QUBE! COMPONENTS

Supervisor (Server Node) = Render Queue which runs on a single dedicated manager node.

Workers (Render Nodes) = Render daemons which run on all render nodes.

Client (on Artist/ User Machines) = Applications, APIs, or other interfaces that allow you to submit jobs to the render farm for processing (Nuke, Maya, 3ds Max, Mental Ray, Command Line, Python, etc)

JOBS

Job = Bundle of data, submitted by a client to the Supervisor node, that includes all of the information the Worker nodes will need to execute a job. Includes host application, host OS, file locations, user, cpu allocation, etc.

Subjob = numbered 0-N, Also called Job Processes, Defined in “Job CPUs” field.  Threads initiated by the Supervisor, based on the number simultaneous frames the job is allowed to process at any given time.

Agenda Items = Frames

JOB ID NUMBERS

Example: (Although many variations are possible)

Job 12345 wants to render 4 frames (numbered 100-104) on two workers.

1) The four agenda items are: frame 100, frame 101, frame 102, and frame 103.

2) Subjob 12345.0 renders frames 100 and 102 (agenda items 1 and 3)

3) Subjob 12345.1 renders frames 101 and 103 (agenda items 2 and 4)

Important:

Number of Subjobs = the number of machines a Job is being processed on.

Number of Agenda Items = the number frames being processed.

Job Slots (or Process Slots) = how many processes a Worker can run at a given time. Job Slots do not refer to the number of processor cores on a Worker.

Job Callbacks = Any of the many action events Qube is able to trigger such as emailing the user, unblocking a job, or running a script.

SHARED STORAGE

A network fileserver accessible to the Clients and the Worker is needed as the scenes to render will be read from a network location and the resulting images written out to a network location. In order to reduce manual process of copying files back and forth, it is recommended that artists edit their scenes directly from the central fileserver instead of locally.

All users should have full read and write access to the file server. Job execution usually requires a great deal of reading and writing, so make sure that users have permission to not only read files from the server, but also create them.

If you plan to share files to both desktop users and to the render farm, double-check your fileserver licensing. Some servers have limits to the number of simultaneous client connections. A farm of machines could easily exceed the licensing limitations of a desktop machine acting as a server

Note: By default, Qube installs proxy user called qubeproxy. This user must be granted read and write access to the file server if a Worker uses the standard “proxy” mode.

INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS

Recommended OS:

1st: Linux

2nd: OS X

3rd: WIndows

File Storage:

All Nodes must be able to access files from a shared storage location (either SAN, NAS, or Fileserver)

Administrator Access:

Required for installation

Supervisor Logs:

Reserved Space (local) for up to 4GB of log files (good for several thousand jobs)

Open TCP/IP and UDP Ports:

Turn firewall off on all Supervisor, Worker, and Client machines.

or

Open the following ports:

50001 TCP/IP and UDP

50002 TCP/IP and UDP

50011 TCP/IP and UDP

SUPERVISOR NODES

• 1-10 node renderfarm – Dedicated or multi-use server is fine, 4+GB RAM

• 11-50 node renderfarm – Dedicated Supervisor recommended, 4+ GB RAM

• 50-100 node renderfarm – Dedicated Supervisor recommended with higher memory (ie. 32GB)

• 100+ node renderfarm – Dedicated Supervisor recommended with max memory running Linux

SUPERVISOR INSTALLATION

Install the following OS components:

• MySQL (Linux only) MySQL included with Supervisor for Windows & OSX

Install the following Qube components:

• Qube Core

• Qube Supervisor

• QubeGUI Install and verify Qube License (qb.lic):

• Launch the QubeGUI and select Administration->Install License and specify the qb.lic license file. • Verify that the QubeGUI title bar shows the correct <used>/<available> licenses. (e.g. 0/100)

WORKER INSTALLATION

Install the following Qube components:

• Qube Core

• Qube Worker

• QubeGUI (optional)

• Qube Jobtypes (Maya, XSI, etc)

• [Windows only] Install Perl (if Jobtypes installed, usually requiring perl). Download version Perl 5.8 from www.activestate.com. Also supports version 5.6 on Windows.

