Volume group with missing alternative hw_path devices

[FTSE SysAdmin]

Hi,

I've got a volume group (vg07) which appeared to have lost the alternative hw_paths (c8t4d0 and c9t4d1), like you can see:

PV Name /dev/dsk/c5t11d4
PV Name /dev/dsk/c4t11d4 Alternate Link
PV Status available
Total PE 8190
Free PE 0
Autoswitch On

PV Name /dev/dsk/c8t4d0
PV Status available
Total PE 4095
Free PE 0
Autoswitch On

PV Name /dev/dsk/c9t4d1
PV Status available
Total PE 4095
Free PE 950
Autoswitch On

I've tryed to add them by typing

vgcreate /dev/vg07 /dev/dsk/c8t4d0 /dev/dsk/c9t4d0

However I get this message:

vgcreate: Volume group "/dev/vg07" already exists in the "/etc/lvmtab" file

I'm a bit lost here :(

pvdisplay /dev/dsk/c8t4d0
--- Physical volumes ---
PV Name /dev/dsk/c8t4d0
VG Name /dev/vg07
PV Status available
Allocatable yes
VGDA 2
Cur LV 1
PE Size (Mbytes) 4
Total PE 4095
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 4095
Stale PE 0
IO Timeout (Seconds) default
Autoswitch On

pvdisplay /dev/dsk/c9t4d0
pvdisplay: Couldn't find the volume group to which
physical volume "/dev/dsk/c9t4d0" belongs.
pvdisplay: Cannot display physical volume "/dev/dsk/c9t4d0".

pvdisplay /dev/dsk/c9t4d1
--- Physical volumes ---
PV Name /dev/dsk/c9t4d1
VG Name /dev/vg07
PV Status available
Allocatable yes
VGDA 2
Cur LV 1
PE Size (Mbytes) 4
Total PE 4095
Free PE 950
Allocated PE 3145
Stale PE 0
IO Timeout (Seconds) default
Autoswitch On

pvdisplay /dev/dsk/c8t4d1
pvdisplay: Couldn't find the volume group to which
physical volume "/dev/dsk/c8t4d1" belongs.
pvdisplay: Cannot display physical volume "/dev/dsk/c8t4d1"

I really don't know how to progress this and re-add those missing alternative hw_path links... without losing any data on the primary hw_path devices :/

Help :)

Many thanks

[Sridhar Bhaskarla · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You need to run 'vgextend' not 'vgcreate' to add the alternate links.

vgextend vg07 /dev/dsk/c9t4d0

Since c8t4d0 is already part of the VG, you don't run vgextend for that PV.

Repeat the above for all the alternate paths for the corresponding VGs.

-Sri

[FTSE SysAdmin]

Geee I guess that I need holidays 8) doing this with vgcreate really will not work when is supposed to use vgextend :)

Many thanks it worked as it should :)

[FTSE SysAdmin]

Many thanks Sridhar Bhaskarla