Newest KB Articles

How to install Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 in a Web Farm

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:01:30 GMT

Author: NetworkAdminKB.com
Created: 2008-11-23
Modified: 2011-12-12

Information:

The following procedure is for installing WSS 3.0 with a Front End Server installation and a SQL Backend.

Create two Domain accounts for the WSS services to run under

One User is a general Service Account the other is the Admin Service Account
Make these accounts Local Administrators on the WSS server
Add these accounts to the IIS_WPG group
Add these accounts to the Act as part of the operating system user right
Add these accounts to the logon as a service user right
Add these accounts to the Replace process level token user right

SQL Server Permissions Required for the two service accounts

DBCreator
SecurityAdmin
Assign both accounts as DBO to any Databases created after installation

1) Install Windows 2003 with SP1

a. Install IIS

i. Set ASP .Net v2 to “Allow” in the list of IIS extensions

ii. Set Server Side Includes to “Allow” in the list of IIS extensions

iii. Set Active Server Pages to “Allow” in the list of IIS extensions

iv. Set WebDAV to “Allow” in the list of IIS extensions

b. Install .Net Framework 3.0 with Windows Workflow Foundation (version 3.04203.2)

c. Install .Net Framework 3.0 SP1

2) Start Sharepoint (WSS) with SP 1 installation

a. Accept License Agreement

i. Click Continue

b. Click Advance to install in a web farm

i. Server Type:

1. Select Web Front End

ii. Data Location

1. Configure Drive and path with free space.

2. Preferably not the C: drive

iii. Feedback

1. Select “No, thank you.

iv. Click “Install Now”

3) Wait as the installation is performed.

4) Run the Sharepoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard

a. Welcome screen

i. Next

b. Click Yes to restart the specified services

i. IIS

ii. Sharepoint Admin

iii. Sharepoint Timer

5) Connect to server farm

a. Select “No, I want to create a new server farm”

b. Click Next

6) Specify Configuration Database settings

a. DB Server: servername

b. DB Name: Change the default of Sharepoint_Config. Replace the prefix Sharepoint with one of your own.

c. Username: Specify the service account the will run all the services for sharepoint.

d. Password: type the password

e. Click Next

7) Confgure Sharepoint Central Admin Web Application

a. Check Specify port number: 8080

b. Select NTLM

c. Click Next

8) Complete the Installation

a. Click Next

9) Wait as the WSS configuration takes place

10) Click Finish

Add the two Domain accounts for the WSS services to the following Local Groups

WSS_ADMIN_WPG
WSS_Restricted_WPG
WSS_WPG

In IIS Manager change the Sharepoint Central Admin AppPool Identity

Use the Admin Service account created earlier
Restart IIS

Change the “Windows Sharepoint Services Administration” service Logon Account

Use the Admin Service account created earlier
Restart Service

Configure the General Services Listed below with the following configuration

General Services

1) Windows Sharepoint Services Search

2) Windows Sharepoint Services Timer

3) Windows Sharepoint Services Tracing

4) Windows Sharepoint Services VSS Writer

Configuration

Set to Automatic
Logon as: General Service account created earlier
Restart Services

Configure the Service Accounts with the following permissions for the Specified Sharepoint databases

Permissions:

DBO’s
WSS_Content_Application_Pools

Database Names

SharePoint_AdminContenet_[guid]
Default Database Name specified during installation.
Content databases created
- These may be added at a later time

Configure WSS via the Central Admin web site

Configure Search Service

1) Select the Operations Tab

a. Select Services On Server

b. Click “Start” for “Windows Sharepoint Services Search Service”

c. Configure “Windows Sharepoint Services Search Service”

i. Service Account and Content Access Account

1. Username: General Service Account

2. Password: type password

ii. Database Server: enter DB server name

iii. Database name: SiteName_Search

iv. Click Start

d. Select “Outgoing E-Mail Settings”

i. Outbound SMTP Server: specify server name

ii. From Address: Specify from email address

iii. Reply-to address: specify reply-to email address

iv. Click OK

e. Select “Update farm administrators group”

i. Click Add User to add Farm Administrators

1. Gives permission to the Central Administrators Site only

f. Select “Diagnostic Logging”

i. Customer Experience: No, I don’t wish to participate

ii. Error Reports: Ignore errors and don’t collect information

iii. Event Throttling:

