Re: How do you create raw chunks on LINUX?
> I created 3 partitions, named sda1, 2 and 3 - and did not create any file > systems in them. When assigning chunks to INFORMIX, do I use the device > names of /dev/sda1 or do I have to do something else. sda1 is a blocked > device, and I thought it wants a character special device. Can anyone step > me through this please? Thanks! Raw devices aren't "officially" supported on Linux yet, and therefore aren't supported for IDS yet either. There's code out there and it's supposed to be part of the next kernel release, but I don't know the specifics yet.
[Posted and mailed] In article <89rudc$kkq$1@news.xmission.com>, Chuck Renaud <crenaud@informix.com> writes: > >> I created 3 partitions, named sda1, 2 and 3 - and did not create any file >> systems in them. When assigning chunks to INFORMIX, do I use the device >> names of /dev/sda1 or do I have to do something else. sda1 is a blocked >> device, and I thought it wants a character special device. Can anyone step >> me through this please? Thanks! > > Raw devices aren't "officially" supported on Linux yet, and therefore > aren't supported for IDS yet either. There's code out there and it's > supposed to be part of the next kernel release, but I don't know the > specifics yet. > There's patch to 2.2.x kernels to provide raw i/o: >uname -a Linux leo 2.2.13 #1 Thu Oct 21 18:39:20 MSD 1999 i686 unknown >cat /proc/devices | grep raw 162 raw IDS works just fine with them. --- Alexey
In article <8a7mv7$716$1@news.metrocom.ru>, swaj@swaj.nospam.ru (Alexey Semenov) writes: > [Posted and mailed] .. > There's patch to 2.2.x kernels to provide raw i/o: > >>uname -a > Linux leo 2.2.13 #1 Thu Oct 21 18:39:20 MSD 1999 i686 unknown > >>cat /proc/devices | grep raw > 162 raw > > IDS works just fine with them. > > --- > Alexey After installation of a INFORMIX-product it is advisible to read the release-notes ($INFORMIXDIR/release). The release-notes of IDS/Linux tells us, that raw-devices are not supported on Linux. Do that mean, that there have to be some code in IDS to support raw-devices? For me it sounds ok to configure raw-devices with patched kernels. Is that as good as raw-devices supported from IDS? Tommi
>> There's patch to 2.2.x kernels to provide raw i/o: >> IDS works just fine with them. > After installation of a INFORMIX-product it is advisible to read the > release-notes ($INFORMIXDIR/release). The release-notes of IDS/Linux > tells us, that raw-devices are not supported on Linux. Do that mean, > that there have to be some code in IDS to support raw-devices? For me > it sounds ok to configure raw-devices with patched kernels. Is that as > good as raw-devices supported from IDS? Hm... Informix does know about raw or buffered io. But it's OS deal to support read() write() etc. If Informix can really work with patched kernel - I think it knows about raw i/o - try to use dd/cp/tar/etc with ordinary /dev/hda/sda and with /dev/raw. Feel diferences? ;) > > Tommi
Hi I don't have a patched kernel yet, but I'm sure there will be a difference doing dd/cp/tar/etc with /dev/sda or /dev/raw. I'm just confused about the release-notes telling: 6. The following Informix Dynamic Server, Linux Edition 7.3 features are not supported in this release: .. - Raw-device support It sounds as IDS would not support raw-devices. But as far as I understand they wanted to tell us Linux does not support it. I would like to now, if you have the advatages of raw-devices on IDS when using raw-devices on Linux. Do you have the power and security of raw- devices here? Or do it just work? Tommi
"Tommi Mäkitalo" wrote: > I don't have a patched kernel yet, but I'm sure there will be a difference > doing dd/cp/tar/etc with /dev/sda or /dev/raw. I'm just confused about > the release-notes telling: > 6. The following Informix Dynamic Server, Linux Edition 7.3 features > are not supported in this release: > .. > - Raw-device support > > It sounds as IDS would not support raw-devices. But as far as I understand > they wanted to tell us Linux does not support it. Yes, the standard Linux 2.2.x kernels do not support raw devices, so IDS cannot use them. > I would like to now, if you have the advatages of raw-devices on IDS when > using raw-devices on Linux. Do you have the power and security of raw- > devices here? Or do it just work? If you patch your kernel to add raw devices to it, then you can try using them with IDS, but the results are unknown -- Informix does no t support them, and has not tested them, and I've no idea whether the necessary code is present in the IDS software or not. If it works, great. Be very cautious about going live with them. And don't try reporting any problems while you're using them -- they are unsupported, so all errors are instantly attributable to the unsupported feature you are using. Good luck, and let c.d.i know how it goes. -- Jonathan Leffler (jleffler@informix.com, jleffler@earthlink.net) Guardian of DBD::Informix v0.95 -- see http://www.perl.com/CPAN #include <disclaimer.h>