Can't activate VG; it won't ignore quorum

[Matt Hearn]

Hi all! I have a VG with a failed disk (way failed; it doesn't even appear on the ioscan at this point), and I'm trying to get it to activate. When I type:

> vgchange -a e /dev/vgdtgamsp
vgchange: Warning: Couldn't attach to the volume group physical volume "/dev/dsk/c0t1d0":
The path of the physical volume refers to a device that does not
exist, or is not configured into the kernel.
vgchange: Warning: couldn't query physical volume "/dev/dsk/c0t1d0":
The specified path does not correspond to physical volume attached to
this volume group
vgchange: Warning: couldn't query all of the physical volumes.
vgchange: Couldn't activate volume group "/dev/vgdtgamsp":
Quorum not present, or some physical volume(s) are missing.


This is to be expected. But when I try:
> vgchange -a e -q n /dev/vgdtgamsp
vgchange: Warning: Couldn't attach to the volume group physical volume "/dev/dsk/c0t1d0":
The path of the physical volume refers to a device that does not
exist, or is not configured into the kernel.
vgchange: Warning: couldn't query physical volume "/dev/dsk/c0t1d0":
The specified path does not correspond to physical volume attached to
this volume group
vgchange: Warning: couldn't query all of the physical volumes.
vgchange: Couldn't activate volume group "/dev/vgdtgamsp":
Quorum not present, or some physical volume(s) are missing.

The same thing! Shouldn't it be ignoring the quorum restriction and starting up anyway? What am I doing wrong?

I've got the hardware vendor for this box coming in to replace the disk, but it'd sure be nice to get the application started up while we wait.

[IT_2007]

It seems you lost the disk and it is not mirror disk. You can activate volume group with no quorum only if you have one disk good in the mirror group. If your volume groups spanned onto two physical disks (not mirror) then it is not possible to activate it. You need to replace the bad disk and restore the data.

[KapilRaj]

Is that the only disk in the VG ?

[Prasanth B]

Hi,

Try vgchange -a y -q n /dev/vgdtgamsp rather than "-a e"

-PB

[Kyris]

Matt,

I have HP900, old!!!, with a mirrored boot disk and this is an extact from my notes. You need '2' below to boot till u get the engineer in.

"1 â replace with a new one

2â Rebooted machine to multi user mode. Failed to reboot so went to single user mode â interrupted boot process ï   ISL > hpux â lq ( quorum problem). Booted okâ ¦

3 â vgcfgrestore -n /dev/vg03 /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0 - that restores LVM configuration info on the disk. Always gives an error BUT then says itâ s done- ignore error!!!

4 â mkboot -l /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0 - places boot utilities in boot area of the disk

5 â mkboot -a â hpux â lq (;0)/stand/vmunixâ /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0 - points disk to /stand dir

6 â lvlnboot â R - recovers missing links to all of logical volumes

7 â vgchange -a y /dev/vg03 - to reactivate the volume group to which the disk belongs

8 â vgdisplay â v /dev/vg03 | more

9 - vgsync /dev/vg03 [&] - to manually sychronize all extents in the volume group.

10 â lvdisplay â v /dev/vg03/lvoln â to see lvols as they are synced are done ok
12 - Check with setboot to see itâ s secondary ..

13 â Shutdown â h â y 0 - to check it boots up ok. If it does all is well

Hope it helps..
kyris

[Andrew Pearce]

Hi Matt,

How many disks do you have in the volume group vgdtgamsp.

As other people have pointed out. If you only have one disk, or two disks which are not mirrored, you will not be able to activate the volume group.

You can find out how many disks are in the volume group by using the command

# strings /etc/lvmtab

Regards
Andrew