1. Category: All

2. Least critical Event Log

a. Warning

3. Least ciritical Trace Log

a. Monitorable

iv. Trace Log: Change path to another drive other than C:

1. Keep pathing the same

v. Click OK

g. Usage Analysis Processing

i. Log Settings:

1. Enable Logging

2. File Location: Change to another drive other than C:

a. Keep pathing

3. Process Settings:

a. Enable usage analysis processing

i. Start: 1am

ii. End: 2am

4. Click Ok

2) Click Application Management tab

a. Create or extend Web application

i. Create a new Web Application

ii. IIS Web Site

1. Create a new IIS Web site

a. SiteName – Internal

b. Port: 80

c. Hostheader: sitename

d. Path: Change to any drive other than the C: drive

i. Keep pathing

2. Application Pool

a. Create new application pool

i. Pool name: SiteName

ii. Select “Configurable”

1. User name: general service account

2. password: type password

3. Database name

a. DB Server: Database server name

b. DB Name: Sitename_Content

4. Search Server:

a. Select the appropriate search server from the farm

5. Click OK

Configure the Service Accounts with the following permissions for the Specified Sharepoint databases

Permissions:

DBO’s
WSS_Content_Application_Pools

Database Names

Sitename_Content databases created

Restart IIS

Create Site Collection

1) Central Administration…Application Management…Create Site Collection

2) Web Applicattion

a. Select the appropriate SiteName

3) Title and Description

a. Title: Type the name that will appear at the top of the site

b. Description: type an appropriate description

4) Web Site Address

a. Accept the root or specify a sub-folder

5) Template Selection

a. Select the appropriate template:

6) Primary Site Collection Administrator

a. Type the appropriate user id

7) Secondary Site Collection Administrator

a. Type the appropriate user id

8) Click OK

How to upload a default.master when the current one is corrupted

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:42:00 GMT

Author: NetworkAdminKB.com
Created: 2008-12-13
Modified: 2011-12-12

Issue:

You receive the following (or similar) error after uploading a new default.master page.

An error occurred during the processing of /_catalogs/masterpage/default.master. Code blocks are not allowed in this file.

Troubleshoot issues with Windows SharePoint Services.

Cause:

A misconfigured version of the default.master page has been uploaded to the web site, or the file has become corrupted.

Solution:

Normally you can just use the web browser back button or Web History to go back to the Upload page. However, if you have closed your web browser or discovered the issue caused by another user you will not have this information stored in your web browsers history. Using the steps below you can successfully fix the issue.

1) Use the following SQL query to determine the proper ListID

a. Change '_catalogs/masterpage' in the SQL query to be the same as the path listed in your error message. No leading or ending “/” should be specified.

b. Change WSS_Content to the name of your WSS Content database.

Use WSS_Content

Select Leafname, DirName, ListID from AllDocs

where leafname = 'default.master' and

dirname = '_catalogs/masterpage'

c. Run the SQL Query

2) Copy the ListID from the results. The ListID will look similar to the following example:

a. B1FE76DA-D783-4171-97FF-A8034FE8D537

3) Modify the following URL with the the proper sitename and ListID for your website. Also, update /_catalogs/masterpage to be the same on the one listed in your error message. These items are highlighted in Red.

http://sitename/_layouts/Upload.aspx?List={B1FE76DA-D783-4171-97FF-A8034FE8D537}&

RootFolder=/_catalogs/masterpage&Source=http://sitename/_catalogs/masterpage/Forms/AllItems.aspx

4) After creating the URL paste it into a web browser. This will bring up the Upload Master Page: Master Page Gallery web page. You can now upload a new default.master page.

a. You may need to authenticate to the web site before pasting the URL into the web browser.

More Information:

You should bookmark all Upload Master Page web pages on your site to simplify recovery from default.master page errors in the future.

How to connect to the embedded SQL Server (microsoft##ssee) used by WSS 3.0

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:36:05 GMT

Author: NetworkadminKB.com
Created: 2009-02-12
Modified: 2011-12-12

Issue:

You would like to connect to the embedded SQL Database (microsoft##ssee) used by Windows Sharepoint Services.

