11iv2 (IA64) could not boot with low quorum

[Ra Jose]

I have Itanium server running 11iv2. My boot option is set to "boot vmunix". When the server boot, it runs this command and system boots up fine. I changed the string to "boot vmunix -lq" (we usually use this option for booting via alt disk in LVM), system could not boot. I got the message "AUTOBOOTING...Could not boot maintenance mode". Any idea, why it could not boot and why it says "... in maintenance node" when low quorum is specified.

Thank you all.
Rajos

[Jonas Bygdén]

I just ran into the exact same problem. After mirroring the boot-disk on a brand new server (rx3600), I'm unable to boot it from the alternate boot-device with the "-lq" flag.

boot vmunix works just fine, from both disks.

/Jonas

[Jonas Bygdén]

Correction!!

boot vmunix does NOT work from the mirror.

I get a panic saying that the disk is not in LVM.

I believe I have figured out what I did wrong though.

I think I left out the "-B" flag when I ran pvcreate on the mirror.

I'm currently mirroring the disk again, and I'll let you know the results.

/Jonas

[Torsten.]

Hi,

from a running OS session, run

lvlnboot -v

If needed, re-write this settings:

lvlnboot -r /dev/vg00/lvol3
lvlnboot -b /dev/vg00/lvol1
lvlnboot -s /dev/vg00/lvol2
lvlnboot -d /dev/vg00/lvol2

[Ra Jose]

Thx for the response. The mirrored disk must be bootable. You have to create boot/root/swap/dump areas on it and change setboot settings to make sure alt boot is set to right path.

For PA-RISC based systems, we set the boot string to hpux -lq for the alt disk. This is because, when primary disk is bad, we have to boot via alt disk. If no low quorum is satisfied, alt boot disk wont boot.

My question in this thread was, how will you do the same on Itanium box. How to set low quorum for alt disk. Note that we use veritas volume manager and not LVM.

Rajos

[Enrico P.]

Hi,
edit the AUTO file so we can boot when one disk is missing:

# efi_cp -d /dev/rdsk/cxtxdxs1 -u /EFI/HPUX/AUTO /tmp/AUTO

# vi /tmp/AUTO

modify "boot vmunix" to "boot vmunix -lq"

then put back the file on both EFI partitions with:

# efi_cp -d /dev/rdsk/cxtxdxs1 /tmp/AUTO /EFI/HPUX/AUTO

(on both boot disk)

Enrico

[Ra Jose]

Enrico,

I have tried this option. Somehow Itanium boxes do not boot with
hpux vmunix -lq option. If you just try
with hpux vmunix, it is fine. But when you supply -lq option, the Itanium firmware do not have this option. So, I am wondering, how to boot this in loq quorum mode. I believe, what kind of volume management you use, is not important at the firmware level.
(we use veritas vol manager)
Rajos

[Torsten.]

Not really sure about this, but IMHO "-lq" applies to LVM only.

Try to boot

"boot vmunix -vm"

to get into the maintenance mode and check your settings.

[Ra Jose]

boot vmunix -vm works fine. This will get you in veritas maintenance mode. This is fine. What I wanted was to set the boot string of alt disk to boot in low quorum, just like the way we do for RISC based systems.
Rajos

[Jonas Bygdén]

Rajos,

I have solved my problem, have you tried my solution?

I had missed the "-B" option to pvcreate, after redoing it my system boots.

Try booting it manually with "boot vmunix" and see if that works.

/Jonas

[Ra Jose]

Jonas,

Yes, if you use LVM as your volume manager, pvcreate -B works fine.

My question again is , I am using veritas volume manager on IA64 system.

I have not been able to find out about whether veritas has low quorum concept just as LVM has.

Anway, thanks for your response.

Rajos

[Ra Jose]

This thread is long time open. I have not been able to find out the answer yet.

It may be the case that while booting from alt disk on Itanium server using Veritas volume manger, there is no such concept called low quorum booting. This concept is there in LVM, where one can specify "hpux -lq" option to boot in low quorum. Similar functionality may not be existing in VxVM.

Rajos