Written by J. Moellenkamp on
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SolarisEnglish
Less Known Solaris features: SamFS - Part 7: Working with SamFS
Now we´ve configured a file system and we set up the archiver for it. Now let´s use it.
Looking up SamFS specific metadata
At first let´s create a test file.
We now look at the metadata of this file. There is a special version of ls that is capable to read the addtional information. This version ls is called sls. So let´s check for our test file.
There is nothing new. Okay, let´s leave the computer alone, drink a coffee or two, and now we check again:
I assume you´ve already noticed the three addtional lines. The archiver did it´s job:
The first line says, that all outstanding archiving for the file is done. The two next lines tells you where the copies are located, when they were archived and tells you about some special flags. The 1.1 means first file in the archive file , starting at the 513th bit of the archive file(the header of tar if 512 byte long, thus the 513th bit is the first usable byte, thus the 1)
Manually forcing the release
Normally a file just get released, when the high watermark is reached or you configured the archiving this way. But you can force the release on the command line.
After this step, the file isn´t in the cache any longer. When we look in the metadata, we will the a new information. The file is in the offline state:
When we access it again, the file get´s staged back to the cache again:
The offline flag has gone away.
Manually forcing the staging of a file
Okay, but you can force the staging as well, let´s assume you´ve released a file.
A colleague comes into your office, and tells you that he wants to use a large file with simulation data tomorrow. It would be nice, if he don´t have to wait for the automatic staging. We can force SamFS to get the file back to the cache.