• [Windows only] Install Python (if using Jobtypes requiring python). Download Py- thon 2.6 from www.activestate.com. Alsu supports python versions 2.3, 2.4, and 2.5 on Windows.

Configure the Worker:

• Specify Supervisor (required if not on same subnet as Supervisor) and execution mode:

-Launch the QubeGUI

-Select Administrator->Configuration to bring up a dialog

-Set the “Supervisor” parameter to the Supervisor hostname.

-Set the “proxy_execution_mode” parameter to “user” if you want to have the Worker run as the submitting user (requires ActiveDirectory or LDAP users)

-Set the “proxy_account” parameter to a network user if want to run jobs on the Worker as a single Active Directory or LDAP user.

• Disable the Firewall

Install the following Qube components:

• Qube Core

• QubeGUI

• Qube Jobtypes with in-app interfaces (Maya, MiGen, Mentalray, 3dsMax, XSI) Configure the Clients:

• Specify Supervisor (required if not on same subnet as Supervisor)

-Launch the QubeGUI

-Select Administrator->Configuration to bring up a dialog

-Set the “Supervisor” parameter to the Supervisor hostname

CLIENT INSTALLATION

Install the following Qube components:

• Qube Core

• QubeGUI

• Qube Job types with in-app interfaces (Maya, MiGen, Mentalray, 3dsMax, XSI)

Configure the Clients:

• Specify Supervisor (required if not on same subnet as Supervisor)

-Launch the QubeGUI

-Select Administrator->Configuration to bring up a dialog

-Set the “Supervisor” parameter to the Supervisor hostname

LAUNCHING QUBE!

Launching Via GUI

Windows: Start->PipelineFX->Qube

Windows 32-bit: C:/Program Files/pfx/qube/bin/qube.exe

Windows 64-bit C:/Program Files (x86)/pfx/qube/bin/qube.exe)

Linux: /usr/local/pfx/qube/bin/qube

OSX: /Applications/pfx/qube/qube.app

Launching via Python

Qube can be run directly via Python using …/qube/api/python/qb/gui/qube.py.

If using this method, the following components are required:

•    Python (required)

•    wxPython (required)

•    numpy (optional, to display the job charts)

•    PIL (optional, to provide additional internal image file formats)

•    MySQLdb (optional, to provide direct MySQL database queries)

If DNS, TCP-IP, physical connections, etc are OK…

Check these items:

1) Go to Directory Utility: See If OD entry shows “Server Unavailable”

2) Go to Server Admin>Open Directory>LDAP: See If Server shows STOPPED

If YES for both you may have OD database corruption.

———————————

To Check Database for corruption:

sudo /usr/libexec/slapd -Tt

If this command returns “config file testing succeeded” then the database is not corrupt, you should attempt to troubleshoot elsewhere.

If this command returns an error (i.e.,”run recovery”), then the db is possibly corrupt.

To Repair Database corruption:

sudo db_recover -h /var/db/openldap/openldap-data/

If this command returns ‘succeeded’ status then rebuild was successful.
After reboot of OD Master and Replicas, Kerberos and LDAP should show RUNNING in Server Admin.  Network accounts should be available and clients able to log into OD accounts.

———————————

If the commands above do not help, and you continue to get errors like:
“slapd73: bdb(dc=xxx,dc=xxx,dc=com): PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery”

You can attempt the following:

1) sudo to root

sudo -i

2) shutdown the open directory server

service org.openldap.slapd stop

3) dump a copy of the Open Directory database to an LDIF format text file

mkdir /var/root/opendirectory
cd /var/root/opendirectory
slapcat -l dir.ldif

4) move the old (corrupt) database files out of the way (or remove them).

cd /var/db/openldap/openldap-data
mkdir SAVE
mv *.bdb SAVE/

be sure you don’t move, rename or delete the file named DB_CONFIG. It’s needed.

