On March 15, 2011, Symantec released Symantec Operations Readiness Tools (SORT), an updated version of Veritas Operations Services (VOS). SORT (formerly VOS) is a web-based suite of services introduced by Symantec Corporation in 2008 that supports Symantec enterprise products, such as

Veritas Storage Foundation Veritas Storage Foundation (VSF ), previously known as Veritas Foundation Suite, is a computer software product made by Veritas Software that combines Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) and Veritas File System (VxFS) to provide online-storage managem ...

, Veritas Cluster Server (VCS), and NetBackup. SORT collects environmental data from

AIX Aix or AIX may refer to: Computing * AIX, a line of IBM computer operating systems *An Alternate Index, for a Virtual Storage Access Method Key Sequenced Data Set * Athens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point Places Belgi ...

, HP-UX,

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

, Solaris, and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

servers. SORT identifies risks in data centers and provides remediation recommendations. Symantec does not currently charge its customers for SORT.

Process

SORT uses a data collector to collect configuration and environmental data about Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM),

Veritas File System The VERITAS File System (or VxFS; called JFS and OnlineJFS in HP-UX) is an extent-based file system. It was originally developed by VERITAS Software. Through an OEM agreement, VxFS is used as the primary filesystem of the HP-UX operating s ...

(VxFS), VCS, NetBackup, and other Symantec enterprise products. The data are analyzed for potential problems and risks, which are summarized in reports. SORT produces three types of reports about Symantec enterprise products: * Product and licensing inventory * Installation and upgrade * Risk assessment SORT performs environment-specific checks to produce these reports. The risk assessment report, for example, is based on 155 separate checks.

Product and licensing inventory report

The product and licensing inventory report lists installed software binaries and license keys.

Installation and upgrade report

The installation and upgrade report lists environment-specific prerequisites that must be met before installing or upgrading Symantec enterprise products. For example, the report lists required operating system patches that need to be installed before installing a Symantec enterprise product.

Risk assessment report

The risk assessment report provides an environment-specific configuration assessment with recommendations to increase performance,

availability In reliability engineering, the term availability has the following meanings: * The degree to which a system, subsystem or equipment is in a specified operable and committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at ...

, and utilization. For example, one of the checks in the risk assessment report lists volumes whose mirrors are composed of logical units from the same

disk array A disk array is a disk storage system which contains multiple disk drives. It is differentiated from a disk enclosure, in that an array has cache memory and advanced functionality, like RAID, deduplication, encryption and virtualization. Compo ...

. Logical volumes that are

mirrored ''Mirrored'' is the debut studio album by American experimental rock band Battles. It was released on May 14, 2007 in the United Kingdom, and on May 22, 2007 in the United States. ''Mirrored'' marked the first album in which the band incorporated ...

have higher availability when mirrored across separate

disk array controller A disk array controller is a device that manages the physical disk drives and presents them to the computer as logical units. It almost always implements hardware RAID, thus it is sometimes referred to as RAID controller. It also often provides ...

s. Mirroring logical volumes across separate disk array controllers allows the logical volumes to continue to operate should one disk array fail.

External links

Symantec Operations Readiness Tools

Symantec
The owner of Veritas.

References