why only /stand uses hfs while all other directories use vxfs?

[newa]

Hello,

I just received several hp-ux (rp3440) servers and noticed an interesting thing about the file systems used on those servers - all directories use vxfs file system except /stand directory which uses hfs file system (see below). Is there any good reason for that?

Thanks a lot in advance!

******* output from bdf command ********
$ bdf -t vxfs
Filesystem kbytes used avail %used Mounted on
/dev/vg00/lvol3 1048576 384168 660384 37% /
/dev/vg00/lvol8 6291456 5195976 1090856 83% /var
/dev/vg00/lvol7 8388608 2072024 6267328 25% /usr
/dev/vg00/lvol4 2383872 120992 2246288 5% /tmp
/dev/vg00/lvol6 7446528 5214400 2215864 70% /opt
/dev/vg00/lvol5 2088960 381400 1694408 18% /home
/dev/vg00/lvaudit 1024000 16727 944326 2% /.secure/etc
$ bdf -t hfs
Filesystem kbytes used avail %used Mounted on
/dev/vg00/lvol1 511672 92624 367880 20% /stand

[newa]

The OS on those servers are hp-ux 11i v2

[Dennis Handly]

What OS version are you using?
For 11.23 Integrity, /stand is vxfs.

[SoorajCleris · Accepted solution]

Hi newa,

The HP-UX os was used to work with PA-RISC systems in the beginning. The firmware , the bootloaders were designed like that to read from HFS filesystems... They dont really want to change those in future.

Now in case of Intergrity systems, you can find /stand is also using Vxfs.. EFI and those bootloaders are more intelligent to read Vxfs.

This is what I think.. I dont know if I am wrong !!!. I will search for some documents for you ..

Regards,
Sooraj

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

As I recall, beginning with Itanium machines (rxNNNN) and 11.23, your '/stand' filesystem can be a VxFS one. This isn't true for PA-RISC though at that level.

The '/stand' directory has historically been a HFS filesystem. This is because the secondary loader ('hpux') needs to know how to locate '/stand/vmunix' to boot it and it only understands HFS filesystems.

The '/stand' filesystem is for the kernel and having it HFS isn't really an issue.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Michael Steele_2]

Hi

HP-UX 10.20 was the last version of HP-UX to use HFS in / (root), leaving only /stand, the first lvol in vg00, to need HFS.

Besides the hp-ux kernel, /etc/rootconf and the ioconfig / io table are found in /stand and rely on hfs.

/etc/rootconf is a copy of the boot lif, the 1st of two partitions on the boot disk, and is used by lvm maintenance mode to boot into a maintenance state on vg00.

ioconfig contains all the device paths for the kernel.

Ignoring all this, HP in my opinion kept HFS around for proprietary reasons. It worked with PA-Risc, and VXVM or Base JFS, doesn't. JFS was developed by Veritas and is now owned by Symanntic I believe.

So I think it was for propritary purposes. But I honestly don't know.

[Emil Velez]

The program that loads the kernel from memory

hpux (which is in the LIF area of the disk)

cannot read a vxfs filesysetm for PA RISC systems

On integrity they wrote a secondary loader that reads a vxfs filesystem as well as VXVM partition.

[AVV]

Hi,

PARISC has this limitation and has been overcome by IA server.

In PARISC , secondary loader is searching for kernel on HFS FS

[newa]

Thanks a lot for answering the question.