5) recreate the database from the LDIF format file

cd /var/root/opendirectory
slapadd -l dir.ldif
slapindex

You will see some harmless warnings during slapadd. Ignore them.

6) restart open directory

service org.openldap.slapd start

-Your OD should be running again.
-Check OD for “stray” objects as the corruption may have left some fragments behind.

Using Debian 6.0.1a AMD64 DVD-1 Installation Disk

Required:

-Debian 6.0.1a AMD64 DVD

-1 Installation Disk

-2x Identical Installation Drives (2x500GB in this example) Pre-formatted as Free Space

Initial Set-Up:

-Debian 6.0.1a AMD64 Installation DVD and boot server.

Installer Boot Menu

-Choose Graphical Install (Wait a 30 seconds as installer launches)

Language:

-Select your language

Location:

-Select your location

Keyboard:

-Select your keymap

Network:

-Primary Network Interface: Select the ethernet port connected to your Internet connection

-Hostname: Enter the network name for your server (i.e. debian-svr).

-Domain Name: Enter the domain your server will reside on (i.e. example.com)

Users and Passwords:

-Root Password: Enter the root password you’d like to use and verify it.

-Full Name for New User: Enter the display name for your first user (i.e. Administrator).

-Username for your Account: Enter the shortname (no caps, no spaces) name for your first user (i.e. administrator).

-Choose a password for the new user: Enter the password for your first user.

Clock:

-Select your time zone

Partition Disks:

-Partition Disks: Choose Manual.

You should now see the two disks you use to create a RAID1 boot volume: SDA and SDB

SCSI1 (0,1,0) sda

–pri/log [size]GB   FREE SPACE

SCSI1 (0,0,0) sdb

–pri/log [size]GB   FREE SPACE

Create Partions for SDA:

-Select the FREE SPACE partition on “sda”.

-Select “Automatically partition the free space”.

-Select “All files in one partition”.

This will create Primary and Swap partitions on your sda drive.

-Select the Primary partition, enter.

-Select Use As, enter. Select “Physical Volume for RAID”.

-Select Bootable Flag, enter. This will set the partition as Bootable.

-Select “Done setting up the partition”

-Select the Swap partition, enter.

-Select Use As, enter. Select “Physical Volume for RAID”, enter.

-Leave the bootable flag at OFF
-Select “Done setting up the partition”

Create Partions for SDB:

-Select the FREE SPACE partition on “sdb”.

-Select “Automatically partition the free space”.

-Select “All files in one partition”.

This will create Primary and Swap partitions on your sdb drive.

-Select the Primary partition, enter.

-Select Use As, enter. Select “Physical Volume for RAID”.

-Select Bootable Flag, enter. This will set the partition as Bootable.

-Select “Done setting up the partition”

-Select the Swap partition, enter.

-Select Use As, enter. Select “Physical Volume for RAID”, enter.

-Leave the bootable flag at OFF

-Select “Done setting up the partition”

You should now have a set of identical drives each with primary and logical partitions that look like this:

SCSI1 (0,1,0) sda

#1 primary    [size]GB B K raid

#5 logical      [size]GB    K raid

SCSI1 (0,0,0) sdb

#1 primary    [size]GB B K raid

#5 logical      [size]GB    K raid

Create RAID1 (Primary “Filesystem” Partition)

-Select “Configure Software RAID”.

-Write Changes to Storage Devices and configure RAID?:  YES

-Select “Create MD device”.

-Software RAID Type: Select RAID1.

-Number of active devices for RAID1: 2, Continue.

-Number of spare devices for RAID1:  0, Continue.

