Activating Volume Groups attached to NAS

[placitasmd]

I have a lefthand storage array connected via the LAN to an hpux 11.11 server. When I boot up, none of the VGs associated with the array activate. I can activate them manually though, and then mount the file systems. I suspect the reason they do not activate is because the vgchange takes place before the network is started during the boot process. Any thoughts on the cleanest way to get around this?

[Ivan Krastev]

Check /etc/lvmrc file and add groups if necessary.

regards,
ivan

[Lijeesh N G_1]

Hi,

I can activate them manually though, and then mount the file systems.??
===>
1)For activation of Volume group automatically,check /etc/lvmrc file.

2)For mounting the file systems automatically, edit /etc/fstab file.

Regards,
LIJEESH N G

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

in /etc/lvmrc you need to have this variable set to 1.

#To disable automatic volume group activation,
#set AUTO_VG_ACTIVATE to 0.
AUTO_VG_ACTIVATE=1

mikap

[Raj D.]

placitasmd ,
What is the output of :
# cat /etc/lvmrc | grep ^AUTO_VG_ACTIVATE

if AUTO_VG_ACTIVATE=0 in /etc/lvmrc you have to enter the vg names in the lvmrc , like vg00.

if AUTO_VG_ACTIVATE=1 those vgs should be activated automatically.


Cheers,
Raj.

[Duncan Edmonstone · Accepted solution]

congratulations... you've all done a great job of ignoring the problem! Everyone mentioned chnaging /etc/lvmrc - the problem is /etc/lvmrc is called way before the network stack is available, so regardless of what he puts in there it's never going to work.

to the original poster - there is no proscribed "fix" from HP that I am aware of - I suspect you'll just have to write yourself a little startup script which is called after the network is started that activates the volume group, and fsck's and mounts the filesystem...

HTH

Duncan

[placitasmd]

Thank you Duncan for actually taking the time to read the question.

[Bill Hassell]

Welcome to the world of NAS...these are not real disks but exist only on the network which does not exist for a long time during bootup. You will have to create a separate NAS start script in /sbin/init.d, then link it into the startup sequence in the /sbin/rc2.d directories, probably S470 so it starts after nfs is working. Use the template file /sbin/init.d/template as a starting point. Might be worthwhile to put some sanity checks such a ping and other NFS checks before trying to make the disks work.

The reason for the paranoia is that broken disks, whether SCSI, fibre or NFS/NAS, will cause serious bootup problems (like hangs with no recovery).

[placitasmd]

I created a script in init.d to solve this problem, and it seems to be working. Thanks.