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IBM AIX/UNIX system storage administration ksh/perl scripting

Friday, July 11, 2008

Manage your logical volumes with Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) V5 for AIX 5.3 and 6.1


Level: Intermediate

Shashidhar Soppin , Staff Software Engineer,
IBM

24 Jun 2008

Learn to install, configure, and troubleshoot Veritas (Symantec) 5.0
Volume Manager (VxVM) on IBM® AIX® 5L and AIX 6 machines using command line options. The article includes a brief explanation of VxVM basic concepts, troubleshooting, and easy fixes for a few sundry problems.





Introduction



In the world of UNIX® storage management, there are two primary leaders: IBM and
Veritas (now Symantec). Both companies offer products that help UNIX system administrators manage storage with very flexible methods. Veritas offers the Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM), which is either packaged as a standalone add-on, or part of a larger package, such as the Veritas On-Line Storage Manager. VxVM is a storage management subsystem that lets you manage physical disks as logical devices. (Logical devices do not have the limitations of physical disks.)


Veritas Volume Manager


VxVM is a storage management subsystem that lets you manage physical disks as logical devices called volumes. A VxVM volume appears to applications and the operating system as a physical disk on which file systems, databases, and other managed data objects can be configured. VxVM provides easy-to-use online disk storage management for computing environments and Storage Area Network (SAN) environments. By supporting the Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) model, VxVM can be configured to protect against disk and hardware failure, and to increase I/O throughput.


VxVM provides features that enhance fault tolerance and fast recovery from disk failure. VxVM overcomes physical restrictions imposed by hardware disk devices by providing a logical volume management layer that lets volumes span multiple disks.
VxVM also provides the tools to improve performance, and ensure data availability and integrity. You can use VxVM to dynamically configure disk storage while the system is active.


VxVM and the operating system


VxVM operates as a subsystem between operating system and data management systems, similar to file systems and database management systems. VxVM is tightly coupled with the operating system. Before a disk can be brought under VxVM control, the disk must be accessible through the operating system device interface. VxVM is layered on top of the operating system interface services, and is dependent on how the operating system accesses physical disks.


VxVM is dependent upon the operating system for:


  • Operating system (disk) devices

  • Device handles

  • VxVM dynamic multipathing (DMP) metadevice





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VxVM and data storage


VxVM uses two types of objects to handle storage management:


Physical objects

Physical disks, or other hardware, with block and raw operating system device interfaces that are used to store data.

Virtual objects

When one or more physical disks are brought under the control of VxVM, it creates virtual objects called volumes on those physical disks. Each volume records and retrieves data from one or more physical disks. Volumes are accessed by file systems, databases, or other applications the same way that physical disks are accessed.

Volumes are also composed of other virtual objects (plexes and subdisks) that are used in changing the volume configuration. Volumes and their virtual components are called virtual objects, or VxVM objects.







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Physical disks



A physical disk is the basic storage device, or media, where the data is ultimately stored. You can access the data on a physical disk by using a device name to locate the disk. The physical disk device name varies with the computer system you use. Not all parameters are used on all systems. Typical device names are of the form hdisk(number)
, where (number) specifies a unique disk number starting at 0.




Figure 1. Displaying a physical disk


Displaying a physical disk


Disk arrays


Performing I/O to disks is relatively slow because disks are physical devices that require time to move the heads to the correct position before reading or writing. If all of the read or write operations are done to individual disks, one at a time, the read-write time can become unmanageable. Performing these operations on multiple disks can help reduce the problem.



A disk array is a collection of physical disks that VxVM can represent to the operating system as one or more virtual disks or volumes. To the operating system, the volumes created by VxVM look and act like physical disks. Applications that interact with volumes should work the same way they do with physical disks.
Figure 2 shows how VxVM presents the disks as several volumes, in a disk array, to the operating system.




Figure 2. Displaying disks in a disk array


Displaying disks in a disk array


Data can be spread across several disks within an array to distribute or balance I/O operations across the disks. Using parallel I/O across multiple disks improves I/O performance by increasing data transfer speed and overall throughput for the array.


Multipathed disk arrays


Some disk arrays provide multiple ports to access their disk devices. These ports, coupled with the host bus adaptor (HBA) controller and any data bus or I/ O processor local to the array, provide multiple hardware paths to access the disk devices. Such disk arrays, called multipathed, can be connected to host systems in many different configurations, such as multiple ports connected to different controllers on a single host, chaining of the ports through a single controller on a host, or ports connected to different hosts simultaneously.


