VERITAS Volume Manager 4.

Troubleshooting Guide
Linux

N16514H

August 2005
Disclaimer
The information contained in this publication is subject to change without notice. VERITAS Software
Corporation makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this manual, including, but not limited to,
the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. VERITAS Software
Corporation shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages
in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this manual.

VERITAS Legal Notice

Copyright © 2005 VERITAS Software Corporation. All rights reserved. VERITAS and the VERITAS

Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation or its affiliates in the

U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

VERITAS Software Corporation

350 Ellis Street

Mountain View, CA 94043

USA

Phone 650–527–8000 Fax 650–527–2908

www.veritas.com

Third-Party Legal Notices

Data Encryption Standard (DES) Copyright

Copyright © 1990 Dennis Ferguson. All rights reserved.
Commercial use is permitted only if products that are derived from or include this software are made available for purchase and/or use in
Canada. Otherwise, redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted.
Copyright 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.
Export of this software from the United States of America may require a specific license from the United States Government. It is the responsibility
of any person or organization contemplating export to obtain such a license before exporting.
WITHIN THAT CONSTRAINT, permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice
appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of M.I.T. not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software
without specific, written prior permission. M.I.T. makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided as
is without express or implied warranty.

ii VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

How This Guide Is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii

Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Documentation Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Chapter 1. Recovery from Hardware Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Listing Unstartable Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Displaying Volume and Plex States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Understanding the Plex State Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Recovering an Unstartable Mirrored Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Recovering an Unstartable Volume with a Disabled Plex in the RECOVER State . . . . 6

Forcibly Restarting a Disabled Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Clearing the Failing Flag for a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Reattaching Failed Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Failures on RAID-5 Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

System Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Disk Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Default Startup Recovery Process for RAID-5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Recovering a RAID-5 Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Recovery After Moving RAID-5 Subdisks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Starting RAID-5 Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Recovering from Incomplete Disk Group Moves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Recovery from Failure of a DCO Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

iii
 Recovering a Version 0 DCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Recovering a Version 20 DCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Chapter 2. Recovery from Failure of Instant Snapshot Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Failure of vxsnap prepare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Failure of vxsnap make for Full-Sized Instant Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Failure of vxsnap make for Break-Off Instant Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Failure of vxsnap make for Space-Optimized Instant Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Failure of vxsnap restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Failure of vxsnap reattach or refresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Copy-on-write Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

I/O Errors During Resynchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

I/O Failure on a DCO Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Chapter 3. Recovery from Boot Disk Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Possible Root Disk Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

The Boot Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

VxVM Boot Disk Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Failed Boot Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Failed Boot Disk Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Accidental Use of the -R, fallback or lock Option with LILO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Missing or Corrupted Master Boot Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Missing or Corrupted /etc/fstab file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Missing or Corrupted /etc/vx/volboot file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Recovery by Reinstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

General Reinstallation Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Reinstalling the System and Recovering VxVM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter 4. Logging Commands and Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Logging Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Logging Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

iv VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Associating Command and Transaction Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Chapter 5. Backing Up and Restoring Disk Group

Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Backing Up a Disk Group Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Restoring a Disk Group Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Resolving Conflicting Backups for a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Chapter 6. Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Logging Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Configuring Logging in the Startup Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Understanding Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113

Contents v

vi VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

Preface

The VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide provides information about how to
recover from hardware failure, and how to understand and deal with VERITAS Volume
Manager (VxVM) error messages during normal operation. It includes guidelines for
recovering from the failure of disks and other hardware upon which virtual software
objects such as subdisks, plexes and volumes are constructed in VxVM. Information is
also included on how to configure command and transaction logging, and to back up and
restore disk group configurations.
This guide assumes that you have a:
◆ Basic knowledge of the TMLinux operating system (OS).
◆ Basic understanding of Linux system administration.
◆ Basic understanding of storage management in VxVM.

Note Most VERITAS Volume Manager commands require superuser or other appropriate
privileges.

How This Guide Is Organized

This guide is organized as follows:

◆ Recovery from Hardware Failure

◆ Recovery from Failure of Instant Snapshot Operations

◆ Recovery from Boot Disk Failure

◆ Logging Commands and Transactions

◆ Backing Up and Restoring Disk Group Configurations

◆ Error Messages
Refer to the Release Notes for information about the other documentation that is provided
with this product.

vii
Conventions

Conventions

Convention Usage Example

monospace Used for path names, Read tunables from the

commands, output, directory /etc/vx/tunefstab file.
and file names, functions, and See the ls(1) manual page for more
parameters. information.

monospace Indicates user input. # ls pubs

(bold) C:\> dir pubs

italic Identifies book titles, new See the User’s Guide for details.
terms, emphasized text, and The variable system_name indicates the
variables replaced with a system on which to enter the command.
name or value.

bold Depicts GUI objects, such as Enter your password in the Password
fields, list boxes, menu field.
selections, etc. Also depicts Press Return.
GUI commands.

blue text Indicates hypertext links. See “Getting Help” on page ix.

# Unix superuser prompt (all # cp /pubs/4.0/user_book

shells). /release_mgnt/4.0/archive

C:\> Windows user prompt. C:\> copy \pubs\4.0\user_book

c:\release_mgnt\4.0\archive

viii VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Getting Help

Getting Help
For technical assistance, visit http://support.veritas.com and select phone or email
support. This site also provides access to resources such as TechNotes, product alerts,
software downloads, hardware compatibility lists, and the VERITAS customer email
notification service. Use the Knowledge Base Search feature to access additional product
information, including current and past releases of product documentation.
Diagnostic tools are also available to assist in troubleshooting problems associated with
the product. These tools are available on disc or can be downloaded from the VERITAS
FTP site. See the README.VRTSspt file in the /support directory for details.
For license information, software updates and sales contacts, visit
https://my.veritas.com/productcenter/ContactVeritas.jsp. For information on
purchasing product documentation, visit http://webstore.veritas.com.

Documentation Feedback
Your feedback on product documentation is important to us. Send suggestions for
improvements and reports on errors or omissions to foundation_docs@veritas.com.
Include the title and part number of the document (located in the lower left corner of the
title page), and chapter and section titles of the text on which you are reporting. Our goal
is to ensure customer satisfaction by providing effective, quality documentation. For
assistance with topics other than documentation, visit http://support.veritas.com.

Preface ix
Documentation Feedback

x VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

Recovery from Hardware Failure 1

VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM) protects systems from disk and other hardware
failures and helps you to recover from such events. This chapter describes recovery
procedures and information to help you prevent loss of data or system access due to disk
and other hardware failures.
If a volume has a disk I/O failure (for example, because the disk has an uncorrectable
error), VxVM can detach the plex involved in the failure. I/O stops on that plex but
continues on the remaining plexes of the volume.
If a disk fails completely, VxVM can detach the disk from its disk group. All plexes on the
disk are disabled. If there are any unmirrored volumes on a disk when it is detached,
those volumes are also disabled.

Note Apparent disk failure may not be due to a fault in the physical disk media or the
disk controller, but may instead be caused by a fault in an intermediate or ancillary
component such as a cable, host bus adapter, or power supply.

The hot-relocation feature in VxVM automatically detects disk failures, and notifies the
system administrator and other nominated users of the failures by electronic mail.
Hot-relocation also attempts to use spare disks and free disk space to restore redundancy
and to preserve access to mirrored and RAID-5 volumes. For more information, see the
“Administering Hot-Relocation” chapter in the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s
Guide.
Recovery from failures of the boot (root) disk requires the use of the special procedures
described in “Recovery from Boot Disk Failure” on page 31.

1
Listing Unstartable Volumes

Listing Unstartable Volumes

An unstartable volume can be incorrectly configured or have other errors or conditions
that prevent it from being started. To display unstartable volumes, use the vxinfo
command. This displays information about the accessibility and usability of volumes:
# vxinfo [-g diskgroup] [volume ...]
The following example output shows one volume, mkting, as being unstartable:
home fsgen Started

mkting fsgen Unstartable

src fsgen Started

rootvol root Started

swapvol swap Started

Displaying Volume and Plex States

To display detailed information about the configuration of a volume including its state
and the states of its plexes, use the following form of the vxprint command:
# vxprint [-g diskgroup] -hvt [volume ...]
The following example shows a disabled volume, vol, which has two clean plexes,
vol-01 and vol-02, each with a single subdisk:
# vxprint -g mydg -hvt vol

Disk group: mydg

V NAME RVG/VSET/COKSTATE STATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEXUTYPE

PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WIDMODE

SD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFSLENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE

SV NAME PLEX VOLNAME NVOLLAYRLENGTH [COL/]OFF AM/NM MODE

SC NAME PLEX CACHE DISKOFFSLENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE

DC NAME PARENTVOL LOGVOL

SP NAME SNAPVOL DCO

v vol - DISABLED ACTIVE 212880 SELECT - fsgen

pl vol-01 vol DISABLED CLEAN 212880 CONCAT - RW

sd mydg11-01 vol-01 mydg11 0 212880 0 sdg ENA

pl vol-02 vol DISABLED CLEAN 212880 CONCAT - RW

sd mydg12-01 vol-02 mydg12 0 212880 0 sdh ENA

See the “Creating and Administering Plexes” and “Administering Volumes” chapters in
the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Guide for a description of the possible plex
and volume states.

2 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Understanding the Plex State Cycle

Understanding the Plex State Cycle

Changing plex states are part of normal operations, and do not necessarily indicate
abnormalities that must be corrected. A clear understanding of the various plex states and
their interrelationship is necessary if you want to be able to perform the recovery
procedures described in this chapter.
The figure, “Main Plex State Cycle,” shows the main transitions that take place between
plex states in VxVM. (For more information about plex states, see the chapter “Creating
and Administering Plexes” in the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Guide.)

Main Plex State Cycle

Start up
(vxvol start)

PS: CLEAN PS: ACTIVE

PKS: DISABLED PKS: ENABLED

Shut down
(vxvol stop)
PS = Plex State

PKS = Plex Kernel State

At system startup, volumes are started automatically and the vxvol start task makes all
CLEAN plexes ACTIVE. At shutdown, the vxvol stop task marks all ACTIVE plexes
CLEAN. If all plexes are initially CLEAN at startup, this indicates that a controlled
shutdown occurred and optimizes the time taken to start up the volumes.
The figure, “Additional Plex State Transitions” on page 4, shows additional transitions
that are possible between plex states as a result of hardware problems, abnormal system
shutdown, and intervention by the system administrator.
When first created, a plex has state EMPTY until the volume to which it is attached is
initialized. Its state is then set to CLEAN. Its plex kernel state remains set to DISABLED
and is not set to ENABLED until the volume is started.

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 3

Understanding the Plex State Cycle

Additional Plex State Transitions

Create plex

PS: EMPTY PS: ACTIVE

PKS: DISABLED PKS: DISABLED
After crash
and reboot
(vxvol start)
Initialize plex Start up Recover data
(vxvol init clean) (vxvol start) (vxvol resync) Take plex offline
(vxmend off)

PS: CLEAN PS: ACTIVE PS: OFFLINE

PKS: DISABLED PKS: ENABLED PKS: DISABLED

Resync data
Shut down (vxplex att)
(vxvol stop) Put plex online
(vxmend on)
Uncorrectable
I/O failure
PS: IOFAIL Resync PS: STALE
PKS: DETACHED fails PKS: DETACHED
PS = Plex State
PKS = Plex Kernel State

After a system crash and reboot, all plexes of a volume are ACTIVE but marked with plex
kernel state DISABLED until their data is recovered by the vxvol resync task.
A plex may be taken offline with the vxmend off command, made available again using
vxmend on, and its data resynchronized with the other plexes when it is reattached using
vxplex att. A failed resynchronization or uncorrectable I/O failure places the plex in
the IOFAIL state.
“Recovering an Unstartable Mirrored Volume” on page 5, and subsequent sections
describe the actions that you can take if a system crash or I/O error leaves no plexes of a
mirrored volume in a CLEAN or ACTIVE state.
For information on the recovery of RAID-5 volumes, see “Failures on RAID-5 Volumes”
on page 9 and subsequent sections.

4 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Recovering an Unstartable Mirrored Volume

Recovering an Unstartable Mirrored Volume

A system crash or an I/O error can corrupt one or more plexes of a mirrored volume and
leave no plex CLEAN or ACTIVE. You can mark one of the plexes CLEAN and instruct the
system to use that plex as the source for reviving the others as follows:

1. Place the desired plex in the CLEAN state using the following command:
# vxmend [-g diskgroup] fix clean plex

For example, to place the plex vol01-02 in the CLEAN state:

# vxmend -g mydg fix clean vol01-02

2. To recover the other plexes in a volume from the CLEAN plex, the volume must be
disabled, and the other plexes must be STALE. If necessary, make any other CLEAN or
ACTIVE plexes STALE by running the following command on each of these plexes in
turn:
# vxmend [-g diskgroup] fix stale plex

3. To enable the CLEAN plex and to recover the STALE plexes from it, use the following
command:
# vxvol [-g diskgroup] start volume
For example, to recover volume vol01:
# vxvol -g mydg start vol01

For more information about the vxmend and vxvol command, see the vxmend(1M) and
vxvol(1M) manual pages.

Note Following severe hardware failure of several disks or other related subsystems
underlying all the mirrored plexes of a volume, it may be impossible to recover the
volume using vxmend. In this case, remove the volume, recreate it on hardware that
is functioning correctly, and restore the contents of the volume from a backup or
from a snapshot image.

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 5

Recovering an Unstartable Volume with a Disabled Plex in the RECOVER State

Recovering an Unstartable Volume with a Disabled Plex in

the RECOVER State
A plex is shown in the RECOVER state if its contents are out-of-date with respect to the
volume. This can happen if a disk containing one or more of the plex’s subdisks has been
replaced or reattached. If a plex is shown as being in this state, it can be recovered as
follows:

1. Use the following command to force the plex into the OFFLINE state:
# vxmend [-g diskgroup] -o force off plex

2. Place the plex into the STALE state using this command:
# vxmend [-g diskgroup] on plex

3. If there are other ACTIVE or CLEAN plexes in the volume, use the following
command to reattach the plex to the volume:
# vxplex [-g diskgroup] att plex volume

If the volume is already enabled, resynchronization of the plex is started immediately.

If there are no other clean plexes in the volume, use this command to make the plex
DISABLED and CLEAN:
# vxmend [-g diskgroup] fix clean plex

4. If the volume is not already enabled, use the following command to start it, and
preform any resynchronization of the plexes in the background:
# vxvol [-g diskgroup] -o bg start volume

Note If the data in the plex was corrupted, and the volume has no ACTIVE or
CLEAN redundant plexes from which its contents can be resynchronized, it
must be restored from a backup or from a snapshot image.

6 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Forcibly Restarting a Disabled Volume

Forcibly Restarting a Disabled Volume

If a disk failure caused a volume to be disabled, and the volume does not contain any
valid redundant plexes, you must restore the volume from a backup after replacing the
failed disk. Any volumes that are listed as Unstartable must be restarted using the
vxvol command before restoring their contents from a backup:
# vxvol [-g diskgroup] -o bg -f start volume

The -f option forcibly restarts the volume, and the -o bg option resynchronizes its plexes
as a background task. For example, to restart the volume myvol so that it can be restored
from backup, use the following command:
# vxvol -g mydg -o bg -f start myvol

Clearing the Failing Flag for a Disk

If I/O errors are intermittent rather than persistent, VERITAS Volume Manager sets the
failing flag on a disk, rather than detaching the disk. Such errors can occur due to the
temporary removal of a cable, controller faults, a partially faulty LUN in a disk array, or a
disk with a few bad sectors or tracks.
If the hardware fault is not with the disk itself (for example, it is caused by problems with
the controller or the cable path to the disk), you can use the vxedit command to unset
the failing flag after correcting the source of the I/O error.

Caution Do not unset the failing flag if the reason for the I/O errors is unknown. If
the disk hardware truly is failing, and the flag is cleared, there is a risk of data
loss.

To clear the failing flag on a disk:

1. Use the vxdisk list command to find out which disks are failing:
# vxdisk list

DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS

sdp auto:sliced mydg01 mydg online

sdq auto:sliced mydg02 mydg online failing

sdr auto:sliced mydg03 mydg online

. . .

2. Use the vxedit set command to clear the flag for each disk that is marked as
failing (in this example, mydg02):
# vxedit set failing=off mydg02

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 7

Reattaching Failed Disks

3. Use the vxdisk list command to verify that the failing flag has been cleared:
# vxdisk list

DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS

sdp auto:sliced mydg01 mydg online

sdq auto:sliced mydg02 mydg online

sdr auto:sliced mydg03 mydg online

. . .

Reattaching Failed Disks

You can perform a reattach operation if a disk could not be found at system startup, or if
VxVM is started with some disk drivers unloaded and unloadable (causing disks to enter
the failed state). If the underlying problem has been fixed (such as a cable or controller
fault), use the vxreattach command to reattach the disks without plexes being flagged
as STALE. However, the reattach must occur before any volumes on the disk are started.
The vxreattach command is called as part of disk recovery from the vxdiskadm
menus and during the boot process. If possible, vxreattach reattaches the failed disk
media record to the disk with the same device name. Reattachment places a disk in the
same disk group that it was located in before and retains its original disk media name.
To reattach a failed disk:

1. Use the vxdisk list command to see which disks have failed, as shown in the
following example:
# vxdisk list

DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS

sdp auto:sliced mydg01 mydg online

sdq auto:sliced mydg02 mydg online

- - mydg03 mydg failed was: sdr

- - mydg04 mydg failed was: sds

2. Once the fault has been corrected, the disks can be reattached by using the following
command to rescan the device list:
# /usr/sbin/vxdctl enable

3. Use the vxreattach command with no options to reattach the disks:

# /etc/vx/bin/vxreattach
After reattachment takes place, recovery may not be necessary unless a disk was faulty
and had to be replaced. Reattachment can fail if the original (or another) cause for the disk
failure still exists.

8 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Failures on RAID-5 Volumes

You can use the command vxreattach -c to check whether reattachment is possible,
without performing the operation. Instead, it displays the disk group and disk media
name where the disk can be reattached.
See the vxreattach(1M) manual page for more information on the vxreattach
command.

Failures on RAID-5 Volumes

Failures are seen in two varieties: system failures and disk failures. A system failure means
that the system has abruptly ceased to operate due to an operating system panic or power
failure. Disk failures imply that the data on some number of disks has become unavailable
due to a system failure (such as a head crash, electronics failure on disk, or disk controller
failure).

System Failures
RAID-5 volumes are designed to remain available with a minimum of disk space
overhead, if there are disk failures. However, many forms of RAID-5 can have data loss
after a system failure. Data loss occurs because a system failure causes the data and parity
in the RAID-5 volume to become unsynchronized. Loss of synchronization occurs because
the status of writes that were outstanding at the time of the failure cannot be determined.
If a loss of sync occurs while a RAID-5 volume is being accessed, the volume is described
as having stale parity. The parity must then be reconstructed by reading all the non-parity
columns within each stripe, recalculating the parity, and writing out the parity stripe unit
in the stripe. This must be done for every stripe in the volume, so it can take a long time to
complete.

Caution While the resynchronization of a RAID-5 volume without log plexes is being
performed, any failure of a disk within the volume causes its data to be lost.

Besides the vulnerability to failure, the resynchronization process can tax the system
resources and slow down system operation.
RAID-5 logs reduce the damage that can be caused by system failures, because they
maintain a copy of the data being written at the time of the failure. The process of
resynchronization consists of reading that data and parity from the logs and writing it to
the appropriate areas of the RAID-5 volume. This greatly reduces the amount of time
needed for a resynchronization of data and parity. It also means that the volume never
becomes truly stale. The data and parity for all stripes in the volume are known at all
times, so the failure of a single disk cannot result in the loss of the data within the volume.

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 9

Failures on RAID-5 Volumes

Disk Failures
An uncorrectable I/O error occurs when disk failure, cabling or other problems cause the
data on a disk to become unavailable. For a RAID-5 volume, this means that a subdisk
becomes unavailable. The subdisk cannot be used to hold data and is considered stale and
detached. If the underlying disk becomes available or is replaced, the subdisk is still
considered stale and is not used.
If an attempt is made to read data contained on a stale subdisk, the data is reconstructed
from data on all other stripe units in the stripe. This operation is called a
reconstructing-read. This is a more expensive operation than simply reading the data and
can result in degraded read performance. When a RAID-5 volume has stale subdisks, it is
considered to be in degraded mode.
A RAID-5 volume in degraded mode can be recognized from the output of the vxprint
-ht command as shown in the following display:
V NAME RVG/VSET/COKSTATESTATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX UTYPE

PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODE

SD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFSLENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE

SV NAME PLEX VOLNAME NVOLLAYRLENGTH [COL/]OFF AM/NM MODE

...

v r5vol - ENABLED DEGRADED204800 RAID - raid5

pl r5vol-01 r5vol ENABLED ACTIVE 204800 RAID 3/16 RW

sd disk01-01 r5vol-01disk01 0 102400 0/0 sda ENA

sd disk02-01 r5vol-01disk02 0 102400 1/0 sdb dS

sd disk03-01 r5vol-01disk03 0 102400 2/0 sdc ENA

pl r5vol-02 r5vol ENABLED LOG 1440 CONCAT - RW

sd disk04-01 r5vol-02disk04 0 1440 0 sdd ENA

pl r5vol-03 r5vol ENABLED LOG 1440 CONCAT - RW

sd disk05-01 r5vol-03disk05 0 1440 0 sde ENA

The volume r5vol is in degraded mode, as shown by the volume state, which is listed as
DEGRADED. The failed subdisk is disk02-01, as shown by the MODE flags; d indicates
that the subdisk is detached, and S indicates that the subdisk’s contents are stale.

Note Do not run the vxr5check command on a RAID-5 volume that is in degraded
mode.

