VALRAID

VALRAID is a utility program that can be used to validate policy files against inventory files generated by the INVRAID utility.

VALRAID has two modes of operation:

Simulation mode - simulates the effect a policy file would have on a controller.
Check mode - determines whether the policy file matches the configuration represented in the inventory file.

Simulation mode

Used in simulation mode, VALRAID simulates the effect that a policy file would have on a RAID configuration if it were applied using the PRAID utility, which makes it useful for creating PRAID policy files. The policy files can be tested without running PRAID on the target system.

Check mode

Used in check mode, VALRAID determines whether the policy file specified matches the RAID configuration represented in the inventory file. This capability can be used in OS deployment scripts to skip the RAID configuration step if the controller is already configured with the required RAID configuration and thus avoiding an extra reboot before installing the OS. VALRAID will set the return code = 20 to indicate that the policy file does not match the configuration represented by the inventory file.

Usage

The two modes of operation share most parameters, but the syntax is mode-specific.

The simulation mode syntax is:

valraid /ini:input_inventory_file /inp:input_policy_file 
/outi:output_inventory_file /outp:output_policy_file 
/raid:/inifiles

The check mode syntax is:

valraid /c /ini:input_inventory_file /inp:input_policy_file /raid:/inifiles

Table 1. VALRAID parameters
Parameter	Description	Example
`/ini:input_inventory_file`	Specifies the input inventory file. To generate the inventory file, run INVRAID against a target system.	`valraid /ini:myfile.inv /inp:policy.ini /outi:newfile.inv /outp:newpolicy.ini /raid:/inifiles`
`/inp:input_policy_file`	Specifies the input policy file.	`valraid /ini:myfile.inv /inp:policy.ini /outi:newfile.inv /outp:newpolicy.ini /raid:/inifiles`
`/outi:output_inventory_file`	Specifies the file name for the output inventory file. This inventory file represents the RAID configuration that results from using the PRAID utility to apply `input_policy_file` to the system described in `input_inventory_file`. This option is valid only for simulation mode.	`valraid /ini:myfile.inv /inp:policy.ini /outi:newfile.inv /outp:newpolicy.ini /raid:/inifiles`
`/outp:output_policy_file`	Specifies the file name for the output policy file. This file can be applied to a target system by using the PRAID utility. This option is valid only for simulation mode.	`valraid /ini:myfile.inv /inp:policy.ini /outi:newfile.inv /outp:newpolicy.ini /raid:/inifiles`
`/raid:inifiles`	Specifies the directory that contains the RAID configuration .ini files. The default is /opt/ibm/sgtk/sgdeploy/sgtklinux/.data/valraid	`valraid /ini:myfile.inv /inp:policy.ini /outi:newfile.inv /outp:newpolicy.ini /raid:/inifiles`
`/c`	Specifies check mode to compare the configuration from `input_inventory_file` to the configuration represented in `input_policy_file`. The default is simulation mode.	`valraid /c /ini:myfile.inv /inp:policy.ini /raid:inifiles`

Return codes

VALRAID uses the following return codes:

0 – Success
1 – Error parsing input policy file
2 – Error parsing input inventory file
3 – Controller is not supported
4 – Raid level is not supported
5 – Stripesize is not supported
6 – Number of arrays not supported
7 – Number of drives in array not supported
8 – Number of logical volumes in array is not supported
9 – Not enough drives to create hotspare
10 – Not enough drives of the same size
11 – Error opening input policy file
12 – Error opening input inventory file
13 – Error opening output inventory file
14 – Error writing to output inventory file
15 – Error opening output policy file
16 – Error writing output policy file
17 – Partial drive sizing not supported
18 – Command line syntax error
19 – No policy match
20 – Controller not configured, does not match policy file