Active Devices for RAID1 Array:  Use Up and Down Arrow to highlight the partition, then use Spacebar to Select it.

-Select /dev/sda1

-Select /dev/sdb1
Click Continue.

Your Primary file system partitions are now ready to be formatted as RAID1.

Create RAID1 (Logical “Swap” Partition)

-Select “Configure Software RAID”.

-Write Changes to Storage Devices and configure RAID?:  YES

-Select “Create MD device”.

-Software RAID Type: Select RAID1.

-Number of active devices for RAID1: 2, Continue.

-Number of spare devices for RAID1:  0, Continue.

Active Devices for RAID1 Array:

Use Up and Down Arrow to highlight the partition, then use Spacebar to Select it.

-Select /dev/sda2

-Select /dev/sdb2

Click Continue.

Your Logical swap partitions are now ready to be formatted as RAID1.

NOTE: If for some reason, all of the partitions you create earlier are not available in the Active Devices selection window, delete the RAID1 set you’ve created so far, and use Go Back to get to the Partition Disks screen.  Select, double-check, and save each partition over again.  So, even if you were correct, and don’t have to change anything, recommitting the settings should make all of the partitions visible in the Active Devices window.

Once you’ve created your primary and logical RAID1 sets, Select Finish, and Continue.

This will take you back to the Partition Disks overview screen which should now look like this:

RAID1 device

#0 – [size]GB Software RAID device

#1                             [size]GB

-                                [size]kB        unuseable

RAID1 device #1 – [size]GB Software RAID device

#1                             [size]GB

-                                [size]kB        unuseable

SCSI1 (0,1,0) sda

#1 primary              [size]GB B K raid

#5 logical                [size]GB     K raid

SCSI1 (0,0,0) sdb

#1 primary              [size]GB B K raid

#5 logical                [size]GB     K raid

Assign root (/) partion:

Select partition #1 of “RAID1 device #0″, Enter.

Use As: Ext4 Journal File System

Mount Point: / – the root file system

(leave other settings at their defaults)

Select: Done setting up the partition.

Assign swap partion:

Select partition #1 of “RAID1 device #1″, Enter.

Use As: swap area

Select: Done setting up the partition.

Scroll to the very bottom of the Partition Disks screen:

Select: “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk”.

Write Changes to disk?: YES, Continue.

Boot Volume Created

You should now have a formatted RAID1 boot volume with a large Primary Filesystem partition for your OS, and a smaller Logical Swap partition for your swap space (virtual memory).

Configure the package manager

Once the formatting of the partitions is complete, answer questions regarding the software sources for Debian packages during install:

Scan Another CD or DVD?: If you have additional Debian DVDs (Disc 2, Disc 2, etc) insert it now and select YES, so the available packages can be scanned.  If not, click NO, and continue.

Use a Network Mirror: This will make additional packages available during installation, but can increase installation time. If unsure, select NO.

Participate in Package Useage Survey: Select YES or NO.

Choose Software to Install

Select…

-Graphical Desktop Environment

-DNS Server

-File Server

-SSH Server

-Standard System Utilities

Installation

The Debian Installation will begin.  Packages will be retrieved and installed based on your choices.  If you have selected a number of items that need to be downloaded first, the installation will take longer to complete.

Samba Server

Workgroup/ Domain Name: Specify a workgroup name.  If unsure, use WORKGROUP.

Install GRUB

Install the GRUB Bootloader to the master boot record: YES

This will install GRUB to one of the drives that make up your RAID1 Boot Volume.

Once the GRUB installation is complete, your installation DVD should eject automatically, and your server will reboot.

To provide true redundancy, you now need to install the GRUB bootloader on both drives so that your server can boot from either, should one drive fail.

Add GRUB to both drives in your RAID1 Volume

-After restart has finished, login to your server.

-Re-insert your Debian 6.0.1a Installation DVD, which we’ll use as a source for the GRUB installer.