10 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Failures on RAID-5 Volumes

A disk containing a RAID-5 log plex can also fail. The failure of a single RAID-5 log plex
has no direct effect on the operation of a volume provided that the RAID-5 log is mirrored.
However, loss of all RAID-5 log plexes in a volume makes it vulnerable to a complete
failure. In the output of the vxprint -ht command, failure within a RAID-5 log plex is
indicated by the plex state being shown as BADLOG rather than LOG. This is shown in the
following display, where the RAID-5 log plex r5vol-02 has failed:
V NAME RVG/VSET/COKSTATESTATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX UTYPE

PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODE

SD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFSLENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE

SV NAME PLEX VOLNAME NVOLLAYRLENGTH [COL/]OFF AM/NM MODE

...

v r5vol - ENABLED ACTIVE 204800 RAID - raid5

pl r5vol-01 r5vol ENABLED ACTIVE 204800 RAID 3/16 RW

sd disk01-01 r5vol-01disk01 0 102400 0/0 sda ENA

sd disk02-01 r5vol-01disk02 0 102400 1/0 sdb ENA

sd disk03-01 r5vol-01disk03 0 102400 2/0 sdc ENA

pl r5vol-02 r5vol DISABLEDBADLOG 1440 CONCAT - RW

sd disk04-01 r5vol-02disk04 0 1440 0 sdd ENA

pl r5vol-03 r5vol ENABLED LOG 1440 CONCAT - RW

sd disk05-01 r5vol-12disk05 0 1440 0 sde ENA

Default Startup Recovery Process for RAID-5

VxVM may need to perform several operations to restore fully the contents of a RAID-5
volume and make it usable. Whenever a volume is started, any RAID-5 log plexes are
zeroed before the volume is started. This prevents random data from being interpreted as
a log entry and corrupting the volume contents. Also, some subdisks may need to be
recovered, or the parity may need to be resynchronized (if RAID-5 logs have failed).
VxVM takes the following steps when a RAID-5 volume is started:

1. If the RAID-5 volume was not cleanly shut down, it is checked for valid RAID-5 log
plexes.
◆ If valid log plexes exist, they are replayed. This is done by placing the volume in
the DETACHED volume kernel state and setting the volume state to REPLAY, and
enabling the RAID-5 log plexes. If the logs can be successfully read and the replay
is successful, go to step 2.
◆ If no valid logs exist, the parity must be resynchronized. Resynchronization is
done by placing the volume in the DETACHED volume kernel state and setting the
volume state to SYNC. Any log plexes are left in the DISABLED plex kernel state.

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 11

Failures on RAID-5 Volumes

The volume is not made available while the parity is resynchronized because any
subdisk failures during this period makes the volume unusable. This can be
overridden by using the -o unsafe start option with the vxvol command. If any
stale subdisks exist, the RAID-5 volume is unusable.

Caution The -o unsafe start option is considered dangerous, as it can make the
contents of the volume unusable. Using it is not recommended.

2. Any existing log plexes are zeroed and enabled. If all logs fail during this process, the
start process is aborted.

3. If no stale subdisks exist or those that exist are recoverable, the volume is put in the
ENABLED volume kernel state and the volume state is set to ACTIVE. The volume is
now started.

Recovering a RAID-5 Volume

The types of recovery that may typically be required for RAID-5 volumes are the
following:
◆ Parity Resynchronization
◆ Log Plex Recovery
◆ Stale Subdisk Recovery
Parity resynchronization and stale subdisk recovery are typically performed when the
RAID-5 volume is started, or shortly after the system boots. They can also be performed
by running the vxrecover command.
For more information on starting RAID-5 volumes, see “Starting RAID-5 Volumes” on
page 15.
If hot-relocation is enabled at the time of a disk failure, system administrator intervention
is not required unless no suitable disk space is available for relocation. Hot-relocation is
triggered by the failure and the system administrator is notified of the failure by electronic
mail.
Hot relocation automatically attempts to relocate the subdisks of a failing RAID-5 plex.
After any relocation takes place, the hot-relocation daemon (vxrelocd) also initiates a
parity resynchronization.
In the case of a failing RAID-5 log plex, relocation occurs only if the log plex is mirrored;
the vxrelocd daemon then initiates a mirror resynchronization to recreate the RAID-5
log plex. If hot-relocation is disabled at the time of a failure, the system administrator may
need to initiate a resynchronization or recovery.

12 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Failures on RAID-5 Volumes

Note Following severe hardware failure of several disks or other related subsystems
underlying a RAID-5 plex, it may be impossible to recover the volume using the
methods described in this chapter. In this case, remove the volume, recreate it on
hardware that is functioning correctly, and restore the contents of the volume from a
backup.

Parity Resynchronization
In most cases, a RAID-5 array does not have stale parity. Stale parity only occurs after all
RAID-5 log plexes for the RAID-5 volume have failed, and then only if there is a system
failure. Even if a RAID-5 volume has stale parity, it is usually repaired as part of the
volume start process.
If a volume without valid RAID-5 logs is started and the process is killed before the
volume is resynchronized, the result is an active volume with stale parity. For an example
of the output of the vxprint -ht command, see the following example for a stale RAID-5
volume:
V NAME RVG/VSET/COKSTATESTATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX UTYPE

PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODE

SD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFSLENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE

SV NAME PLEX VOLNAME NVOLLAYRLENGTH [COL/]OFF AM/NM MODE

...

v r5vol - ENABLED NEEDSYNC204800 RAID - raid5

pl r5vol-01 r5vol ENABLED ACTIVE 204800 RAID 3/16 RW

sd disk01-01 r5vol-01disk01 0 102400 0/0 sda ENA

sd disk02-01 r5vol-01disk02 0 102400 1/0 sdb dS

sd disk03-01 r5vol-01disk03 0 102400 2/0 sdc ENA

...

This output lists the volume state as NEEDSYNC, indicating that the parity needs to be
resynchronized. The state could also have been SYNC, indicating that a synchronization
was attempted at start time and that a synchronization process should be doing the
synchronization. If no such process exists or if the volume is in the NEEDSYNC state, a
synchronization can be manually started by using the resync keyword for the vxvol
command. For example, to resynchronize the RAID-5 volume in the figure “Invalid
RAID-5 Volume” on page 16, use the following command:
# vxvol -g mydg resync r5vol

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 13

Failures on RAID-5 Volumes

Parity is regenerated by issuing VOL_R5_RESYNC ioctls to the RAID-5 volume. The

resynchronization process starts at the beginning of the RAID-5 volume and
resynchronizes a region equal to the number of sectors specified by the -o iosize option. If
the -o iosize option is not specified, the default maximum I/O size is used. The resync
operation then moves onto the next region until the entire length of the RAID-5 volume
has been resynchronized.
For larger volumes, parity regeneration can take a long time. It is possible that the system
could be shut down or crash before the operation is completed. In case of a system
shutdown, the progress of parity regeneration must be kept across reboots. Otherwise, the
process has to start all over again.
To avoid the restart process, parity regeneration is checkpointed. This means that the offset
up to which the parity has been regenerated is saved in the configuration database. The
-o checkpt=size option controls how often the checkpoint is saved. If the option is not
specified, the default checkpoint size is used.
Because saving the checkpoint offset requires a transaction, making the checkpoint size
too small can extend the time required to regenerate parity. After a system reboot, a
RAID-5 volume that has a checkpoint offset smaller than the volume length starts a parity
resynchronization at the checkpoint offset.

Log Plex Recovery

RAID-5 log plexes can become detached due to disk failures. These RAID-5 logs can be
reattached by using the att keyword for the vxplex command. To reattach the failed
RAID-5 log plex, use the following command:
# vxplex -g mydg att r5vol r5vol-l1

Stale Subdisk Recovery

Stale subdisk recovery is usually done at volume start time. However, the process doing
the recovery can crash, or the volume may be started with an option such as -o
delayrecover that prevents subdisk recovery. In addition, the disk on which the
subdisk resides can be replaced without recovery operations being performed. In such
cases, you can perform subdisk recovery using the vxvol recover command. For
example, to recover the stale subdisk in the RAID-5 volume shown in the figure “Invalid
RAID-5 Volume” on page 16, use the following command:
# vxvol -g mydg recover r5vol disk05-00

A RAID-5 volume that has multiple stale subdisks can be recovered in one operation. To
recover multiple stale subdisks, use the vxvol recover command on the volume, as
follows:
# vxvol -g mydg recover r5vol

14 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Failures on RAID-5 Volumes

Recovery After Moving RAID-5 Subdisks

When RAID-5 subdisks are moved and replaced, the new subdisks are marked as STALE
in anticipation of recovery. If the volume is active, the vxsd command may be used to
recover the volume. If the volume is not active, it is recovered when it is next started. The
RAID-5 volume is degraded for the duration of the recovery operation.
Any failure in the stripes involved in the move makes the volume unusable. The RAID-5
volume can also become invalid if its parity becomes stale. To avoid this occurring, vxsd
does not allow a subdisk move in the following situations:
◆ a stale subdisk occupies any of the same stripes as the subdisk being moved
◆ the RAID-5 volume is stopped but was not shut down cleanly; that is, the parity is
considered stale
◆ the RAID-5 volume is active and has no valid log areas
Only the third case can be overridden by using the -o force option.
Subdisks of RAID-5 volumes can also be split and joined by using the vxsd split
command and the vxsd join command. These operations work the same way as those
for mirrored volumes.

Note RAID-5 subdisk moves are performed in the same way as subdisk moves for other
volume types, but without the penalty of degraded redundancy.

Starting RAID-5 Volumes

When a RAID-5 volume is started, it can be in one of many states. After a normal system
shutdown, the volume should be clean and require no recovery. However, if the volume
was not closed, or was not unmounted before a crash, it can require recovery when it is
started, before it can be made available. This section describes actions that can be taken
under certain conditions.
Under normal conditions, volumes are started automatically after a reboot and any
recovery takes place automatically or is done through the vxrecover command.

Unstartable RAID-5 Volumes

A RAID-5 volume is unusable if some part of the RAID-5 plex does not map the volume
length:
◆ the RAID-5 plex cannot be sparse in relation to the RAID-5 volume length
◆ the RAID-5 plex does not map a region where two subdisks have failed within a
stripe, either because they are stale or because they are built on a failed disk

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 15

Failures on RAID-5 Volumes

When this occurs, the vxvol start command returns the following error message:
VxVM vxvol ERROR V-5-1-1236 Volume r5vol is not startable; RAID-5

plex does not map entire volume length.

At this point, the contents of the RAID-5 volume are unusable.

Another possible way that a RAID-5 volume can become unstartable is if the parity is stale
and a subdisk becomes detached or stale. This occurs because within the stripes that
contain the failed subdisk, the parity stripe unit is invalid (because the parity is stale) and
the stripe unit on the bad subdisk is also invalid. The figure, “Invalid RAID-5 Volume” on
page 16, illustrates a RAID-5 volume that has become invalid due to stale parity and a
failed subdisk.

Invalid RAID-5 Volume

disk00-00 disk01-00 disk02-00 W Data Data Parity W

X Data Parity Data X

Y Parity Data Data Y

Z Data Data Parity Z

disk03-00 disk04-00 disk05-00

RAID-5 Plex

This example shows four stripes in the RAID-5 array. All parity is stale and subdisk
disk05-00 has failed. This makes stripes X and Y unusable because two failures have
occurred within those stripes.
This qualifies as two failures within a stripe and prevents the use of the volume. In this
case, the output display from the vxvol start command is as follows:
VxVM vxvol ERROR V-5-1-1237 Volume r5vol is not startable; some

subdisks are unusable and the parity is stale.

This situation can be avoided by always using two or more RAID-5 log plexes in RAID-5
volumes. RAID-5 log plexes prevent the parity within the volume from becoming stale
which prevents this situation (see “System Failures” on page 9 for details).

16 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Failures on RAID-5 Volumes

Forcibly Starting RAID-5 Volumes

You can start a volume even if subdisks are marked as stale: for example, if a stopped
volume has stale parity and no RAID-5 logs, and a disk becomes detached and then
reattached.
The subdisk is considered stale even though the data is not out of date (because the
volume was in use when the subdisk was unavailable) and the RAID-5 volume is
considered invalid. To prevent this case, always have multiple valid RAID-5 logs
associated with the array whenever possible.
To start a RAID-5 volume with stale subdisks, you can use the -f option with the vxvol
start command. This causes all stale subdisks to be marked as non-stale. Marking takes
place before the start operation evaluates the validity of the RAID-5 volume and what is
needed to start it. Also, you can mark individual subdisks as non-stale by using the
following command:
# vxmend [-g diskgroup] fix unstale subdisk

◆ If some subdisks are stale and need recovery, and if valid logs exist, the volume is
enabled by placing it in the ENABLED kernel state and the volume is available for use
during the subdisk recovery. Otherwise, the volume kernel state is set to DETACHED
and it is not available during subdisk recovery.
This is done because if the system were to crash or the volume was ungracefully
stopped while it was active, the parity becomes stale, making the volume unusable. If
this is undesirable, the volume can be started with the -o unsafe start option.

Caution The -o unsafe start option is considered dangerous, as it can make the
contents of the volume unusable. It is therefore not recommended.

◆ The volume state is set to RECOVER and stale subdisks are restored. As the data on
each subdisk becomes valid, the subdisk is marked as no longer stale.
If any subdisk recovery fails and there are no valid logs, the volume start is aborted
because the subdisk remains stale and a system crash makes the RAID-5 volume
unusable. This can also be overridden by using the -o unsafe start option.

Caution The -o unsafe start option is considered dangerous, as it can make the
contents of the volume unusable. It is therefore not recommended.

If the volume has valid logs, subdisk recovery failures are noted but they do not stop
the start procedure.
◆ When all subdisks have been recovered, the volume is placed in the ENABLED kernel
state and marked as ACTIVE. It is now started.

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 17

Recovering from Incomplete Disk Group Moves

Recovering from Incomplete Disk Group Moves

If the system crashes or a subsystem fails while a disk group move, split or join operation
is being performed, VxVM attempts either to reverse or to complete the operation when
the system is restarted or the subsystem is repaired. Whether the operation is reversed or
completed depends on how far it had progressed.
Automatic recovery depends on being able to import both the source and target disk
groups. If this is not possible (for example, if one of the disk groups has been imported on
another host), perform the following steps to recover the disk group:

1. Use the vxprint command to examine the configuration of both disk groups. Objects
in disk groups whose move is incomplete have their TUTIL0 fields set to MOVE.

2. Enter the following command to attempt completion of the move:

# vxdg recover sourcedg
This operation fails if one of the disk groups cannot be imported because it has been
imported on another host or because it does not exist:
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2907 diskgroup: Disk group does not exist
If the recovery fails, perform one of the following steps as appropriate.

❖ If the disk group has been imported on another host, export it from that host, and
import it on the current host. If all the required objects already exist in either the
source or target disk group, use the following command to reset the MOVE flags in
that disk group:
# vxdg -o clean recover diskgroup1

Use the following command on the other disk group to remove the objects that have
TUTIL0 fields marked as MOVE:
# vxdg -o remove recover diskgroup2

❖ If only one disk group is available to be imported, use the following command to reset
the MOVE flags on this disk group:
# vxdg -o clean recover diskgroup

18 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Recovery from Failure of a DCO Volume

Recovery from Failure of a DCO Volume

Note The procedures in this section depend on the DCO version number. See the
VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Guide for information about DCO
versioning.

Persistent FastResync uses a data change object (DCO) volume to perform tracking of
changed regions in a volume. If an error occurs while reading or writing a DCO volume, it
is detached and the badlog flag is set on the DCO. All further writes to the volume are
not tracked by the DCO.
The following sample output from the vxprint command shows a complete volume
with a detached DCO volume (the TUTIL0 and PUTIL0 fields are omitted for clarity):
TY NAME
ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE ...

dg mydg
mydg - - - ­

dm mydg01
sdf - 35521408 - ­

dm mydg02
sdg - 35521408 - ­

dm mydg03
sdh - 35521408 - FAILING

dm mydg04
sdi - 35521408 - FAILING

dm mydg05
sdj - 35521408 - ­

v SNAP-vol1
fsgen ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE

pl vol1-03
SNAP-vol1 ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE

sd mydg05-01
vol1-03 ENABLED 204800 0 ­

dc SNAP-vol1_dcoSNAP-vol1 - - - -

v SNAP-vol1_dclgen ENABLED 144 - ACTIVE

pl vol1_dcl-03
SNAP-vol1_dclENABLED 144 - ACTIVE
sd mydg05-02
vol1_dcl-03 ENABLED 144 0 -
sp vol1_snp
SNAP-vol1 - - - -

v vol1
fsgen ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE
pl vol1-01
vol1 ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE
sd mydg01-01
vol1-01 ENABLED 204800 0 -
pl vol1-02
vol1 ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE
sd mydg02-01
vol1-01 ENABLED 204800 0 -
dc vol1_dco
vol1 - - - BADLOG
v vol1_dcl
gen DETACHED 144 - DETACH
pl vol1_dcl-01
vol1_dcl ENABLED 144 - ACTIVE
sd mydg03-01
vol1_dcl-01 ENABLED 144 0 -
pl vol1_dcl-02
vol1_dcl DETACHED 144 - IOFAIL
sd mydg04-01
vol1_dcl-02 ENABLED 144 0 RELOCATE
sp SNAP-vol1_snp vol1 - - - -

This output shows the mirrored volume, vol1, its snapshot volume, SNAP-vol1, and
their respective DCOs, vol1_dco and SNAP-vol1_dco. The two disks, mydg03 and
mydg04, that hold the DCO plexes for the DCO volume, vol1_dcl, of vol1 have failed.

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 19

Recovery from Failure of a DCO Volume

As a result, the DCO volume, vol1_dcl, of the volume, vol1, has been detached and the
state of vol1_dco has been set to BADLOG. For future reference, note the entries for the
snap objects, vol1_snp and SNAP-vol1_snp, that point to vol1 and SNAP-vol1
respectively.
You can use such output to deduce the name of a volume’s DCO (in this example,
vol1_dco), or you can use the following vxprint command to display the name of a
volume’s DCO:
# vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%dco_name volume

You can use the vxprint command to check if the badlog flag is set for the DCO of a
volume as shown here:
# vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%badlog dco_name

This command returns the value on if the badlog flag is set. For the example output, the
command would take this form:
# vxprint -g mydg -F%badlog vol1_dco

on
Use the following command to verify the version number of the DCO:
# vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%version dco_name
This returns a value of 0 or 20. For the example output, the command would take this
form:
# vxprint -g mydg -F%version vol1_dco
The DCO version number determines the recovery procedure that you should use:
◆ “Recovering a Version 0 DCO” on page 21
◆ “Recovering a Version 20 DCO” on page 22

20 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Recovery from Failure of a DCO Volume

Recovering a Version 0 DCO

For a version 0 DCO, perform the following steps to recover the DCO volume:

1. Correct the problem that caused the I/O failure.

2. Use the following command to remove the badlog flag from the DCO:
# vxdco [-g diskgroup] -o force enable dco_name
For the example output, the command would take this form:
# vxdco -g mydg -o force enable vol1_dco
The entry for vol1_dco in the output from vxprint now looks like this:
dc vol1_dco vol1 - - - -

3. Restart the DCO volume using the following command:

# vxvol [-g diskgroup] start dco_log_vol
For the example output, the command would take this form:
# vxvol -g mydg start vol1_dcl

4. Use the vxassist snapclear command to clear the FastResync maps for the
original volume and for all its snapshots. This ensures that potentially stale
FastResync maps are not used when the snapshots are snapped back (a full
resynchronization is performed). FastResync tracking is re-enabled for any
subsequent snapshots of the volume.

Caution You must use the vxassist snapclear command on all the snapshots of
the volume after removing the badlog flag from the DCO. Otherwise, data
may be lost or corrupted when the snapshots are snapped back.

If a volume and its snapshot volume are in the same disk group, the following
command clears the FastResync maps for both volumes:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] snapclear volume snap_obj_to_snapshot

Here snap_obj_to_snapshot is the name of the snap object associated with volume
that points to the snapshot volume.
For the example output, the command would take this form:
# vxassist -g mydg snapclear vol1 SNAP-vol1_snp

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 21

Recovery from Failure of a DCO Volume

If a snapshot volume and the original volume are in different disk groups, you must
perform a separate snapclear operation on each volume:
# vxassist -g diskgroup1 snapclear volume snap_obj_to_snapshot

# vxassist -g diskgroup2 snapclear snapvol snap_obj_to_volume

Here snap_obj_to_volume is the name of the snap object associated with the snapshot
volume, snapvol, that points to the original volume.
For the example output, the commands would take this form if SNAP-vol1 had been
moved to the disk group, snapdg:
# vxassist -g mydg snapclear vol1 SNAP-vol1_snp

# vxassist -g snapdg snapclear SNAP-vol1 vol1_snp

5. To snap back the snapshot volume on which you performed a snapclear in the
previous step, use the following command (after using the vxdg move command to
move the snapshot plex back to the original disk group, if necessary):
# vxplex -f [-g diskgroup] snapback volume snapvol_plex

For the example output, the command would take this form:
# vxplex -f -g mydg snapback vol1 vol1-03

Note You cannot use vxassist snapback because the snapclear operation
removes the snapshot association information.

Recovering a Version 20 DCO

For a version 20 DCO, perform the following steps to recover the DCO volume:

1. Correct the problem that caused the I/O failure.

2. Use the vxsnap command to dissociate each full-sized instant snapshot volume that
is associated with the volume:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] dis snapvol

For the example output, the command would take this form:
# vxsnap -g mydg dis SNAP-vol1

3. Unprepare the volume using the following command:

# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] unprepare volume
For the example output, the command would take this form:
# vxsnap -g mydg unprepare vol1

22 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Recovery from Failure of a DCO Volume

4. Start the volume using the vxvol command:

# vxvol [-g diskgroup] start volume
For the example output, the command would take this form:
# vxvol -g mydg start vol1

5. Prepare the volume again using the following command:

# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] prepare volume [ndcomirs=number] \

[regionsize=size] [drl=yes|no|sequential] \

[storage_attribute ...]

For the example output, the command might take this form:
# vxsnap -g mydg prepare vol1 ndcomirs=2 drl=yes
This adds a DCO volume with 2 plexes, and also enables DRL and FastResync (if
licensed).
See the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Guide and the vxsnap(1M) manual
page for full details of how to use the vxsnap prepare command.

Chapter 1, Recovery from Hardware Failure 23

Recovery from Failure of a DCO Volume

24 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

Recovery from Failure of Instant Snapshot
Operations 2
This chapter describes how to recover from various failure and error conditions that may
occur during instant snapshot operations:
◆ Failure of vxsnap prepare
◆ Failure of vxsnap make for Full-Sized Instant Snapshots
◆ Failure of vxsnap make for Break-Off Instant Snapshots
◆ Failure of vxsnap make for Space-Optimized Instant Snapshots
◆ Failure of vxsnap restore
◆ Failure of vxsnap reattach or refresh
◆ Copy-on-write Failure
◆ I/O Errors During Resynchronization
◆ I/O Failure on a DCO Volume
See the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Guide and the vxsnap(1M) manual page
for full details of the creation and administration of instant snapshots.

Failure of vxsnap prepare

If a vxsnap prepare operation fails prematurely, the vxprint command may show the
new DCO volume in the INSTSNAPTMP state. VxVM can usually recover the DCO
volume without intervention. However, in certain situations, this recovery may not
succeed. If this happens, use the following command to delete the DCO volume:
# vxedit [-g diskgroup] rm DCO_volume
Alternatively, the DCO volume is removed automatically when the system is next
restarted. When the DCO volume has been removed, run the vxsnap prepare command
again.