After connecting to the database you can use SQL commands to export data, backup, restore, etc.

Solution:

On the VirutalCenter server perform the following steps

1) Open a command prompt

2) Type the following command and press enter

a. sqlcmd -S \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query -E

3) You can now run various SQL commands to gather information about the SQL Server and its databases. Below are common/useful commands.

a. Show all databases (assumes master database is in use)

select name, filename from sysdatabases

b. Detach a database with following command:

exec sp_detach_db 'db_name'

c. Attach a database with following command:

exec sp_attach_db @dbname = N'db_name',

@filename1 = N'C:\path\file.mdf',

@filename2 = N'C:\path\file.ldf'

d. Specify which DB to run all future commands against.

Use db_name

e. Show all User objects (tables) in the current database

select name from sysobjects where type='u'

f. Backup the WSS_Content Database

BACKUP DATABASE WSS_Content

TO DISK = 'C:\Backup\WSS_Content.bak'

WITH FORMAT

4) Type GO and press enter after one or more SQL statements to run them.

How to configure WSS 3.0 to search PDF files

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:33:24 GMT

Author: NetworkAdminKB.com
Created: 2008-11-10
Modified: 2011-12-11

Issue:

You would like to have WSS 3.0 search the contents of PDF files uploaded to the WSS sites on the server.

Cause:

By default WSS 3.0 does not search the contents of PDF files.

Solution:

Below are the basic steps needed to configure WSS 3.0 to search the contents of PDF files in WSS 3.0

1) Download the latest version of Adobe Reader

a. Version 9.0 was the current version as of this writing, this is the version what was tested with.

b. The iFilter search DLL that allows the contents of PDF files to be searched was added to the Adobe Reader as part of v7.05 and up. Previously, this was a separate download from Adobe.

2) On the Front End and Indexing Servers of the WSS 3.0 server farm perform the following

a. Install Adobe Reader

b. Update the list of searchable extensions to include PDF

i. Start Regedit

ii. Browse to the following registry key

iii. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Applications\<GUID>\Gather\Search\Extensions\ExtensionList

iv. Add the following to this location

1. Value Name: 38

a. Or the next available number

2. Type: String

3. Value: pdf

c. Update the CLSID used to search PDFs to the new CLSID

i. Start Regedit

ii. Browse to the following registry key

iii. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Setup\Filters\.pdf

iv. Old Default Value: {4C904448-74A9-11D0-AF6E-00C04FD8DC02}

v. New Default Value: {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

3) Perform a full restart of the search service and crawl, to index existing PDF files.

a. Open a command prompt and run the following commands

CD /D "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN"

stsadm -o spsearch -action fullcrawlstop

net stop spsearch

net start spsearch

stsadm -o spsearch -action fullcrawlstart

4) Perform a test search every few minutes to verify that existing PDF files are being indexed.

5) New PDF files will be indexed during the next crawl, after they have been uploaded.

Optional: Update the icon used to display the PDF files in search results.

1) Perform the following on the Front End Web Servers.

2) Go to http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html

a. Download the small PDF Icon

b. Save the small icon to the following location

i. C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Template\Images

3) Browse to the following location

a. C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\Template\Xml\

b. Edit DocIcon.Xml

i. Add the following entry, just above </ByExtension>

ii. <Mapping Key="pdf" Value="filename.gif"/>

iii. Change filename.gif to be the filename you saved the PDF icon as.

iv. Save the file

4) Reset IIS

a. At a command prompt type: IISReset

More Information:

If you are upgrading from a previous version of Adobe Reader the AcroRdIF.dll may not properly re-register. Search the Registry for this file name and update the path as needed to point to the new location.

The Adobe Reader installation also registers the following CLSID in the following location. Verify that this key still exists and points to the correct AcroRdIF.dll.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

WSS 3.0 Database Maintenance

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:17:33 GMT

Author: NetworkAdminKB.com
Created: 2008-11-14
Modified: 2011-12-12

Information:

These are general recommendations for database maintenance of the WSS databases when stored on SQL Server 2005. While the same concepts apply to SQL Server 2000 some commands may be different.