Device discovery


Device discovery is the process of discovering the disks that are attached to a host. This feature is important for dynamic multipathing (DMP) because it needs to support a growing number of disk arrays from several vendors. In conjunction with the ability to discover devices attached to a host, the device discovery service lets you add support dynamically for new disk arrays.
The operation, which uses a facility called the device discovery layer (DDL), does not require a reboot.




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Virtual objects


Virtual objects in VxVM include:


  • Disk groups

  • Volume manager (VM) disks

  • Subdisks

  • Plexes

  • Volumes



The connection between physical objects and VxVM objects is made when you place a physical disk under VxVM control.
After installing VxVM on a host system, you must bring the contents of physical disks under VxVM control by collecting the VM disks into disk groups and allocating the disk group space to create logical volumes.



To bring the physical disk under VxVM control, the disk must not be under LVM control. VxVM must take control of the physical disks; the disk cannot be under the control of another storage manager (such as LVM). Listing 1 shows an example of using the vxdisk command to list the disk status.



Listing 1. Using vxdisk to list disk status


# vxdisk -e list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS OS_NATIVE_NAME
Disk_0 auto - - online hdisk51
Disk_1 auto - - online hdisk48
Disk_2 auto - - online hdisk47
Disk_3 auto - - online hdisk50
Disk_4 auto - - online hdisk49
Disk_5 auto - - online hdisk46
Disk_6 auto - - online hdisk44
Disk_7 auto - - online hdisk42
Disk_8 auto - - online hdisk45
Disk_9 auto - - offline hdisk43
Disk_10 auto - - online hdisk41
Disk_11 auto - - online hdisk40
Disk_12 auto - - online hdisk38
Disk_13 auto - - online hdisk37
Disk_14 auto - - online hdisk39
Disk_15 auto - - online hdisk36
Disk_16 auto - - online hdisk33
Disk_17 auto - - online hdisk34
Disk_18 auto - - online hdisk31
Disk_19 auto - - online hdisk35
Disk_20 auto - - online hdisk32
Disk_21 auto - - LVM hdisk27


VxVM creates virtual objects and makes logical connections between the objects. The virtual objects are then used by VxVM to do storage management tasks.


Disk groups


A disk group is a collection of disks that shares a common configuration, and is managed by VxVM. A disk group configuration is a set of records with detailed information about related VxVM objects, their attributes, and their connections. A disk group name can be up to 31 characters long.



You can create additional disk groups when you need them. Disk groups allow you to group disks into logical collections. A disk group and its components can be moved as a unit from one host machine to another.


VM disks


When you place a physical disk under VxVM control, a VM disk is assigned to the physical disk. A VM disk is under VxVM control and is usually in a disk group. Each VM disk corresponds to one physical disk. VxVM allocates storage from a contiguous area of VxVM disk space.
A VM disk typically includes a public region (allocated storage) and a small private region where VxVM internal configuration information is stored.
Each VM disk has a unique disk media name, called a virtual disk name. You can either define a disk name of up to 31 characters, or allow VxVM to assign a default name of diskgroup(number), where diskgroup is the name of the disk group to which the disk belongs. Figure 3 shows an example.




Figure 3. VM Disk


VM Disk


Subdisks


A subdisk is a set of contiguous disk blocks. A block is a unit of space on the disk. VxVM allocates disk space using subdisks. A VM disk can be divided into one or more subdisks. Each subdisk represents a specific portion of a VM disk, which is mapped to a specific region of a physical disk.
The default name for a VM disk is diskgroup(number). The default name for a subdisk is diskgroup(number-number), as shown in Figure 4, where diskgroup is the name of the disk group to which the disk belongs.




Figure 4. Subdisk


Subdisk


A VM disk can contain multiple subdisks, but subdisks cannot overlap or share the same portions of a VM disk. Figure 5 shows a VM disk with three subdisks. The VM disk is assigned to one physical disk.




Figure 5. Three subdisks assigned to one VM Disk


Three subdisks assigned to one VM Disk


Plexes


VxVM uses subdisks to build virtual objects called plexes. A plex consists of one or more subdisks located on one or more physical disks. For example, the plex vol01-01 is shown in Figure 6.




Figure 6. A plex with two subdisks


A plex with two subdisks


Volumes


A volume is a virtual disk device that appears to applications, databases, and file systems like a physical disk device, but does not have the physical limitations of a physical disk device. A volume consists of one or more plexes, each holding a copy of the selected data in the volume. Due to its virtual nature, a volume is not restricted to a particular disk or a specific area of a disk.