25
Failure of vxsnap make for Full-Sized Instant Snapshots

Failure of vxsnap make for Full-Sized Instant Snapshots

If a vxsnap make operation fails during the creation of a full-sized instant snapshot, the
snapshot volume may go into the DISABLED state, be marked invalid and be rendered
unstartable. You can use the following command to check that the inst_invalid flag is
set to on:
# vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%inst_invalid snapshot_volume
VxVM can usually recover the snapshot volume without intervention. However, in certain
situations, this recovery may not succeed. If this happens, use the following steps to delete
the DCO volume:

1. Use the vxmend command to clear the snapshot volume’s tutil0 field:
# vxmend [-g diskgroup] clear tutil0 snapshot_volume

2. Run the following command on the snapshot volume:

# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] unprepare snapshot_volume

3. Prepare the snapshot volume again for snapshot operations:

# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] prepare snapshot_volume

Failure of vxsnap make for Break-Off Instant Snapshots

If a vxsnap make operation fails during the creation of a third-mirror break-off instant
snapshot, the snapshot volume may go into the INSTSNAPTMP state. VxVM can usually
recover the snapshot volume without intervention. However, in certain situations, this
recovery may not succeed. If this happens, use the following command to delete the
snapshot volume:
# vxedit [-g diskgroup] rm snapshot_volume
Alternatively, the snapshot volume is removed automatically when the system is next
restarted.

26 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Failure of vxsnap make for Space-Optimized Instant Snapshots

Failure of vxsnap make for Space-Optimized Instant

Snapshots
If a vxsnap make operation fails during the creation of a space-optimized instant
snapshot, the snapshot volume may go into the INSTSNAPTMP state. VxVM can usually
recover the snapshot volume without intervention. However, in certain situations, this
recovery may not succeed. If this happens, use the following command to delete the
snapshot volume:
# vxedit [-g diskgroup] rm snapshot_volume
Alternatively, the snapshot volume is removed automatically when the system is next
restarted.
If the vxsnap make operation was being performed on a prepared cache object by
specifying the cache attribute, the cache object remains intact after deleting the snapshot.
If the cachesize attribute was used to specify a new cache object, the cache object does
not exist after deleting the snapshot.

Failure of vxsnap restore

If a vxsnap restore operation fails, the volume being restored may go into the
DISABLED state. Use the following command to start the volume:
# vxvol [-g diskgroup] start volume

Failure of vxsnap reattach or refresh

If a vxsnap reattach or refresh operation fails, the volume being refreshed may go into
the DISABLED state, be marked invalid and be rendered unstartable. You can use the
following command to check that the inst_invalid flag is set to on:
# vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%inst_invalid volume
Use the following steps to recover the volume:

1. Use the vxmend command to clear the volume’s tutil0 field:

# vxmend [-g diskgroup] clear tutil0 volume

2. Use the vxsnap command to dissociate the volume from the snapshot hierarchy:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] dis volume

Chapter 2, Recovery from Failure of Instant Snapshot Operations 27

Copy-on-write Failure

3. Use the following command to start the volume:

# vxvol [-g diskgroup] start volume

4. Re-run the failed reattach or refresh command.

Note This results in a full resynchronization of the volume. Alternatively, remove the
snapshot volume and recreate it if required.

Copy-on-write Failure
If an error is encountered while performing an internal resynchronization of a volume’s
snapshot, the snapshot volume goes into the INVALID state, and is made inaccessible for
I/O and instant snapshot operations.
Use the following steps to recover the snapshot volume:

1. Use the vxsnap command to dissociate the volume from the snapshot hierarchy:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] dis snapshot_volume

2. Unprepare the volume using the following command:

# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] unprepare snapshot_volume

3. Prepare the volume using the following command:

# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] prepare volume [ndcomirs=number] \
[regionsize=size] [drl=yes|no|sequential] \
[storage_attribute ...]
See the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Guide and the vxsnap(1M) manual
page for full details of how to use the vxsnap prepare command.
The volume can now be used again for snapshot operations.
Alternatively, you can remove the snapshot volume and recreate it if required.

28 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 I/O Errors During Resynchronization

I/O Errors During Resynchronization

Snapshot resynchronization (started by vxsnap syncstart, or by specifying sync=on
to vxsnap) stops if an I/O error occurs, and displays the following message on the
system console:
VxVM vxsnap ERROR V-5-1-6840 Synchronization of the volume volume
stopped due to I/O error
After correcting the source of the error, use the following command to restart the
resynchronization operation:
# vxsnap [-b] [-g diskgroup] syncstart volume
See the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Guide and the vxsnap(1M) manual page
for full details of how to use the vxsnap syncstart command.

I/O Failure on a DCO Volume

If an I/O failure occurs on a DCO volume, its FastResync maps and DRL log cannot be
accessed, and the DCO volume is marked with the BADLOG flag. DRL logging and
recovery, and instant snapshot operations are not possible with the volume until you
recover its DCO volume using the procedure described in “Recovering a Version 20 DCO”
on page 22.

Note If the I/O failure also affects the data volume, it must be recovered before its DCO
volume can be recovered.

Chapter 2, Recovery from Failure of Instant Snapshot Operations 29

I/O Failure on a DCO Volume

30 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 3

VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM) protects systems from disk and other hardware
failures and helps you to recover from such events. This chapter describes recovery
procedures and information to help you prevent loss of data or system access due to the
failure of the boot (root) disk.
For information about recovering volumes and their data on disks other than boot disks,
see “Recovery from Hardware Failure” on page 1.

Note Rootability, which brings the root disk under VERITAS Volume Manager control, is
supported in this release of VxVM.

Possible Root Disk Configurations

It is possible to set up a variety of configurations for the root (/) file system and other
critical file systems that are used by the operating system (such as /usr), and for the swap
area. Using the /usr file system as an example, the following three cases are possible:
◆ /usr is a directory under / and no separate partition is allocated for it. In this case,
/usr becomes part of the rootvol volume when the root disk is encapsulated and
put under VERITAS Volume Manager control.
◆ /usr is on a separate partition from the root partition on the root disk. In this case, a
separate volume is created for the usr partition when the root disk is encapsulated.
◆ /usr is on a disk other than the root disk. In this case, a volume is created for the usr
partition only if you use VxVM to encapsulate the disk. Note that encapsulating the
root disk and having mirrors of the root volume is ineffective in maintaining the
availability of your system if the separate usr partition becomes inaccessible for any
reason.

Note For maximum availability of the system, it is recommended that you

encapsulate both the root disk and any other disks that contain other critical
file systems, and create mirrors for these volumes and for the swap area.

31
The Boot Process

The rootvol volume must exist in the boot disk group. See “Boot-time Volume
Restrictions” in the “Administering Disks” chapter of the VERITAS Volume Manager
Administrator’s Guide for information on other volume restrictions.
VxVM allows you to put swap partitions on any disk; it does not need an initial swap area
during early phases of the boot process. However, it is possible to have the swap partition
on a partition not located on the root disk. In such cases, you are advised to encapsulate
that disk and create mirrors for the swap volume. If you do not do this, damage to the
swap partition eventually causes the system to crash. It may be possible to boot the
system, but having mirrors for the swapvol volume prevents system failures.

The Boot Process

On a system with an encapsulated root disk, VxVM uses initrd to load VxVM modules
and to start the system volumes on the root disk. For more information about initrd,
refer to the initrd(4) manual page.

VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

If there is a failure to boot from the VxVM boot disk on Linux, use one of the following
methods to recover. The method you choose depends on the type of failure:
◆ Failed Boot Disk
◆ Failed Boot Disk Mirror
◆ Accidental Use of the -R, fallback or lock Option with LILO
◆ Missing or Corrupted Master Boot Record
◆ Missing or Corrupted /etc/fstab file
◆ Missing or Corrupted /etc/vx/volboot file
If these methods fail, use the procedures described in “Recovery by Reinstallation” on
page 47.

32 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

Failed Boot Disk

Caution Only use the procedures in the following sections if your root disk has gone
bad. VxVM automatically tries to synchronize the contents of the root disk and
its mirrors. If the procedures are used when the root disk is still good, this can
cause data corruption when VxVM is restarted as it does not know which disk
contains valid data.

◆ Description: If the boot disk fails at boot time, the system BIOS displays
vendor-specific warning messages.
The system can automatically boot from a mirror of the root disk under the following
conditions:
◆ The geometry of the mirror disk must be the same as that of the root disk.
◆ The mirror disk must have a suitable GRUB or LILO master boot record (MBR)
configured on track 0. See “Missing or Corrupted Master Boot Record” on page 43
for details of how to set up an MBR.
If no root disk mirror is available, follow the procedure given in “Recovery by
Reinstallation” on page 47.
◆ Action: Use the vxprint -d command to confirm that the root disk has failed:
# vxprint -d

TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0

dm rootdisk- - - - NODEVICE - -

dm rootmir sdb - 164504997 - - - -

In this example, the boot disk, rootdisk, is shown with the state NODEVICE.
The methods to recover the root disk depend on the circumstances of the failure, and
are described in the following sections:
◆ “Disconnected Root Disk” on page 33
◆ “Failed Root Disk” on page 34

Disconnected Root Disk

If the disk media has not failed, but the root disk has become disconnected:

1. Shut down the system, and then power it down.

2. Reconnect the disk.

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 33

VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

3. Power up the system, but do not allow it to reboot. Instead, enter the system’s BIOS
settings mode (this is usually achieved by pressing a key such as Esc, F2 or F12 on
the console keyboard). Verify in the BIOS settings that the system is set to boot from
the root disk (in this example, sda). Otherwise the system may not be bootable.

4. Reboot the system, selecting vxvm_root at the GRUB or LILO boot prompt as
appropriate.

5. Use the vxprint -d command to confirm that the disk is now active:
# vxprint -d

TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0

dm rootdisksda - 16450497 - - - -

dm rootmir sdb - 16450497 - - - -

6. Use the vxprint -p command to view the state of the plexes. One or more of the
plexes on the mirror disk are shown with the state STALE until their contents are
recovered. You can use the vxtask command to monitor how the recovery and
reattachment of the stale plexes is progressing, as shown in this example:
# vxtask list

TASKID PTID TYPE/STATE PCT PROGRESS

160 PARENT/R 0.00% 2/0(1) VXRECOVER

161 161 ATCOPY/R 41.78% 0/12337857/5155232 PLXATT \

mirrootvol rootvol

Failed Root Disk

If the disk media has failed, there are two methods for replacing the failed disk:
◆ Replace the failed disk with the root mirror disk, replace the root mirror disk with a
new disk, and restore the contents of the root mirror disk from the new root disk. This
is the simplest method, but it requires that you are able to reconfigure the root mirror
disk to appear to the operating system as the original root disk (for example, by
physically moving the disk to a different slot). This method is described in
“Substituting a Root Mirror Disk for a Failed Root Disk” on page 35.
◆ Replace the failed root disk, and recreate its contents from the root mirror disk. This
method is more complicated, but it does not require you to alter the configuration of
the root mirror disk. This method is described in “Replacing a Failed Root Disk” on
page 37.

34 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

Substituting a Root Mirror Disk for a Failed Root Disk

To replace a failed root disk with a root disk mirror:

1. Use the vxplex command to remove the plex records that were on the failed disk:
# vxplex -g bootdg -o rm dis rootvol-01 swapvol-01

Note This example removes the plexes rootvol-01, and swapvol-01 that are
configured on the mirror disk. You may need to modify the list of plexes
according to your system configuration.

2. Shut down the system, and then power it down.

3. Remove the failed root disk (in this example, sda).

4. Reconfigure the root disk mirror (in this example, (sdb) to appear to the system as the
original root disk (sda). This may require you to change settings on the drive itself,
and to relocate the root disk mirror in the same physical slot as was occupied by the
original root disk. Consult your system documentation for more information.

5. Configure a disk of the same or larger capacity as the failed root disk as a replacement
for the root mirror disk (sdb). It should occupy the same slot that was vacated in
step 4 if this is necessary for the system to see it as the same disk.

6. Power up the system, and boot it from Linux installation CD number 1.

7. On a Red Hat system, run the following command at the boot prompt to put the
system in rescue mode:
boot: linux rescue
On a SUSE system, choose the Rescue option from the menu.
Log in as root, select your language and keyboard, and choose to skip finding your
installation.

8. Use the fdisk command to ensure that the new root disk (sda) and the replacement
disk (sdb) have the same geometry:
# fdisk -l /dev/sda
# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
See the fdisk(8) manual page for details.

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 35

VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

9. If the replacement disk already contains a VxVM private region, use the fdisk
command to change the partition type for the private region partition to a value other
than 7f.
# fdisk /dev/sdb

10. Make a temporary mount point, /vxvm, and mount the root partition on it:
# mkdir /vxvm

# mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /vxvm

Note In this example, the root partition is /dev/sda1, and the root file system
type is ext3. You may need to modify this command according to your system
configuration. For example, the root file system may be configured as a
reiserfs file system.

11. If the disk has a separate boot partition, mount this on /vxvm/boot:
# mount -t ext3 /dev/sda2 /vxvm/boot

Note In this example, the boot partition is /dev/sda2, and the boot file system
type is ext3. You may need to modify this command according to your system
configuration.

12. Ensure that the device for the new root disk (in this example, sda) is defined correctly
in the boot loader configuration file.
◆ For the GRUB boot loader:
Check that the contents of the GRUB configuration file
(/vxvm/boot/grub/menu.lst or /vxvm/etc/grub.conf as appropriate)
are correct, and use the grub command to install the master boot record (MBR) in
case it has been corrupted:
# /vxvm/sbin/grub
grub> root (hd0,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
Here /boot is assumed to be on partition 2.

36 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

◆ For the LILO boot loader:

Check that the contents of the /vxvm/etc/lilo.conf file are correct, and use
the lilo command to recreate the master boot record (MBR) in case it has been
corrupted:
# /vxvm/sbin/lilo -r /vxvm

Note In these examples, the MBR is written to /dev/sda. You may need to modify
the command according to your system configuration.

13. Unmount the partitions, run sync, and then exit the rescue shell:
# cd /

# umount /vxvm/boot

# umount /vxvm

# sync

# exit

14. Shut down and power cycle the system. Enter the system’s BIOS settings mode (this is
usually achieved by pressing a key such as Esc, F2 or F12 on the console keyboard).
Verify in the BIOS settings that the system is set to boot from the new root disk (in this
example, sda). Otherwise the system may not be bootable.

15. Reboot the system, selecting vxvm_root at the GRUB or LILO boot prompt as
appropriate.

16. Run the following command to mirror the volumes from the new root disk onto the
replacement disk:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxrootmir sdb rootdisk

Note This example assumes that the disk media name of the replacement disk is sdb.
You may need to modify this name according to your system configuration.

Replacing a Failed Root Disk

1. Use the vxplex command to remove the plex records that were on the failed disk:
# vxplex -g bootdg -o rm dis rootvol-01 swapvol-01

Note This example removes the plexes rootvol-01, and swapvol-01 that are
configured on the mirror disk. You may need to modify the list of plexes
according to your system configuration.

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 37

VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

2. Shut down the system, and then power it down.

3. Replace the failed disk with a disk of the same or larger capacity.

4. Power up the system, and boot it from Linux installation CD number 1.

5. On a Red Hat system, run the following command at the boot prompt to put the
system in rescue mode:
boot: linux rescue
On a SUSE system, choose the Rescue option from the menu.
Log in as root, select your language and keyboard, and choose to skip finding your
installation.

6. Use the fdisk command to ensure that the root mirror disk (sdb) and the
replacement root disk (sda) have the same geometry:
# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
# fdisk -l /dev/sda
See the fdisk(8) manual page for details.

7. If the replacement disk already contains a VxVM private region, use the fdisk
command to change the partition type for the private region partition to a value other
than 7f.
# fdisk /dev/sda

8. Make a temporary mount point, /vxvm, and mount the root partition on it:
# mkdir /vxvm

# mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb1 /vxvm

Note In this example, the mirror of the root partition is /dev/sdb1, and the root
file system type is ext3. You may need to modify this command according to
your system configuration. For example, the root file system may be
configured as a reiserfs file system.

9. If the disk has a separate boot partition, mount this on /vxvm/boot:

# mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb2 /vxvm/boot

Note In this example, the mirror of the boot partition is /dev/sdb2, and the boot
file system type is ext3. You may need to modify this command according to
your system configuration.

38 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

10. Install the master boot record (MBR) on the replacement disk (in this example, sda).
◆ For the GRUB boot loader:

a. Create a backup copy of the GRUB configuration file

(/vxvm/boot/grub/menu.lst or /vxvm/etc/grub.conf as appropriate),
for example:
# cp /vxvm/etc/grub.conf /vxvm/etc/grub.conf.b4repldisk

b. Run the sync command:

# sync

c. In the configuration file, change all occurrences of sda to sdb, except for the
boot= statement.

d. In the configuration file, change all occurrences of hd0 to hd1.

e. After saving your changes to the configuration file, run the following commands
to install the boot loader:
# /vxvm/sbin/grub
grub> root (hd1,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
◆ For the LILO boot loader:

a. Create a backup copy of the LILO configuration file, for example:

# cp /vxvm/etc/lilo.conf /vxvm/etc/lilo.conf.b4repldisk

b. Run the sync command:

# sync

c. In the configuration file, change all occurrences of sda to sdb, except for the
boot= statement.

d. In the configuration file, add a root= statement to the boot entries where this is
missing. This statement specifies the device that is to be mounted as root, for
example, /dev/sdb1. The following example is for the vxvm_root entry:
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.21-4.ELsmp
label=vxvm_root
initrd=/boot/VxVM_initrd.img
root=/dev/sdb1

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 39

VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

e. After saving your changes to the configuration file, run the following command
to install the boot loader:
# /vxvm/sbin/lilo -r /vxvm

11. Unmount the partitions, run sync, and then exit the rescue shell:
# cd /

# umount /vxvm/boot

# umount /vxvm

# sync

# exit

12. Shut down and power cycle the system. Enter the system’s BIOS settings mode (this is
usually achieved by pressing a key such as Esc, F2 or F12 on the console keyboard).
Verify in the BIOS settings that the system is set to boot from the new root disk (in this
example, sdb). Otherwise the system may not be bootable.

13. Reboot the system, selecting vxvm_root at the GRUB or LILO boot prompt as
appropriate.

14. Run the following command to mirror the volumes from the root mirror disk onto the
replacement disk:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxrootmir sda rootdisk

Note This example assumes that the disk media name of the replacement root disk is
sda. You may need to modify this name according to your system
configuration.

15. Restore the contents of the boot loader configuration file, and recreate the original
MBR on the root disk (in this example, sda).
◆ For the GRUB boot loader:

a. Restore the original boot loader configuration file:

# mv /etc/grub.conf.b4repldisk /etc/grub.conf

b. Run the sync command:

# sync

c. Run the following commands to recreate the boot loader:

# /sbin/grub

grub> root (hd0,1)

grub> setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0)

40 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

grub> quit
◆ For the LILO boot loader:

a. Restore the original boot loader configuration file:

# mv /etc/lilo.conf.b4repldisk /etc/lilo.conf

b. Run the sync command:

# sync

c. Run the following command to recreate the boot loader:

# /sbin/lilo

Failed Boot Disk Mirror

Messages such as the following may be displayed while booting from the primary boot
disk if a mirror of the boot disk fails:
Starting rootvol, swapvol...

VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-122 Detaching plex mirrootvol-01 from

volume rootvol

VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-122 Detaching plex mirswapvol-01 from

volume swapvol

VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-546 Disk rootmir in group bootdg: Disk

device not found

◆ Description: Failure of a mirror of the root disk is discovered at boot time when the
volumes on the root disk are started. To maintain the integrity of your system, replace
the failed disk at the earliest possible opportunity.
◆ Action: Use the vxprint -d command to confirm that the root disk mirror has failed:
# vxprint -d

TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0

dm rootdisksda - 16450497 - - - -

dm rootmir - - - - NODEVICE - -

In this example, the boot disk mirror, rootmir, is shown with the state NODEVICE.

❖ If the disk media has not failed, but the mirror has become disconnected:

a. Shut down the system, and then power it down.

b. Reconnect the disk.

c. Power up the system, and select vxvm_root at the GRUB or LILO boot prompt.

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 41

VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

d. Use the vxprint -d command to confirm that the disk is now active:
# vxprint -d

TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0

dm rootdisk sda - 16450497 - - - -

dm rootmir sdb - 16450497 - - - -

e. Use the vxprint -p command to view the state of the plexes. One or more of
the plexes on the mirror disk are shown with the state STALE until their contents
are recovered. You can use the vxtask command to monitor how the recovery
and reattachment of the stale plexes is progressing, as shown in this example:
# vxtask list

TASKID PTID TYPE/STATE PCT PROGRESS

160 PARENT/R 0.00% 2/0(1) VXRECOVER

161 161 ATCOPY/R 41.78% 0/12337857/5155232 PLXATT \

rootvol mirrootvol

f. Use the vxplex command to remove the plex records that were on the failed
disk:
# vxplex -o rm dis mirrootvol-01 mirswapvol-01

Note This example removes the plexes mirrootvol-01, and mirswapvol-01 that
are configured on the mirror disk. You may need to modify the list of plexes
according to your system configuration.

g. Shut down the system, and then power it down.

h. Replace the failed disk with a disk of the same or larger capacity.

i. Power up the system, and select vxvm_root at the GRUB or LILO boot prompt.

j. Use the fdisk command to ensure that the root disk and the replacement mirror
disk have the same geometry. See the fdisk(8) manual page for details.

k. Run the following command to mirror the volumes on root disk onto the
replacement disk:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxrootmir sdb rootmir

Note This example assumes that the disk media name of the replacement mirror disk
is sdb. You may need to modify this name according to your system
configuration.

42 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

Accidental Use of the -R, fallback or lock Option with LILO

◆ Description: If you use the -R, fallback or lock options with the lilo command,
this can corrupt the master boot record (MBR) on the root disk. Corruption of the
MBR causes the system to fail to boot, and usually to stop at the LILO prompt. (The
portion of the LILO prompt that is displayed can be used in diagnosing the problem,
as described in the LILO reference manual.)
◆ Action: Use the recovery procedure described in the section, “Missing or Corrupted
Master Boot Record” on page 43.

Missing or Corrupted Master Boot Record

◆ Description: The system may fail to boot if the master boot record (MBR) on track 0 of
the root disk is missing or corrupted. Corruption of the MBR causes the system to fail
to boot, and usually to stop at the GRUB or LILO prompt.
◆ GRUB outputs an error message in the form Error number and then halts. See
the GRUB reference manual for help in interpreting this error.
◆ The portion of the LILO prompt that is displayed can be used in diagnosing the
problem, as described in the LILO reference manual.
◆ Action: Follow these steps to recreate the MBR on the root disk:

a. Power up the system and boot it from Linux installation CD number 1.

b. On a Red Hat system, run the following command at the boot prompt to put the
system in rescue mode:
boot: linux rescue
On a SUSE system, choose the Rescue option from the menu.
Log in as root, select your language and keyboard, and choose to skip finding
your installation.

c. Make a temporary mount point, /vxvm, and mount the root partition on it:
# mkdir /vxvm

# mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /vxvm

Note In this example, the root partition is /dev/sda1, and the root file system
type is ext3. You may need to modify this command according to your system
configuration. For example, the root file system may be configured as a
reiserfs file system.

