VOB administration

Because VOBs are the principal repository for artifacts under Rational® ClearCase® control, VOB administration is one of the Rational ClearCase administrator’s most important tasks.

Any Rational ClearCase development environment requires one or more VOBs. VOB administration tasks include the following:

Configuring VOB hosts
Creating VOBs
Enabling access to VOB data
Importing data into a VOB from another configuration management system
Backing up and recovering VOB data
Managing VOB storage
Monitoring VOB integrity

Access to VOB data and metadata
VOB data must be accessed through a view. Most VOB metadata can be accessed directly by using Rational ClearCase GUIs and cleartool commands.
VOB attributes
All VOBs have the same on-disk directory structure, and all have similar administrative requirements. However, certain VOBs might perform special functions, as determined by attributes attached to the VOB object when the VOB is created.
VOB schema versions
Each VOB has a database schema version that denotes the format of the VOB database and determines the types of data and metadata that the VOB can store.
VOB feature levels
A VOB feature level is an integer that defines a set of Rational ClearCase features that a VOB supports.
VOB host configuration guidelines
Properly configured VOB hosts are essential to obtaining satisfactory Rational ClearCase performance.
Creating VOBs
Any user with access to a suitable server host can create a VOB.
Replacing a VOB server host for a NAS device
When you locate VOB storage on a NAS device, you can easily replace the VOB host for any VOB on the NAS device with another VOB host of the same architecture without actually moving the VOB storage.
Troubleshooting VOB access problems
Several common problems can prevent access to VOBs.
Making a VOB inaccessible
To make a VOB inaccessible, lock it or remove its tag.
Removing a VOB
Removing a VOB destroys all of its data. Do not remove a VOB unless the data that it contains is no longer valuable.
The VOB storage directory
This topic describes the contents of a VOB storage directory. An understanding of these contents can be useful to anyone responsible for VOB storage maintenance.
VOB storage management
VOB storage grows in proportion to the number of developers who use the VOB and the rate at which they create and change artifacts in it.
Creating additional storage for a VOB
After you have created a VOB, you can create as many additional storage pools as you need and adjust their contents as necessary. On hosts running Linux® or the UNIX® system, you can also create remote storage pools.

Parent topic: Administering Rational ClearCase