In the world of UNIX storage management, there are two primary leaders: IBM and Veritas. Both companies offer products that help UNIX system administrators manage storage in very flexible methods in comparison to older UNIX implementations. IBM offers the Logical Volume Manager (LVM) as part of its Advanced Interactive Executive (AIX) operating system. The LVM is built into the base operating system and is provided as part of the base AIX installation. Veritas offers the Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) which is either packaged as a standalone add-on or part of a larger package such as the Veritas On-Line Storage Manager. VxVM is designed to be an additional software package added to a UNIX operating system, most notably the Solaris operating system by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
This document will help system administrators co-manage AIX systems from the LVM point of view. A table of limitations that affect both VxVM and LVM operations is included. Where values differ greatly, an explanation is given from the LVM point of view as to why LVM differs from VxVM. It is not the purpose of this paper to explain VxVM limitations. Finally, although limits and actions between VxVM and LVM may be close or identical, execution may not be the same.
AIX Logical Volume Manager and Veritas Volume Manager