You can change the configuration of a volume by using VxVM user interfaces. Making configuration changes will not cause disruption to applications or file systems that are using the volume. For example, a volume can be mirrored on separate disks or moved to use different disk storage.


VxVM uses the default naming conventions of vol(number) for volumes and vol(number-number) for plexes in a volume. For ease of administration, you can choose to select more meaningful names for the volumes that you create.




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VxVM 5.0 installation


This section introduces the VxVM installation and configuration commands you can use to do tasks associated with VxVM objects on AIX versions 5.3 and 6.10.
VxVM relies on the following constantly running daemons and kernel threads for its operation:


vxconfigd

The VxVM configuration daemon maintains disk and group configurations, communicates configuration changes to the kernel, and modifies configuration information stored on disks.

vxiod

VxVM I/O kernel threads provide extended I/O operations without blocking calling processes. By default, 16 I/O threads are started at boot time, and at least one I/O thread must continue to run at all times.

vxrelocd

The hot-relocation daemon monitors VxVM for events that affect redundancy, and performs hot-relocation to restore redundancy.



Before you start installation, make sure that the PATH variable is set properly because
most of the commands used in the installation are in the /sbin or /usr/sbin directory. Add the directories to your PATH environment variable, as shown in Listing 2.



Listing 2. PATH information


For a KSH Shell (or sh), use the command:

# PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/etc/vx/bin:/opt/VRTS/bin:$PATH# export PATH

For a C Shell (csh or tcsh), use the command:

% setenv PATH /sbin:/usr/sbin:/etc/vx/bin:/opt/VRTS/bin:${PATH}


Verifying the OS environment



Veritas Storage Foundation 5.0 from Symantec can only be installed on a system running AIX 5.3 or AIX 6. They must be at the proper maintenance level, with additional AIX patches installed, before installing Veritas Storage Foundation. Check the level of the OS by using the oslevel command on an AIX machine, as shown in Listing 3.



Listing 3. Check OS level


# oslevel
6.1.0.0

# oslevel -rq
Known Recommended Maintenance Levels
------------------------------------
6110-00

# oslevel
5.3.0.0
# oslevel -rq
Known Recommended Maintenance Levels
------------------------------------
5300-07
5300-06
5300-05
5300-04
5300-03
5300-02
5300-01
5380-00


Prerequisites


The following Veritas Storage Foundation packages are required or optional (as noted) for installation.


VRTSperl PERL languageRequired
VRTSspt VERITAS support toolsRequired
VRTSvlic VERITAS licensing utilitiesRequired
VRTSvmdoc VERITAS Volume Manager online guidesOptional
VRTSvmman VERITAS Volume Manager manual pagesOptional
VRTSvmpro VERITAS Volume Manager ProviderRequired for VEA and ISP
VRTSvxvm VERITAS Volume Manager Required
VRTSveki VERITAS Kernel Interface component Required
VRTSvxfs VERITAS File SystemRequired
VRTSddlpr VERITAS Device Discovery Layer ProviderRequired
VRTSfspro VERITAS File System ProviderRequired for VEA, even if you are not installing the VERITAS File System software
VRTSob VERITAS Enterprise Administrator ServiceRequired for VEA and ISP
VRTSobgui VERITAS Enterprise AdministratorRequired for VEA client
VRTSFman VERITAS File System manual pagesOptional
VRTSFsdoc VERITAS File System online guidesOptional



Install Veritas Storage Foundation



To install Storage Foundation, download file sets from the Symantec Web site. It is best practice to check for the data integrity of the file sets by running the cksum command and compare to the source location.



  1. Log in as superuser. Use the
    installp

    command to install the required packages, as shown in Listing 4.



    Listing 4. installp



    Note:- Check the size of the file by using cksum command as below,

    # cksum VRTSvxvm.bff
    1823433071 126310400 VRTSvxvm.bff

    installp command is used as below,

    installp -acXd VRTSvmdoc.bff VRTSvmdoc

    installp -acXd VRTSvmman.bff VRTSvmman

    installp -acXd VRTSveki.bff VRTSveki

    installp -acXd VRTSspt.bff VRTSspt

    installp -acXd VRTSvxvm.bff VRTSvxvm

    installp -acXd VRTSvlic.bff VRTSvlic

    installp -acXd VRTSvxfs.bff VRTSvxfs

    installp -acXd VRTSperl.bff VRTSperl

    Note:- All these commands can be put inside a ksh script and
    installed by invoking that script.


