booting mirrored disks

[curt larson_1]

Here is some back ground info

have 3 disks at scsi address 6,5,and 4

mirrored the 6 disc to the 5 and 4 drives.
did the usually pvcreate -B, mkboot -l, mkboot -a "...", lvextend -m 1 ..., lvlnboot ... stuff

used setboot to make the 5 drive the primary boot device and 6 the alternate.

system booted fine.

did lvreduce -m 1 lvolX c0t6d0
and vgreduce to remove the 6 drive from vg00

set the alternate boot device to device 4
and lvlnboot -R

rebooted

now the system wont' boot from drive 5 or 4.
the error message is ..../stand/vmunix is not executable or not found for both drives.

drive 5 starts to boot into maintaince mode but about where the swap space is allocated the kernel crashes.

drive 4 does boot sucessfully into maintaince mode.

I do have an ignite backup to restore the system, but lets see if i can learn something from this.

Anyone have suggestions on how I got into this situation and, of course, suggestions for getting the system to boot (without using ignite).

thanks

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Curt,

Can you post the list of logical volumes on each disk?. I assume you did a three way mirror first and then reduced c0t6d0.

Basically you will have to have primary swap, root and boot logical volumes on the primary boot disk. Since it was mirrored to c0t6d0, you could be able to boot from it.

If you are able to boot into maintenance mode from drive 4, then I suspect you can boot from it too. Make sure your 'lvlnboot' information is correct before booting. Once the system comes up, check the mirrors. I would split the mirrors and mount the lvols from drive 5 and see if they look ok.

-Sri

[curt larson_1]

>Can you post the list of logical volumes on each disk?.
/dev/vg00/lvol1 thru lvol8 on each disk

>I assume you did a three way mirror first and then reduced c0t6d0.

yes that is correct.

>Since it was mirrored to c0t6d0, you could be able to boot from it.

tried ISL> hpux disc(..../0.6.0;0)/stand/vmunix
with the same results for the other drives:
..../stand/vmunix is not executable or not found
didn't try -lq, -lm, or -is options

>If you are able to boot into maintenance mode from drive 4, then I suspect you can boot from it too.

nope that isn't the case, -lm works, no switch or -lm results in:
..../stand/vmunix is not executable or not found

didn't try -is option

>Make sure your 'lvlnboot' information is correct before booting.

yes it looks alright. but after listing the 5 and 4 drives as boot devices, there a message:no boot logical volume configured
I think this referenced the old 6 drive that was in the volume group

[curt larson_1]

meant to say:

nope that isn't the case, -lm works, no switch or -lq results in:
..../stand/vmunix is not executable or not found

>yes it looks alright. but after listing the 5 and 4 drives as boot devices, there a message:no boot logical volume configured
I think this referenced the old 6 drive that was in the volume group

this message wasn't there after doing a lvlnboot -R after reducing the 6 drive.
i'm thinking the error message shows up due to being in maintenance mode and lvlnboot is checking all the bootable drives not just those in vg00

[curt larson_1]

one other item:

ISL> hpux ls
no directory

can't list /stand using hpux at the isl prompt

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

I actually meant you could boot from drive 5 as it was mirrored to drive 6.

I suggested to boot from drive 4 to multi-user mode as you could boot it through LV maintenance mode. And then make sure the mirrors were in fact correct on drive 5. I would try splitting the mirror to ensure the data.

-Sri

[curt larson_1]

>I actually meant you could boot from drive 5 as it was mirrored to drive 6.

well drives 6,5,and 4 were all in a three way mirror.

>I suggested to boot from drive 4 to multi-user mode as you could boot it through LV maintenance mode.

yes, i can boot into maintenance mode on drive 4, but not into mulituser mode

can not boot drive 5 into mulituser mode either. and it also crashes when booted into maintanence mode

if additional information is need, just ask and i'll see if i can get it (after all i am only booted into maintanence mode)

[Prashant Zanwar_4]

I would have tried removing the disk physically first than doing lvreduece...
If you have created recovery tape...try recovering the system.
Thanks
Prashant

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Curt,

What error are you getting when you boot drive 4 into multi-user mode?. I assume it's not about missing swap. While in maintenance mode itself, ensure lvlnboot information. Also check if stand, boot and primary swap logical volumes are contiguous.

-Sri

[curt larson_1]

>What error are you getting when you boot drive 4 into multi-user mode?.

the secondary loader hpux cannot find the kernel.
here is the screen information

ISL booting hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix

boot
: disc(8/0/19/0.4.0.0.0.0.0;0)/stand/vmunix
disc(8/0/19/0.4.0.0.0.0.0;0)/stand/vmunix: cannot open, or not executable



>While in maintenance mode itself, ensure lvlnboot information.

yes, that information checks ok.

>Also check if stand, boot and primary swap logical volumes are contiguous.

yes they are, strict and contigous, available and syncd

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Let's look at Drive 4 which you could be able to boot in maintenance mode.

//
: disc(8/0/19/0.4.0.0.0.0.0;0)/stand/vmunix
disc(8/0/19/0.4.0.0.0.0.0;0)/stand/vmunix: cannot open, or not executable //

If it couldn't find /stand/vmunix, then how could boot it through LVM maintenance mode?. Is /stand the first logical volume on the disk?


-Sri

[curt larson_1]

some other information

this is a C200 workstation running 11i
cannot boot into single user mode either (hpux -is)

here is some displayed information when booting into maintanence mode. Don't know if they are indications of possible errors or
are the results of booting into maintanence mode.

checking root file system
vxfs fsck: not a valid file system
invalid superblock
vxfs fsck: cannot initialize aggreate
filesystem check failure, aborting ...
root check done
.
.
.
/sbin/ioinitrc
fsck: /dev/vg00/lvol1: possible swap device (cannot determine)
fsck suspended by USER
/dev/vg00/lvol1 no such device or address
unable to mount /stand please check intries in /etc/fstab
skipping KRS database initialization - /stand con't be mounted

[curt larson_1]

If it couldn't find /stand/vmunix, then how could boot it through LVM maintenance mode?.

Yes, i agree that it seems improbable, but that is what is happening. hpux -lm will boot. anything else gets the error message.

Is /stand the first logical volume on the disk?

yes, it is.

lvol1 /stand
lvol2 swap
lvol3 root
...

[Sridhar Bhaskarla · Accepted solution]

I believe there are issues with BDRA. In maintenance mode, I would try the following.

#vgchange -a y vg00
#fsck /dev/vg00/lvol1
(followed by lvol2 and lvol3)
#mount /dev/vg00/lvol1 /test

Make sure you see vmunix in there.

Update BDRA
#lvlnboot -b /dev/vg00/lvol1
#lvlnboot -r /dev/vg00/lvol3
#lvlnboot -s /dev/vg00/lvol2

lvlnboot -v

and then try again.. I may try to reimport vg00 again if any of the above fails. Also look at /stand/bootconf and ensure both the disks are listed in there.


-Sri

[curt larson_1]

the file systems fsck'd just fine

doing the lvlnboot seemed to have done the trick

I have an issue with auto_parms, but the system is booting must fine with either mirror