Tech { Its almost midnight, do you know where you SysAdmin is?

In his office upgrading a new production cluster to Veritas, I'm sorry Symantec Storage Foundation HA 5.0.

This is the first generation (along with NBU 6.0) that was developed post-merger. It doesn't totally suck, but it is bloated and top heavy. Minimal VxVM + VxFS install is almost 900MB add VCS into it and it is almost 1.2GB. Minimal 'required' (required by the docs, I am sure it can be trimmed, just too tired to look into it tonight) install if 41 packages. Installation of new client software (such as 'hagui' and 'vea') are required, at least with 4.1, I could use my 4.0 client to connect. Tons of 'security' features, that if they do as advertised are long overdue, however they require additional servers (Root Broker) and additional setup.

Like NBU 6.0 it feels like they are gearing this up with features that allow for centralized management via Command Central (another purchasable product).

In short Symanitas is pulling a classic Symantec where full functionality requires additional products.

The new GUI while a bit cleaner and shinier and very yellow, has some nice features (when you are working on multiple nodes, the active window only contains the host of your interest instead of all hosts you are logged into and it can be easily toggled). Back are also some features I've missed since the graphical days of VXVA, a volume view.

The upgrade from v4.1 did not go smoothly, the new version accepting, but then going flaky with the old cluster configs. I did a complete uninstall/re-install, this time bypassing the main 'installer' and installing VxFS, VxVM, VCS one at a time. The installers do not show you as much of what is going on as they used to, which is a negative and they do not let you selectively trim optional packages anymore, you 3 options, 1) Install what is required; 2) Install all of the packages for X; 3) Install the whole wad, everything plus every option. Ugh.

A tool that was easy to install, easy to configure, and easy to manage feels (final judgement is still out) like it was made unnecessarily complex. The old functionality and CLI are still there, but there is also a whole lot more, not all of it good.

Symantec, if I wanted VVR, I would install the package and license. If I wanted flashsnap, I will install the package and license. If I want I/O fencing, well you get the picture.

So now total installs if you do a full Solaris 10 + OEM install (which we do), minus Star Office, plus full SFHA install, you OS image is now close to 5GB. I know disk is cheap, but there is something to be said about less is more.