    Use the
    lslpp
    command to verify the complete installation of Veritas VxVM, as shown in Listing 5.




    Listing 5. Verify installation


    # lslpp -l grep -i vrts

    VRTSspt 5.0.1.0 COMMITTED Veritas Support Tools
    VRTSveki 5.0.1.0 COMMITTED Veritas Kernel Interface
    VRTSvlic 5.0.1.0 COMMITTED VRTSvlic Symantec License
    VRTSvxfs 5.0.1.0 COMMITTED Veritas File System
    VRTSvxvm 5.0.1.0 COMMITTED Veritas Volume Manager
    VRTSveki 5.0.1.0 COMMITTED Veritas Kernel Interface
    VRTSvmman 5.0.1.0 COMMITTED Veritas Manual Pages
    VRTSvdoc 5.0.1.0 COMMITTED Veritas Documentation



  2. To install from a CD-ROM, mount a CD-ROM and begin installation as follows.


    1. Log in as superuser.

    2. Place the Veritas software disc in a CD-ROM drive connected to your system.

    3. Mount the CD manually:
      # mkdir -p /mnt/cdrom
      # mount -V cdrfs -o ro /dev/cdN /mnt/cdrom


      where N in /dev/cdN is a number for the CD device configured on the target system.
      Usually the value for N is 0.




      Check the CD device nodes on your system in the /dev directory, or use the method below
      and follow Step 4 onward.
      To invoke the common installer, run the install command on the
      CD as shown below.


      # /mnt/cdrom/CD_NAME/installer




    4. If the VRTSvlic licensing package is not installed, a message asks if you want to install VRTSvlic.
      Follow the instructions to install the package.

    5. If the VRTSvlic licensing package is installed, the Product Status page displays:

      • Products available for installation.

      • Products currently installed.

      • Products that are licensed.

      • Options for operations you can initiate.


      Use the /opt/VRTS/bin/vxlicrep command to view a report of the license type for each product



    6. At the prompt on the Product Status page, enter L to add a license key and
      click Return to begin.

    7. At the next prompt, enter the license key and click Return.

    8. At the Product Status page, enter I for the product installer and click Return. The product installer is displayed.

    9. At the Veritas product installer, enter the number of the product you want to install
      and click Return. The product installation begins automatically.

      At the end of the process, the Veritas product installer is displayed again.



    10. You are prompted to enter the systems' names on which the software is to be installed.
      When prompted, click Enter to continue.




Veritas licensing


Install the license key using the vxlicinst command, as
shown in Listing 6. (The license key below is an example only. For actual installation, the key is obtained from Symantec.)



Listing 6. vxlicinst command output


Install License:-

# /sbin/vxlicinst

Symantec License Manager vxlicinst utility version 3.02.16.0
Copyright (C) 1996-2006 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved.

Enter your license key : RGCU-CB9F-YCBX-BFYX-OTGH-GN4O-7KYP-PPC

Number of days left for Demo = 150

License key successfully installed for VERITAS Storage Foundation for DB2
License key successfully installed for VERITAS File System
License key successfully installed for VERITAS Volume Manager
License key successfully installed for VERITAS Mapping Services


Other licensing commands


The Veritas licensing commands are in the VRTSvlic package. You must install VRTSvlic for the licensing process to work.

There are two commands:




  • vxlicrep lets you view currently installed licenses.


  • vxlictest retrieves features encoded in a license key and describes them.


Enable the vxconfigd daemon


Execute the commands in Listing 7 to enable the vxconfigd daemon.



Listing 7. Enable the daemon


# vxconfigd -km disable
# vxdctl init
# vxdctl enable


There is more information about the vxconfigd daemon and vxdctl later in this section.


To check the Storage Foundation processes and confirm successful Veritas File System installation, use the following command:



# lsvfs vxfs
vxfs 32 /sbin/helpers/vxfs /sbin/helpers/vxfs


To confirm that the Volume Manager processes (vxconfigd, vxnotify, and vxrelocd)
are running, use:


# ps -e grep vx


Create VxVM disk groups


Listing 8 shows the output of the lspv command without VxVM configuration.