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 43

VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

d. If the disk has a separate boot partition, mount this on /vxvm/boot:

# mount -t ext3 /dev/sda2 /vxvm/boot

Note In this example, the boot partition is /dev/sda2, and the boot file system
type is ext3. You may need to modify this command according to your system
configuration.

e. Recreate the master boot record (MBR) on the root disk.

◆ For the GRUB boot loader:
Check that the contents of the GRUB configuration file
(/vxvm/boot/grub/menu.lst or /vxvm/etc/grub.conf as
appropriate) are correct, and use the grub command to recreate the MBR on
the disk (here /boot is assumed to be on partition 2):
# /vxvm/sbin/grub
grub> root (hd0,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

◆ For the LILO boot loader:

Check that the contents of the /vxvm/etc/lilo.conf file are correct, and
use the lilo command to recreate the MBR on the replacement disk:
# /vxvm/sbin/lilo -r /vxvm

Note In these examples, the MBR is written to /dev/sda. You may need to modify
the commands according to your system configuration.

f. Unmount the partitions, run sync, and then exit the rescue shell:
# cd /

# umount /vxvm/boot

# umount /vxvm

# sync

# exit

g. Reboot the system from the disk with the reconstructed MBR, and select
vxvm_root at the GRUB or LILO boot prompt.

44 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

Missing or Corrupted /etc/fstab file

The following messages may be displayed at boot time if the /etc/fstab file is missing
or corrupted:
WARNING: Couldn’t open /etc/fstab: No such file or direcctory
WARNING: bad format on line # of /etc/fstab
◆ Description: The /etc/fstab file is missing or its contents have become corrupted.
This prevents some or all file systems from being mounted successfully.
◆ Action: If maintenance mode is available, perform these steps:

a. Log in under maintenance mode.

b. Remount the root file system in read-write mode (an ext3 type root file system
is assumed in this example; modify the command if you use a resiserfs type
root file system):
# mount -t ext3 -o remount,rw /dev/vx/dsk/rootvol /

c. Restore the /etc/fstab file from a recent backup, or correct its contents by
editing the file.

d. Reboot the system.

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 45

VxVM Boot Disk Recovery

Missing or Corrupted /etc/vx/volboot file

The following message may be displayed at boot time if the /etc/vx/volboot file is
missing or corrupted:
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-1589 enable failed: Volboot file not loaded
transactions are disabled.
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-2-573 Vold is not enabled for transactions
no volumes started
◆ Description: During system bootup, the VxVM configuration daemon reads the file
/etc/vx/volboot. If that file is missing or corrupted, the configuration daemon
fails and aborts the boot sequence.
◆ Action: If a recent backup of the /etc/vx/volboot file is available, use that copy to
restore the file, and then reboot. If a backup is not available, the following example
procedure shows the sequence of commands that you can use to recreate the
/etc/vx/volboot file. Replace the disk access name (sda) for the VxVM root disk,
host ID (diego) and private region offset (2144) in the example with the values that
are appropriate to your system.

a. Put the system into maintenance mode.

b. Run vxconfigd in disabled mode:

# vxconfigd -m disable

c. Reinitialize the volboot file:

# vxdctl init diego

# vxdctl add disk sda privoffset=2144

d. Reset vxconfigd in boot mode:

# vxconfigd -kr reset -m boot

e. Use the following command to confirm that VxVM is running:

# vxdisk list

DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS

sda sliced rootdisk bootdg online

sdb sliced rootmir bootdg online

sdc sliced - - error

f. Reboot the system.

46 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Recovery by Reinstallation

Recovery by Reinstallation
Reinstallation is necessary if all copies of your boot (root) disk are damaged, or if certain
critical files are lost due to file system damage. On a Linux system, first use the recovery
methods described in “VxVM Boot Disk Recovery” on page 32. Follow the procedures
below only if those methods fail.
If these types of failures occur, attempt to preserve as much of the original VxVM
configuration as possible. Any volumes that are not directly involved in the failure do not
need to be reconfigured. You do not have to reconfigure any volumes that are preserved.

General Reinstallation Information

This section describes procedures used to reinstall VxVM and preserve as much of the
original configuration as possible after a failure.

Note System reinstallation destroys the contents of any disks that are used for
reinstallation.

All VxVM-related information is removed during reinstallation. Data removed includes

data in private areas on removed disks that contain the disk identifier and copies of the
VxVM configuration. The removal of this information makes the disk unusable as a VM
disk.
The system root disk is always involved in reinstallation. Other disks can also be
involved. If the root disk was placed under VxVM control, that disk and any volumes or
mirrors on it are lost during reinstallation. Any other disks that are involved in the
reinstallation, or that are removed and replaced, can lose VxVM configuration data
(including volumes and mirrors).
If a disk, including the root disk, is not under VxVM control prior to the failure, no VxVM
configuration data is lost at reinstallation. For information on replacing disks, see
“Removing and Replacing Disks” in the “Administering Disks” chapter of the VERITAS
Volume Manager Administrator’s Guide.
Although it simplifies the recovery process after reinstallation, not having the root disk
under VERITAS Volume Manager control increases the possibility of a reinstallation being
necessary. By having the root disk under VxVM control and creating mirrors of the root
disk contents, you can eliminate many of the problems that require system reinstallation.
When reinstallation is necessary, the only volumes saved are those that reside on, or have
copies on, disks that are not directly involved with the failure and reinstallation. Any
volumes on the root disk and other disks involved with the failure or reinstallation are lost
during reinstallation. If backup copies of these volumes are available, the volumes can be
restored after reinstallation.

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 47

Recovery by Reinstallation

Reinstalling the System and Recovering VxVM

To reinstall the system and recover the VERITAS Volume Manager configuration, use the
following procedure. These steps are described in detail in the sections that follow:

1. “Prepare the System for Reinstallation” on page 48.

Replace any failed disks or other hardware, and detach any disks not involved in the
reinstallation.

2. “Reinstall the Operating System” on page 49.

Reinstall the base system and any other packages that are not related to VERITAS
software.

3. “Reinstall the VERITAS Software” on page 49.

Load the VERITAS packages, but do not execute the vxinstall command. You are
required to re-enter the software license keys.

4. “Recover the VERITAS Volume Manager Configuration” on page 49.

5. “Clean up the System Configuration” on page 50.

Restore any information in volumes affected by the failure or reinstallation, and
recreate system volumes (rootvol, swapvol, usr, and other system volumes).

Prepare the System for Reinstallation

To prevent the loss of data on disks not involved in the reinstallation, involve only the root
disk in the reinstallation procedure.

Note Several of the automatic options for installation access disks other than the root disk
without requiring confirmation from the administrator. Disconnect all other disks
containing volumes from the system prior to reinstalling the operating system.

Disconnecting the other disks ensures that they are unaffected by the reinstallation. For
example, if the operating system was originally installed with a home file system on the
second disk, it can still be recoverable. Removing the second disk ensures that the home
file system remains intact.

48 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Recovery by Reinstallation

Reinstall the Operating System

Once any failed or failing disks have been replaced and disks not involved with the
reinstallation have been detached, reinstall the operating system as described in your
operating system documentation. Install the operating system prior to installing any
VERITAS software.
Ensure that no disks other than the root disk are accessed in any way while the operating
system installation is in progress. If anything is written on a disk other than the root disk,
the VERITAS Volume Manager configuration on that disk may be destroyed.

Note During reinstallation, you can change the system’s host name (or host ID). It is
recommended that you keep the existing host name, as this is assumed by the
procedures in the following sections.

Reinstall the VERITAS Software

To reinstall the VERITAS software, follow the instructions in the Installation Guide. During
the installation, you are prompted to enter the VERITAS software license keys.

Caution To reconstruct the Volume Manager configuration that remains on the non-root
disks, do not use vxinstall to initialize VxVM after loading the software from
CD-ROM.

Recover the VERITAS Volume Manager Configuration

Once the VERITAS Volume Manager packages have been loaded, and you have installed
the software licenses, recover the VERITAS Volume Manager configuration using the
following procedure:

1. Shut down the system.

2. Reattach the disks that were removed from the system.

3. Reboot the system.

The configuration preserved on the disks not involved with the reinstallation will now be
recovered. As the root disk has been reinstalled, it does not appear to VxVM as a VM disk.
The configuration of the preserved disks does not include the root disk as part of the
VxVM configuration.
If the root disk of your system and any other disks involved in the reinstallation were not
under VxVM control at the time of failure and reinstallation, then the reconfiguration is
complete at this point. For information on replacing disks, see “Removing and Replacing

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 49

Recovery by Reinstallation

Disks” in the “Administering Disks” chapter of the VERITAS Volume Manager

Administrator’s Guide. There are several methods available to replace a disk; choose the
method that you prefer.
If the root disk (and other disks containing critical file systems) was previously under
VxVM control, any volumes or mirrors on that disk (or on other disks no longer attached
to the system) are now inaccessible. If a volume had only one plex contained on a disk that
was reinstalled, removed, or replaced, then the data in that volume is lost and must be
restored from backup. In addition, the system root file system, swap area, and other
related critical file systems are no longer located on volumes. To correct these problems,
follow the instructions in “Clean up the System Configuration” on page 50.

Clean up the System Configuration

To clean up the configuration of your system after reinstallation of VxVM, you must
address the following issues:
◆ Clean up Volumes
◆ Clean up Disk Configuration
◆ Final Volume Reconfiguration

Clean up Volumes
After recovering the VxVM configuration, you must determine which volumes need to be
restored from backup because a complete copy of their data is not present on the
recovered disks. Such volumes are invalid and must be removed, recreated, and restored
from backup. If a complete copy of a volume’s data is available, it can be repaired by the
hot-relocation feature provided that this is enabled and there is sufficient spare disk space
in the disk group.
To restore the volumes, perform these steps:

1. Establish which VM disks have been removed or reinstalled using the following
command:
# vxdisk list
This displays a list of system disk devices and the status of these devices. For
example, for a reinstalled system with three disks and a reinstalled root disk, the
output of the vxdisk list command is similar to this:
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
sdb simple - - error
sdc simple disk02 bootdg online
sdd simple disk03 bootdg online
- - disk01 bootdg failed was:sdb

50 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Recovery by Reinstallation

Note Your system may use device names that differ from the examples. For more
information on device names, see the chapter “Administering Disks” in the
VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s Guide.

The display shows that the reinstalled root device, sdb, is not associated with a VM
disk and is marked with a status of error. The disks disk02 and disk03 were not
involved in the reinstallation and are recognized by VxVM and associated with their
devices (sdc and sdd). The former disk01, which was the VM disk associated with
the replaced disk device, is no longer associated with the device (sdb).
If other disks (with volumes or mirrors on them) had been removed or replaced
during reinstallation, those disks would also have a disk device listed in error state
and a VM disk listed as not associated with a device.

2. Once you know which disks have been removed or replaced, locate all the mirrors on
failed disks using the following command:
# vxprint -sF “%vname” -e’sd_disk = “disk”’

where disk is the name of a disk with a failed status. Be sure to enclose the disk
name in quotes in the command. Otherwise, the command returns an error message.
The vxprint command returns a list of volumes that have mirrors on the failed disk.
Repeat this command for every disk with a failed status.

3. Check the status of each volume and print volume information using the following
command:
# vxprint -th volume
where volume is the name of the volume to be examined. The vxprint command
displays the status of the volume, its plexes, and the portions of disks that make up
those plexes. For example, a volume named v01 with only one plex resides on the
reinstalled disk named disk01. The vxprint -th v01 command produces the
following output:
V NAME USETYPE KSTATE STATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX

PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WIDMODE

SD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFSLENGTH COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE

v v01 fsgen DISABLEDACTIVE 24000 SELECT ­

pl v01-01 v01 DISABLEDNODEVICE24000 CONCAT - RW

sd disk01-06 v0101 disk01 245759 24000 0 sdg ENA

The only plex of the volume is shown in the line beginning with pl. The STATE field
for the plex named v01-01 is NODEVICE. The plex has space on a disk that has been
replaced, removed, or reinstalled. The plex is no longer valid and must be removed.

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 51

Recovery by Reinstallation

4. Because v01-01 was the only plex of the volume, the volume contents are
irrecoverable except by restoring the volume from a backup. The volume must also be
removed. If a backup copy of the volume exists, you can restore the volume later.
Keep a record of the volume name and its length, as you will need it for the backup
procedure.
Remove irrecoverable volumes (such as v01) using the following command:
# vxedit -r rm v01

5. It is possible that only part of a plex is located on the failed disk. If the volume has a
striped plex associated with it, the volume is divided between several disks. For
example, the volume named v02 has one striped plex striped across three disks, one
of which is the reinstalled disk disk01. The vxprint -th v02 command produces
the following output:
V NAME USETYPE KSTATE STATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX

PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WIDMODE

SD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFSLENGTH COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE

v v02 fsgen DISABLEDACTIVE 30720 SELECT v02-01

pl v02-01 v02 DISABLEDNODEVICE30720 STRIPE 3/128 RW

sd disk02-02v02-01 disk01 424144 10240 0/0 sdi ENA

sd disk01-05v02-01 disk01 620544 10240 1/0 sdj DIS

sd disk03-01v02-01 disk03 620544 10240 2/0 sdk ENA

The display shows three disks, across which the plex v02-01 is striped (the lines
starting with sd represent the stripes). One of the stripe areas is located on a failed
disk. This disk is no longer valid, so the plex named v02-01 has a state of NODEVICE.
Since this is the only plex of the volume, the volume is invalid and must be removed.
If a copy of v02 exists on the backup media, it can be restored later. Keep a record of
the volume name and length of any volume you intend to restore from backup.
Remove invalid volumes (such as v02) using the following command:
# vxedit -r rm v02

6. A volume that has one mirror on a failed disk may also have other mirrors on disks
that are still valid. In this case, the volume does not need to be restored from backup,
since all the data is still available, and recovery can usually be handled by the
hot-relocation feature provided that this is enabled.
If hot-relocation is disabled, you can recover the mirror manually. In this example, the
vxprint -th command for a volume with one plex on a failed disk (disk01) and
another plex on a valid disk (disk02) produces the following output:
V NAME USETYPE KSTATE STATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX

PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WIDMODE

SD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFSLENGTH COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE

52 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Recovery by Reinstallation

v v03 fsgen DISABLEDACTIVE 0720 SELECT ­

pl v03-01 v03 DISABLEDACTIVE 30720 CONCAT - RW

sd disk02-01 v03-01 disk01 620544 30720 0 sdl ENA

pl v03-02 v03 DISABLEDNODEVICE30720 CONCAT - RW

sd disk01-04 v03-02 disk03 262144 30720 0 sdm DIS

This volume has two plexes, v03-01 and v03-02. The first plex (v03-01) does not
use any space on the invalid disk, so it can still be used. The second plex (v03-02)
uses space on invalid disk disk01 and has a state of NODEVICE. Plex v03-02 must
be removed. However, the volume still has one valid plex containing valid data. If the
volume needs to be mirrored, another plex can be added later. Note the name of the
volume to create another plex later.
To remove an invalid plex, use the vxplex command to dissociate and then remove
the plex from the volume. For example, to dissociate and remove the plex v03-02,
use the following command:
# vxplex -o rm dis v03-02

7. Once all the volumes have been cleaned up, clean up the disk configuration as
described in the section “Clean up Disk Configuration” on page 53.

Clean up Disk Configuration

Once all invalid volumes and plexes have been removed, the disk configuration can be
cleaned up. Each disk that was removed, reinstalled, or replaced (as determined from the
output of the vxdisk list command) must be removed from the configuration.
To remove the disk, use the vxdg command. To remove the failed disk disk01, use the
following command:
# vxdg rmdisk disk01

If the vxdg command returns an error message, some invalid mirrors exist. Repeat the
processes described in “Clean up Volumes” on page 50 until all invalid volumes and
mirrors are removed.

Final Volume Reconfiguration

Once the root disk is under VxVM control, any other disks that were replaced should be
added using the vxdiskadm command.
Once all the disks have been added to the system, any volumes that were completely
removed as part of the configuration cleanup can be recreated and their contents restored
from backup. The volume recreation can be done by using the vxassist command or the
graphical user interface.

Chapter 3, Recovery from Boot Disk Failure 53

Recovery by Reinstallation

For example, to recreate the volumes v01 and v02, use the following commands:
# vxassist make v01 24000

# vxassist make v02 30720 layout=stripe nstripe=3

Once the volumes are created, they can be restored from backup using normal
backup/restore procedures.
Recreate any plexes for volumes that had plexes removed as part of the volume cleanup.
To replace the plex removed from volume v03, use the following command:
# vxassist mirror v03
Once you have restored the volumes and plexes lost during reinstallation, recovery is
complete and your system is configured as it was prior to the failure.

54 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

Logging Commands and Transactions 4
This chapter provides information on how to administer logging of commands and
transactions in VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM). For information on how to administer
error logging, see “Error Messages” on page 67.

Logging Commands
The vxcmdlog command allows you to log the invocation of other VxVM commands to a
file. The following table demonstrates the usage of vxcmdlog:

Command Description

vxcmdlog -l List current settings for command logging.

vxcmdlog -m on Turn on command logging.

vxcmdlog -s 512k Set the maximum command log file size to

512KB.

vxcmdlog -n 10 Set the maximum number of historic command

log files to 10.

vxcmdlog -n no_limit Remove any limit on the number of historic

command log files.

vxcmdlog -m off Turn off command logging.

Command lines are logged to the file, cmdlog, in the directory /etc/vx/log. This path
name is a symbolic link to a directory whose location depends on the operating system. If
required, you can redefine the directory which is linked. If you want to preserve the
settings of the vxcmdlog utility, you must also copy the settings file, .cmdlog, to the new
directory.

55
Logging Commands

Note The .cmdlog file is a binary and should not be edited.

The size of the command log is checked after an entry has been written so the actual size
may be slightly larger than that specified. When the log reaches a maximum size, the
current command log file, cmdlog, is renamed as the next available historic log file,
cmdlog.number, where number is an integer from 1 up to the maximum number of
historic log files that is currently defined, and a new current log file is created.
A limited number of historic log files is preserved to avoid filling up the file system. If the
maximum number of historic log files has been reached, the oldest historic log file is
removed, and the current log file is renamed as that file.
Each log file contains a header that records the host name, host ID, and the date and time
that the log was created.
The following are sample entries from a command log file:
# 0, 2329, Wed Feb 12 21:19:31 2003
/usr/sbin/vxdctl mode
# 17051, 2635, Wed Feb 12 21:19:33 2003
/usr/sbin/vxdisk -q -o alldgs list
# 0, 2722, Wed Feb 12 21:19:34 2003
/etc/vx/diag.d/vxprivutil dumpconfig /dev/vx/rdmp/Disk_4
# 26924, 3001, Thu Feb 13 19:30:57 2003
/usr/sbin/vxdisk list Disk_1
Each entry usually contains a client ID that identifies the command connection to the
vxconfigd daemon, the process ID of the command that is running, a time stamp, and
the command line including any arguments.
If the client ID is 0, as in the third entry shown here, this means that the command did not
open a connection to vxconfigd.

Note The client ID is the same as that recorded for the corresponding transactions in the
transactions log. See “Logging Transactions” on page 57 and “Associating
Command and Transaction Logs” on page 59 for more information.

Most command scripts are not logged, but the command binaries that they call are
logged. Exceptions are the vxdisksetup, vxinstall, and vxdiskunsetup
scripts, which are logged.

If there is an error reading from the settings file, command logging switches to its
built-in default settings. This may mean, for example, that logging remains enabled
after being disabled using vxcmdlog -m off command. If this happens, use the
vxcmdlog utility to recreate the settings file, or restore the file from a backup.

See the vxcmdlog(1M) manual page for more information about the vxcmdlog utility.

56 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Logging Transactions

Logging Transactions
The vxtranslog command allows you to log VxVM transactions to a file. The following
table demonstrates the usage of vxtranslog:

Command Description

vxtranslog -l List current settings for transaction logging.

vxtranslog -m on Turn on transaction logging.

vxtranslog -s 512k Set the maximum transaction log file size to

512KB.

vxtranslog -n 10 Set the maximum number of historic

transaction log files to 10.

vxtranslog -n no_limit Remove any limit on the number of historic

transaction log files.

vxtranslog -q on Turn on query logging.

vxtranslog -q off Turn off query logging.

vxtranslog -m off Turn off transaction logging.

Transactions are logged to the file, translog, in the directory /etc/vx/log. This path
name is a symbolic link to a directory whose location depends on the operating system. If
required, you can redefine the directory which is linked. If you want to preserve the
settings of the vxtranslog utility, you must also copy the settings file, .translog, to
the new directory.

Note The .translog file is a binary and should not be edited.

The size of the transaction log is checked after an entry has been written so the actual size
may be slightly larger than that specified. When the log reaches a maximum size, the
current transaction log file, translog, is renamed as the next available historic log file,
translog.number, where number is an integer from 1 up to the maximum number of
historic log files that is currently defined, and a new current log file is created.
A limited number of historic log files is preserved to avoid filling up the file system. If the
maximum number of historic log files has been reached, the oldest historic log file is
removed, and the current log file is renamed as that file.

Chapter 4, Logging Commands and Transactions 57

Logging Transactions

Each log file contains a header that records the host name, host ID, and the date and time
that the log was created.
The following are sample entries from a transaction log file:
Fri Oct 17 13:23:30 2003
Clid = 23460, PID = 21240, Part = 0, Status = 0, Abort Reason = 0
DA _GET Disk_0
D ISK_GET_ATTRS Disk_0
D ISK_DISK_OP Disk_0 8
DE VNO_GET Disk_0
DA NAME_GET 0x160045 0x160072
GE T_ARRAYNAME Disk DISKS
CT LR_PTOLNAME 11-08-01
GE T_ARRAYNAME Disk DISKS
CT LR_PTOLNAME 21-08-01
DR OPPED <no request data>
The first line of each log entry is the time stamp of the transaction. The Clid field
corresponds to the client ID for the connection that the command opened to vxconfigd.
The PID field shows the process ID of the utility that is requesting the operation. The
Status and Abort Reason fields contain error codes if the transaction does not
complete normally. The remainder of the record shows the data that was used in
processing the transaction.

