Planning and Setup Examples

This section provides an example of how Dave, an administrator, creates two NSS volumes. (See Create Two NSS Volumes With Two Hard Drives.)

This example first shows storage devices on Dave's server, and how his server is configured prior to setup. This example assumes Dave has not configured NSS when he installed NetWare 5. It proceeds with a walk-through of a setup using the NWCONFIG utility. It concludes with how to mount the NSS volumes and add them to NDS®.

This section also includes other example configurations, such as


Check the Hardware and Disk Space, Plan the Configuration

Dave gathers the following information and decides how to configure his NSS storage.

Dave needs to... Example...

Know what hardware he has.

Dave has one server with two hard drives.

Determine how his system is configured without NSS.

Dave has two hard drives with 500 MB space each. Drive 1 is used by NetWare and includes the Sys volume. Drive 2 is unpartitioned and contains no NetWare volumes.

Determine how much free space he currently has available.

Dave has 500 MB of unpartitioned free space available on Drive 2.

Determine how much free space he wants NSS to own, how many NSS storage groups and NSS volumes he wants, and how large the NSS volumes will be.

Dave decides to create two NSS volumes: one with 200 MB and one with 300 MB free space available on Drive 2.

Dave must determine which types of files would best fit in his NSS and NetWare partitions. Eventually, he may want to move all of his files to NSS as his space or speed requirements change.

NOTE:  Files in the NetWare partition and a NetWare volume cannot become NSS-enabled unless they are restored to an NSS volume from a backup device or files are copied using In-Place Upgrade.


Example of Dave's Configuration

  1. Dave has two hard drives: each one has 500 MB.
  2. Dave has 500 MB assigned to NetWare on Drive 1; he has 500 MB free space on Drive 2 to use for his NSS volumes.
  3. Dave wants to create two NSS volumes: one with 200 MB on Drive 2 and one with 300 MB on Drive 2 (see the next figure).

NOTE:  If Dave had configured NSS during NetWare 5 installation, NSS took the 500 MB of unpartitioned free space on Drive 2 and created one NSS volume for him on Drive 2. To prepare for changing his configuration to two NSS volumes, Dave would have to back up data on that volume and delete the single NSS volume created during installation, or he could add another hard disk with unpartitioned space which would allow him to create more NSS volumes. After creating the two new volumes, as described in the following example, Dave would then restore the data to one of the two new volumes if space was available.


Dave configures his storage groups and NSS volumes as explained next.


Create Two NSS Volumes With Two Hard Drives

Here's how Dave uses NWCONFIG to configure NSS on his server.


Using NWCONFIG to Create One Storage Group and Two NSS Volumes

  1. Dave enters nwconfig at the server console to open the NWCONFIG utility.

    NSS loads automatically with NWCONFIG.

  2. From the Configuration Options menu, Dave selects NSS Disk Options and presses Enter.

  3. Dave selects Storage.

  4. He goes through each of these steps in turn to have NSS own free space.

  5. Dave selects NSS Volume Options.

  6. Dave authenticates to NDS by entering his login name (the full context) and password.

    In order for Dave's new volumes to be added to NDS automatically, he must first authenticate to NDS using his administrator rights.

  7. Dave creates his storage group and volumes.

    Dave creates one storage group for his two NSS volumes. (He could also create one storage group for each NSS volume.)

  8. Dave now mounts his NSS volume. See Mount an NSS Volume.


Create One NSS Volume with One Hard Drive

Free space is gathered from one storage device to be used for one NSS volume.


Example of Dave's Configuration

  1. Dave has one drive with 500 MB disk space.
  2. Dave has 300 MB for the traditional NetWare file system including the Sys volume and has 200 MB of unpartitioned free space left for NSS.
  3. Dave wants to use all of his unpartitioned free space (200 MB) for one NSS volume.

NOTE:  If Dave configured NSS when he installed NetWare 5, NSS took the 200 MB of unpartitioned free space and created one NSS volume if that's what he decided to do. In that case, Dave is finished unless he wants to add other NSS volumes.


Using NWCONFIG to Create One NSS Volume

Here's how Dave uses the NWCONFIG utility to configure NSS on his server.

  1. Dave enters nwconfig at the server console to open the NWCONFIG utility.

    NSS loads automatically with NWCONFIG.

  2. From the Configuration Options menu, Dave selects NSS Disk Options.

  3. If Dave already updated and assigned his free space to NSS, he could skip Steps 4, 5, and 6 unless he added a new device.

    In this case, he would select NSS Volume Options rather than Storage.

  4. Dave selects Storage > Update Provider Information.

  5. Dave selects the media manager provider.

  6. Dave selects Assign Ownership at the Available NSS Storage Options screen.

  7. Dave selects the Storage Deposit object that represents the free space he will use for his NSS volume (the object shows 200 MB available). He confirms his choice.

    An NSS partition is created on the disk and is made in to a managed object.

  8. Dave creates his NSS volume.

    1. Dave presses Esc or Return to the previous menu to return to the Available NSS Options screen and selects NSS Volume Options.

    2. Dave authenticates to NDS using his full context.

    3. Dave selects Create.

    4. Dave selects NSS Volume.

    5. Dave selects the managed object marked Single.

      Single means no storage group was created for this volume. Group means a storage group was created for this volume.