Listing 8. lspv output


# lspv
hdisk0 00b28305ad573b54 rootvg active
hdisk1 none None
hdisk2 none None
hdisk3 00b28305eea1b645 None
hdisk4 00b28305eb18f002 None
hdisk5 none None
hdisk6 none None
hdisk7 none None
hdisk8 none None
hdisk9 none None
hdisk10 none None
hdisk11 none None
hdisk12 none None
hdisk13 none None
hdisk14 00b2830584f972f3 None
hdisk15 00b2830584f9751a None



Now the disks have to be configured as a Veritas Volume disk group (vxvmdg) by initializing and adding disks.
There are two levels of initialization for disks in the Volume Manager:


  • Formatting of the disk media itself. This must be done outside of
    the Volume Manager.

  • Storing identification and configuration information on the disk for use by
    the Volume Manager.



Volume Manager interfaces are provided to step you through this level of disk initialization.


A fully initialized disk can be added to a disk group and used to replace a
previously failed disk, or to create a new disk group.



Listing 9. vxdg command


#cd /etc/vx/bin --this is done because the command vxdg is in this path.

# vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg1=Disk_10
# vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg2=Disk_9
# vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg3=Disk_7
# vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg4=Disk_6
# vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg5=Disk_5
# vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg6=Disk_4
# vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg7=Disk_3
# vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg8=Disk_2



Display configured disks


Now you use the vxdisk list command to display various configured disks, as shown in Listing 10.



Listing 10. vxdisk command output



# vxdisk list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
Disk_0 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_1 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_2 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg8 vxvmdg online
Disk_3 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg7 vxvmdg online
Disk_4 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg6 vxvmdg online
Disk_5 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg5 vxvmdg online
Disk_6 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg4 vxvmdg online
Disk_7 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg3 vxvmdg online
Disk_8 auto:aixdisk - - online
Disk_9 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg2 vxvmdg online
Disk_10 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg1 vxvmdg online
Disk_11 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_12 auto:LVM - - LVM
Disk_13 auto:cdsdisk - - online aliased
Disk_14 auto:LVM - - LVM
Disk_15 auto:cdsdisk - - online aliased


The disk listing sometimes displays in the format hdisk(number).
Use the format accordingly while configuring with the vxdg command.




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Troubleshooting and administration


This section includes some troubleshooting tips and common commands used to manage VxVM.


Disks go into Error state



Sometimes, when the disks go into error state, Veritas VxVM is unable to claim those
disks as vxvmdgs. To fix this type of problem, run the following set of commands, in the following order.


To see corresponding mapping between hdisk and Disk lists, run the command in Listing 11.



Listing 11. Solution for disks going to error state



# vxdisk -e list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS OS_NATIVE_NAME
Disk_0 auto - - online hdisk51
Disk_1 auto - - online hdisk48
Disk_2 auto - - online hdisk47
Disk_3 auto - - online hdisk50
Disk_4 auto - - online hdisk49
Disk_5 auto - - online hdisk46
Disk_6 auto - - online hdisk44
Disk_7 auto - - online hdisk42
Disk_8 auto - - online hdisk45
Disk_9 auto - - offline hdisk43
Disk_10 auto - - online hdisk41
Disk_11 auto - - online hdisk40
Disk_12 auto - - online hdisk38
Disk_13 auto - - online hdisk37
Disk_14 auto - - online hdisk39
Disk_15 auto - - online hdisk36
Disk_16 auto - - online hdisk33
Disk_17 auto - - online hdisk34
Disk_18 auto - - online hdisk31
Disk_19 auto - - online hdisk35
Disk_20 auto - - error hdisk32
Disk_21 auto - - LVM hdisk27
Disk_22 auto - - online hdisk30
Disk_23 auto - - offline hdisk29
Disk_24 auto - - online hdisk28
Disk_25 auto - - LVM hdisk26




In the above listing, Disk_20 is in error state and needs to be fixed
to continue VxVM operation.


To see the list of hdisks with an error state:



Listing 12. Get list


# vxdisk -o alldgs list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
Disk_0 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_1 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_2 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_3 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_4 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_5 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_6 auto:aixdisk - - online
Disk_7 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_8 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_9 auto - - offline
Disk_10 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_11 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_12 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_13 auto:aixdisk - - online
Disk_14 auto:aixdisk - - online
Disk_15 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_16 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_17 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_18 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_19 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_20 auto:cdsdisk - - error
Disk_21 auto:LVM - - LVM
Disk_22 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_23 auto - - offline
Disk_24 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_25 auto:LVM - - LVM
#cd /etc/vx/bin


Try to use the vxdisksetup and vxdiskunsetup commands to format the hdisk, as shown in Listing 13.