Note The client ID is the same as that recorded for the corresponding command line in
the command log. See “Logging Commands” on page 55 and “Associating
Command and Transaction Logs” on page 59 for more information.

If there is an error reading from the settings file, transaction logging switches to its
built-in default settings. This may mean, for example, that logging remains enabled
after being disabled using vxtranslog -m off command. If this happens, use the
vxtranslog utility to recreate the settings file, or restore the file from a backup.

58 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Associating Command and Transaction Logs

Associating Command and Transaction Logs

The Client and process IDs that are recorded for every request and command assist you in
correlating entries in the command and transaction logs. To find out which command
issued a particular request in transaction log, use a command such as the following to
search for the process ID and the client ID in the command log:
# egrep -n PID cmdlog | egrep Clid
In this example, the following request was recorded in the transaction log:
Wed Feb 12 21:19:36 2003
Clid = 8309, PID = 2778, Part = 0, Status = 0, Abort Reason = 0
DG_IMPORT foodg
DG_IMPORT foodg
DISCONNECT <no request data>
To locate the utility that issued this request, the command would be:
# egrep -n 2778 cmdlog | egrep 8309
7310:# 8309, 2778, Wed Feb 12 21:19:36 2003
The output from the example shows a match at line 7310 in the command log. Examining
lines 7310 and 7311 in the command log indicates that the vxdg import command was
run on the foodg disk group:
# sed -e ’7310,7311!d’ cmdlog
# 8309, 2778, Wed Feb 12 21:19:36 2003 7311
/usr/sbin/vxdg -m import foodg

Note If there are multiple matches for the combination of the client and process ID, you
can determine the correct match by examining the time stamp.

If a utility opens a conditional connection to vxconfigd, its client ID is shown as

zero in the command log, and as a non-zero value in the transaction log. You can
use the process ID and time stamp to relate the log entries in such cases.

Chapter 4, Logging Commands and Transactions 59

Associating Command and Transaction Logs

60 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

Backing Up and Restoring Disk Group
Configurations 5
Disk group configuration backup and restoration allows you to backup and restore all
configuration data for VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM) disk groups, and for VxVM
objects such as volumes that are configured within the disk groups. Using this feature,
you can recover from corruption of a disk group’s configuration that is stored as metadata
in the private region of a VM disk. After the disk group configuration has been restored,
and the volume enabled, the user data in the public region is available again without the
need to restore this from backup media.

Caution The backup and restore utilities act only on VxVM configuration data. They do
not back up or restore any user or application data that is contained within
volumes or other VxVM objects. If you use vxdiskunsetup and
vxdisksetup on a disk, and specify attributes that differ from those in the
configuration backup, this may corrupt the public region and any user data
therein.

The vxconfigbackupd daemon monitors changes to the VxVM configuration and

automatically records any configuration changes that occur. Two utilities,
vxconfigbackup and vxconfigrestore, are provided for backing up and restoring a
VxVM configuration for a disk group.
When importing a disk group, any of the following errors indicate that the disk group
configuration and/or disk private region headers have become corrupted:
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-569 Disk group group,Disk disk:Cannot
auto-import group: reason
The reason for the error is usually one of the following:
Configuration records are inconsistent

Disk group has no valid configuration copies

Duplicate record in configuration

Errors in some configuration copies

Format error in configuration copy

Invalid block number

Invalid magic number

61
Backing Up a Disk Group Configuration

If VxVM cannot update a disk group’s configuration because of disk errors, it disables the
disk group and displays the following error:
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-123 Disk group group: Disabled by errors
If such errors occur, you can restore the disk group configuration from a backup after you
have corrected any underlying problem such as failed or disconnected hardware.
Configuration data from a backup allows you to reinstall the private region headers of
VxVM disks in a disk group whose headers have become damaged, to recreate a
corrupted disk group configuration, or to recreate a disk group and the VxVM objects
within it. You can also use the configuration data to recreate a disk group on another
system if the original system is not available.

Note Restoration of a disk group configuration requires that the same physical disks are
used as were configured in the disk group when the backup was taken.

The following sections describe how to back up and restore disk group configurations.

Backing Up a Disk Group Configuration

VxVM uses the disk group configuration daemon to monitor the configuration of disk
groups, and to back up the configuration whenever it is changed. By default, the five most
recent backups are preserved. If required, you can also back up a disk group configuration
by running the vxconfigbackup command.
The following table describes the files that record disk group configuration information:

Backup Files Description

/etc/vx/cbr/bk/diskgroup.dgid/dgid.dginfo Disk group information.

/etc/vx/cbr/bk/diskgroup.dgid/dgid .diskinfo Disk attributes.

/etc/vx/cbr/bk/diskgroup.dgid/dgid .binconfig Binary configuration copy.

/etc/vx/cbr/bk/diskgroup.dgid/dgid.cfgrec Configuration records in vxprint -m

format.

Here diskgroup is the name of the disk group, and dgid is the disk group ID. If a disk group
is to be recreated on another system, copy these files to that system.

Caution Take care that you do not overwrite any files on the target system that are used
by a disk group on that system.

62 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Restoring a Disk Group Configuration

To back up a disk group manually, use this command:

# /etc/vx/bin/vxconfigbackup diskgroup
To back up all disk groups, use this version of the command:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxconfigbackup
For more information, see the vxconfigbackup(1M) manual page.

Restoring a Disk Group Configuration

You can use the vxconfigrestore utility to restore or recreate a disk group from its
configuration backup. The restoration process has two stages: precommit and commit. In
the precommit stage, you can examine the configuration of the disk group that would be
restored from the backup. The actual disk group configuration is not permanently
restored until you choose to commit the changes.

Note None of the disks or VxVM objects in the disk group may be open or in use by any
application while the restoration is being performed.

You can choose whether or not any corrupted disk headers are to be reinstalled at this
stage. If any of the disks’ private region headers are invalid, restoration may not be
possible without reinstalling the headers for the affected disks.
The following command performs a precommit analysis of the state of the disk group
configuration, and reinstalls the disk headers where these have become corrupted:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxconfigrestore -p [-l directory] {diskgroup | dgid}

The disk group can be specified either by name or by ID.

The -l option allows you to specify a directory for the location of the backup
configuration files other than the default location, /etc/vx/cbr/bk. See “Backing Up a
Disk Group Configuration” on page 62 for details.
To specify that the disk headers are not to be reinstalled, use this form of the command:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxconfigrestore -n [-l directory] {diskgroup | dgid}

At the precommit stage, you can use the vxprint command to examine the configuration
that the restored disk group will have. You can choose to proceed to commit the changes
and restore the disk group configuration. Alternatively, you can cancel the restoration
before any permanent changes have been made.
To abandon restoration at the precommit stage, use this command:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxconfigrestore -d [-l directory] {diskgroup | dgid}

Chapter 5, Backing Up and Restoring Disk Group Configurations 63

Restoring a Disk Group Configuration

To commit the changes that are required to restore the disk group configuration, use the
following command:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxconfigrestore -c [-l directory] {diskgroup | dgid}

If no disk headers are reinstalled, the configuration copies in the disks’ private regions are
updated from the latest binary copy of the configuration that was saved for the disk
group.
If any of the disk headers are reinstalled, a saved copy of the disks’ attributes is used to
recreate their private and public regions. These disks are also assigned new disk IDs. The
VxVM objects within the disk group are then recreated using the backup configuration
records for the disk group. This process also has the effect of creating new configuration
copies in the disk group.
Volumes are synchronized in the background. For large volume configurations, it may
take some time to perform the synchronization. You can use the vxtask -l list
command to monitor the progress of this operation.

Note Disks that are in use or whose layout has been changed are excluded from the
restoration process.

For more information, see the vxconfigrestore(1M) manual page.

Resolving Conflicting Backups for a Disk Group

In some circumstances where disks have been replaced on a system, there may exist
several conflicting backups for a disk group. In this case, you see a message similar to the
following from the vxconfigrestore command:
VxVM vxconfigrestore ERROR V-5-1-6012 There are two backups that

have the same diskgroup name with different diskgroup id :

1047336696.19.xxx.veritas.com

1049135264.31.xxx.veritas.com

The solution is to specify the disk group by its ID rather than by its name to perform the
restoration. The backup file, /etc/vx/cbr/bk/diskgroup. dgid/ dgid.dginfo, contains a
timestamp that records when the backup was taken.

64 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Restoring a Disk Group Configuration

The following is a sample extract from such a backup file that shows the timestamp and
disk group ID information:
TIMESTAMP

Tue Apr 15 23:27:01 PDT 2003

DISK_GROUP_CONFIGURATION

Group: mydg

dgid: 1047336696.19.xxx.veritas.com

Use the timestamp information to decide which backup contains the relevant information,
and use the vxconfigrestore command to restore the configuration by specifying the
disk group ID instead of the disk group name.

Chapter 5, Backing Up and Restoring Disk Group Configurations 65

Restoring a Disk Group Configuration

66 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

Error Messages 6

This chapter provides information on error messages associated with the VERITAS
Volume Manager (VxVM) configuration daemon (vxconfigd), the kernel, and other
utilities. It covers most informational, failure, and error messages displayed on the
console by vxconfigd, and by the VERITAS Volume Manager kernel driver, vxio. These
include some errors that are infrequently encountered and difficult to troubleshoot.

Note Some error messages described here may not apply to your system.

Clarifications are included to elaborate on the situation or problem that generated a

particular message. Wherever possible, a recovery procedure (Action) is provided to help
you to locate and correct the problem.
You may find it useful to consult the VxVM command and transaction logs to understand
the context in which an error occurred. See “Logging Commands and Transactions” on
page 55 for more information.

Logging Error Messages

VxVM provides the option of logging console output to a file. This logging is useful in that
any messages output just before a system crash will be available in the log file (presuming
that the crash does not result in file system corruption). vxconfigd controls whether
such logging is turned on or off. If enabled, the default log file is /etc/vx/vxconfigd.log.
vxconfigd also supports the use of syslog to log all of its regular console messages.
When this is enabled, all console output is directed through the syslog interface.
syslog and log file logging can be used together to provide reliable logging to a private
log file, along with distributed logging through syslogd.

Note syslog logging is enabled by default. Log file logging is disabled by default.

To enable logging of console output to the file /etc/vx/vxconfigd.log, edit the

startup script for vxconfigd as described in “Configuring Logging in the Startup
Script,” or invoke vxconfigd under the C locale as shown here:
# vxconfigd [-x [1-9]] -x log

67
Configuring Logging in the Startup Script

There are 9 possible levels of debug logging; 1 provides the least detail, and 9 the most.
To enable syslog logging of console output, specify the option -x syslog to
vxconfigd as shown here:
# vxconfigd [-x [1-9]] -x syslog

Messages with a priority higher than Debug are written to /var/log/messages, and all
other messages are written to /etc/vx/vxconfigd.log.
If you do not specify a debug level, only Error, Fatal Error, Warning, and Notice messages
are logged. Debug messages are not logged.

Configuring Logging in the Startup Script

To enable log file or syslog logging, you can edit the following portion of the
/etc/vx/vxvm-startup script that starts the VxVM configuration daemon,
vxconfigd:
# comment-out or uncomment any of the following lines to enable or

# disable the corresponding feature in vxconfigd.

opts=”$opts -x syslog” # use syslog for console messages

#opts=”$opts -x log” # messages to vxconfigd.log

#opts=”$opts -x logfile=/foo/bar” # specify an alternate log file

#opts=”$opts -x timestamp” # timestamp console messages

# To turn on debugging console output, uncomment the following line.

# The debug level can be set higher for more output. The highest

# debug level is 9.

#debug=1 # enable debugging console output

Comment or uncomment the lines corresponding to the features that you want to be
disabled or enabled at startup. For example, the opts=”$opts -x syslog” string is
usually uncommented so that vxconfigd uses syslog logging by default. Inserting a #
character at the beginning of the line turns off syslog logging for vxconfigd.

Note By default, vxconfigd is started at boot time with the -x syslog option. This
redirects vxconfigd console messages to syslog. If you want to retain this
behavior when restarting vxconfigd from the command line, include the -x
syslog argument, as restarting vxconfigd does not preserve the option settings
with which it was previously running. Similarly, any VERITAS Volume Manager
operations that require vxconfigd to be restarted may not retain the behavior that
was previously specified by option settings.

68 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Understanding Messages

For more information on logging options for vxconfigd, refer to the vxconfigd(1M)
manual page.

Understanding Messages
VxVM is fault-tolerant and resolves most problems without system administrator
intervention. If the configuration daemon (vxconfigd) recognizes the actions that are
necessary, it queues up the transactions that are required. VxVM provides atomic changes
of system configurations; either a transaction completes fully, or the system is left in the
same state as though the transaction was never attempted. If vxconfigd is unable to
recognize and fix system problems, the system administrator needs to handle the task of
problem solving using the diagnostic messages that are returned from the software. The
following sections describe error message numbers and the types of error message that
may be seen, and provide a list of the more common errors, a detailed description of the
likely cause of the problem together with suggestions for any actions that can be taken.
Messages have the following generic format:
product component severity message_number message_text

For VERITAS Volume Manager, the product is set to VxVM. The component can be the
name of a kernel module or driver such as vxdmp, a configuration daemon such as
vxconfigd, or a command such as vxassist.
Messages are divided into the following types of severity in decreasing order of impact on
the system:
◆ PANIC
A panic is a severe event as it halts a system during its normal operation. A panic
message from the kernel module or from a device driver indicates a hardware
problem or software inconsistency so severe that the system cannot continue. The
operating system may also provide a dump of the CPU register contents and a stack
trace to aid in identifying the cause of the panic. The following is an example of such a
message:
VxVM vxio PANIC V-5-0-239 Object association depth overflow

◆ FATAL ERROR
A fatal error message from a configuration daemon, such as vxconfigd, indicates a
severe problem with the operation of VxVM that prevents it from running. The
following is an example of such a message:
VxVM vxconfigd FATAL ERROR V-5-0-591 Disk group bootdg:

Inconsistency -- Not loaded into kernel

◆ ERROR

Chapter 6, Error Messages 69

Understanding Messages

An error message from a command indicates that the requested operation cannot be
performed correctly. The following is an example of such a message:
VxVM vxassist ERROR V-5-1-5150 Insufficient number of active

snapshot mirrors in snapshot_volume.

◆ WARNING
A warning message from the kernel indicates that a non-critical operation has failed,
possibly because some resource is not available or the operation is not possible. The
following is an example of such a message:
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-55 Cannot find device number for boot_path
◆ NOTICE
A notice message indicates that an error has occurred that should be monitored.
Shutting down the system is unnecessary, although you may need to take action to
remedy the fault at a later date. The following is an example of such a message:
VxVM vxio NOTICE V-5-0-252 read error on object subdisk of mirror
plex in volume volume (start offset, length length) corrected.
◆ INFO
An informational message does not indicate an error, and requires no action.
The unique message number consists of an alpha-numeric string that begins with the
letter “V”. For example, in the message number, V-5-1-3141, “V” indicates that this is a
VERITAS product error message, the first numeric field (5) encodes the product (in this
case, VxVM), the second field (1) represents information about the product component,
and the third field (3141) is the message index. The text of the error message follows the
message number.

70 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Understanding Messages

Messages
This section contains a list of messages that you may encounter during the operation of
VERITAS Volume Manager. However, the list is not exhaustive and the second field may
contain the name of different command, driver or module from that shown here.
If you encounter a product error message, record the unique message number preceding
the text of the message. When contacting VERITAS Technical Support, either by telephone
or by visiting the VERITAS Technical Support website, be sure to provide the relevant
message number. VERITAS Technical Support will use this message number to quickly
determine if there are TechNotes or other information available for you.

V-5-0-2
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-2 object_type object_name block offset:Uncorrectable

read error ...

VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-2 object_type object_name block offset:Uncorrectable

write error ...

◆ Description: A read or write operation from or to the specifiedVERITAS Volume

Manager object failed. An error is returned to the application.
◆ Action: These errors may represent lost data. Data may need to be restored and failed
media may need to be repaired or replaced. Depending on the type of object failing
and on the type of recovery suggested for the object type, an appropriate recovery
operation may be necessary.

V-5-0-4
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-4 Plex plex detached from volume volume
◆ Description: An uncorrectable error was detected by the mirroring code and a mirror
copy was detached.
◆ Action: To restore redundancy, it may be necessary to add another mirror. The disk on
which the failure occurred should be reformatted or replaced.

Note This message may also appear during a plex detach operation in a cluster. In
this case, no action is required.

V-5-0-34

VxVM vxdmp NOTICE V-5-0-34 added disk array disk_array_serial_number

◆ Description: A new disk array has been added to the host.

◆ Action: None.

Chapter 6, Error Messages 71

Understanding Messages

V-5-0-35
VxVM vxdmp NOTICE V-5-0-35 Attempt to disable controller controller_name
failed. Rootdisk has just one enabled path.
◆ Description: An attempt is being made to disable the one remaining active path to the
root disk controller.
◆ Action: The path cannot be disabled.

V-5-0-106
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-106 detaching RAID-5 volume
◆ Description: Either a double-failure condition in the RAID-5 volume has been detected
in the kernel or some other fatal error is preventing further use of the array.
◆ Action: If two or more disks have been lost due to a controller or power failure, use the
vxrecover utility to recover them once they have been re-attached to the system.
Check for other console error messages that may provide additional information
about the failure.

V-5-0-108

VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-108 Device major, minor: Received spurious close

◆ Description: A close was received for an object that was not open. This can only
happen if the operating system is not correctly tracking opens and closes.
◆ Action: No action is necessary; the system will continue.

V-5-0-110
VxVM vxdmp NOTICE V-5-0-110 disabled controller controller_name connected
to disk array disk_array_serial_number
◆ Description: All paths through the controller connected to the disk array are disabled.
This usually happens if a controller is disabled for maintenance.
◆ Action: None.

V-5-0-111

VxVM vxdmp NOTICE V-5-0-111 disabled dmpnode dmpnode_device_number

◆ Description: A DMP node has been marked disabled in the DMP database. It will no
longer be accessible for further IO requests. This occurs when all paths controlled by a
DMP node are in the disabled state, and therefore inaccessible.

72 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Understanding Messages

◆ Action: Check hardware or enable the appropriate controllers to enable at least one
path under this DMP node.

V-5-0-112
VxVM vxdmp NOTICE V-5-0-112 disabled path path_device_number belonging
to dmpnode dmpnode_device_number
◆ Description: A path has been marked disabled in the DMP database. This path is
controlled by the DMP node indicated by the specified device number. This may be
due to a hardware failure.
◆ Action: Check the underlying hardware if you want to recover the desired path.

V-5-0-144
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-144 Double failure condition detected on
RAID-5 volume
◆ Description: I/O errors have been received in more than one column of a RAID-5
volume. This could be caused by:
◆ a controller failure making more than a single drive unavailable
◆ the loss of a second drive while running in degraded mode
◆ two separate disk drives failing simultaneously (unlikely)
◆ Action: Correct the hardware failures if possible. Then recover the volume using the
vxrecover command.

V-5-0-145
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-145 DRL volume volume is detached
◆ Description: A Dirty Region Logging volume became detached because a DRL log
entry could not be written. If this is due to a media failure, other errors may have been
logged to the console.
◆ Action: The volume containing the DRL log continues in operation. If the system fails
before the DRL has been repaired, a full recovery of the volume’s contents may be
necessary and will be performed automatically when the system is restarted. To
recover from this error, use the vxassist addlog command to add a new DRL log
to the volume.

Chapter 6, Error Messages 73

Understanding Messages

V-5-0-146
VxVM vxdmp NOTICE V-5-0-146 enabled controller controller_name connected
to disk array disk_array_serial_number
◆ Description: All paths through the controller connected to the disk array are enabled.
This usually happens if a controller is enabled after maintenance.
◆ Action: None.

V-5-0-147
VxVM vxdmp NOTICE V-5-0-147 enabled dmpnode dmpnode_device_number
◆ Description: A DMP node has been marked enabled in the DMP database. This
happens when at least one path controlled by the DMP node has been enabled.
◆ Action: None.

V-5-0-148
VxVM vxdmp NOTICE V-5-0-148 enabled path path_device_number belonging to
dmpnode dmpnode_device_number
◆ Description: A path has been marked enabled in the DMP database. This path is
controlled by the DMP node indicated by the specified device number. This happens
if a previously disabled path has been repaired, the user has reconfigured the DMP
database using the vxdctl(1M) command, or the DMP database has been
reconfigured automatically.
◆ Action: None.

V-5-0-164
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-164 Failed to join cluster name, aborting

◆ Description: A node failed to join a cluster. This may be caused by the node being
unable to see all the shared disks. Other error messages may provide more
information about the disks that cannot be found.
◆ Action: Use the vxdisk -s list command on the master node to see what disks
should be visible to the slave node. Then check that the operating system and VxVM
on the failed node can also see these disks. If the operating system cannot see the
disks, check the cabling and hardware configuration of the node. If only VxVM cannot
see the disks, use the vxdctl enable command to make it scan again for the disks.
When the disks are visible to VxVM on the node, retry the join.

74 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Understanding Messages

V-5-0-166
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-166 Failed to log the detach of the DRL volume

volume
◆ Description: An attempt failed to write a kernel log entry indicating the loss of a DRL
volume. The attempted write to the log failed either because the kernel log is full, or
because of a write error to the drive. The volume becomes detached.
◆ Action: Messages about log failures are usually fatal, unless the problem is transient.
However, the kernel log is sufficiently redundant that such errors are unlikely to
occur.
If the problem is not transient (that is, the drive cannot be fixed and brought back
online without data loss), recreate the disk group from scratch and restore all of its
volumes from backups. Even if the problem is transient, reboot the system after
correcting the problem.
If error messages are seen from the disk driver, it is likely that the last copy of the log
failed due to a disk error. Replace the failed drive in the disk group. The log
re-initializes on the new drive. Finally force the failed volume into an active state and
recover the data.

V-5-0-168
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-168 Failure in RAID-5 logging operation

◆ Description: Indicates that a RAID-5 log has failed.

◆ Action: To restore RAID-5 logging to a RAID-5 volume, create a new log plex and
attach it to the volume.

V-5-0-181
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-181 Illegal vminor encountered

◆ Description: An attempt was made to open a volume device before vxconfigd loaded
the volume configuration.
◆ Action: None; under normal startup conditions, this message should not occur. If
necessary, start VxVM and re-attempt the operation.

Chapter 6, Error Messages 75

Understanding Messages

V-5-0-194

VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-194 Kernel log full: volume detached

◆ Description: A plex detach failed because the kernel log was full. As a result, the
mirrored volume will become detached.
◆ Action: It is unlikely that this condition ever occurs. The only corrective action is to
reboot the system.