1) Nightly Check

a. Run the following command on a nightly basis on all WSS databases

DBCC CHECKDB 'database_name'

b. Use the repair option if any errors are found

DBCC CHECKDB 'database_name' REPAIR_REBUILD

Requires the database be in single user mode.

2) Index Defragmentation

a. Use sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats to determine Index Fragmentation Level on ‘AllDocs’ table in any Content database.

b. Example command

Select * From sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats

(DB_ID(N'Content_DB'), Object_ID(N'AllDocs'), NULL, NULL , 'DETAILED');

Where Content_DB is the name of your content database

c. If ‘avg_fragementation_in_percent’ > 10 % then run defragment stored procedure to reduce the level of fragmentation.

i. See More Information below for link to procedure.

d. Only defragment indexes have the DBCC CheckDB commands have been run.

3) Server-Wide Fill Factor

a. For WSS a server-wide fill factor of 70 (percent) is optimal

i. Run the following commands to configure a server wide fill factor

USE Master

Exec sp_configure 'fill factor', 70

RECONFIGURE

b. To check the fill-factor value of all user defined indexes run the following command

Select si.name, si.fill_factor

from sys.indexes si

join sys.objects so

on si.object_id = so.object_id

Where so.type = 'U'

Order by si.name

4) Shrink Database

a. This information applies only if the database size is reduced by 50% because of content deletion

b. Use the following command to shrink the database

DBCC ShrinkDatabase 'Content_DB',

free_space_percent, NOTRUNCATE

Where Content_DB is the name of your content database

Where free_space_percent is the percent of free space to remain after the database has been shrunk.

c. Only shrink a dabatabase after the DBCC CheckDB commands have been run.

More Information:

How to defragment Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 databases and SharePoint Server 2007 databases

Database maintenance for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (white paper)

Miscellaneous SQL Commands

To retrieve the Database ID of the current database

SELECT DB_ID() AS [Database ID]

To retrieve the Object ID of object_name in the current database

Select Object_ID('object_name') as [Object ID]

Configure SQL Server to show advanced options (like fill factor)

USE Master

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced option', '1'

RECONFIGURE

EXEC sp_configure

How to allow remote control by collection in SCCM 2007

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:50:09 GMT

Author: NetworkAdminKB.com
Created: 2011-11-04
Modified: 2011-12-11

Issue:

Placing users in the Permitted Viewers list shown in the Security Tab of the Remote Tools Client Agent and assigning the Remote Tools permission to a collection allows the user to remote control workstations outside of the collection when using the RC.exe tool provided by SCCM 2007.

Cause:

By design users placed in the Permitted Viewers list of the Remote Tools Client Agent are automatically placed in the local ConfigMgr Remote Control Users group of every workstation. By design the RC.exe tool checks two group permissions (Administrators and ConfigMgr Remote Control Users group) on workstations to determine if access is granted to the remote control session. Membership in either of these groups grants remote control access via the RC.exe tool.

The RC.exe tool has an optional command line parameter to check for SCCM collection based permissions as well, but since these permissions are optional and/or RC.exe can be pointed to any SCCM server, the Remote Tools permission on a collection are purely an administrative convenience and not a security feature.

In short there is no way to enforce the RC.exe tool respect the SCCM collection permissions for remote control only using SCCM methods.

Workaround:

To provide a more secure solution you need to shift the concept of collection based permissions for remote control to OU membership to grant remote control permissions. Then leverage GPOs on these OUs to populate the group membership of the local ConfigMgr Remote Control Users group for the appropriate workstations.

Steps needed to implement this type of solution:

1) Remove users from the Permitted Viewers list of the Remote Tools Client Agent that should not be able to remote control all workstations in SCCM.

2) Group your workstations in Active Director by OU in stead of, or in addition to, being grouped in SCCM by collection.

3) Create a group in AD for each OU (aka: collection) you want different remote control users for.

4) Use Group Policy to assign the AD group to the local ConfigMgr Remote Control Users group of the workstations.

a. This type of policy can be done many different ways and may vary by your specific requirements. You may want to research how to best accomplish this for your environment. Using the Windows 2008 GPO Preferences would be recommended as shown below.

