CONTENTS Title Page Copyright Page Preface 1 Introduction 1.1 Product Description 1.1.1 I/O Bottlenecks 1.1.2 Disk Striping Solution 1.2 Usage Overview 1.2.1 Hardware Environment 1.2.2 Software Environment 2 User's Guide 2.1 Software Interface 2.1.1 Programming Interface 2.1.2 User Interface 2.1.3 Considerations When Using STRIPE INITIALIZE on Disk Devices 2.1.4 Considerations When Using DCL INITIALIZE on Stripeset Devices 2.2 Performance Monitoring 2.2.1 STRIPE LIST Command 2.2.2 VAX Performance Advisor 2.2.2.1 VPA Performance Report for Stripesets 2.2.2.2 VPA Analysis Reports for Stripesets 3 System Administrator's Guide 3.1 Configuring the Stripeset 3.2 Initializing Member Units 3.3 Binding Member Units into a Stripeset 3.4 Unbinding the Stripeset 3.5 Striping Existing Volumes 3.6 Using Shadowed Disks 3.7 Performing Stripeset File Operations 4 Stripeset Configuration and Tuning Guidelines 4.1 Configuration Guidelines 4.1.1 Configuring a Stripeset for Given I/O Requirements 4.1.2 Determining I/O Rates for a Given Configuration 4.2 Tuning Guidelines for Higher Data Transfer Rates 4.3 Tuning Guidelines for Higher I/O Request Rates 5 Installation Guide 5.1 Registering the License Product Authorization Key 5.2 Installing STDRIVER 5.3 Post-Installation Activities 5.3.1 Adjusting SYSBOOT Parameters 5.3.2 Startup File Modifications 5.4 Files Added to System 5.4.1 Temporary Files 5.4.2 Permanent Files 5.5 Verifying the Installation A Stripeset Commands STRIPE BIND STRIPE INITIALIZE STRIPE LIST STRIPE UNBIND B STRIPE Command Messages B.1 Message Format B.2 STRIPE Messages ASNFAIL, can't assign ddcu, STDRIVER probably not loaded . . . INITFAIL, INITIALIZE failed for unit ddcu INVALCOM, invalid command . . . SSINCONST, STRIPE$VOLS.SYS format error or inconsistency TOOSMALL, a unit is too small to use for striping . . . XTRAVOL, too many volumes specified - must match number of units Glossary chunk size . . . host adapter host memory data rate . . . page-aligned buffer physical name . . . unit VPA . . . volume label EXAMPLES 2-1 STRIPE LIST Example 2-2 VPA Sample Summary Report 2-3 VPA Sample Analysis Report 5-1 Sample Installation 5-2 Sample Verification FIGURES 1-1 I/O With and Without the Disk Striping Driver 1-2 Example of a Stripeset Read Operation 1-3 Performance Gain for Parallel Data Paths 3-1 Mapping Stripeset LBNs to Member Volume LBNs 3-2 Shadowing a Stripeset TABLES 2-1 IO$_STRIPE_LIST Item Codes 3-1 Mapping Stripeset LBNs to Member Volume LBNs