI targets that are to be connected during boot; that is, when root (`/`) is on iSCSI. As such, the iSCSI target device will be evaluated from the initrd on server boots.

Location

Change

Section 13.3.1, “Using YaST for the iSCSI Initiator Configuration”

Re-organized material for clarity.

Added information about how to use the settings for the Start-up option for iSCSI target devices:

Automatic: This option is used for iSCSI targets that are to be connected when the iSCSI service itself starts up. This is the typical configuration.
Onboot: This option is used for iSCSI targets that are to be connected during boot; that is, when root (/) is on iSCSI. As such, the iSCSI target device will be evaluated from the initrd on server boots.

B.14. May 21, 2009¶

Updates were made to the following section. The changes are explained below.

B.14.1. Managing Multipath I/O¶

Location	Change
Section 7.2.9.1, “Storage Arrays That Are Automatically Detected for Multipathing”	Testing of the IBM zSeries device with multipathing has shown that the dev_loss_tmo parameter should be set to 90 seconds, and the fast_io_fail_tmo parameter should be set to 5 seconds. If you are using zSeries devices, you must manually create and configure the `/etc/multipath.conf` file to specify the values. For information, see Section 7.4.5.6, “Configuring Default Settings for zSeries in /etc/multipath.conf”.
Section 7.3.1, “Device Mapper Multipath Module”	Multipathing is supported for the `/boot` device in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 and later.
Section 7.4.5.6, “Configuring Default Settings for zSeries in /etc/multipath.conf”	This section is new.
Section 7.7, “Configuring Multipath I/O for the Root Device”	DM-MP is now available and supported for `/boot` and `/root` in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.