V-5-0-196

VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-196 Kernel log update failed: volume detached

◆ Description: Detaching a plex failed because the kernel log could not be flushed to
disk. As a result, the mirrored volume became detached. This may be caused by all the
disks containing a kernel log going bad.
◆ Action: Repair or replace the failed disks so that kernel logging can once again
function.

V-5-0-207
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-207 log object object_name detached from RAID-5
volume
◆ Description: Indicates that a RAID-5 log has failed.
◆ Action: To restore RAID-5 logging to a RAID-5 volume, create a new log plex and
attach it to the volume.

V-5-0-216
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-216 mod_install returned errno
◆ Description: A call made to the operating system mod_install function to load the
vxio driver failed.
◆ Action: Check for additional console messages that may explain why the load failed.
Also check the console messages log file for any additional messages that were logged
but not displayed on the console.

76 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Understanding Messages

V-5-0-237
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-237 object subdisk detached from RAID-5 volume
at column column offset offset
◆ Description: A subdisk was detached from a RAID-5 volume because of the failure of a
disk or an uncorrectable error occurring on that disk.
◆ Action: Check for other console error messages indicating the cause of the failure.
Replace a failed disk as soon as possible.

V-5-0-243
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-243 Overlapping mirror plex detached from
volume volume
◆ Description: An error has occurred on the last complete plex in a mirrored volume.
Any sparse mirrors that map the failing region are detached so that they cannot be
accessed to satisfy that failed region inconsistently.
◆ Action: The message indicates that some data in the failing region may no longer be
stored redundantly.

V-5-0-244

VxVM vxdmp NOTICE V-5-0-244 Path failure on major/minor

◆ Description: A path under the control of the DMP driver failed. The device major and
minor numbers of the failed device is supplied in the message.
◆ Action: None.

V-5-0-249
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-249 RAID-5 volume entering degraded mode
operation
◆ Description: An uncorrectable error has forced a subdisk to detach. At this point, not
all data disks exist to provide the data upon request. Instead, parity regions are used
to regenerate the data for each stripe in the array. Consequently, access takes longer
and involves reading from all drives in the stripe.
◆ Action: Check for other console error messages that indicate the cause of the failure.
Replace any failed disks as soon as possible.

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V-5-0-251
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-251 read error on object object of mirror plex
in volume volume (start offset length length)
◆ Description: An error was detected while reading from a mirror. This error may lead to
further action shown by later error messages.
◆ Action: If the volume is mirrored, no further action is necessary since the alternate
mirror’s contents will be written to the failing mirror; this is often sufficient to correct
media failures. If this error occurs often, but never leads to a plex detach, there may be
a marginally defective region on the disk at the position indicated. It may eventually
be necessary to remove data from this disk (see the vxevac(1M) manual page) and
then to reformat the drive.
If the volume is not mirrored, this message indicates that some data could not be read.
The file system or other application reading the data may report an additional error,
but in either event, data has been lost. The volume can be partially salvaged and
moved to another location if desired.

Note This message may also appear during a plex detach operation in a cluster. In
this case, no action is required.

V-5-0-252
VxVM vxio NOTICE V-5-0-252 read error on object subdisk of mirror plex
in volume volume (start offset length length) corrected
◆ Description: A read error occurred, which caused a read of an alternate mirror and a
writeback to the failing region. This writeback was successful and the data was
corrected on disk.
◆ Action: None; the problem was corrected automatically. Note the location of the failure
for future reference. If the same region of the subdisk fails again, this may indicate a
more insidious failure and the disk should be reformatted at the next reasonable
opportunity.

V-5-0-258

VxVM vxdmp NOTICE V-5-0-258 removed disk array disk_array_serial_number

◆ Description: A disk array has been disconnected from the host, or some hardware
failure has resulted in the disk array becoming inaccessible to the host.
◆ Action: Replace disk array hardware if this has failed.

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V-5-0-386
VxVM vxio WARNING V-5-0-386 subdisk subdisk failed in plex plex in
volume volume
◆ Description: The kernel has detected a subdisk failure, which may mean that the
underlying disk is failing.
◆ Action: Check for obvious problems with the disk (such as a disconnected cable). If
hot-relocation is enabled and the disk is failing, recovery from subdisk failure is
handled automatically.

V-5-1-90
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-90 mode: Unrecognized operating mode
◆ Description: An invalid string was specified as an argument to the -m option. Valid
strings are: enable, disable, and boot.
◆ Action: Supply a correct option argument.

V-5-1-91

VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-91 Cannot create device device_path: reason

◆ Description: vxconfigd cannot create a device node either under /dev/vx/dsk or

under /dev/vx/rdsk. This should happen only if the root file system has run out
of inodes.
◆ Action: Remove some unwanted files from the root file system. Then, regenerate the
device node using the command:
# vxdctl enable

V-5-1-92
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-92 Cannot exec /bin/rm to remove
directory: reason
◆ Description: The given directory could not be removed because the /bin/rm utility
could not be executed by vxconfigd. This is not a serious error. The only side effect
of a directory not being removed is that the directory and its contents continue to use
space in the root file system. However, this does imply that the rm utility is missing
or is not in its usual location. This may be a serious problem for the general running of
your system.
◆ Action: If the rm utility is missing, or is not in the /bin directory, restore it.

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V-5-1-111
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-111 Cannot fork to remove directory
directory: reason
◆ Description: The given directory could not be removed because vxconfigd could not
fork in order to run the rm utility. This is not a serious error. The only side effect of a
directory not being removed is that the directory and its contents will continue to use
space in the root file system. The most likely cause for this error is that your system
does not have enough memory or paging space to allow vxconfigd to fork.
◆ Action: If your system is this low on memory or paging space, your overall system
performance is probably substantially degraded. Consider adding more memory or
paging space.

V-5-1-116
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-116 Cannot open log file log_filename:
reason
◆ Description: The vxconfigd console output log file could not be opened for the given
reason.
◆ Action: Create any needed directories, or use a different log file path name as
described in “Logging Error Messages” on page 67.

V-5-1-117
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-117 Cannot start volume volume, no valid
plexes
◆ Description: This error indicates that the volume cannot be started because it does not
contain any valid plexes. This can happen, for example, if disk failures have caused all
plexes to be unusable. It can also happen as a result of actions that caused all plexes to
become unusable (for example, forcing the dissociation of subdisks or detaching,
dissociation, or offlining of plexes).
◆ Action: It is possible that this error results from a drive that failed to spin up. If so,
rebooting may fix the problem. If that does not fix the problem, then the only recourse
is to repair the disks involved with the plexes and restore the file system from a
backup.

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V-5-1-121
VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE V-5-1-121 Detached disk disk
◆ Description: The named disk appears to have become unusable and was detached
from its disk group. Additional messages may appear to indicate other records
detached as a result of the disk detach.
◆ Action: If hot-relocation is enabled, VERITAS Volume Manager objects affected by the
disk failure are taken care of automatically. Mail is sent to root indicating what
actions were taken by VxVM and what further actions the administrator should take.

V-5-1-122
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-122 Detaching plex plex from volume volume
◆ Description: This error only happens for volumes that are started automatically by
vxconfigd at system startup. The plex is being detached as a result of I/O failure,
disk failure during startup or prior to the last system shutdown or crash, or disk
removal prior to the last system shutdown or crash.
◆ Action: To ensure that the file system retains the same number of active mirrors,
remove the given plex and add a new mirror using the vxassist mirror operation.
Also consider replacing any bad disks before running this command.

V-5-1-123
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-123 Disk group group: Disabled by errors
◆ Description: This message indicates that some error condition has made it impossible
for VxVM to continue to manage changes to a disk group. The major reason for this is
that too many disks have failed, making it impossible for vxconfigd to continue to
update configuration copies. There should be a preceding error message that indicates
the specific error that was encountered.
If the disk group that was disabled is the boot disk group, the following additional
error is displayed:
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-104 All transactions are disabled

This additional message indicates that vxconfigd has entered the disabled state,
which makes it impossible to change the configuration of any disk group, not just the
boot disk group.
◆ Action: If the underlying error resulted from a transient failure, such as a disk cabling
error, then you may be able to repair the situation by rebooting. Otherwise, the disk
group configuration may have to be recreated by using the procedures given in
“Restoring a Disk Group Configuration” on page 63, and the contents of any volumes
restored from a backup.

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V-5-1-124
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-124 Disk group group: update failed: reason
◆ Description: I/O failures have prevented vxconfigd from updating any active copies
of the disk group configuration. This usually implies a large number of disk failures.
This error will usually be followed by the error:
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-123 Disk group group: Disabled by
errors
◆ Action: If the underlying error resulted from a transient failure, such as a disk cabling
error, then you may be able to repair the situation by rebooting. Otherwise, the disk
group may have to be recreated and restored from a backup.

V-5-1-134
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-134 Memory allocation failure

◆ Description: This implies that there is insufficient memory to start VxVM.

◆ Action: This error should not normally occur, unless your system has very small
amounts of memory. Adding swap space will probably not help because this error is
most likely to occur early in the boot sequence, before swap areas have been added.

V-5-1-135
VxVM vxconfigd FATAL ERROR V-5-1-135 Memory allocation failure during

startup

◆ Description: This implies that there is insufficient memory to start up VxVM.

◆ Action: This error should not normally occur, unless your system has very small
amounts of memory. Adding swap space probably will not help, because this error is
most likely to occur early in the boot sequence, before swap areas have been added.

V-5-1-148
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-148 System startup failed

◆ Description: Either the root or the /usr file system volume could not be started,
rendering the system unusable. The error that resulted in this condition should
appear prior to this error message.
◆ Action: Look up other error messages appearing on the console and take the actions
suggested in the descriptions of those messages.

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V-5-1-169
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-169 cannot open /dev/vx/config: reason
◆ Description: The /dev/vx/config device could not be opened. vxconfigd uses this
device to communicate with the VERITAS Volume Manager kernel drivers. The most
likely reason is “Device is already open.” This indicates that some process (most likely
vxconfigd) already has /dev/vx/config open. Less likely reasons are “No such
file or directory” or “No such device or address.” For either of these reasons, likely
causes are:

◆ The VERITAS Volume Manager package installation did not complete correctly.
◆ The device node was removed by the administrator or by an errant shell script.
◆ Action: If the reason is “Device is already open,” stop or kill the old vxconfigd by
running the command:
# vxdctl -k stop

For other failure reasons, consider re-adding the base VERITAS Volume Manager
package. This will reconfigure the device node and re-install the VERITAS Volume
Manager kernel device drivers. See the Installation Guide for information on how to
add the package. If you cannot re-add the package, contact VERITAS Technical
Support for more information.
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-169 Cannot open /etc/fstab: reason
◆ Description: vxconfigd could not open the /etc/fstab file, for the reason given.
The /etc/fstab file is used to determine which volume (if any) to use for the /usr
file system.
◆ Action: This error implies that your root file system is currently unusable. You may
be able to repair the root file system by mounting it after booting from a network or
CD-ROM root file system. If the root file system is defined on a volume, then see
the procedures defined for recovering from a failed root file system in “Recovery
from Boot Disk Failure” on page 31.

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V-5-1-249
VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE V-5-1-249 Volume volume entering degraded mode
◆ Description: Detaching a subdisk in the named RAID-5 volume has caused the volume
to enter “degraded” mode. While in degraded mode, performance of the RAID-5
volume is substantially reduced. More importantly, failure of another subdisk may
leave the RAID-5 volume unusable. Also, if the RAID-5 volume does not have an
active log, then failure of the system may leave the volume unusable.
◆ Action: If hot-relocation is enabled, VERITAS Volume Manager objects affected by the
disk failure are taken care of automatically. Mail is sent to root indicating what
actions were taken by VxVM and what further actions the administrator should take.

V-5-1-480

VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-480 Cannot reset VxVM kernel: reason

◆ Description: The -r reset option was specified to vxconfigd, but the VxVM kernel
drivers could not be reset. The most common reason is “A virtual disk device is
open.” This implies that a VxVM tracing or volume device is open.
◆ Action: If you want to reset the kernel devices, track down and kill all processes that
have a volume or VERITAS Volume Manager tracing device open. Also, if any
volumes are mounted as file systems, unmount those file systems.
Any reason other than “A virtual disk device is open” does not normally occur unless
there is a bug in the operating system or in VxVM.

V-5-1-484
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-484 Cannot start volume volume, no valid
complete plexes
◆ Description: These errors indicate that the volume cannot be started because the
volume contains no valid complete plexes. This can happen, for example, if disk
failures have caused all plexes to be unusable. It can also happen as a result of actions
that caused all plexes to become unusable (for example, forcing the dissociation of
subdisks or detaching, dissociation, or offlining of plexes).
◆ Action: It is possible that this error results from a drive that failed to spin up. If so,
rebooting may fix the problem. If that does not fix the problem, then the only recourse
is to repair the disks involved with the plexes and restore the file system from a
backup.

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V-5-1-525
VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE V-5-1-525 Detached log for volume volume
◆ Description: The DRL or RAID-5 log for the named volume was detached as a result of
a disk failure, or as a result of the administrator removing a disk with vxdg -k
rmdisk. A failing disk is indicated by a “Detached disk” message.
◆ Action: If the log is mirrored, hot-relocation tries to relocate the failed log
automatically. Use either vxplex dis or vxsd dis to remove the failing logs. Then,
use vxassist addlog (see the vxassist(1M) manual page) to add a new log to the
volume.

V-5-1-526
VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE V-5-1-526 Detached plex plex in volume volume
◆ Description: The specified plex was disabled as a result of a disk failure, or as a result
of the administrator removing a disk with vxdg -k rmdisk. A failing disk is
indicated by a “Detached disk” message.
◆ Action: If hot-relocation is enabled, VERITAS Volume Manager objects affected by the
disk failure are taken care of automatically. Mail is sent to root indicating what
actions were taken by VxVM and what further actions the administrator should take.

V-5-1-527
VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE V-5-1-527 Detached subdisk subdisk in volume
volume
◆ Description: The specified subdisk was disabled as a result of a disk failure, or as a
result of the administrator removing a disk with vxdg -k rmdisk. A failing disk is
indicated by a “Detached disk” message.
◆ Action: If hot-relocation is enabled, VERITAS Volume Manager objects affected by the
disk failure are taken care of automatically. Mail is sent to root indicating what
actions were taken by VxVM and what further actions the administrator should take.

V-5-1-528

VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE V-5-1-528 Detached volume volume

◆ Description: The specified volume was detached as a result of a disk failure, or as a

result of the administrator removing a disk with vxdg -k rmdisk. A failing disk is
indicated by a “Detached disk” message. Unless the disk error is transient and can be
fixed with a reboot, the contents of the volume should be considered lost.
◆ Action: Contact VERITAS Technical Support.

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V-5-1-543
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-543 Differing version of vxconfigd

installed

◆ Description: A vxconfigd daemon was started after stopping an earlier vxconfigd

with a non-matching version number. This can happen, for example, if you upgrade
VxVM and then run vxconfigd without first rebooting.
◆ Action: Reboot the system.

V-5-1-544
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-544 Disk disk in group group flagged as
shared; Disk skipped
◆ Description: The given disk is listed as shared, but the running version of VxVM does
not support shared disk groups.
◆ Action: This message can usually be ignored. If you want to use the disk on this
system, use vxdiskadd to add the disk. Do not do this if the disk really is shared
with other systems.

V-5-1-545
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-545 Disk disk in group group locked by host
hostid Disk skipped
◆ Description: The given disk is listed as locked by the host with the VERITAS Volume
Manager host ID (usually the same as the system host name).
◆ Action: This message can usually be ignored. If you want to use the disk on this
system, use vxdiskadd to add the disk. Do not do this if the disk really is shared
with other systems.

V-5-1-546
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-546 Disk disk in group group: Disk device
not found
◆ Description: No physical disk can be found that matches the named disk in the given
disk group. This is equivalent to failure of that disk. (Physical disks are located by
matching the disk IDs in the disk group configuration records against the disk IDs
stored in the VERITAS Volume Manager header on the physical disks.) This error
message is displayed for any disk IDs in the configuration that are not located in the
disk header of any physical disk. This may result from a transient failure such as a

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poorly-attached cable, or from a disk that fails to spin up fast enough. Alternately, this
may happen as a result of a disk being physically removed from the system, or from a
disk that has become unusable due to a head crash or electronics failure.
Any RAID-5 plexes, DRL log plexes, RAID-5 subdisks or mirrored plexes containing
subdisks on this disk are unusable. Such disk failures (particularly on multiple disks)
may cause one or more volumes to become unusable.
◆ Action: If hot-relocation is enabled, VERITAS Volume Manager objects affected by the
disk failure are taken care of automatically. Mail is sent to root indicating what
actions were taken by VxVM and what further actions the administrator should take.

V-5-1-554
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-554 Disk disk names group group, but group
ID differs
◆ Description: As part of a disk group import, a disk was discovered that had a
mismatched disk group name and disk group ID. This disk is not imported. This can
only happen if two disk groups have the same name but have different disk group ID
values. In such a case, one group is imported along with all its disks and the other
group is not. This message appears for disks in the un-selected group.
◆ Action: If the disks should be imported into the group, this must be done by adding
the disk to the group at a later stage, during which all configuration information for
the disk is lost.

V-5-1-557
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-557 Disk disk, group group, device device:

not updated with new host ID

Error: reason

◆ Description: This can result from using vxdctl hostid to change the VERITAS
Volume Manager host ID for the system. The error indicates that one of the disks in a
disk group could not be updated with the new host ID. This usually indicates that the
disk has become inaccessible or has failed in some other way.
◆ Action: Try running the following command to determine whether the disk is still
operational:
# vxdisk check device
If the disk is no longer operational, vxdisk should print a message such as:
device: Error: Disk write failure

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This will result in the disk being taken out of active use in its disk group, if it has not
already been taken out of use. If the disk is still operational, which should not be the
case, vxdisk prints:
device: Okay
If the disk is listed as “Okay,” try running vxdctl hostid again. If it still results in
an error, contact VERITAS Technical Support.

V-5-1-568
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-568 Disk group group is disabled, disks
not updated with new host ID
◆ Description: As a result of failures, the named disk group has become disabled. Earlier
error messages should indicate the cause. This message indicates that disks in that
disk group were not updated with a new VERITAS Volume Manager host ID. This
warning message should result only from a vxdctl hostid operation.
◆ Action: Typically, unless a disk group was disabled due to transient errors, there is no
way to repair a disabled disk group. The disk group may have to be reconstructed
from scratch. If the disk group was disabled due to a transient error such as a cabling
problem, then a future reboot may not automatically import the named disk group,
due to the change in the system’s VERITAS Volume Manager host ID. In such a case,
import the disk group directly using vxdg import with the -C option.

V-5-1-569
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-569 Disk group group,Disk disk:Cannot
auto-import group: reason
◆ Description: On system startup, vxconfigd failed to import the disk group associated
with the named disk. A message related to the specific failure is given in reason.
Additional error messages may be displayed that give more information on the
specific error. In particular, this is often followed by:
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-579 Disk group group: Errors in some

configuration copies:

Disk device, copy number: Block bno: error ...

The most common reason for auto-import failures is excessive numbers of disk
failures, making it impossible for VxVM to find correct copies of the disk group
configuration database and kernel update log. Disk groups usually have enough
copies of this configuration information to make such import failures unlikely.

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A more serious failure is indicated by errors such as:

Configuration records are inconsistent

Disk group has no valid configuration copies

Duplicate record in configuration

Format error in configuration copy

Invalid block number

Invalid magic number

These errors indicate that all configuration copies have become corrupt (due to disk
failures, writing on the disk by an application or the administrator, or bugs in VxVM).
Some correctable errors may be indicated by other error messages that appear in
conjunction with the auto-import failure message. Look up those other errors for
more information on their cause.
Failure of an auto-import implies that the volumes in that disk group will not be
available for use. If there are file systems on those volumes, then the system may yield
further errors resulting from inability to access the volume when mounting the file
system.
◆ Action: If the error is clearly caused by excessive disk failures, then you may have to
recreate the disk group configuration by using the procedures given in “Restoring a
Disk Group Configuration” on page 63, and restore contents of any volumes from a
backup. There may be other error messages that appear which provide further
information. See those other error messages for more information on how to proceed.
If those errors do not make it clear how to proceed, contact VERITAS Technical
Support.

V-5-1-571
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-571 Disk group group, Disk disk: Skip disk
group
with duplicate name
◆ Description: Two disk groups with the same name are tagged for auto-importing by
the same host. Disk groups are identified both by a simple name and by a long unique
identifier (disk group ID) assigned when the disk group is created. Thus, this error
indicates that two disks indicate the same disk group name but a different disk group
ID.
VxVM does not allow you to create a disk group or import a disk group from another
machine, if that would cause a collision with a disk group that is already imported.
Therefore, this error is unlikely to occur under normal use. However, this error can
occur in the following two cases:

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◆ A disk group cannot be auto-imported due to some temporary failure. If you

create a new disk group with the same name as the failed disk group and reboot,
the new disk group is imported first. The auto-import of the older disk group fails
because more recently modified disk groups have precedence over older disk
groups.
◆ A disk group is deported from one host using the -h option to cause the disk
group to be auto-imported on reboot from another host. If the second host was
already auto-importing a disk group with the same name, then reboot of that host
will yield this error.
◆ Action: If you want to import both disk groups, then rename the second disk group on
import. See the vxdg(1M) manual page for information on how to use the import
operation to rename a disk group.

V-5-1-577
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-577 Disk group group: Disk group log may

be too small

Log size should be at least number blocks

◆ Description: The log areas for the disk group have become too small for the size of
configuration currently in the group. This message only occurs during disk group
import; it can only occur if the disk was inaccessible while new database objects were
added to the configuration, and the disk was then made accessible and the system
restarted. This should not normally happen without first displaying a message about
the database area size.
◆ Action: Reinitialize the disks in the group with larger log areas. Note that this requires
that you restore data on the disks from backups. See the vxdisk(1M) manual page. To
reinitialize all of the disks, detach them from the group with which they are
associated, reinitialize and re-add them. Then deport and re-import the disk group to
effect the changes to the log areas for the group.

V-5-1-579
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-579 Disk group group: Errors in some
configuration copies: Disk disk, copy number: [Block number]: reason ...
◆ Description: During a failed disk group import, some of the configuration copies in the
named disk group were found to have format or other types of errors which make
those copies unusable. This message lists all configuration copies that have
uncorrected errors, including any appropriate logical block number. If no other
reasons are displayed, then this may be the cause of the disk group import failure.

