Works on : AIX
Let's suppose you're getting permanent hardware errors on hdisk0 when
running the errpt -a
command on an IBM AIX server.
In order to check that both disks are really assigned to the volume group,
you should start with:
lsvg -p rootvg
You should see both hdisk0 and hdisk1 under the PV name.
A second thing to check would be that the re really are copies:
lsvg -l rootvg
Just check that there is a 1:2 relationship between LPs and PPs, and that PVs
is equal to 2. Otherwise, you should check that the volume that's not copied
doesn't reside on the failing disk with:
lslv -l LV_NAME
Once you've done these preliminary checks, you can start detaching hdisk0 from
the volume:
unmirrorvg rootvg hdisk0
After running the command, I've sometimes had these messages,
which are mostly informational:
0516-1246 rmlvcopy: If hd5 is the boot logical volume, please run 'chpv -c
<diskname>'
as root user to clear the boot
record and avoid a potential boot
off an old boot image that may
reside on the disk from which this
logical volume is
moved/removed.
0301-108 mkboot: Unable to read file blocks. Return code: -1
0516-1132 unmirrorvg: Quorum requirement turned on, reboot system for
this
to take effect for rootvg.
0516-1144 unmirrorvg: rootvg successfully unmirrored, user should perform
bosboot of system to reinitialize
boot records. Then, user must modify
bootlist to just include:
hdisk0.
Then we reduce the volume:
reducevg rootvg hdisk0
And remove the device from configuration:
rmdev -dl hdisk0
Then, we will have to power down the machine, as we're dealing with a rootvg
disk. However, before doing so, it's preferable to check whether we will boot
of from the right drive:
bootinfo -b
will tell you which drive was last booted up.
If it's the failed drive (hdisk0 in our case), we should change it to the drive
still usable (hdisk1 in our case) by creating the boot image on hdisk1 and
recrcreating the fixed ipldevice link, which was deleted by the previous rmdev
command :
bosboot -ad /dev/hdisk1
ln /dev/rhdisk1 /dev/ipldevice
Then, we can check bootlist:
bootlist -m normal -o
... And now, we can finally power down our server, replace the failed drive,
and power it back on...
Once the server has booted up, we should run:
cfgmgr
so that the OS will recognize the new disk.
To check that AIX really has done its job, run:
l
sdev -Cc disk
which should list both disks hdisk0 and hdisk1
Now, we can assign the new disk to the rootvg volume group:
extendvg rootvg hdisk0
Then we mirror the group:
mirrorvg rootvg
Wait for hdisk1 to complete copying on hdisk0 (it can take some time, as you
can imagine). You can check activity with
iostat
.
You should check that both disks are really assigned to rootvg by typing:
lsvg -p rootvg
An
lsvg -l rootvg
will show you whether mirroring has worked OK.
You should once again have a 1:2 relationship between LPs and PPs.
Then, create the boot image on the new disk:
bosboot -a -d hdisk0
Finally, modify the bootlist to take into account both disks:
bootlist -m normal hdisk0 hdisk1
Check with:
bootlist -m -normal -o
And you're finally done!
Happy computing.
Drop me a comment if this post has been useful to you, or if you see any reason
for add-on or modification.
Nixman