Listing 13. vxdisksetup and vxdiskunsetup


# /etc/vx/bin/vxdisksetup -if Disk_20 format=aixdisk
VxVM vxdisk ERROR V-5-1-5433 Device Disk_20: init failed:
Disk sector size is not supported


# /etc/vx/bin/vxdiskunsetup -C Disk_20 format=aixdisk
VxVM vxdiskunsetup ERROR V-5-2-2208 format=aixdisk: Device address must
be of the form enclr_x where

x = one or more decimal digit


Since both the commands are failing to clear the error state, see the
detailed list using the vxdisk command for error one and proper one, as shown in Listing 14.



Listing 14. vxdisk


a) Disk with error state

# vxdisk list Disk_20
Device: Disk_20
devicetag: Disk_20
type: auto
info: format=cdsdisk,privoffset=256
flags: online error private autoconfig
pubpaths: block=/dev/vx/dmp/Disk_20 char=/dev/vx/rdmp/Disk_20
guid: {5d5aa3b8-1dd2-11b2-aeae-2a5848ed1fb8}
udid: AIX%5FVDASD%5FDISKS%5F600507630EFFFD670000000000000115
site: -
errno: Disk is not useable, bad format
Multipathing information:
numpaths: 1
hdisk32 state=enabled

b) Proper one

# vxdisk list Disk_7
Device: Disk_7
devicetag: Disk_7
type: auto
info: format=none
flags: online ready private autoconfig invalid
pubpaths: block=/dev/vx/dmp/Disk_7 char=/dev/vx/rdmp/Disk_7
guid: -
udid: AIX%5FVDASD%5FDISKS%5F600507630EFFFD670000000000000122
site: -
Multipathing information:
numpaths: 1
hdisk42 state=enabled


Now try with the chpv command:



Listing 15. chpv


# chpv -C hdisk32

# vxdisk list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
Disk_0 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_1 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_2 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_3 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_4 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_5 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_6 auto:aixdisk - - online
Disk_7 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_8 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_9 auto - - offline
Disk_10 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_11 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_12 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_13 auto:aixdisk - - online
Disk_14 auto:aixdisk - - online
Disk_15 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_16 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_17 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_18 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_19 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_20 auto:cdsdisk - - error
Disk_21 auto:LVM - - LVM
Disk_22 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_23 auto - - offline
Disk_24 auto:none - - online invalid
Disk_25 auto:LVM - - LVM


# lspv
hdisk26 00cc17cec566971d rootvg active
hdisk27 00cc17ceebb54c8c rootvg active
hdisk28 none None
hdisk29 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk30 none None
hdisk31 none None
hdisk32 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk33 none None
hdisk34 none None
hdisk35 00cc17ce59d7d248 None
hdisk36 none None
hdisk37 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk38 none None
hdisk39 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk40 none None
hdisk41 none None
hdisk42 none None
hdisk43 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk44 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk45 none None
hdisk46 none None
hdisk47 00cc17cee3638f87 None
hdisk48 00cc17cee2ea1ed0 None
hdisk49 00cc17cee2ea1f4d None
hdisk50 00cc17cee2ea1fe1 None
hdisk51 00cc17cec8c84486 None



Even after executing the chpv command, the Veritas volumes tag is not removed.

Try enabling and disabling with the vxconfigd daemon.



Listing 16. vxconfigd


# vxconfigd -k

# vxdisk scandisks

# lspv
hdisk26 00cc17cec566971d rootvg active
hdisk27 00cc17ceebb54c8c rootvg active
hdisk28 none None
hdisk29 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk30 none None
hdisk31 none None
hdisk32 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk33 none None
hdisk34 none None
hdisk35 00cc17ce59d7d248 None
hdisk36 none None
hdisk37 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk38 none None
hdisk39 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk40 none None
hdisk41 none None
hdisk42 none None
hdisk43 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk44 none VeritasVolumes
hdisk45 none None
hdisk46 none None
hdisk47 00cc17cee3638f87 None
hdisk48 00cc17cee2ea1ed0 None
hdisk49 00cc17cee2ea1f4d None
hdisk50 00cc17cee2ea1fe1 None
hdisk51 00cc17cec8c84486 None




The tag is still not removed, and the disk is still in the error state.




Run the set of commands below for up to seek=3 or 4, and then run the other set of commands.
The dd command clears the bad blocks, if any, and the error state is removed.



Listing 17. dd


# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdisk37 bs=512 seek=0 count=10
10+0 records in
10+0 records out

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdisk37 bs=512 seek=1 count=10
10+0 records in
10+0 records out


# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdisk32 bs=512 seek=0 count=10
10+0 records in
10+0 records out


Now run the vxdisksetup command, and it will clear the error state of the disk.