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◆ Action: If some of the copies failed due to transient errors (such as cable failures), then
a reboot or re-import may succeed in importing the disk group. Otherwise, the disk
group configuration may have to be restored. You can recreate a disk group
configuration by using the procedures given in “Restoring a Disk Group
Configuration” on page 63

V-5-1-583
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-583 Disk group group: Reimport of disk group
failed: reason
◆ Description: After vxconfigd was stopped and restarted (or disabled and then
enabled), VxVM failed to recreate the import of the indicated disk group. The reason
for failure is specified. Additional error messages may be displayed that give further
information describing the problem.
◆ Action: A major cause for this kind of failure is disk failures that were not addressed
before vxconfigd was stopped or disabled. If the problem is a transient disk failure,
then rebooting may take care of the condition. The error may be accompanied by
messages such as ‘‘Disk group has no valid configuration copies.’’ This indicates that
the disk group configuration copies have become corrupt (due to disk failures,
writing on the disk by an application or the administrator, or bugs in VxVM). You can
recreate a disk group configuration by using the procedures given in “Restoring a
Disk Group Configuration” on page 63.

V-5-1-587
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-587 disk group groupname: import failed: reason

◆ Description: The import of a disk group failed for the specified reason.
◆ Action: The action to be taken depends on the reason given in the error message:
Disk is in use by another host

No valid disk found containing disk group

The first message indicates that disks have been moved from a system that has
crashed or that failed to detect the group before the disk was moved. The locks stored
on the disks must be cleared.
The second message indicates that the disk group does not contain any valid disks
(not that it does not contain any disks). The disks may be considered invalid due to a
mismatch between the host ID in their configuration copies and that stored in the
/etc/vx/volboot file.
To clear locks on a specific set of devices, use the following command:
# vxdisk clearimport devicename ...

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To clear the locks during import, use the following command:

# vxdg -C import diskgroup

Caution Be careful when using the vxdisk clearimport or vxdg -C import

command on systems that have dual-ported disks. Clearing the locks allows
those disks to be accessed at the same time from multiple hosts and can result in
corrupted data.

An import operation fails if some disks for the disk group cannot be found among
the disk drives attached to the system.
Disk for disk group not found

Disk group has no valid configuration copies

The first message indicates a recoverable error.

The second message indicates a fatal error that requires hardware repair or the
creation of a new disk group, and recovery of the disk group configuration and data:
If some of the disks in the disk group have failed, you can force the disk group to be
imported with this command:
# vxdg -f import diskgroup

Caution Be careful when using the -f option. It can cause the same disk group to be
imported twice from different sets of disks, causing the disk group to become
inconsistent.

These operations can also be performed using the vxdiskadm utility. To deport a disk
group using vxdiskadm, select menu item 9 (Remove access to (deport) a
disk group). To import a disk group, select item 8 (Enable access to
(import) a disk group). The vxdiskadm import operation checks for host
import locks and prompts to see if you want to clear any that are found. It also starts
volumes in the disk group.

V-5-1-663
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-663 Group group: Duplicate virtual device

number(s):

Volume volume remapped from major,minor to major,minor ...

◆ Description: The configuration of the named disk group includes conflicting device
numbers. A disk group configuration lists the recommended device number to use for
each volume in the disk group. If two volumes in two disk groups happen to list the
same device number, then one of the volumes must use an alternate device number.
This is called device number remapping. Remapping is a temporary change to a
volume. If the other disk group is deported and the system is rebooted, then the

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volume that was remapped may no longer be remapped. Also, volumes that are
remapped once are not guaranteed to be remapped to the same device number in
further reboots.
◆ Action: Use the vxdg reminor command to renumber all volumes in the offending
disk group permanently. See the vxdg(1M) manual page for more information.

V-5-1-737
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-737 Mount point path: volume not in bootdg
disk group
◆ Description: The volume device listed in the /etc/fstab file for the given
mount-point directory (normally /usr) is listed as in a disk group other than the boot
disk group. This error should not occur if the standard VERITAS Volume Manager
procedures are used for encapsulating the disk containing the /usr file system.
◆ Action: Boot VxVM from a network or CD-ROM mounted root file system. Then, start
up VxVM using fixmountroot on a valid mirror disk of the root file system. After
starting VxVM, mount the root file system volume and edit the /etc/fstab file.
Change the file to use a direct partition for the file system. There should be a comment
in the /etc/fstab file that indicates which partition to use.

V-5-1-768
VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE V-5-1-768 Offlining config copy number on disk
disk: Reason: reason
◆ Description: An I/O error caused the indicated configuration copy to be disabled. This
is a notice only, and does not normally imply serious problems, unless this is the last
active configuration copy in the disk group.
◆ Action: Consider replacing the indicated disk, since this error implies that the disk has
deteriorated to the point where write errors cannot be repaired automatically. The
error can also result from transient problems with cabling or power.

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V-5-1-809
VxVM vxplex ERROR V-5-1-809 Plex plex in volume volume is locked by

another utility.

◆ Description: The vxplex command fails because a previous operation to attach a plex
did not complete. The vxprint command should show that one or both of the
temporary and persistent utility fields (TUTIL0 and PUTIL0) of the volume and one
of its plexes are set.
◆ Action: If the vxtask list command does not show a task running for the volume,
use the vxmend command to clear the TUTIL0 and PUTIL0 fields for the volume and
all its components for which these fields are set:
# vxmend -g diskgroup clear all volume plex ...

V-5-1-923
VxVM vxplex ERROR V-5-1-923 Record volume is in disk group diskgroup1

plex is in group diskgroup2.

◆ Description: An attempt was made to snap back a plex from a different disk group.
◆ Action: Move the snapshot volume into the same disk group as the original volume.

V-5-1-1063
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-1063 There is no volume configured for the

root device

The system is configured to boot from a root file system defined on a volume, but
there is no root volume listed in the configuration of the boot disk group.
A possible cause of this error is that the system somehow has a duplicate boot disk
group, one of which contains a root file system volume and one of which does not,
and vxconfigd somehow chose the wrong one. Since vxconfigd chooses the more
recently accessed version of the boot disk group, this error can happen if the system
clock was updated incorrectly at some point (causing the apparent access order of the
two disk groups to be reversed). This can also happen if some disk group was
deported and assigned the same name as the boot disk group with locks given to this
host.
Action: Either boot with all drives in the offending version of the boot disk group
turned off, or import and rename (see vxdg(1M)) the offending boot disk group from
another host. In you turn off drives, run the following command after booting:
# vxdg flush bootdg

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This updates time stamps on the imported version of the specified boot disk group,
bootdg, which should make the correct version appear to be the more recently
accessed. If this does not correct the problem, contact VERITAS Technical Support.

V-5-1-1171
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-1171 Version number of kernel does not

match vxconfigd

◆ Description: The release of vxconfigd does not match the release of the VERITAS
Volume Manager kernel drivers. This should happen only as a result of upgrading
VxVM, and then running vxconfigd without a reboot.
◆ Action: Reboot the system. If that does not cure the problem, re-add the VxVM
packages.

V-5-1-1186
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-1186 Volume volume for mount point /usr not
found in bootdg disk group
◆ Description: The system is configured to boot with /usr mounted on a volume, but
the volume associated with /usr is not listed in the configuration of the boot disk
group. There are two possible causes of this error:
◆ Case 1: The /etc/fstab file was erroneously updated to indicate the device for
the /usr file system is a volume, but the volume named is not in the boot disk
group. This should happen only as a result of direct manipulation by the
administrator.
◆ Case 2: The system somehow has a duplicate boot disk group, one of which
contains the /usr file system volume and one of which does not (or uses a
different volume name), and vxconfigd somehow chose the wrong boot disk
group. Since vxconfigd chooses the more recently accessed version of the boot
disk group, this error can happen if the system clock was updated incorrectly at
some point (causing the apparent access order of the two disk groups to be
reversed). This can also happen if some disk group was deported and assigned
the same name as the boot disk group with locks given to this host.
◆ Action: In case 1, boot the system on a CD-ROM or networking-mounted root file
system. If the root file system is defined on a volume, then start and mount the root
volume. If the root file system is not defined on a volume, mount the root file system
directly. Edit the /etc/fstab file to correct the entry for the /usr file system.
In case 2, either boot with all drives in the offending version of the boot disk group
turned off, or import and rename (see vxdg(1M)) the offending boot disk group from
another host. If you turn off drives, run the following command after booting:

Chapter 6, Error Messages 95

Understanding Messages

# vxdg flush bootdg

This updates time stamps on the imported version of the boot disk group, bootdg,
which should make the correct version appear to be the more recently accessed. If this
does not correct the problem, contact VERITAS Technical Support.

V-5-1-1589
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-1589 enable failed: aborting

◆ Description: Regular startup of vxconfigd failed. This error can also result from the
command vxdctl enable.
◆ Action: The failure was fatal and vxconfigd was forced to exit. The most likely cause
is that the operating system is unable to create interprocess communication channels
to other utilities.
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-1589 enable failed: Error check group

configuration copies. Database file not found

◆ Description: Regular startup of vxconfigd failed. This error can also result from the
command vxdctl enable.
The directory /var/vxvm/tempdb is inaccessible. This may be because of root file
system corruption, if the root file system is full, or if /var is a separate file system,
because it has become corrupted or has not been mounted.
◆ Action: If the root file system is full, increase its size or remove files to make space for
the tempdb file.
If /var is a separate file system, make sure that it has an entry in /etc/fstab.
Otherwise, look for I/O error messages during the boot process that indicate either a
hardware problem or misconfiguration of any logical volume management software
being used for the /var file system. Also verify that the encapsulation (if configured)
of your boot disk is complete and correct.
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-1589 enable failed: transactions are

disabled

◆ Description: Regular startup of vxconfigd failed. This error can also result from the
command vxdctl enable.
vxconfigd is continuing to run, but no configuration updates are possible until the
error condition is repaired.
Additionally, this may be followed with:
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-579 Disk group group: Errors in some
configuration copies:
Disk device, copy number: Block bno: error ...
Other error messages may be displayed that further indicate the underlying problem.

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◆ Action: Evaluate the error messages to determine the root cause of the problem. Make
changes suggested by the errors and then try rerunning the command.
If the “Errors in some configuration copies” error occurs again, that may indicate the
real problem lies with the configuration copies in the disk group. You can recreate a
disk group configuration by using the procedures given in “Restoring a Disk Group
Configuration” on page 63.

V-5-1-2020
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-2020 Cannot kill existing daemon,
pid=process_ID
◆ Description: The -k (kill existing vxconfigd process) option was specified, but a
running configuration daemon process could not be killed. A configuration daemon
process, for purposes of this discussion, is any process that opens the
/dev/vx/config device (only one process can open that device at a time). If there is
a configuration daemon process already running, then the -k option causes a
SIGKILL signal to be sent to that process. If, within a certain period of time, there is
still a running configuration daemon process, the above error message is displayed.
◆ Action: This error can result from a kernel error that has made the configuration
daemon process unkillable, from some other kind of kernel error, or from some other
user starting another configuration daemon process after the SIGKILL signal. This
last condition can be tested for by running vxconfigd -k again. If the error message
reappears, contact VERITAS Technical Support.

V-5-1-2197

VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-2197 node N: missing vxconfigd

◆ Description: The vxconfigd daemon is not running on the indicated cluster node.

◆ Action: Restart the vxconfigd daemon.

V-5-1-2198
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-2198 node N: vxconfigd not ready

◆ Description: The vxconfigd daemon is not responding properly in a cluster.

◆ Action: Stop and restart the vxconfigd daemon on the node indicated.

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V-5-1-2274
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-2274 volume:vxconfigd cannot boot-start
RAID-5 volumes
◆ Description: A volume that vxconfigd should start immediately upon booting the
system (that is, the volume for the /usr file system) has a RAID-5 layout. The /usr
file system should never be defined on a RAID-5 volume.
◆ Action: It is likely that the only recovery for this is to boot VxVM from a
network-mounted root file system (or from a CD-ROM), and reconfigure the /usr file
system to be defined on a regular non-RAID-5 volume.

V-5-1-2290
VxVM vxdmpadm ERROR V-5-1-2290 Attempt to enable a controller that is

not available

◆ Description: This message is returned by the vxdmpadm utility when an attempt is

made to enable a controller that is not working or is not physically present.
◆ Action: Check hardware and see if the controller is present and whether I/O can be
performed through it.

V-5-1-2353
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-2353 Disk group group: Cannot recover temp

database: reason

Consider use of "vxconfigd -x cleartempdir" [see vxconfigd(1M)].

◆ Description: This can happen if you kill and restart vxconfigd, or if you disable and
enable it with vxdctl disable and vxdctl enable. This error indicates a failure
related to reading the file /var/vxvm/tempdb/group. This is a temporary file
used to store information that is used when recovering the state of an earlier
vxconfigd. The file is recreated on a reboot, so this error should never survive a
reboot.
◆ Action: If you can reboot, do so. If you do not want to reboot, then do the following:

a. Ensure that no vxvol, vxplex, or vxsd processes are running.

Use ps -e to search for such processes, and use kill to kill any that you find.
You may have to run kill twice to make these processes go away. Killing utilities
in this way may make it difficult to make administrative changes to some
volumes until the system is rebooted.

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b. Recreate the temporary database files for all imported disk groups using the
following command:
# vxconfigd -x cleartempdir 2> /dev/console

The vxvol, vxplex, and vxsd commands make use of these tempdb files to
communicate locking information. If the file is cleared, then locking information
can be lost. Without this locking information, two utilities can end up making
incompatible changes to the configuration of a volume.

V-5-1-2524
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1:2524 VOL_IO_DAEMON_SET failed: daemon count

must be above N while cluster

◆ Description: The number of VERITAS Volume Manager kernel daemons (vxiod) is

less than the minimum number needed to join a cluster.
◆ Action: Increase the number of daemons using vxiod.

V-5-1-2630
VxVM vxconfigd WARNING V-5-1-2630 library and vxconfigd disagree on
existence of client number
◆ Description: This warning may safely be ignored.
◆ Action: None required.

V-5-1-2824
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-2824 Configuration daemon error 242

◆ Description: A node failed to join a cluster, or a cluster join is taking too long. If the join
fails, the node retries the join automatically.
◆ Action: No action is necessary if the join is slow or a retry eventually succeeds.

V-5-1-2829
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2829 diskgroup: Disk group version doesn’t support
feature; see the vxdg upgrade command
◆ Description: The version of the specified disk group does not support disk group
move, split or join operations.
◆ Action: Use the vxdg upgrade diskgroup command to update the disk group
version.

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V-5-1-2830
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-2830 Disk reserved by other host

◆ Description: An attempt was made to online a disk whose controller has been reserved
by another host in the cluster.
◆ Action: No action is necessary. The cluster manager frees the disk and VxVM puts it
online when the node joins the cluster.

V-5-1-2860
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2860 Transaction already in progress

◆ Description: One of the disk groups specified in a disk group move, split or join
operation is currently involved in another unrelated disk group move, split or join
operation (possibly as the result of recovery from a system failure).
◆ Action: Use the vxprint command to display the status of the disk groups involved.
If vxprint shows that the TUTIL0 field for a disk group is set to MOVE, and you are
certain that no disk group move, split or join should be in progress, use the vxdg
command to clear the field as described in “Recovering from Incomplete Disk Group
Moves” on page 18. Otherwise, retry the operation.

V-5-1-2862
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2862 object: Operation is not supported
◆ Description: DCO and snap objects dissociated by Persistent FastResync, and VVR
objects cannot be moved between disk groups.
◆ Action: None. The operation is not supported.

V-5-1-2866
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2866 object: Record already exists in disk group
◆ Description: A disk group join operation failed because the name of an object in one
disk group is the same as the name of an object in the other disk group. Such name
clashes are most likely to occur for snap objects and snapshot plexes.
◆ Action: Use the following command to change the object name in either one of the disk
groups:
# vxedit -g diskgroup rename old_name new_name
For more information about using the vxedit command, see the vxedit(1M)
manual page.

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V-5-1-2870
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2870 volume: Volume or plex device is open or
mounted
◆ Description: An attempt was made to perform a disk group move, split or join on a
disk group containing an open volume.
◆ Action: It is most likely that a file system configured on the volume is still mounted.
Stop applications that access volumes configured in the disk group, and unmount any
file systems configured in the volumes.

V-5-1-2879

VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2879 subdisk: Record is associated

◆ Description: The named subdisk is not a top-level object.

◆ Action: Objects specified for a disk group move, split or join must be either disks or
top-level volumes.

V-5-1-2907

VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2907 diskgroup: Disk group does not exist

◆ Description: The disk group does not exist or is not imported

◆ Action: Use the correct name, or import the disk group and try again.

V-5-1-2908
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2908 diskdevice: Request crosses disk group
boundary
◆ Description: The specified disk device is not configured in the source disk group for a
disk group move or split operation.
◆ Action: Correct the name of the disk object specified in the disk group move or split
operation.

V-5-1-2911

VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2911 diskname: Disk is not usable

◆ Description: The specified disk has become unusable.

◆ Action: Do not include the disk in any disk group move, split or join operation until it
has been replaced or repaired.

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V-5-1-2922
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-2922 Disk group exists and is imported

◆ Description: A slave tried to join a cluster, but a shared disk group already exists in the
cluster with the same name as one of its private disk groups.
◆ Action: Use the vxdg -n newname import diskgroup operation to rename either
the shared disk group on the master, or the private disk group on the slave.

V-5-1-2928
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2928 diskgroup: Configuration too large for
configuration copies
◆ Description: The disk group’s configuration database is too small to hold the expanded
configuration after a disk group move or join operation.
◆ Action: None.

V-5-1-2933
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-2933 diskgroup: Cannot remove last disk group
configuration copy
◆ Description: The requested disk group move, split or join operation would leave the
disk group without any configuration copies.
◆ Action: None. The operation is not supported.

V-5-1-3009
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-3009 object: Name conflicts with imported
diskgroup
◆ Description: The target disk group of a split operation already exists as an imported
disk group.
◆ Action: Choose a different name for the target disk group.

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V-5-1-3020
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3020 Error in cluster processing

◆ Description: This may be due to an operation inconsistent with the current state of a
cluster (such as an attempt to import or deport a shared disk group to or from the
slave). It may also be caused by an unexpected sequence of commands from
vxclust.
◆ Action: Perform the operation from the master node.

V-5-1-3022
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3022 Cannot find disk on slave node

◆ Description: A slave node in a cluster cannot find a shared disk. This is accompanied
by the syslog message:
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-2173 cannot find disk disk
◆ Action: Make sure that the same set of shared disks is online on both nodes. Examine
the disks on both the master and the slave with the command vxdisk list and
make sure that the same set of disks with the shared flag is visible on both nodes. If
not, check the connections to the disks.

V-5-1-3023
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3023 Disk in use by another cluster

◆ Description: An attempt was made to import a disk group whose disks are stamped
with the ID of another cluster.
◆ Action: If the disk group is not imported by another cluster, retry the import using the
-C (clear import) flag.

V-5-1-3024
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3024 vxclust not there

◆ Description: An error during an attempt to join a cluster caused vxclust to fail. This
may be caused by the failure of another node during a join or by the failure of
vxclust.
◆ Action: Retry the join. An error message on the other node may clarify the problem.

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V-5-1-3025
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3025 Unable to add portal for cluster

◆ Description: vxconfigd was not able to create a portal for communication with the
vxconfigd on the other node. This may happen in a degraded system that is
experiencing shortages of system resources such as memory or file descriptors.
◆ Action: If the system does not appear to be degraded, stop and restart vxconfigd,
and try again.

V-5-1-3030
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3030 Volume recovery in progress

◆ Description: A node that crashed attempted to rejoin the cluster before its DRL map
was merged into the recovery map.
◆ Action: Retry the join when the merge operation has completed.

V-5-1-3031
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3031 Cannot assign minor minor
◆ Description: A slave attempted to join a cluster, but an existing volume on the slave has
the same minor number as a shared volume on the master.
This message is accompanied by the following console message:
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-2192 minor number minor disk group group

in use

◆ Action: Before retrying the join, use vxdg reminor (see the vxdg(1M) manual page)
to choose a new minor number range either for the disk group on the master or for the
conflicting disk group on the slave. If there are open volumes in the disk group, the
reminor operation will not take effect until the disk group is deported and updated
(either explicitly or by rebooting the system).

V-5-1-3032
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3032 Master sent no data

◆ Description: During the slave join protocol, a message without data was received from
the master. This message is only likely to be seen in the case of an internal VxVM
error.
◆ Action: Contact VERITAS Technical Support.

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V-5-1-3033
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3033 Join in progress

◆ Description: An attempt was made to import or deport a shared disk group during a
cluster reconfiguration.
◆ Action: Retry when the cluster reconfiguration has completed.

V-5-1-3034
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3034 Join not currently allowed

◆ Description: A slave attempted to join a cluster when the master was not ready. The
slave will retry automatically.
◆ Action: No action is necessary if the join eventually completes. Otherwise, investigate
the cluster monitor on the master.

V-5-1-3042
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3042 Clustering license restricts operation

◆ Description: An operation requiring a full clustering license was attempted, and such a
license is not available.
◆ Action: If the error occurs when a disk group is being activated, dissociate all but one
plex from mirrored volumes before activating the disk group. If the error occurs
during a transaction, deactivate the disk group on all nodes except the master.

V-5-1-3046
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3046 Node activation conflict

◆ Description: The disk group could not be activated because it is activated in a

conflicting mode on another node in a cluster.
◆ Action: Retry later, or deactivate the disk group on conflicting nodes.

V-5-1-3049
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3049 Retry rolling upgrade

◆ Description: An attempt was made to upgrade a cluster to a higher protocol version

when a transaction was in progress.
◆ Action: Retry the upgrade at a later time.

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Understanding Messages

V-5-1-3050
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3050 Version out of range for at least one

node

◆ Description: Before trying to upgrade a cluster by running vxdctl upgrade, all nodes
should be able to support the new protocol version. An upgrade can fail if at least one
of them does not support the new protocol version.
◆ Action: Make sure that the VERITAS Volume Manager package that supports the new
protocol version is installed on all nodes and retry the upgrade.

V-5-1-3091

VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-3091 diskname : Disk not moving, but subdisks on

it are

◆ Description: Some volumes have subdisks that are not on the disks implied by the
supplied list of objects.
◆ Action: Use the -o expand option to vxdg listmove to produce a self-contained list
of objects.

V-5-1-3212
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3212 Insufficient DRL log size: logging is

disabled.

◆ Description: A volume with an insufficient DRL log size was started successfully, but
DRL logging is disabled and a full recovery is performed.
◆ Action: Create a new DRL of sufficient size.

V-5-1-3243
VxVM vxdmpadm ERROR V-5-1-3243 The VxVM restore daemon is already

running. You can stop and restart the restore daemon with desired

arguments for changing any of its parameters.

◆ Description: The vxdmpadm start restore command has been executed while the
restore daemon is already running.
◆ Action: Stop the restore daemon and restart it with the required set of parameters as
shown in the vxdmpadm(1M) manual page.

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V-5-1-3362
VxVM vxdmpadm ERROR V-5-1-3362 Attempt to disable controller failed.

