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 Gen Digital Inc. (formerly Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock Inc.) is a multinational software company co-headquartered in both Prague, Czech Republic ( EU) and Tempe, Arizona ( USA). The company provides cybersecurity software and servi ...

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 Veritas Cluster Server (rebranded as Veritas Infoscale Availability and also known as VCS and also sold bundled in the SFHA product) is high-availability cluster software for Unix, Linux and Microsoft Windows computer systems, created by Veritas ...

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

AIX Aix or AIX may refer to: Computing * AIX, a line of IBM computer operating systems *Alternate index, for an IBM Virtual Storage Access Method key-sequenced data set * Athens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point Places Belg ...

HP-UX HP-UX (from "Hewlett Packard Unix") is a proprietary software, proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise; current versions support HPE Integrity Servers, based on Intel's Itanium architect ...

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

Solaris Solaris is the Latin word for sun. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Sol ...

, and

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

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 The Veritas Volume Manager (VVM or VxVM) is a proprietary logical volume manager from Veritas (which was part of Symantec until January 2016). Details It is available for Windows, AIX, Solaris, Linux, and HP-UX. A modified version is bundled w ...

(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 A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

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 * Rental utilization - economy * Capacity utilization - load on some process * Utilization management Utilization management (UM) or utilization review is the use of managed care techniques such as prior authorization that allow payers, particul ...

. 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 (computing), cache memory and advanced functionality, like redundant array of independent disks, RAID ...

. Logical volumes that are mirrored 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 often implements hardware RAID, thus it is sometimes referred to as RAID controller. It also often provides additio ...

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

References

External links