Users will now only be able to remote control workstations where they have been made member of the local ConfigMgr Remote Control Users group.

More Information:

If the SCCM collection must remain for other reasons, you may want to base the SCCM collection on the AD OU membership to more easily keep these items in sync.

The full ConfigMgr Console is not affected by this limitation and better enforces the SCCM permissions and the Workstation permissions. However, mixing the use of the RC.exe tool and the ConfigMgr Console should be done with extreme care.

How to fix the the DNS name contains records that are incompatible with the CNAME record

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:35:00 GMT

Author: NetworkAdminKB.com

Created: 2011-11-30

Modified: 2011-12-11

Issue:

You receive one of the following messages when creating a new DNS record.

A new record cannot be created.

An alias (CNAME) record cannot be added to this DNS name. The DNS name contains records that are incompatible with the CNAME record.

A new record cannot be created.

Node is a CNAME DNS record.

Cause:

Per RFC1034 DOMAIN NAMES - CONCEPTS AND FACILITIES

The domain system provides such a feature using the canonical name (CNAME) RR.  A CNAME RR identifies its owner name as an alias, and specifies the corresponding canonical name in the RDATA section of the RR.  If a CNAME RR is present at a node, no other data should be present; this ensures that the data for a canonical name and its aliases cannot be different.  This rule also insures that a cached CNAME can be used without checking with an authoritative server for other RR types.

This means if that if you create a CNAME with record (aka: node) called www no other record types can exist with this same name. The same is true if you create a CNAME record without a name (aka: same as parent folder), no other records types can exists. The reverse of these scenarios is also true, you cannot create any other record types with the same name as an existing CNAME record.

What the RFC doesn’t clarify is that you can create CNAME records without a name (aka: same as parent folder) even when SOA and NS records exists for the DNS Zone (they always exist). However, if you create MX records for the DNS zone you will not be able create the CNAME record, or vice versa.

Solution:

Method 1

Create a static A (host) record instead.

Method 2

Remove the other records with the same name then create the CNAME record.

More Information:

This issue is also addressed in Section 2.4 of the RFC 1912

RFC1912 Common DNS Operational and Configuration Errors

Wikipedia.org CNAME record

How to configure Presentation or Xenapp Server for low bandwidth connections

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:14:14 GMT

Author: NetworkAdminKB.com
Created: 2010-11-05
Modified: 2011-12-11

Information:

The information below explains how to configure various performance settings through the Program Neighborhood (PN) client, directly on the server, as well as through the Citrix Web Interface. Where you need to configure each setting will depend on your specific environment. In general if you are using the Citrix Web Interface you should configure settings there, if you are using PN you should configure settings in the PN or on the server.

Setting that improve connections over low bandwidth

1) Enable data compression.

a. Compression reduces the size of the data that is transferred over the ICA connection. Enable compression and specify the maximum compression parameter.

b. To enable maximum compression via the Web Interface server, edit the default.ica file and add the following entries.

[Application]

Compress=On

MaximumCompression=On

2) Queue mouse movements and keystrokes.

a. When queuing is enabled, the plug-in sends mouse and keyboard updates less frequently to the Presenstation or XenApp server. Enabling this option improves performance only if you are using a low-bandwidth connection.

b. To enable queuing of mouse and keystroke via the Web Interface server, edit the default.ica file and add the following entries.

[WFClient]

MouseTimer=200

KeyboardTimer=50

c. These values can vary, but increasing these values too high could degrade interactive response.