One (or more) devices can be accessed only through this controller.

Use the -f option if you still want to disable this controller.

◆ Description: Disabling the controller could lead to some devices becoming

inaccessible.
◆ Action: To disable the only path connected to a disk, use the -f option.

V-5-1-3486
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3486 Not in cluster

◆ Description: Checking for the current protocol version (using vxdctl protocol
version) does not work if the node is not in a cluster.
◆ Action: Bring the node into the cluster and retry.

V-5-1-3689

VxVM vxassist ERROR V-5-1-3689 Volume record id rid is not found in the

configuration.

◆ Description: An error was detected while reattaching a snapshot volume using

snapback. This happens if a volume’s record identifier (rid) changes as a result of a
disk group split that moved the original volume to a new disk group. The snapshot
volume is unable to recognize the original volume because its record identifier has
changed.
◆ Action: Use the following command to perform the snapback:
# vxplex [-g diskgroup] -f snapback volume plex

V-5-1-3828
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3828 upgrade operation failed: Already at

highest version

◆ Description: An upgrade operation has failed because a cluster is already running at

the highest protocol version supported by the master.
◆ Action: No further action is possible as the master is already running at the highest
protocol version it can support.

Chapter 6, Error Messages 107

Understanding Messages

V-5-1-3848
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-3848 Incorrect protocol version (number) in
volboot file
◆ Description: A node attempted to join a cluster where VxVM software was incorrectly
upgraded or the volboot file is corrupted, possibly by being edited manually. The
volboot file should contain a supported protocol version before trying to bring the
node into the cluster.
◆ Action: Verify the supported cluster protocol versions using the vxdctl
protocolversion command. The volboot file should contain a supported
protocol version before trying to bring the node into the cluster. Run vxdctl init to
write a valid protocol version to the volboot file. Restart vxconfigd and retry the
join.

V-5-1-4220
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-4220 DG move: can’t import diskgroup,

giving up

◆ Description: The specified disk group cannot be imported during a disk group move
operation. (The disk group ID is obtained from the disk group that could be
imported.)
◆ Action: The disk group may have been moved to another host. One option is to locate
it and use the vxdg recover command on both the source and target disk groups.
Specify the -o clean option with one disk group, and the -o remove option with the
other disk group. See “Recovering from Incomplete Disk Group Moves” on page 18
for more information.

V-5-1-4267
VxVM vxassist WARNING V-5-1-4267 volume volume already has at least

one snapshot plex

Snapshot volume created with these plexes will have a dco volume with

no associated dco plex.

◆ Description: An error was detected while adding a DCO object and DCO volume to a
mirrored volume. There is at least one snapshot plex already created on the volume.
Because this snapshot plex was created when no DCO was associated with the
volume, there is no DCO plex allocated for it.
◆ Action: See the section “Adding a Version 0 DCO and DCO Volume” in the chapter
“Administering Volume Snapshots” of the VERITAS Volume Manager Administrator’s
Guide.

108 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Understanding Messages

V-5-1-4277
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-4277 cluster_establish: CVM protocol

version out of range

◆ Description: When a node joins a cluster, it tries to join at the protocol version that is
stored in its volboot file. If the cluster is running at a different protocol version, the
master rejects the join and sends the current protocol version to the slave. The slave
re-tries with the current version (if that version is supported on the joining node), or
the join fails.
◆ Action: Make sure that the joining node has a VERITAS Volume Manager release
installed that supports the current protocol version of the cluster.

V-5-1-4551
VxVM vxconfigd ERROR V-5-1-4551 dg_move_recover: can’t locate disk(s),

giving up

◆ Description: Disks involved in a disk group move operation cannot be found, and one
of the specified disk groups cannot be imported.
◆ Action: Manual use of the vxdg recover command may be required to clean the
disk group to be imported. See “Recovering from Incomplete Disk Group Moves” on
page 18 for more information.

V-5-1-4620
VxVM vxassist WARNING V-5-1-4620 Error while retrieving information

from SAL

◆ Description: The vxassist command does not recognize the version of the SAN
Access Layer (SAL) that is being used, or detects an error in the output from SAL.
◆ Action: If a connection to SAL is desired, ensure that the correct version of SAL is
installed and configured correctly. Otherwise, suppress communication between
vxassist and SAL by adding the following line to the vxassist defaults file
(usually /etc/default/vxassist):
salcontact=no

Chapter 6, Error Messages 109

Understanding Messages

V-5-1-4625
VxVM vxassist WARNING V-5-1-4625 SAL authentication failed...

◆ Description: The SAN Access Layer (SAL) rejects the credentials that are supplied by
the vxassist command.
◆ Action: If connection to SAL is desired, use the vxspcshow command to set a valid
user name and password. Otherwise, suppress communication between vxassist
and SAL by adding the following line to the vxassist defaults file (usually
/etc/default/vxassist):
salcontact=no

V-5-1-5150
VxVM vxassist ERROR V-5-1-5150 Insufficient number of active snapshot

mirrors in snapshot_volume.

◆ Description: An attempt to snap back a specified number of snapshot mirrors to their

original volume failed.
◆ Action: Specify a number of snapshot mirrors less than or equal to the number in the
snapshot volume.

V-5-1-5160
VxVM vxplex ERROR V-5-1-5160 Plex plex not associated to a snapshot

volume.

◆ Description: An attempt was made to snap back a plex that is not from a snapshot
volume.
◆ Action: Specify a plex from a snapshot volume.

V-5-1-5161

VxVM vxplex ERROR V-5-1-5161 Plex plex not attached.

◆ Description: An attempt was made to snap back a detached plex.

◆ Action: Reattach the snapshot plex to the snapshot volume.

110 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Understanding Messages

V-5-1-5162
VxVM vxplex ERROR V-5-1-5162 Plexes do not belong to the same snapshot

volume.

◆ Description: An attempt was made to snap back plexes that belong to different
snapshot volumes.
◆ Action: Specify the plexes in separate invocations of vxplex snapback.

V-5-1-5929
VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE V-5-1-5929 Unable to resolve duplicate diskid.

◆ Description: When VxVM detects disks with duplicate disk IDs (unique internal
identifiers), VxVM attempts to select the appropriate disk (using logic that is specific
to an array). If a disk can not be selected, VxVM does not import any of the duplicated
disks into a disk group. In the rare case when VxVM cannot make the choice, you
must choose which duplicate disk to use.
◆ Action: User intervention is required in the following cases:
◆ Case 1: When DMP is disabled to an array that has multiple paths, then each path
to the array is claimed as a unique disk.
If DMP is suppressed, VxVM does not know which path to select as the true path.
You must choose which path to use. Decide which path to exclude, and then
either edit the file /etc/vx/vxvm.exclude,or, if vxconfigd is running, select
item 1 (suppress all paths through a controller from VxVM’s
view) or item 2 (suppress a path from VxVM’s view) from vxdiskadm
option 17 (Prevent multipathing/Suppress devices from VxVM’s
view).
◆ Case 2: Some arrays such as EMC and HDS provide mirroring in hardware. When
a LUN pair is split, depending on how the process is performed, this may result in
two disks with the same disk ID.
Check with your array vendor to make sure that you are using the correct split
procedure. If you know which LUNs you want to use, choose which path to
exclude, and then either edit the file /etc/vx/vxvm.exclude, or, if
vxconfigd is running, select item 1 (Suppress all paths through a
controller from VxVM’s view) or item 2 (Suppress a path from
VxVM’s view) from vxdiskadm option 17 (Prevent
multipathing/Suppress devices from VxVM’s view).
◆ Case 3: If disks have become duplicated using the dd command or any other disk
copying utility, choose which set of duplicate disks you want to exclude, and then
either edit the file /etc/vx/vxvm.exclude, or, if vxconfigd is running,
select item 1 (Suppress all paths through a controller from

Chapter 6, Error Messages 111

Understanding Messages

VxVM’s view) or item 2 (Suppress a path from VxVM’s view) from

vxdiskadm option 17 (Prevent multipathing/Suppress devices from
VxVM’s view).

112 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

Index

Symbols copy-on-write
.cmdlog file 55 recovery from failure of 28
.translog file 57
D
/etc/vx/cbr/bk/diskgroup.dgid
data loss, RAID-5 9
dgid .binconfig file 62
DCO
dgid .cfgrec file 62
recovering volumes 19
dgid .diskinfo file 62
removing badlog flag from 21
dgid.dginfo file 62
DCO volumes
/etc/vx/log logging directory 55, 57
recovery from I/O failure on 29
/etc/vx/vxconfigd.log file 67
degraded mode, RAID-5 10
/var/log/messages file 68
DEGRADED volume state 10
A detached RAID-5 log plexes 14
ACTIVE plex state 3 DETACHED volume kernel state 11
ACTIVE volume state 12 DISABLED plex kernel state 3, 11
disk group errors
B
new host ID 87
badlog flag
disk groups
clearing for DCO 21
backing up configuration of 61, 62
BADLOG plex state 11
configuration backup files 62
boot disks
recovering from failed move, split or
configurations 31
join 18
recovery 31
resolving conflicting backups 64
boot process 32
restoring configuration of 61, 63
C disk IDs
Cannot open /etc/fstab 83 fixing duplicate 111
CLEAN plex state 3 disks
client ID causes of failure 1
in command logging file 56 cleaning up configuration 53
in transaction logging file 58 failing flag 7
cmdlog file 55 failures 10
commands fixing duplicated IDs 111
associating with transactions 59 reattaching 8
logging 55 reattaching failed 8
configuration DMP
backing up for disk groups 61, 62 fixing duplicated disk IDs 111
backup files 62
E
resolving conflicting backups 64
EMPTY plex state 3
restoring for disk groups 61, 63

113
 ENABLED plex kernel state 3 Disk reserved by another host 100

ENABLED volume kernel state 12 Disk write failure 87

ERROR messages 69 Duplicate record in configuration 89

error messages enable failed 46, 96

A virtual disk device is open 84

Error in cluster processing 103

All transactions are disabled 81

Errors in some configuration copies 88,

Already at highest version 107

90, 96

Attempt to disable controller failed 107

Format error in configuration copy 89

Attempt to enable a controller that is not

group exists 102

available 98
import failed 91

bad format on line # of /etc/fstab 45

Incorrect protocol version in volboot

can’t import diskgroup 108

file 108

Can’t locate disk(s) 109

Insufficient DRL log size, logging is

Cannot assign minor 104

disabled 106

Cannot auto-import group 61, 88

Insufficient number of active snapshot

Cannot find disk on slave node 103

mirrors in snapshot_volume 110

Cannot kill existing daemon 97

Invalid block number 89

cannot open /dev/vx/config 83

Invalid magic number 89

Cannot recover temp database 98

Join in progress 105

Cannot remove last disk group

Join not allowed now 105

configuration copy 102

logging 67

Cannot reset VxVM kernel 84

Master sent no data 104

Cannot start volume 80, 84

Memory allocation failure 82

Clustering license restricts operation 105

Missing vxconfigd 97

Configuration records are

Name conflicts with imported

inconsistent 89
diskgroup 102

Configuration too large for

No such device or address 83

configuration copies 102

No such file or directory 83

CVM protocol version out of range 109

no valid complete plexes 84

daemon count must be above number

No valid disk found containing disk

while clustered 99
group 91

default log file 67

no valid plexes 80

Device is already open 83

no volumes started 46

Differing version of vxconfigd

Node activation conflict 105

installed 86
Not in cluster 107

Disabled by errors 62, 81

not updated with new host ID 87

Disk for disk group not found 92

Operation is not supported 100

Disk group does not exist 18, 101

Plex plex not associated with a snapshot

Disk group errors

volume 110

multiple disk failures 81 Plex plex not attached 110

Disk group has no valid configuration Plexes do not belong to the same

copies 89, 91, 92 snapshot volume 111

Disk group version doesn’t support RAID-5 plex does not map entire volume

feature 99 length 16

Disk in use by another cluster 103 Record already exists in disk group 100

Disk is in use by another host 91 Record is associated 101

Disk is not usable 101 Record volume is in disk group

Disk not moving, but subdisks on it diskgroup1 plex is in group

are 106 diskgroup2 94

114 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 Reimport of disk group failed 91
F
Request crosses disk group
failing flag
boundary 101
clearing 7
Retry rolling upgrade 105
failures
Return from cluster_establish is
disk 10
Configuration daemon error 99
system 9
Skip disk group with duplicate name 89
FATAL ERROR messages 69
some subdisks are unusable and the
fatal error messages
parity is stale 16
Memory allocation failure during
startup script 68
startup 82
Synchronization of the volume stopped
files
due to I/O error 29
disk group configuration backup 62
System startup failure 82

H
The VxVM restore daemon is already

hardware failure, recovery from 1

running 106

hot-relocation
There are two backups that have the

defined 1
same diskgroup name with different

RAID-5 12
diskgroup id 64

There is no volume configured for the

I
root device 94
instant snapshot operations
Transaction already in progress 100
recovery from failure of 25
transactions are disabled 46
IOFAIL plex state 4
Unable to add portal for cluster 104
L
Unrecognized operating mode 79
LILO
update failed 82
corrupted MBR 43
upgrade operation failed 107
listing
Version number of kernel does not
unstartable volumes 2
match vxconfigd 95
log file
Version out of range for at least one
default 67
node 106
syslog error messages 68
Vol recovery in progress 104
vxconfigd 67
Volboot file not loaded 46
LOG plex state 11
Volume for mount point /usr not found
log plexes
in rootdg disk group 95
importance for RAID-5 9
Volume is not startable 16
recovering RAID-5 14
volume not in rootdg disk group 93
logging
Volume or plex device is open or
associating commands and
mounted 101
transactions 59
Volume record id is not found in the
commands and transactions 55
configuration 107
directory 55, 57
vxclust not there 103

vxconfigd cannot boot-start RAID-5

M
volumes 98
MBR
vxconfigd is not enabled for
recovering corrupted 43
transactions 46
mirrored volumes, recovering 5
vxconfigd minor number in use 104
MOVE flag
vxconfigd not ready 97
set in TUTIL0 field 18

Index 115
 N recovering mirrored volumes 5
NEEDSYNC volume state 13
process ID

NOTICE messages 70
in command logging file 56

notice messages
in transaction logging file 58

added disk array 71

R
Attempt to disable controller failed 72

RAID-5

Detached disk 81

detached subdisks 10

Detached log for volume 85

failures 9

Detached plex in volume 85

hot-relocation 12

Detached subdisk in volume 85

importance of log plexes 9

Detached volume 85

parity resynchronization 13

disabled controller connected to disk

recovering log plexes 14

array 72

recovering stale subdisk 14

disabled dmpnode 72

recovering volumes 12

disabled path belonging to dmpnode 73

recovery process 11

enabled controller connected to disk

stale parity 9

array 74

starting forcibly 17

enabled dmpnode 74

starting volumes 15

enabled path belonging to dmpnode 74

startup recovery process 11

Offlining config copy 93

subdisk move recovery 15

Path failure 77

unstartable volumes 15

read error on object 78

reattaching disks 8

removed disk array 78

reconstructing-read mode, stale subdisks 10

Rootdisk has just one enabled path 72

RECOVER state 6

Unable to resolve duplicate diskid 111

recovery

Volume entering degraded mode 84

disk 8

P reinstalling entire system 47

PANIC messages 69
REPLAY volume state 11

parity
restarting disabled volumes 7

regeneration checkpointing 14
resynchronization

resynchronization for RAID-5 13

RAID-5 parity 13

stale 9
root disks

plex kernel states

configurations 31

DISABLED 3, 11
recovery 31

ENABLED 3
root file system

plex states
configurations 31

ACTIVE 3
root file system, damaged 47

BADLOG 11

S
CLEAN 3

snapshot resynchronization
EMPTY 3

recovery from errors during 29

IOFAIL 4

stale parity 9

LOG 11

states

STALE 5

displaying for volumes and plexes 2

plexes

subdisks

defined 3

marking as non-stale 17

displaying states of 2

recovering after moving for RAID-5 15

in RECOVER state 6

recovering stale RAID-5 14

mapping problems 15

stale, starting volume 17

116 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 swap space V-5-0-35 72
configurations 31 V-5-0-386 79
SYNC volume state 11, 13 V-5-0-4 71
syslog V-5-1-1063 94
error log file 68 V-5-1-111 80
system V-5-1-116 80
reinstalling 47 V-5-1-117 80
system failures 9 V-5-1-1171 95
V-5-1-1186 95
T
V-5-1-121 81
Technical assistance ix
V-5-1-122 41, 81
transactions
V-5-1-123 62, 81
associating with commands 59
V-5-1-1236 16
logging 57
V-5-1-1237 16
translog file 57
V-5-1-124 82
TUTIL0 field
V-5-1-134 82
clearing MOVE flag 18
V-5-1-135 82
U V-5-1-148 82
usr file system V-5-1-1589 46, 96
configurations 31 V-5-1-169 83
V V-5-1-2020 97
V-5-0-106 72 V-5-1-2173 103
V-5-0-108 72 V-5-1-2192 104
V-5-0-110 72 V-5-1-2197 97
V-5-0-111 72 V-5-1-2198 97
V-5-0-112 73 V-5-1-2274 98
V-5-0-144 73 V-5-1-2290 98
V-5-0-145 73 V-5-1-2353 98
V-5-0-146 74 V-5-1-249 84
V-5-0-147 74 V-5-1-2524 99
V-5-0-148 74 V-5-1-2630 99
V-5-0-164 74 V-5-1-2824 99
V-5-0-166 75 V-5-1-2829 99
V-5-0-168 75 V-5-1-2830 100
V-5-0-181 75 V-5-1-2860 100
V-5-0-194 76 V-5-1-2862 100
V-5-0-196 76 V-5-1-2866 100
V-5-0-2 71 V-5-1-2870 101
V-5-0-207 76 V-5-1-2879 101
V-5-0-216 76 V-5-1-2907 18, 101
V-5-0-237 77 V-5-1-2908 101
V-5-0-243 77 V-5-1-2911 101
V-5-0-244 77 V-5-1-2922 102
V-5-0-249 77 V-5-1-2928 102
V-5-0-251 78 V-5-1-2933 102
V-5-0-252 78 V-5-1-3009 102
V-5-0-258 78 V-5-1-3020 103
V-5-0-34 71 V-5-1-3022 103
V-5-1-3023 103

Index 117
 V-5-1-3024 103 V-5-1-6012 64
V-5-1-3025 104 V-5-1-663 92
V-5-1-3030 104 V-5-1-6840 29
V-5-1-3031 104 V-5-1-737 93
V-5-1-3032 104 V-5-1-768 93
V-5-1-3033 105 V-5-1-90 79
V-5-1-3034 105 V-5-1-91 79
V-5-1-3042 105 V-5-1-92 79
V-5-1-3046 105 V-5-1-923 94
V-5-1-3049 105 V-5-2-573 46
V-5-1-3050 106 volboot file
V-5-1-3091 106 reinitializing 46
V-5-1-3212 106 volume kernel states
V-5-1-3243 106 DETACHED 11
V-5-1-3362 107 ENABLED 12
V-5-1-3486 107 volume states
V-5-1-3689 107 ACTIVE 12
V-5-1-3828 107 DEGRADED 10
V-5-1-3848 108 NEEDSYNC 13
V-5-1-4220 108 REPLAY 11
V-5-1-4267 108 SYNC 11, 13
V-5-1-4277 109 volumes
V-5-1-4551 109 cleaning up 50
V-5-1-4620 109 displaying states of 2
V-5-1-4625 110 listing unstartable 2
V-5-1-480 84 RAID-5 data loss 9
V-5-1-484 84 reconfiguring 53
V-5-1-5150 110 recovering for DCO 19
V-5-1-5160 110 recovering mirrors 5
V-5-1-5161 110 recovering RAID-5 12
V-5-1-5162 111 restarting disabled 7
V-5-1-525 85 stale subdisks, starting 17
V-5-1-526 85 vxcmdlog
V-5-1-527 85 controlling command logging 55
V-5-1-528 85 vxconfigbackup
V-5-1-543 86 backing up disk group configuration 63
V-5-1-544 86 vxconfigd
V-5-1-545 86 log file 67
V-5-1-546 41, 86 vxconfigd.log file 67
V-5-1-554 87 vxconfigrestore
V-5-1-557 87 restoring a disk group configuration 63
V-5-1-568 88 vxdco
V-5-1-569 61, 88 removing badlog flag from DCO 21
V-5-1-571 89 vxdctl
V-5-1-577 90 reinitializing the volboot file 46
V-5-1-579 90, 96 vxdg
V-5-1-583 91 recovering from failed disk group move,
V-5-1-587 91 split or join 18
V-5-1-5929 111 vxedit

118 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide

 clearing a disk failing flag 7 Disk group log may be too small 90

vxinfo command 2 Disk in group flagged as shared 86

vxmend command 5 Disk in group locked by host 86

vxplex command 14 Disk names group but group ID

vxprint differs 87

displaying volume and plex states 2 Disk skipped 86

vxreattach disks not updated with new host ID 88

reattaching failed disks 8 Double failure condition detected on

vxsnap make RAID-5 73

recovery from failure of 26 Duplicate virtual device number(s) 92

vxsnap prepare Error while retrieving information from

recovery from failure of 25 SAL 109

vxsnap reattach Failed to join cluster 74

recovery from failure of 27 Failed to log the detach of the DRL

vxsnap refresh volume 75

recovery from failure of 27 Failure in RAID-5 logging operation 75

vxsnap restore Illegal vminor encountered 75

recovery from failure of 27 Kernel log full 76

vxtranslog Kernel log update failed 76

controlling transaction logging 57 library and vxconfigd disagree on

VxVM existence of client 99

RAID-5 recovery process 11 log object detached from RAID-5

recovering configuration of 49 volume 76

reinstalling 49 Log size should be at least 90

vxvol recover command 14 mod_install returned errno 76

vxvol resync command 13 No such file or directory 45

vxvol start command 5 object detached from RAID-5 volume 77

object plex detached from volume 71

W
Overlapping mirror plex detached from

WARNING messages 70
volume 77

warning messages
RAID-5 volume entering degraded

Cannot create device 79

mode operation 77

Cannot exec /bin/rm to remove

read error on mirror plex of volume 78

directory 79
Received spurious close 72

Cannot exec /usr/bin/rm to remove

SAL authentication failed 110

directory 79
subdisk failed in plex 79

Cannot fork to remove directory 80

Uncorrectable read error 71

Cannot open log file 80

Uncorrectable write error 71

Couldn’t open /etc/fstab 45

volume already has at least one snapshot

Detaching plex 41
plex 108

Detaching plex from volume 81

volume is detached 73

detaching RAID-5 72
Volume remapped 92

Disk device not found 41, 86

Disk group is disabled 88

Index 119