broken boot disk and save_config fails

[Ian Killer_1]

Hi experts..

I'm hoping you can rope me out of another one.

I have an HA server with a broken (NO_HW in ioscan) mirrored boot disk. It's a D370 running 11.0. I want to make a recovery tape before replacing it. Save config returns the error..

save_config: error - unknown disk type for ,

lvlnboot -v takes forever and returns nothing.

At this point I'm thinking I'll take the heat from the users for an outage and reboot cleanly from the mirror with a replacement. Still.. having a tape_recovery would be ideal.

Please help.

[Jannik]

why not do a make_recovery to you ignite server, if you have one or make a bootable tape with ignite?

to ignite server:

/opt/ignite/bin/make_net_recovery -A -n 3 -v -P s -s

[Ian Killer_1]

THe make_net_recovery also attempts a save_config. Same error.

[T G Manikandan]

With one of the disks not responding,you will not be able to access the files from there,so a make_tape_recovery should not be possible.

The system will be in the hung state.

It would have been great if it was IGNITED last week!!

Anyhow,you should go with the other way--mirror disk!


Thanks

[Massimo Bianchi]

What about taking out the briken disk (software speaking) ?

lvrmboot,
lvremove -k,
vgreduce -f

and so on....
So you will have a clean vg00 on 1 disk.

Obviously i have no idea on how to fix it directly...

Massimo

[Tim Adamson_1]

Looks like you are in a catch 22.

You have a broken/dead disk and you want to create a make_tape_recovery tape before you replace the disk.

Unfortunately, Ignite will fail if you have any LVM problems. Until the LVM issues are fixed, you wont be able to create the tape.

In order to fix the LVM problems you have to fix the broken disk.

I would do a full fbackup and replace the the disk. You really don't have a choice.

Good luck

Tim

[Armin Feller]

The save_config command is used to validate the hardware configuration and disk
layout of the system. If we have any problems there we can find the reason with following command:

# sh -x /opt/ignite/bin/save_config > /tmp/save_config.out 2>&1

Please provide the contend of /tmp/save_config.out

[Armin Feller]

Read what Tim Adamson wrote. Thats the correct answert.

Please do following before make_tape_recovery

?? reduce all mirror copies (on the ghost disk) using the '-k' option in lvreduse
?? reduce the disk from the volume group using vgreduce -f vgXY
?? move /etc/lvmtab and re-create it
?? re-activate the volume group using vgchange -a y vgXY

Now create the IGNITE/UX tape, after restoring you have to rebuild the mirror.

[Ian Killer_1]

Thanks all for you help. Decided to play safe and cold boot from the mirror. Points shortly...

Cheers...
ian

[Ian Killer_1]

Here's the trailing end of the make_config output...

+ print -u4 cfg "HP-UX System Recovery"=TRUE
+ print -u4 _hp_saved_detail_level="vfph"
+ print -u4 #\n# Variable assignments\n#
+ grep -E hfs|vxfs
+ mount -lp
+ 1> /var/tmp/mount.tmp
+ swapinfo -d
+ 1> /var/tmp/swapinfo.tmp
+ ioscan -C disk -fn
+ 1> /var/tmp/ioscan.tmp
+ find_root_disk
+ [[ = /dev/root ]]
+ + disk_to_path
lssf: Must specify a special_file
usage: lssf special_file ...
save_config: error - unknown disk type for , not SCSI or HPFL
root_hardware_path=
+ print -u4 init _hp_root_disk=""
+ [[ -z ]]
+ fatal cannot determine root disk
save_config: error - cannot determine root disk

[Tim Adamson_1]

I still think the cause is an LVM issue.

Can you issue lvlnboot -v?
What about vgcfgbackup of vg00?

Does bdf show root mounted on /dev/root instead of /dev/vg00/lvol3?

Do you get messages about a missing physical disk when you issue LVM commands?


Tim.

[Massimo Bianchi]

what is the output of
lvlnboot -v
?

I think that some kernel structure has not been properly updated.

Massimo