3) Enable the bitmap cache.

a. Bitmap caching stores commonly used bitmaps (images) locally on your client device so that they do not have to be transferred over the ICA connection every time they are needed.

b. To configure the location and settings for bitmap caching on the Client

i. Start the Program Neighborhood client.

ii. From the Tools menu, click ICA Settings to display the ICA Settings dialog box.

iii. Click the Bitmap Cache tab.

iv. From the Bitmap Cache page, you can configure the following settings:

1. Bitmap Cache Size: Specify the size of the bitmap cache in kilobytes.

2. Bitmap cache directory: The default directory where the cached data is stored is displayed in this field.

3. Change Directory: If you want to specify a new directory for cached data, click the Change Directory button.

4. Minimum size bitmap to be cached: The size of the smallest bitmap to be cached to disk.

5. Click the Clear cache Now button. This will remove all cached data from the directory.

v. Tip: Do not clear the cache if any ICA connections are open. Before clearing the cache, verify that all ICA connections are closed.

vi. Click OK to close the dialog box.

c. To enable the bitmap cache feature on the Web Interface server, edit the default.ica file and add the following entries

[WFClient]

PersistentCacheEnabled=On

PersistentCacheSize= 10485760

PersistentCacheMinBitmap=2048

PersistentCachePath=%APPSDATA%\ICAClient\Cache

[Application]

PersistentCacheEnabled=On

4) Enable SpeedScreen Latency Reduction

a. This feature improves the user experience over high-latency connections by providing immediate mouse and keyboard feedback to the client, effectively making the connection appear real-time even when it is significantly delayed. Latency Reduction is only available if a client is connecting to a server that is configured for Latency Reduction.

b. When the client is set to Auto, the default server settings turn these features on when the server sees latency of 500 ms or more. We recommend changing the default SpeedScreen Latency Threshold settings to 150 ms for the high-latency threshold, and 75 ms for the low-latency threshold. These settings ensure this feature is indeed activated at times when user experience is poor.

c. For known, slower connections (for example, if you are connecting over a WAN or dial-in connection), set the client mode to On to force the feature on, regardless of the latency detected by the server.

d. To set the client mode to On via the Web Interface server, edit the default.ica file and add the following entries:

[Application]

ZLMouseMode=1

ZLKeyboardMode=1

e. Note: 0-disabled, 1-enabled, 2-auto

5) The Web Interface provides all the above setting by default in the bandwidth_low.ica file.

a. There are several preconfigured ICA files all located in the following folder.

b. C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\CitrixWeb\Citrix\AccessPlatform\conf

6) Reduce the window size.

a. Change the window size to the minimum size you can comfortably use.

b. This setting is controlled via the Published Application Settings

7) Reduce the number of colors.

a. Reduce the number of colors to 256.

b. This setting is controlled via the Published Application Settings

8) Reduce sound quality.

a. If plug-in audio mapping is enabled, reduce the sound quality to the minimum setting.

b. This setting is controlled via the Published Application Settings

More Information:

Improving Performance over Low-Bandwidth Connections

ICA Client Bandwidth Analysis

Client/server latency optimizations

ICA File Explained

How to use the Vol Copy command in Data Ontap

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:07:16 GMT

Author: NetworkAdminKB.com
Created: 2011-09-01
Modified: 2011-12-11

Information:

The vol copy command has several uses the most common use is to copy or move a volume from one aggregate to another aggregate on the same Netapp controller. The following are the general steps and associated perquisites needed to complete a move (copy and manually delete) operation while keeping the original source in place for a period of time should it be needed.

Restrictions

The destination volume can’t be the root volume
The destination volume must be offline.
All existing data in the destination volume will be over written
The destination volume must be >= the source volume size
The source and destination volumes must be of same type (traditional, flexible, 32bit, or 64bit volumes). To copy from 32bit to 64bit or from traditional to flexible you must use ndmpcopy.

Note: You can use Netapp Filerview or Netapp System Manager to perform most other steps, however all examples given are using the command line.

General Steps to follow

1) The target volume options and other settings (snap schedule, etc) will be copied over from the source volume. The one exception to this is; LUN mappings are not copied to the target volume. LUN mappings must be manually recreated on the target volume. You can use the following commands to review current settings as needed.

vol status -v source_volume

vol options source_volume

vnap sched source_volume

2) Create the target volume

a. Command line example

vol create target_volume aggr_01 100g

3) Configure the target volume to be offline

a. Command line example

vol offline target_volume

4) If the source volume is currently in use, you should disable access, shutdown the server accessing the volume, remove the lun mappings, etc. Which option(s) you use may vary. The general idea is to make sure no changes are being made to the volume while the copy is in progress.