-Open Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)

-Login as Root.

su -

[enter password]

-Get the GRUB components (make sure the Debian Install DVD is inserted again)

apt-get install grub

-Follow any in-Terminal instructions.

-Install GRUB to both drives in your RAID1 volume

grub-install /dev/sda

grub-install /dev/sdb

If successful, you will see: Installation finished.  No error reported.

Eject your installation DVD.

Installation Complete

And you’re done.  Once GRUB is installed on both boot drives, you’ll have a working, RAID1-protected Debian 6 server.

Sources:

https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/advanced-installation.html

http://www.texsoft.it/index.php?c=hardware&m=hw.storage.boot-raid-squeeze&l=it

Using 10.04.2 LTS Alternate Installation Disk

Required:

-Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS Alternate Installation Disk (includes tools for installation to software RAID)

-2x Identical Installation Drives (2x500GB in this example) Formatted as Free Space

Initial Set-Up:

-Insert 10.04 LTS Installation Disk and boot server.

Language:

-Language Screen: Select your language

-Start-up Menu: Choose “Install Ubuntu”

(ASCII Menus begin)

Keyboard:

-Choose Language: Select your language

-Choose Language: Select your region

-Detect keyboard layout: No

-Origin of keyboard: Choose country of origin

-Keyboard Layout: Choose keyboard layout

Network:

-Primary Network Interface: Select the ethernet port connected to your internet connection

-Hostname: Enter the network name for your server (i.e. ubuntu-svr). Use Down-Arrow to highlight Continue.

Clock:

-If Timezone shown is correct, enter. If not use Down or Right Arrow to highlight No, enter. Select timezone, use Tab to highlight Go Back.

Partition Disks:

-Partition Disks: Highlight Manual.

You should now see your two disks: SDA and SDB

SCSI1 (0,1,0) sda

–pri/log [size]GB     FREE SPACE

SCSI1 (0,0,0) sdb

–pri/log [size]GB     FREE SPACE

Create Partions for SDA:

-Select the FREE SPACE partition on “sda”.

-Select “Automatically partition the free space”.

This will create Primary and Swap partitions on your SDA drive.

-Select the Primary partition.

-Select Use As, enter. Select “Physical Volume for RAID”.

-Select Bootable Flag, enter. This will set the partition as Bootable.

-Select “Done setting up the partition”

-Select the second, smaller Swap partition.

-Select Use As, enter. Select “Physical Volume for RAID”, enter. (Leave the bootable flag OFF)

-Select “Done setting up the partition”

Create Partions for SDB:

-Select the FREE SPACE partition on “sdb”.

-Select “Automatically partition the free space”.

This will create Primary and Swap partitions on your SDB drive.

-Select the Primary partition.

-Select Use As, enter. Select “Physical Volume for RAID”.

-Select Bootable Flag, enter. This will set the partition as Bootable.

-Select “Done setting up the partition”

-Select the second, smaller Swap partition.

-Select Use As, enter. Select “Physical Volume for RAID”, enter. (Leave the bootable flag OFF)

-Select “Done setting up the partition”

You should now have a set of identical drives each with primary and logical partitions that look like this: SCSI1 (0,1,0) sda

#1 primary    [size]GB B K raid

#5 logical      [size]GB     K raid

SCSI1 (0,0,0) sdb

#1 primary    [size]GB B K raid

#5 logical      [size]GB     K raid

Create RAID1 (Primary Partition)

-Select “Configure Software RAID”.

-Write Changes to Storage Devices and configure RAID?: YES

-Select “Create MD device”.

-Software RAID Type: Select RAID1.

-Number of active devices for RAID1: 2, Continue.

-Number of spare devices for RAID1: 0, Continue.

Active Devices for RAID1 Array: Use Up and Down Arrow to highlight, Use Spacebar to Select.

-Select /dev/sda1

-Select /dev/sdb1

Use Tab to highlight Continue, enter.

