73GB disk added to volume groupe shows just 34800MB free space

[Ron Ayzenberg]

Hi.
I have rp2405 with HP-UX 11.11 and 36GB hard drive. I have to add 73GB disk to same volume group. If I create new VG contain 73G disk - all entire space available.
When I've added this disk to vg00 - just 34800M available.
Does somebody know how to fix this problem?

Thanks in advance,
Ron.

[Nico Schockaert]

Hello,
Most likely you exceeded the max PE (Physical Extends) per Volume Group. Check with vgdisplay /dev/vg00. The Max PE per PV volume group setting cannot be increased on an existing volume group. The Max PE per PV setting must be set appropriately at volume group creation time. The fastest way is to backup all files in the root volume group. Then re-install the minimum system using new physical disks and restore from backup. If you will use larger disk drives in the future, you should specify large MAX_PE_PV value at system installation.
Hope this helps,
Nico

[Ron Ayzenberg]

Thanks Nico.
Now I have lot of work to do :-)

[Patrick Wallek]

Nico is correct in diagnosing your problem.

However, by far the easiest way to fix this is to create a make_tape_recovery tape via Ignite/UX. Ignite is a FREE product and can be gotten from: http://software.hp.com/products/IUX/

Once you have downloaded and installed the product (the install does NOT require a reboot) you can create a make_tape_recovery tape of your VG00 with the following command:

# /opt/ignite/bin/make_tape_recovery -a /dev/rmt/?mn -I -v -x inc_entire=vg00

Note that you MUST use the no-rewind (0mn, 1mn, etc.) tape device file.

Once you have done that, you can shut down your system, add your 73GB disk, reboot and boot from the Ignite tape. When the tape boots it will come up in interactive mode and you can modify your VG parameters so that all of the 73GB disk is available to you.

If you do not have a tape drive available, and you have another HP-UX system, you can still utilize Ignite/UX and its make_net_recovery utility to do the same thing.

Ignite is far far easier than backing up, doing a minimal install and restoring. I think probably it is a far far safer method too.