5) Start the copy process, select one of the following commands based on your needs.

a. Copy source volume to the target volume, do not copy the snapshots.

vol copy start source_volume target_volume

b. Copy source volume to the target volume, and one snapshot (nightly.1)

vol copy start -s nightly.1 source_volume target_volume

c. Copy the source volume and all its snapshots to the target volume

vol copy start -S source_volume target_volume

d. Once the copy is started do not press Control – C and do not close the RSH window, this will terminate the copy process.

e. If using SSH you will loose access to the console while the copy is in progress. It is recommended you use RSH to initiate multiple vol copy commands, but only over a reliable and secure network connection.

f. You are limited to 2 vol copy start commands when copying on a single Netapp controller, or 4 vol copy start commands when copying between two Netapp controllers. This is because each Netapp controller supports up to 4 concurrent copy processes. However, each vol copy start command initiates two separate processes, one to read and the other to write.

6) To monitor the copy progress from either an SSH or RSH session use this command.

a. vol copy status

7) Bring the new volume and LUN online, change configuration as needed to point to the new volume/LUN. This could be deleting and recreating the CIFS shares, changing the LUN mapping to the server, etc. What configuration changes need to be completed will vary. The general idea is to make sure the new volume is now being used and the old volume is not being used.

8) On the target volume delete the snap used by the vol copy command

snap list target_volume

snap delete -V target_volume snapshot_for_volcopy

9) Keep the old volume around as a fail safe for a few days or weeks as needed.

10) When appropriate take the old volume offline and then delete

a. Command line example.

vol offline source_volume

vol destroy source_volume

11) Using Netapp Filerview or Netapp System Manager rename the new volume to the old volume name if needed.

More Information:

How to use RSH to connect to a Netapp Controller

How to use the Netapp ndmpcopy command

To copy between Netapp Controllers (filers) you must use the following syntax.

vol copy start filer1:source_volume filer2:target_volume

How to fix slow read performance or increased latency on Netapp LUNs

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:59:49 GMT

Author: NetworkAdminKB.com
Created: 2011-12-02
Modified: 2011-12-11

Issue:

Read performance on a LUN presented by a Netapp controller is becoming increasingly sluggish or slow. You may have noticed high latency times (20ms or higher) or the latency of the LUN has steadily increased over time as in the examples shown below.

Example graph showing latency trending over time

Example output from the stats show command placed in a table for ease of display.

	avg_latency
Instance	ms
/vol/volume_name/lun1-Xn/8W3OdfJbw	28.12
/vol/volume_name/lun1-Xn/8W3OdfJbw	9.36
/vol/volume_name/lun1-Xn/8W3OdfJbw	11.38
/vol/volume_name/lun1-Xn/8W3OdfJbw	28.27
/vol/volume_name/lun1-Xn/8W3OdfJbw	22.88
/vol/volume_name/lun1-Xn/8W3OdfJbw	11.75
/vol/volume_name/lun1-Xn/8W3OdfJbw	14.6

Causes:

Just like all other file systems the WAFL file system used by Data Ontap can be a victim of fragmentation in very large files and LUNs. Most likely your LUN (aka a single large file) has become fragmented and you should perform a defragmentation by running the reallocate command against the LUN or volume.

Solution:

Run the following command against the LUN to check for fragmentation.

reallocate measure -o /vol/volume_name/lun

Check the status by using this command

reallocate status

Example output

/vol/volume_name/lun

State: Checking: snap 0, public inode 101, block 943500 of 19661543

Schedule: n/a

Interval: 1 day

Optimization: 5 [hot-spots: 18]

Measure Log: n/a

The optimization scale is from 1(optimized) to 10 (very un-optimized) and is how the WAFL file system identifies fragmentation. The usually accepted minimum threshold for optimization is 3 or 4 with no hot spots.

To defragment and optimize the LUN run the following command

reallocate start -f -p /vol/volume_name/lun

The -f (force) option performs a one-time full reallocation of a file, LUN or an entire volume.

The -p option reduces the extra storage requirements in a flexible volume when reallocation is run on a volume with snapshots.

More Information:

How to use the reallocate command in Data Ontap

Data Ontap 8.x Volume States Explained

Review the man pages for the reallocate command for more specific information.

man reallocate