Your Primary partitions are now ready to be formatted as RAID1.

Create RAID1 (Logical “Swap” Partition)

-Select “Configure Software RAID”.

-Write Changes to Storage Devices and configure RAID?: YES

-Select “Create MD device”, enter.

-Software RAID Type: Select RAID1.

-Number of active devices for RAID1: 2, Continue.

-Number of spare devices for RAID1: 0, Continue.

Active Devices for RAID1 Array: Use Up and Down Arrow to highlight, Use Space bar to Select.

-Select /dev/sda2

-Select /dev/sdb2

Use Tab to highlight Continue, enter.

Your Logical partitions are now ready to be formatted as RAID1.

NOTE: If for some reason, all of the partitions you create earlier are not available in the Active Devices selection window, delete the RAID1 set you’ve created so far, and use Go Back to get to the Partition Disks screen. Select, double-check, and save each partition over again. So, even if you were correct, and don’t have to change anything, recommitting the settings should make all of the partitions visible in the Active Devices window.

Once you’ve created your primary and logical RAID1 sets, Select Finish.

You should now be at the Partition Disks overview screen that looks like this:

RAID1 device #0 –   [size]GB Software RAID device

#1                                [size]GB

-                                   [size]kB unuseable

RAID1 device #1 –   [size]GB Software RAID device

#1                               [size]GB

-                                  [size]kB unuseable

SCSI1 (0,1,0) sda

#1 primary              [size]GB B K raid

#5 logical                [size]GB     K raid

SCSI1 (0,0,0) sdb

#1 primary             [size]GB B K raid

#5 logical               [size]GB     K raid

Assign root (/) partion:

Select partition #1 of “RAID1 device #0″.

Use As: Ext4 Journal File System

Mount Point: / – the root file system

(leave other settings at their defaults)

Select: Done setting up the partition.

Assign swap partion:

Select partition #1 of “RAID1 device #1″.

Use As: swap area

Select: Done setting up the partition.

Scroll to the very bottom of the list:

Select: “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk”.

Enable Booting Degraded RAID

Select: YES

Note: Booting to a degraded RAID1 mirror is safe as long as you replace the failed disk and re-sync a new disk as soon as possible. Recovering a degraded Linux software RAID1 volume is covered in the Re-syncing Mirrored RAID volumes guide.

Write Changes to Disk: YES

Your RAID1 volumes and partitions will be created. Depending on your drives and hardware, this can take several minutes to a few hours as the drives sync. However, once sync is complete, any new data will be synced transparently in the background.

Postfix (Mail Server) Configuration

Select Continue.

Choose your mail server:

-No Configuration: If your machine is not intended to be a mail server.

-Local Only: Allows various services to deliver notifications (i.e. drive failure) internally to users on the server. Internet Site, Smarthost, and Satellite are outside the scope of this guide.

User Set-up

-Enter the full name for your first user: i.e., John Smith. However if you’d like to use a shortname, like “administrator” that is fine.

-Enter the user name (shortname) for your account. This will be the name used for your user folder. It must be all lower-case letter or number, with no spaces, like “administrator.

-Enter your password for this user. In Ubuntu, the first user created on any new installation also doubles as the root (superuser) user. It’s a good idea to use a strong password for this account as it will have the power to create, modify, or delete any setting or file on the machine.

-Verify the password for this user.

-Encrypt your home directory. This option encrypts your user folder and can be helpful, usually if you are using installing to a laptop or mobile device. It will help keep others from reading the contents of your user folder when your account is not logged in. However, an encrypted home directory is generally impossible to recover if you lose your password, or the OS crashes in a way that prohibits you from successfully log in anymore. If unsure, choose “No”.

Package Manager

If your company requires you to use a proxy server to access the internet, enter the proxy information. Otherwise, leave blank and Continue.

