topic Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument in Operating System - HP-UX

pvcreate reports invalid argument

Lucinda Taylor — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:25:07 GMT

I am trying to configure a new MSA1000 LUN to my rp7420 server. When I run the command
pvcreate -f /dev/rdsk/c31t0d1 I get the
pvcreate: writing LVM record: Invalid argument
error.

I get the same error when I try to configure the disk through SAM.

When I run ioscan -fnC disk I can see
disk 264 0/0/10/1/0.201.3.255.0.0.1 sdisk CLAIMED DEVICE COMPAQ MSA1000 VOLUME /dev/dsk/c31t0d1 /dev/rdsk/c31t0d1

I have not been able to find a resolution to this problem within any message forums. Any help would be appreciated.

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

melvyn burnard — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:30:35 GMT

can you write to this device?
try:
dd if=/stand/vmunix of=/dev/rdsk/c31t0d1 bs=1024k

If that fails, you have a problem with writing to the LUN, probably a config issue on the MSA.

You could also try:
diskinfo -v /dev/rdsk/c31t0d1
and post the resultant output

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

Lucinda Taylor — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:37:26 GMT

Here is the result from the dd command.
I/O error
1+0 records in
0+1 records out

I actually don't perform the configuration of the MSA, a storage group does that. Is there something I can suggest to them?

Thanks

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

Christian Tremblay — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:41:41 GMT

Ask them to give you another LUN on the array, this one seems to be bad.

I have seen this problem on LUNs that were previously assigned to windows boxes and reassigned to UNIX servers.

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

melvyn burnard — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:42:59 GMT

This showas the LUN is not useable. Get the people who did this to come and fix it or rebuild the array so you can write to it, and don't let them go until you prove it works :-]

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

Torsten. — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:43:03 GMT

IS "SSP" (Selective Storage Presentation - some like WWN zoning on switches) enabled and configured? Is this your first LUN from the MSA or do you have some already?

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

Lucinda Taylor — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:47:25 GMT

This is my first LUN from this array. They sent me a MSA1000 with 7 drives and created one LUN. It is very likely it was used in a different configuration before trying to attach to my HP server.

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

Michael Steele_2 — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:52:14 GMT

See if you can read it with 'dd'

#diskinfo /dev/rdsk/c1t10d #pvcreate -
#dd if=/dev/rdsk/cxtxdx of=/dev/null bs=1024K

Attach logtool report

STM > TOOLS > UTILITY > RUN > LOGTOOL > FILE > RAW SUMMARY

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

Torsten. — Wed, 31 May 2006 13:21:27 GMT

Ask your storage group if they are aware of the configuration for HP-UX, it is "slightly" different from configurations for other operation systems.

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

Lucinda Taylor — Wed, 31 May 2006 14:33:25 GMT

Thanks, I talked to the storage group about the specific config for HP-UX and they are working on it.

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

Torsten. — Wed, 31 May 2006 14:40:32 GMT

Please keep us informed.

Re: pvcreate reports invalid argument

Lucinda Taylor — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 17:13:17 GMT

Thank-you all for your help. I finally was given the permission to take over the MSA configuration. I removed what was done to the MSA and then I performed array controller config, LUN creation, connection info and set limited access to the storage. It was a very easy setup and took very little time today and now my users have a new disk space.

Thanks for pointing me in the MSA config direction,
Lucinda Taylor