    6. Dave enters a name for his NSS volume.

  9. Dave selects Yes to confirm his choice.

    Dave can now view his NSS volume by returning to the Available NSS Options screen and selecting View Volumes.

    Dave's volume is added to NDS automatically.

  10. Dave now mounts his NSS volume. See Mount an NSS Volume.


Create One NSS Volume with Multiple Hard Drives

Free space is gathered from several storage devices to be used for one NSS storage group and NSS volume using the NSS Administration menus.

The One Step configuration takes available unpartitioned free space and creates one NSS volume for you. You cannot use NWCONFIG to perform this procedure because NWCONFIG does not have the capability to pool free space from several hard disks in to one NSS volume in one step.


Example of Dave's Configuration

  1. Dave has three drives: each one has 1 GB.
  2. Dave already has 1 GB assigned to the traditional NetWare file system on Drive 1. Drives 2 and 3 contain unpartitioned free space.
  3. Dave wants to use all of his free space for one storage group and one NSS volume.

NOTE:  If Dave configured NSS when he installed NetWare 5, NSS found 2 GB of free space and created one NSS volume if that's what Dave decided to do. In that case, Dave is finished unless he wants to create other NSS volumes.


One Step Configuration

This section provides the easiest way to create one storage group and one NSS volume.

NOTE:  In One Step Configuration, NSS does not recognize free space in NetWare volumes or removable media. This method only uses unpartitioned free space.

To create a volume in this procedure, One Step Configuration uses the default NSS volume attributes, takes all unpartitioned free space on the server's hard drives, and converts it to an NSS volume automatically. For example, if Dave has two hard drives with available free space, NSS will take ownership of the combined free space from the two drives and create one NSS volume.


Procedure

  1. Dave enters nss at the server console.

    If Dave had already loaded NWCONFIG, his NSS modules are already loaded.

  2. Dave opens the NSS Administration menus.

    At the server console prompt, he enters nss /menu to open the menus.

  3. From Configure, Dave selects Create and presses Enter.

    The following screen appears.

    Figure 3
    Configuration Type Selections

  4. Dave selects One Step Configuration.

  5. Dave enters his NSS volume name.

    The default NSS volume name is NSSVOL. A maximum of 15 characters is allowed. We recommend you use the standard NetWare volume naming conventions.

  6. Dave selects Yes to confirm his decision.

  7. Dave presses Enter.

  8. Dave mounts his NSS volume. See Mount an NSS Volume.

  9. (Optional). Dave adds his NSS volume to NDS. See Add an NSS Volume to NDS.

  10. (Optional). Dave views his new NSS volume. See View the NSS Configuration.


Create Multiple NSS Volumes with Multiple Hard Drives

Free space is gathered from several storage devices to be used for NSS storage groups and NSS volumes.


Example of Dave's Configuration

Dave wants to dedicate one drive to the NetWare partition and divide segments of other drives into storage groups and NSS volumes in addition to NetWare partitions.

  1. Dave has three drives: each one has 20 GB.
  2. Dave already has 20 GB assigned to the traditional NetWare file system on Drive 1 and 10 GB assigned to NetWare on Drive 3 (see the next figure). He can create many storage groups and NSS volumes for NSS on Drives 2 and 3 because he has 30 GB of unpartitioned free space on those combined drives.
  3. Dave wants to create nine NSS volumes: six with 3 GB each and three with 4 GB.

NOTE:  If Dave had configured NSS during NetWare 5 installation, Dave could have had NSS take 10 GB or 20 GB of unpartitioned free space from each of the two drives and created one NSS volume from both drives. To prepare for changing his configuration to add more NSS volumes, Dave could add another hard drive, or he would have to back up and delete the single NSS volume created during installation. After creating the new NSS volumes, as described in the following example, Dave would then restore the data to the new volumes if space was available.

The next figure shows how Dave turned his 30 GB free space into two storage groups and nine NSS volumes.


Dave can set up his storage devices in any configuration he chooses as long as he sets up storage groups for his NSS volumes. He can have multiple NSS volumes in a storage group.


Using NWCONFIG to Create Multiple Volumes on Multiple Hard Drives

Here's how Dave uses the NWCONFIG utility to configure NSS on his server.

  1. Dave enters nwconfig at the server console to open the NWCONFIG utility.NSS loads automatically with NWCONFIG.

  2. He follows the prompts on each screen to move around in the menus.

  3. From the Configuration Options menu, Dave selects NSS Disk Options and presses Enter.

  4. Dave selects Storage.

  5. He goes through each of these steps in turn to create storage groups for Drive 2 and Drive 3 (he needs two).

  6. Dave selects NSS Volume Options.Dave authenticates to NDS by entering his login name and password using his full context.

    6.In order for Dave's new volumes to be added to NDS automatically, he must first authenticate to NDS.

  7. Dave now mounts his NSS volume. See Mount an NSS Volume.


Create Multiple NSS Volumes on Multiple Hard Drives and Span the Volumes

Spanning volumes means an NSS volume you create may reside on several devices. The steps for spanning volumes are the same as using previous examples in this section. See Create Multiple NSS Volumes with Multiple Hard Drives for information.

NSS is designed to span volumes because it gathers free space for the storage pool from various hard drives on your server. The free space is placed in a list of managed objects from which you can choose which objects you want to join together to become a storage group.