Configure GRUB

Install Grub to Master Boot Record: YES This will install Grub Bootloader on both drives using:

grub install /dev/sda /dev/sdb

That will allow either drive to boot the OS, even if one drive has failed.

Set System Clock

Set system clock to UTC:

Yes: Allows the bios clock to be set to Universal time. Each OS then uses the Time Zone in system preferences to display the correct time.

No: Allows the bios clock to stay at the local time, that is set in the time preferences of the OS. This can be preferable if the machine is not a mobile device, and especially if you intend to

boot multiple OS’s. Some operating systems handle time differently, and this can cause the time that is displayed to vary wildly each time you boot to a different OS. To avoid this, choose No.

Installation Complete

If you’ve gotten this far, you should have a successful, RAID1 Ubuntu 10.04 Installation.

Remove your installation disk and select Continue to reboot and login to your new installation.

To begin make sure to verify the following:

In RAID Software (WebPam Pro, Active Viewer, RAID Admin)
-Check Controller Status
-Check Array Status
-Check Fibre Status

In Xsan Admin
-Check Computers for Authentication
-Check Mounts for status
-Check Volume for status
-Check Computers for status

In Xsan Admin Logs:
-Check System Log
-Check FSMPM Log
-Check Specific Volume Logs

In Terminal
>su – (enter password)
>cvadmin
>select  (shows what file systems are available.  * = Volume is running)
Check if Volumes are mounted
Check if they are on the appropriate MDC

>fail [volume name]  (works more reliably than Xsan GUI)
to bump Volume to next MDC in priority list.

Ultimately scanning Xsan logs provides best opportunity for diagnosis

CVFSCK to check for Volume integrity

YOU MUST STOP THE VOLUME before doing cvfsck or it will give you errors regardless. (i.e. *Dirty* will be indicated)

Recommended Order
#1 >cvfsck -nv   (read-only FS check: -n= no write, -v= verbose) You are looking for “Filessystem would not have been modified” as a sign of good filesystem integrity.

#2 >cvfsck -j     (writeable FS check: clears journal cache, it ensures that all operations have been written to disk)

#3 >cvfsck -wv  (writeable FS check: -w=write, -v= verbose)
If you see “File System would have been modifed, run this.  This may need to be run up to 3-4 times for a clean log output.
If you see File System Check Completed Successfully, you have a clean FS.

#4 >cvfsck -nv   (read-only FS check: run as a last step, if FS it says FS would not have been modified, FS is clean)

More Serious cvfsck Options:

If after -wv you notice Free List inconsistencies in cvfsck output.

>cvfsck -C   (-C= clobber Free List, will remove free inodes)
**Run this if you see Free Inode Inconsistencies**
Run -wv, if you don’t see anything repaired then repair was successful

>cvfsck -Xv [volume name]  (-X= free all Inodes and eXtended attributes chains, extended attributes present in these Inodes will be deleted.)
**Run this if you see Free List Extents in cvfsck output**
If successful you should see no entries under Verifying Free List Extents

Inode=Index Node, the basic component of the Unix file system that actually stores data or references to data.

SuperBlock=Like an Inode only it is a component of the table of contents of the disk or volume, and contains Inodes or references to Inodes.

Use as a last resort if you cannot get an FS clear of errors.  This may render FS unusable, but the only other option is to COPY all data off of Volume, rebuild volume and copy all data back. Make sure to have a copy of this

If you see free inodes=0, you need to write some data to volume (duplicating any file you see of reasonable size is a good option).

With the write of data, new free inodes will be created allowing the volume to function normally (this often helps when you need to clobber a volume before a volume expansion

BEFORE any volume expansion: RUN CVFSCK to ensure file system integrity is perfect, otherwise volume will corrupt overtime until it is completely unusable.

IF A VOLUME IS UNMNOUNTING itself:

Check logs for PANIC errors.  If an Xsan filesystem crashes more than twice in one hour it will unmount the volume in an attempt at self-preservation.