Boot off mirror

[Tom Danzig]

I can't boot of the mirror disk on V2250 running HPUX 11.00. When I try "boot alt" after interrupting the boot process, I get

"Can't find default file BOOT_TC".

Strange.

I recreated the mirror. After reducing the root vg, I did a dd to overwrite the LIF area on the mirror disk (I did get and IO error when I did this) and then did the pvcreate -f -B cXtXdX, mkboot, etc.

lifls of AUTO on the mirror shows the correct default file

(hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix). Also tried "hpux -lq"

LIF volume headed is OK (LIF10)

Becauce of the IO error on the dd to the mirror and the weird error on alt disk boot attempt, I believe the disk may have bad sectors in the LIF area.

Thoughts / comments?

Thanks,
Tom

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

To have a bootable disk you need to have mirrored /, swap and /stand
1. Do you use LVM and mirroring? If yes, run lvlnboot -v.
2.Take a look on the latest LVM patches and hardware/ critical patches for V class machines. Install Diagnostics and run STM.

[Stefan Farrelly]

unusual that you would use dd to overwrite the lif area, and more unusual to get an i/o error. To check the mirror disk to see if its got any bad blocks etc. do;
dd if=/dev/rdsk/cxxxxx of=/dev/null bs=1024k

If this command works without any errors then the disk looks fine, if not the disk may be bad, try to mediainit first then repeat the dd.

When you create the mirror make sure you do it the correct way, pvcreate -B first, then mkboot then lvextend all of vg00's lvols in order, 1,2,3... then lvlnboot -v should show both disks as bootable and swap/root/dump listed on both disks, then it should boot absolutely fine off the mirror - as long as the primary disk is also present.

[Tom Danzig]

The following outlines the commands/steps used:
lvreduce -m 0 /dev/vg00/lvol1 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvreduce -m 0 /dev/vg00/lvol2 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvreduce -m 0 /dev/vg00/lvol3 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvreduce -m 0 /dev/vg00/lvol4 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvreduce -m 0 /dev/vg00/lvol5 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvreduce -m 0 /dev/vg00/lvol6 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvreduce -m 0 /dev/vg00/lvol7 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvreduce -m 0 /dev/vg00/lvol8 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
vgreduce /dev/vg00 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
dd if=/stand/vmunix of=/dev/rdsk/c8t6d0 bs=4096
pvcreate -f -B /dev/rdsk/c8t6d0
vgextend /dev/vg00 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
mkboot /dev/rdsk/c8t6d0
mkboot -a "hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix" /dev/rdsk/c8t6d0
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol1 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol2 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol3 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol4 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol5 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol6 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol7 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol8 /dev/dsk/c8t6d0
lvlnboot -r /dev/vg00/lvol3
lvlnboot -s /dev/vg00/lvol2
lvlnboot -d /dev/vg00/lvol2
lvlnboot -b /dev/vg00/lvol1
lvlnboot -R /dev/vg00
lvlnboot -v
setboot

The dd to the mirror was used to make sure that the LIF was recreated; not simply checked/updated. This recommendation came from HP.

[Stefan Farrelly]

The commands you listed look ok. Did you try doing a dd on the mirror as suggested? did it work or did you get an error ?

[John Palmer]

I agree that the commands listed look ok.

You could also have installed the diagnostic LIF files with the command:-

mkboot -b /usr/sbin/diag/lif/updatediaglif -p ISL -p AUTO -p HPUX -p LABEL /dev/rdsk/c8t6d0

Are you certain that the 'setboot' path for alternate boot is correct? What is the output from 'setboot'?

Regards,
John

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

Why dd? You do not need it. Repeat the steps, without dd. Eventually, by the end, vgchange -a y /dev/vg00.

[Patrick Wessel]

Tom,
Let's take a look on the problem from a different angel.
Is f-code enabled for the slot with your mirrored boot-path? And are the boot-file and argument set right?
These are causes why I saw the boot_tc message

[Tom Danzig]

# dd if=/dev/rdsk/c8t6d0 of=/dev/null bs=1024
4194157+0 records in
4194157+0 records out

# lvlnboot -v
Boot Definitions for Volume Group /dev/vg00:
Physical Volumes belonging in Root Volume Group:
/dev/dsk/c1t6d0 (1/1/0.6.0) -- Boot Disk
/dev/dsk/c8t6d0 (6/2/0.6.0) -- Boot Disk
Boot: lvol1 on: /dev/dsk/c1t6d0
/dev/dsk/c8t6d0
Root: lvol3 on: /dev/dsk/c1t6d0
/dev/dsk/c8t6d0
Swap: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c1t6d0
/dev/dsk/c8t6d0
Dump: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c1t6d0, 0

# setboot
Primary bootpath : 1/1/0.6.0
Alternate bootpath : 6/2/0.6.0

Autoboot is ON (enabled)
Autosearch is ON (enabled)

[Tom Danzig]

Patrick,

Primary boot disk:

# lifcp /dev/rdsk/c1t6d0:AUTO -
hpux

Alternate boot disk:

# lifcp /dev/rdsk/c8t6d0:AUTO -
hpux -lq

After first trying "hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix" I then tried "hpux -lq" which is the current AUTO file contents on the alternate disk.

Im not sure all PCI slots are fcode enabled. Can I check this with the system up or only at the boot prompt? Since I know that this machine can boot of of SCSI tape, I suspect that all PCI slots are fcode enabled.

Thanks,
Tom