Cannot remove logical volume

[Walter Goncalves]

The server is running hpux 11.

I am trying to remove a logical volume but get the following message.

Current path "/dev/dsk/c9t2d1" is an alternate link, skip.
Current path "/dev/dsk/c9t2d2" is an alternate link, skip.
Current path "/dev/dsk/c9t2d3" is an alternate link, skip.
Current path "/dev/dsk/c9t3d2" is an alternate link, skip.
lvremove: Couldn't delete logical volume "/dev/vg_misc/8.1.6":
The supplied lv number refers to a non-existent logical volume.
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg_misc has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg_misc.conf

I then looked at the /dev/vg_misc directory and saw
brw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 64 0x020011 Jun 13 11:59 temp_dir
crw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 64 0x020011 Jun 13 12:00 rtemp_dir
brw-r----- 1 root sys 64 0x020011 Jan 29 2002 8.1.6
crw-r----- 1 root sys 64 0x020011 Jan 29 2002 r8.1.6

I saw the problem (the minor numbers where the same) so I removed the two files for temp_dir and recreated them with a different minor number as follows.

brw-r----- 1 root sys 64 0x020011 Jan 29 2002 8.1.6
crw-r----- 1 root sys 64 0x020011 Jan 29 2002 r8.1.6
brw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 64 0x0200ff Aug 6 11:59 temp_dir
crw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 64 0x0200ff Aug 6 12:00 rtemp_dir


This did not help as I cannot still remove the logical volume. Any ideas?

[Steven E. Protter]

Looks to me like you have pvlinks active, two paths to the same disk, probably through two different scsi paths.

Also, you might want to see if there really is a logical volume.

lvdisplay lvolname

What do you see?

Just because the file is there doesn't mean its there.

I'd take a backup of the system with make_tape_recovery use sam disk area and list all logical volumes.

Then you may manually rm the device driver files if you are confident anything actually needs to be done.

SEP

[Marco Santerre]

I'm not sure if you actually have a problem with temp_dir as well, but if that is the case why don't you just simply remove the whole VG and re-create it (if you can naturally) by vgexporting the whole thing. Plus since temp_dir seems to be the newest of the two filesystems, it probably clobbered 8.1.6 in vg_misc.conf, therefore, it would think that it simply doesn't exist anymore.

[Massimo Bianchi]

Can you post a "vgdisplay -v vg_misc" ?

I suspect some other missing stuff.

Are you able to mount the temp_dir logical volume ?

Maybe a "vgreduce -f vg_misc" could help...
Massimo

[Walter Goncalves]

LVdisplay outputs the following.


Name /dev/vg_misc/temp_dir
VG Name /dev/vg_misc
LV Permission read/write
LV Status available/syncd
Mirror copies 0
Consistency Recovery MWC
Schedule parallel
LV Size (Mbytes) 0
Current LE 0
Allocated PE 0
Stripes 0
Stripe Size (Kbytes) 0
Bad block on
Allocation non-strict
IO Timeout (Seconds) default

So it does exist. It is just 0 size. Also sam does not remove the logical volume.

[Marco Santerre]

Yes, temp_dir will exist, but I doubt that 8.1.6 will anymore. The fact that you had the same minor numbers for temp_dir and 8.1.6, chances are that your 8.1.6 LV got clobbered in the LVM config and that's why it doesn't find it anymore.

[Tim Adamson_1]

Hi,

If LVM reported the logical volume was non existant, why not just remove the device fles from /dev/vg_misc manually. After all the logical volume doesn't exist.

Tim

[RolandH]

Hi Walther,

1)unmount all filesystem from that volumegroup.
2) deactivate the volumegroup vgchange -a n /dev/vg_misc
3) export the volumegroup vgexport /dev/vg_misc
4) mkdir /dev/vg_misc
5) mknod /dev/vg_misc/group c 64 0x##0000
## = highest number +1 (ll /dev/*/group)
6) vgimport /dev/vg_misc < all discs belonging to that vg >
7) ll /dev/vg_misc/*
now you see all lvols in that vg and we have a clean state. If you want you can now rename the lvols ( ie: lvol1/rlvol1 --> 8.1.6/r8.1.6 if you are sure the first lvol is that oracle lvol)
8) activate the volumegroup vgchange -a y /dev/vg_misc
9) remove now your lvol what you not need with lvremove


HTH
Roland