Listing 18. vxdisksetup


# vxdisksetup -if Disk_20 format=aixdisk

Now the Disk_20 is online:.

Disk_20 auto - - online hdisk32


Adding hdisks into the Veritas Volume data group


Using a command line shell script, hdisks can be added into the
Veritas Volume datagroup(vxvmdg), as shown in Listing 19.



Listing 19. Adding hdisks into Veritas Volume data group(vxvmdg)



# for i in 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14; do
> vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg$j=hdisk$i
> (( j += 1 ))
> done

Note:- Here numbers 7,8,9,.... etc indicates hdisk numbers.

Now vxdisk command output displays the added disks as vxvmdg disks.

# vxdisk list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
hdisk0 auto:LVM - - LVM
hdisk1 auto:cdsdisk - - online
hdisk2 auto:cdsdisk - - online
hdisk3 auto:none - - online invalid
hdisk4 auto:cdsdisk - - online
hdisk5 auto:none - - online invalid
hdisk6 auto:aixdisk - - online
hdisk7 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg1 vxvmdg online
hdisk8 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg2 vxvmdg online
hdisk9 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg3 vxvmdg online
hdisk10 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg4 vxvmdg online
hdisk11 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg5 vxvmdg online
hdisk12 auto:aixdisk vxvmdg6 vxvmdg online
hdisk13 auto:aixdisk vxvmdg7 vxvmdg online
hdisk14 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg8 vxvmdg online



Other administrative commands


You can also use the following commands to handle Veritas VxVM:




vxdiskadm

The Volume Manager Support Operations menu interface, which provides a menu of disk operations. Each entry in the main menu leads you through a particular operation by providing information and asking questions. Default answers are provided for many questions, so common answers can be selected quickly.


vxdiskadd


Use this utility to add standard disks to the Volume Manager. vxdiskadd leads you through initializing a new disk by displaying information and asking questions.


vxdisk


A command-line utility for administering disk devices. You can use vxdisk to define special disk devices, to initialize information stored on disks that the Volume Manager uses to identify and manage disks, and to perform additional special operations.


vxdg

The command-line utility for operating on disk groups. You can use it to create new disk groups, to add and remove disks from disk groups, and to enable (import) or disable (deport) access to disk groups.


vxdisk list

Lists disk information and displays spare disks with a spare flag.


vxprint

Lists disk and other information, and displays spare disks with a SPARE flag.


Listing 20 shows an example of using the vxdiskadm command to control various Volume Manager operations.
Any of these options can be selected for the required operation to be performed.



Listing 20. vxdiskadm usage


# vxdiskadm

Volume Manager Support Operations
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk

1 Add or initialize one or more disks
2 Remove a disk
3 Remove a disk for replacement
4 Replace a failed or removed disk
5 Mirror volumes on a disk
6 Move volumes from a disk
7 Enable access to (import) a disk group
8 Remove access to (deport) a disk group
9 Enable (online) a disk device
10 Disable (offline) a disk device
11 Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group
12 Turn off the spare flag on a disk
13 Unrelocate subdisks back to a disk
14 Exclude a disk from hot-relocation use
15 Make a disk available for hot-relocation use
16 Prevent multipathing/Suppress devices from VxVM's view
17 Allow multipathing/Unsuppress devices from VxVM's view
18 List currently suppressed/non-multipathed devices
19 Change/Display the default disk layouts
20 Mark a disk as allocator-reserved for a disk group
21 Turn off the allocator-reserved flag on a disk
22 Change the disk naming scheme
list List disk information


? Display help about menu
?? Display help about the menuing system
q Exit from menus

Select an operation to perform:

Below is the example for creating volume group vxvmdg and adding a disk to it.


Select an operation to perform: 1

Add or initialize disks
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/AddDisks

Use this operation to add one or more disks to a disk group. You can
add the selected disks to an existing disk group or to a new disk group
that will be created as a part of the operation. The selected disks may
also be added to a disk group as spares. Or they may be added as
nohotuses to be excluded from hot-relocation use. The selected
disks may also be initialized without adding them to a disk group
leaving the disks available for use as replacement disks.

