cannot see unused disks...

[Bing Wong]

I am still new to HP-UX world. I have an issue that I need help. I requested storage group to add 40GB to a storage group on EMC that is attached to HP-UX. They created a new LUN and added to an existing storge group. Original size of the sotrage group was 200GB and now it is 240GB. But I don't see the new LUN after I ran "ioscan -fnC disk".
VGDISPLAY--------------------------------
VG Name /dev/vgemc
VG Write Access read/write
VG Status available
Max LV 255
Cur LV 6
Open LV 6
Max PV 16
Cur PV 1
Act PV 1
Max PE per PV 25599
VGDA 2
PE Size (Mbytes) 8
Total PE 25596
Alloc PE 25386
Free PE 210
Total PVG 0
Total Spare PVs 0
Total Spare PVs in use 0

More Questions:
(1) The MAX PE per PV is 25599 and Total PE is 25596. Does it mean that vgemc cannot be expanded any more?
(2) Can 2 storage groups of EMC be attached to one physical HP-UX server?

I really appreciate your help.

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Shalom,

For non-hp disk arrays it is usually necessary to reboot the system so that disk assigned to the WWN, world wide name of a fiber channel adapter can be seen.

You may try:
insf -C disk

But likely you will need to boot.

1) Yes, you are full up on extents and need to set up a new vg for the new disk and/or recreate the volume group with the -p parameter. This will spread your useful PE's physical extents over fewer disks. Make sure you leave room for some extra luns.

2) Yes, directly, one to each fiber card or even more via a Fabric/Fiber optic network, known as a SAN, Storage Area Network.

SEP

[John Dvorchak]

Before I reboot I would try ioscan -Cdisk to get the same effect as a reboot. At reboot it will do the ioscan and pick up the new hardware, if the box is already running you can just run ioscan and it will find all new hardware. Then use Stevens suggestion of insf -e to build the /dev/dsk and /dev/rdsk files for you.

[Bing Wong]

Thank you.

Is there a way to increase the MAX PE per PV parameter or it is at max already?

Max PE per PV 25599

I will check on our Fabric/Fiber Optic Network/SAN.

[DCE]

The max pe is hard coded when the volume group is initially created. The only way to make it larger is to destroy the vg and recreate it with a larger max pe. This will, of course, destroy any existing data, so make sure you have good backups!

[Steven E. Protter]

Sorry, that is set at Volume group creation time.

I talked to an engineer about it in 2002 and the reasoning behind this seemed to make sense.

Thats all I recall from that conversation.

SEP

[David Bellamy]

Bing all you have to do to see the new disk is
1. ioscan
2. insf -e -C disk
3. ioscan -funC disk

after you do these steps disk will show up

[Bing Wong]

I am going to apply cummulative patch for SAM. So I need to backup the system before doing so. What's the best way to back up entire OS and when to make sure all files are backed up.

Thank you for your help.

[Nguyen Anh Tien]

Hi BingWong
To backup entire OS (not include your data) you should use ignite -backup.
check ignite installed by:
#swlist |grep -i ignite
you can refer more at:
http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/james/search.do?searchtext=ignite+backup+software&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&hpl=1&todo=search&searchcriteria=allwords&from=forums&searchcategory=ALL&rn=25&presort=rank&source=7000&esc=us.support.itrc.hp.com&wpa=forums1.itrc.hp.com%3A80&origin=0&chkServStor=on

[Devender Khatana]

Hi,

There should not be any problem in adding the new LUN to your vgemc as your vgemc has only one PV so far and will allow 15 more in it. Also the Max_PE_PER_PV and PE_size is set to allow one single disk/LUN of 200GB.

It appears that instead of creating a new LUN they have extended the existing LUN to become of 240GB. Is it ?

If yes even if your MAX_PE_PER_PV is set properly to allow the new size, then also you can not change VG config as HPUx will not allow you to do that. You can not do a PV extention in HPUx.

An alternative will be to ask your storage people to create a new LUN and assign it to your host. Any LUN of sizes upto 200 GB will be enough for you to be added to this VG.

HTH,
Devender