B    The Visual Administrator

The Visual Administrator, also called dxlsm, is the graphical user interface for the LSM software. This interface is designed primarily for disk and volume operations, but also provides a limited set of file system operations.

This appendix provides an overview of Visual Administrator features and use.

B.1    Starting the Visual Administrator

To start the LSM Visual Administrator, you must be logged into an account that has root privileges.

To start dxlsm, enter:

# dxlsm

The system displays the following message in a pop up window:

dxlsm is coming up, please wait.

When dxlsm starts, two LSM windows display:

• The main LSM Visual Administrator window

• The View of rootdg window

B.1.1    The Visual Administrator Main Window

The Visual Administrator main window contains a menu bar and a set of buttons as shown in Figure B-1. If you have RAID subsystems installed, the main window displays an additional Subsystems button.

Figure B-1:  Visual Administrator Main Window

To display and manipulate different parts of the physical and logical storage systems, click on the View button. Each view window title includes the name of the machine on which the session is running. The main window contains a button for every view on the system.

The Visual Administrator has two types of views: default and user-created. You cannot remove or rename default views.

B.1.1.1    Default Views

From the main window, click on the following view buttons to access the default view window:

B.1.1.2    User-Created Views

A user-created view is a view window defined to focus on a part of a system. For example, you can create a view window for each disk group. Create a new view window with the Views menu on the main window. Creating this window will place a new button on the window. Once the view is created, you can add icons by selecting an icon from another view and either using the Icon menu Create Icons option or dragging and dropping the selected icon.

User-created views thus contain copies of icons from default views. Operations performed on these icon copies are reflected in the default views that display the affected icons. However, icons that appear in user-created views are not always updated when the icons are altered in the default view.

B.1.2    The View of rootdg Window

Immediately after the main window appears, the View of rootdg window appears. This view displays icons representing everything that is in the rootdg disk group. Whenever possible, perform operations in the View of rootdg window or in another disk group view.

Figure B-2 shows a view of a rootdg window that contains two volumes.

Figure B-2:  View of rootdg

B.2    Mouse Buttons

A two- or three-button mouse is required to use the Visual Administrator. Table B-1 describes the mouse buttons. Unless otherwise stated, all directions to select or click on an item refer to the left mouse button (MB1). Right-click refers to the right mouse button for both two- and three- button access.

Table B-1:  Default Mouse Buttons

An icon can be deselected by positioning the pointer over that icon and clicking MB2. This works regardless of which mouse button was used to select the icon.

Note

The examples in this document assume that you are using a three-button mouse, set up according to Table A-1. It is possible to redefine mouse buttons (using the xmodmap command, for example). See your X Window System documentation for details.

B.3    Icons for LSM Objects

The Visual Administrator interface uses icons to represent LSM objects (volumes, plexes, subdisks, and disks.)

Disk groups are represented as view windows rather than icons. The icons representing LSM disks, volumes, and other objects belonging to a particular disk group are all displayed within the view of the disk group.

Note

Icons representing all elements of the system are displayed in the View of World window accessed with the World button on the Visual Administrator window.

B.3.1    Icon Characteristics

Figure B-3 shows how the Visual Administrator represents LSM objects.

Figure B-3:  Icons That Represent LSM Objects

With some operations, icons are updated almost instantly to reflect the results of the operation just performed. During other operations, it may take time for a particular icon to update itself. While being updated, icons are prevented from accepting input or undergoing configuration changes. Inaccessible icons are grayed out.

B.3.2    Manipulating Icons

There are two ways to manipulate icons:

• Select-Operate. With this option you select an icon representing an LSM object (click on the icon or click MB2 on multiple icons) and perform the desired operation on that object by selecting from window menus.

• Drag and Drop. With this option you drag the icon of the selected object (hold down MB1 and move the mouse until the outline of the icon reaches the desired location) and drop it (release the mouse) elsewhere, such as on another object in a view window.

  When dropping an icon onto another icon, the dragged icon must be positioned so that the pointer (in the image of a hand) is directly over an unobscured portion of the icon on which it is to be dropped. Table B-2 describes drag and drop operations:

  Table B-2:  Drag and Drop Operations

  Icon Type	Drop Location	Action
  Free subdisk	View window	Creates a plex and associates the subdisk with the plex.
  Free subdisk	LSM disk	Creates an identical subdisk on the disk.
  Free subdisk	Plex	Associates the subdisk with the plex.
  Associated subdisk	Free subdisk	Swaps the associated subdisk with the free subdisk. The free subdisk becomes associated and replaces the original subdisk, which is removed.
  Associated subdisk	LSM disk	Creates an identical free subdisk on the LSM disk, then swaps the associated subdisk with the new free subdisk. The free subdisk becomes associated and replaces the original subdisk, which is removed.
  Associated subdisk	View window	Dissociates the subdisk.
  Associated plex	View window	Dissociates the plex.
  Dissociated plex	User's view window	Copies the plex icon to the user's view.
  Plex	Volume	Associates the plex to the volume.
  Disk	User's view window	Copies the physical or LSM disk icon to the user's view.
  Volume	User's view window	Copies the volume icon to the user's view.
  LSM disk	Disk group view	Adds an LSM disk (corresponding to the slice, simple, or nopriv disk) to that disk group.

B.4    Pull-Down Menus

The Visual Administrator provides pull-down menus that provide access to various Visual Administrator features.

Menus are located in the menu bar just below the window's title.

B.5    Forms

The Visual Administrator uses forms to present textual information. These forms also provide useful information about existing objects and configurations.

There are two types of forms:

• General forms usually appear during menu-selected operations or setup requests and accept or require user input.

• Properties forms display detailed information about a specific object's characteristics, some of which can be modified directly. Access properties forms by clicking MB3 on the chosen icon. (If the icon is undergoing analysis, use Shift-MB3).

B.5.1    Fields

Many forms require information in order to proceed with an operation. If a required field in the form is either left blank or is incorrect, an error will result. Other fields already contain information (such as default values), which you can either alter or accept. Yet other fields are read-only; these fields beep if you attempt to change them.

B.5.2    Form Error Messages

Error messages are displayed if you select Apply with incorrect fields on a form. A message is printed at the bottom of the form just above the buttons, and you can correct the values for those fields. If the error cannot be corrected or the operation is no longer desired, select Cancel.

B.6    Error and Warning Messages

The Visual Administrator uses dialog boxes to present error or warning messages. When a message is displayed, you cannot proceed until you select one of the buttons displayed in the error dialog box. Some warning boxes announce that a prerequisite is not met and require you to acknowledge this by clicking the Continue button before reattempting the operation.

B.7    Help Windows

You can access online help text from the menu bar of the main window and from the view windows. Help text is also available through the Help option in submenus or through the Help button at the bottom of forms. The Help window contains information about the current window, menu, form, or operation.

At the bottom of each Help window is a SEE ALSO area that lists related Help topics. To access any of the listed Help topics, click on the appropriate words in the SEE ALSO list. The Help facility keeps track of the order in which Help topics are visited, so you can move between topics by selecting Previous or Next from the menu bar.

The Help menu in the menu bar of the Help window itself provides access to the following information:

To close the Help window, select the Close option from the File menu. The record of help topics visited is retained.