More than one disk or pattern may be entered at the prompt. Here are
some disk selection examples:

all: all disks
hdisk8: a single disk (in the hdisk# naming scheme)
scsi3 : all disks on scsi controller 3
fscsi6 : all disks on fiber controller 6
xyz_0 : a single disk (in the enclosure based naming scheme)
xyz_ : all disks on the enclosure whose name is xyz

Select disk devices to add: [(pattern-list),all,list,q,?] hdisk2

Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name]

hdisk2

Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group, a
new disk group, or leave the disk available for use by future
add or replacement operations. To create a new disk group,
select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To leave
the disk available for future use, specify a disk group name
of "none".

Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?] (default: none) vxvmdg

Create a new group named vxvmdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

Create the disk group as a CDS disk group? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

Add disk as a spare disk for vxvmdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) y

Add site tag to disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) y

A new disk group will be created named vxvmdg and the selected
disks will be added as spares to the disk group with default
disk names.

hdisk2


Now you can use lspv or vxdisk to see that hdisk1 has been added to the vxvmdg group.


Listing 21 shows how to use vxdg to destroy any unwanted disk group entries.



Listing 21. Using vxdg to destroy unwanted disk group entry



#cd /etc/vx/bin

# vxdisk -e list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS OS_NATIVE_NAME
Disk_0 auto - - online hdisk15
Disk_1 auto - - online hdisk14
Disk_2 auto - - online hdisk13
Disk_3 auto - - online hdisk12
Disk_4 auto TCd7-90536 TCg3-90536 online hdisk10
Disk_5 auto TCd6-90536 TCg3-90536 online hdisk9
Disk_6 auto - - online hdisk11
Disk_7 auto TCd5-90536 TCg2-90536 online hdisk8
Disk_8 auto TCd4-90536 TCg2-90536 online hdisk7
Disk_9 auto TCd3-90536 TCg1-90536 online hdisk6
Disk_10 auto - - online hdisk5
Disk_11 auto - - online hdisk4
Disk_12 auto - - LVM hdisk0
Disk_13 auto - - online hdisk1
Disk_14 auto - - LVM hdisk3
Disk_15 auto - - online hdisk2

# for i in 6 7 8 9 10 11;do
> vxdg destroy hdisk$i
> done



# vxdisk -e list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS OS_NATIVE_NAME
Disk_0 auto - - online hdisk15
Disk_1 auto - - online hdisk14
Disk_2 auto - - online hdisk13
Disk_3 auto - - online hdisk12
Disk_4 auto - - online hdisk10
Disk_5 auto - - online hdisk9
Disk_6 auto - - online hdisk11
Disk_7 auto - - online hdisk8
Disk_8 auto - - online hdisk7
Disk_9 auto - - online hdisk6
Disk_10 auto - - online hdisk5
Disk_11 auto - - online hdisk4
Disk_12 auto - - LVM hdisk0
Disk_13 auto - - online hdisk1
Disk_14 auto - - LVM hdisk3
Disk_15 auto - - online hdisk2



Changing the disk group format type


Listing 22 shows how to change the disk group format type, and how to fix resulting errors.



Listing 22.Changing disk group type




#cd /etc/vx/bin
# for i in 7 6 5 4 3 2;do
> vxdisksetup -if Disk_$i format=aixdisk
> done

# for i in 7 6 5 4 3 2;do
> vxdisksetup -if Disk_$i format=cdsdisk
> done

# vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg2=hdisk5
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-6478 Device hdisk5 cannot be added to a CDS disk group

[root@ortega01] /ezcfg/dat
# vxdisk list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
hdisk0 auto:LVM - - LVM
hdisk1 auto:cdsdisk - - error
hdisk2 auto:cdsdisk - - error
hdisk3 auto:none - - online invalid
hdisk4 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg1 vxvmdg online
hdisk5 auto:aixdisk - - online

If you get the above type of error, fix it using:

#/etc/vx/bin/vxdisksetup -if hdisk5 format=cdsdisk

Now run:

# vxdg -g vxvmdg adddisk vxvmdg2=hdisk5

# vxdisk list
DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS
hdisk0 auto:LVM - - LVM
hdisk1 auto:cdsdisk - - error
hdisk2 auto:cdsdisk - - error
hdisk3 auto:none - - online invalid
hdisk4 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg1 vxvmdg online
hdisk5 auto:cdsdisk vxvmdg2 vxvmdg online




Back to top


Summary



This article provided a brief overview of VxVM. You also learned about installation,
configuration, administration, troubleshooting, and some command-line utilities. Though you now have a better understanding of VxVM, it is recommended you go to the Veritas Symantec Web site for more information (see Resources).


Soure: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-aixveritas/?S_TACT=105AGY06&

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