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Administering
Learn how to administer the product.
Administering HCL VersionVault
Learn about performing administrative tasks for an HCL VersionVault community including managing software licenses, user and group accounts, VersionVault server and client hosts, shared data, and the network that connects them.
Views and view administration
A view provides a workspace where users access versions of file and directory elements that are under HCL VersionVault control. Views can also contain view-private file system objects (such as ordinary files and directories) that are not under HCL VersionVault control.
Dynamic views
A dynamic view is an MVFS directory that enables dynamic access to VOB elements.
The view root
Every dynamic view on a host is displayed as a subdirectory of the host’s view root directory.

Administering
Learn how to administer the product.
- Administering HCL VersionVault
  Learn about performing administrative tasks for an HCL VersionVault community including managing software licenses, user and group accounts, VersionVault server and client hosts, shared data, and the network that connects them.
  - HCL VersionVault network planning and administration
  - License servers and license administration
    Most HCL VersionVault applications and commands (cleartool commands, for example, or GUIs such as the VersionVault Explorer) require a license to run.
  - Reconfiguring VersionVault to use a different JRE
    When you change the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for HCL VersionVault, you must reconfigure the product to make it work with the new JRE.
  - Administering the HCL VersionVault registry
    The HCL VersionVault registry is a central repository of information about shared resources such as VOBs and views.
  - HCL VersionVault network administration in mixed environments
    An HCL VersionVault environment that includes hosts that run Windows and hosts that run the UNIX system or Linux is said to be a mixed environment.
  - Overview of security considerations
    As an administrator, you are responsible for the security of your HCL VersionVault deployment.
  - VOB and view access control
    HCL VersionVault supports a rich set of access controls on versioned objects.
  - VOB administration
    Because VOBs are the principal repository for artifacts under HCL VersionVault control, VOB administration is one of the HCL VersionVault administrator’s most important tasks.
  - VOB datatypes and administrative VOB hierarchies
    There are many types of VOB metadata. Some are unique to a particular VOB, but many must be managed consistently across a group of VOBs that store related artifacts (components of a UCM project, for example). These topics introduce VOB metadata and describe how to use administrative VOB hierarchies to simplify sharing of type objects among related VOBs.
  - Moving VOBs and relocating VOB data
    HCL VersionVault includes tools for moving data and metadata to another VOB and for moving entire VOBs to another disk or host. You may need to use these tools to reorganize VOB directories, redistribute data storage, or rebalance server loads.
  - Views and view administration
    A view provides a workspace where users access versions of file and directory elements that are under HCL VersionVault control. Views can also contain view-private file system objects (such as ordinary files and directories) that are not under HCL VersionVault control.
    - Dynamic views
      A dynamic view is an MVFS directory that enables dynamic access to VOB elements.
      - The multiversion file system
        The multiversion file system (MVFS) is a feature of HCL VersionVault that supports dynamic views. Snapshot and Web views do not use the MVFS.
      - The view root
        Every dynamic view on a host is displayed as a subdirectory of the host’s view root directory.
        Changing the default view root
        You might need to change the default view root to avoid a conflict with an existing directory or network name.
      - The view storage directory
        A dynamic view is implemented as a standard directory, whose root is called the view storage directory.
      - How a dynamic view selects versions
        Each time you access an element in a dynamic view, the view’s view_server process evaluates the view’s config spec to determine which version of the element to make available.
      - How a dynamic view manages derived objects
        Nonshareable and unshared derived objects typically consume the most disk space in a view’s private storage area.
    - Snapshot views
      A snapshot view uses a host's native file system to hold versions of file and directory elements that have been loaded from a VOB. After the snapshot view has been created, versions of file and directory elements must be loaded (copied) into the snapshot view directory.
    - Creating a view
      Views are typically created by users. The process is simple, can be automated by GUIs on all supported operating systems, and does not usually require administrative intervention. In some cases, an administrator may be responsible for creating shared views or for establishing policies that govern view creation.
    - Moving a view
      Because views are easy to remove and re-create, you do not often have to move them. When you do, special procedures must be followed.
    - Displaying the properties of a view
      You can use the HCL VersionVault Administration Console or the cleartool lsview command to display the properties of a view.
    - Taking a view out of service
      To take a view out of service temporarily, stop its view_server process and remove its view tag.
    - Restoring a view to service
      To restore a view to service create a tag for the view by using the HCL VersionVault Administration Console or the cleartool mktag command.
    - Removing a view
      When you remove a view, you must also remove any references to it held by VOBs.
  - Backing up critical HCL VersionVault data
    Like all databases, VOBs, views, and the HCL VersionVault registry have special backup and restore requirements.
  - Restoring critical HCL VersionVault data
    If you have implemented a sound backup strategy for HCL VersionVault data, it should be easy to restore that data, if necessary.
  - Periodic maintenance
    Periodic attention to storage management and repository integrity is an important administrative function. These topics describe VOB and view storage management tasks, the checkvob utility, and the HCL VersionVault scheduler, which you can use to automate many periodic maintenance chores.
  - Importing data
    HCL VersionVault includes several utilities for importing data from other configuration management systems or directly from the file system itself.
  - Troubleshooting
    These topics cover a variety of procedures that administrators might need to follow to find and fix problems.
  - Improving client host performance
  - Improving VOB host performance
  - Configuring cross-platform file-system access
  - HCL VersionVault and Windows® domains
  - Configuring non-VersionVault access on Linux® or the UNIX system
    You can configure an HCL VersionVault host running Linux® or the UNIX system to support access to VOBs and dynamic views from computers that do not run HCL VersionVault.
  - Configuring HCL VersionVault for high availability
  - Estimating VOB size
    If you can estimate the number of elements, versions, and derived objects that a VOB will ultimately contain, you can compute a very rough estimate of the size of a VOB that can accommodate them. VOB storage includes a database and pools. On Windows®, the database and pools must reside on a single disk partition. On Linux® or the UNIX system, the pools can be located on a different partition or host, using symbolic links.
  - Administering the VersionVault WAN server
  - About VersionVault WAN server parallel view loading
  - Administering and using CMI task-provider integrations
    HCL VersionVault supports integrations with task providers such as HCL Compass through the Change Management Interface (CMI). The integrations require some configuration tasks, after which you can work with UCM activities or base VersionVault branches that are associated with the tasks.
- Administering platforms for HCL VersionVault
  Learn how to perform HCL VersionVault administrative tasks on supported platforms.
- Administering HCL VersionVault MultiSite
  Learn to configure and manage the HCL VersionVault MultiSite environment to support development activities at different locations.

The view root

Every dynamic view on a host is displayed as a subdirectory of the host’s view root directory.

On computers running Linux or the UNIX system, the default view root directory is /view. On Windows® computers, the default view root directory is \\view, which is mapped by default to drive M.

In addition to the various view storage directories, the view root contains the special file .specdev. If this file is missing or damaged, attempts to access dynamic views on the host generate this error message:

cleartool: Error: Unable to open file "viewroot": VersionVault object not found.

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