MVFS caches in Solaris zones

On a host that is running a version of the Sun Solaris operating system that supports zones, special tools and procedures apply when working with MVFS caches in a non-global zone.

In Sun Solaris 10, zones are a virtualization technology that provides isolation and a secure environment for applications. The global zone is the initial zone of the Solaris 10 operating system. This zone has full privileges and is the zone that is running when the system is booted. A non-global zone provides a virtual operating environment, with its own host name, network address, and file system, in which applications can run as though they were installed on a separate host. A non-global zone is commonly called a zone.

A special environment variable and additional options to setcache provide support for tuning MVFS performance in this environment.

Getting MVFS cache statistics for a zone

To access MVFS cache information and statistics for a zone, you can use these Rational® ClearCase® commands and utilities while logged on to that zone:

cleartool getcache –mvfs
/opt/rational/clearcase/etc/mvfscache
/opt/rational/clearcase/etc/mvfsstat

Setting the mvfs_expected_zone_count environment variable
The mvfs_expected_zone_count environment variable allows you to specify the number of zones in which you plan to run the MVFS.
Tuning the MVFS cache for a non-global zone using cleartool setcache
The cleartool setcache command has a –zone option that allows you to specify the MVFS cache size for a particular zone.
Using zlogin
If you are logged on to the global zone as the root user, you can remotely access MVFS cache information and statistics for any non-global zone on that computer by combining the Solaris zlogin utility with cleartool commands.

Parent topic: Examining and adjusting MVFS cache size