Mirror-ux - mirrored, but are they bootable?

[Jeff Harr]

What we had:
------------
A 10.20 system with 2 disks, 1 volume group (vg00), and 1 mirror.

What we did:
------------
We upgraded to 11.0, installed the newer Mirror-ux version for 11.0 (I believe it was on the September applications release), re-added the old 2nd disk to the upgraded vg00, and then re-enabled mirroring. The system is now mirrored.

The problem:
------------
When I run lvlnboot -v I get this response, saying only one of the drives is "bootable"
Boot Definitions for Volume Group /dev/vg00:
Physical Volumes belonging in Root Volume
--------------------------------------------
Group:
/dev/dsk/c0t5d0 (8/4.5.0) -- Boot Disk
/dev/dsk/c0t8d0 (8/4.8.0)
PV Name: lvol1 on: /dev/dsk/c0t5d0
/dev/dsk/c0t8d0
Root: lvol3 on: /dev/dsk/c0t5d0
/dev/dsk/c0t8d0
Swap: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c0t5d0
/dev/dsk/c0t8d0
Dump: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c0t5d0, 0
------------------------------------------

On the old system it said that both disks were bootable.
Please note that I did run this command following adding the disk to vg00:
mkboot -a "hpux (;0)/stand/vmunix" /dev/rdsk/c0t8d0

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.
Thanks,
Jeff

[Craig Rants]

What does lifls on the two disks tell you? The updatediaglif file is different between the two O/S's, that may be the difference.

If HPUX is not in the lif area of the second disk, no booting can occur.

GL,
C

[Helen French]

Hi Jeff,

After running mkboot and mirroring, did u tried the 'lvlnboot -b boot_lv', 'lvlnboot -d dump_lv' and lvlnboot -r root_lv' ?

Also you have to use 'lvlnboot -R'

Some thoughts ....

HTH,
Shiju

[Sanjay_6 · Accepted solution]

Hi Jeff,

Look like your second disk (mirror) is non bootable. Do this,

mkboot -a "hpux (;0)/stand/vmunix" /dev/rdk/c0t8d0

lvlnboot -r /dev/vg00/lvol3
lvlnboot -b /dev/vg00/lvol1
lvlnboot -s /dev/vg00/lvol2
lvlnboot -d /dev/vg00/lvol2
lvlnboot -R

and then check for the boot definition,

lvlnboot -v /dev/vg00

This should show both the disks as bootable.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Helen French]

Hi Jeff,

One more thing: Did you give '-B' option when you pvcreated the disk ?

HTH,
Shiju

[Helen French]

Hi Jeff,

Check this out for normal steps to perform:

http://us-support2.external.hp.com/cki/bin/doc.pl/sid=61aa8f8a0665fd0cc4/screen=ckiDisplayDocument?docId=200000057581212

HTH,
Shiju

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Jeff:

I would do an lvreduce on each lvol and then vgreduce the volume group to remove the mirrored disk from vg00 and start over.

To mirror:
RAW=/dev/rdsk/c1t6d0 (or whatever)
COOK=/dev/dsk/c1t6d0 (or whatever)

pvcreate -f -B ${RAW}
vgextend /dev/vg00 ${COOK}

mkboot ${RAW}
mkboot -a "hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix" ${RAW}

for each lvol do an lvextend, e.g:
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol1 ${COOK}

That should mirror you; I would also repeat the same mkboot -a as above for the original boot disk so that you can boot without quorun if either disk fails.

[Jeff Harr]

First of all BIG THANKS FOR THE QUICK RESPONSE!

Answers to various questions:
1) I don't know if I used -B when I did pvcreate because I used SAM to add the disk to the group
2) I have not used lifls (yet)
3) the only lvlnboot option I have ever used is -a (I plan to use the ones listed in the various suggestions).

Question for A.Clay Stephenson and Sanjay:
1) I didn't put "-lq" in my lvlnboot command. Is that the thing I missed? Sanjay suggested that I do a number of other steps (rather than starting from scratch). Should I start from scratch AND do those other steps?

Thanks,
Jeff

[A. Clay Stephenson]

The -lq is not your problem. This just says, it you don't have enough disks to make quorum go ahead and activate the VG anyway. This way, you can boot if either disk fails without it, you can't boot unless you have (N/2) + 1 disks available. In a 2 volume VG that means both disks.

I suspect that you missed the -B and that would cause your problems. That is why I suggested that you start all over.

Regards, Clay

[Helen French]

Hi,

The best things is to start over. Check out Clay's suggestions. As I mentioned earlier, the 'pvcreate -B' is a must.

You can do all the steps from command line. Check the output of 'lvlnboot -v' before u reboot the system.

'-lq' option is not a must; but you can do that for convenience. It just skips the quorum check while booting.

HTH,
Shiju

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Jeff,

the -lq option goes with the mkboot command,

mkboot -a "hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix" /dev/rdsk/cxtydz

If you put -lq in the lif, it will allow you to boot using the alternate disk even if the primary has failed and you won't have to interact with the ipl. If you don't put -lq in the lif, in case the primary fail, you have boot theu alt and then interact with ipl and manually boot the system with -lq option. The -lq option stands for booting disk without quorum. So it is upto the admin, you can put -lq or you can leave -lq out.

You can run the lvlnboot command with the -r/b/s/d options anytime. This just rebuilds your BRDA and is not harmful.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Helen French]

Hi Jeff,

This will give you all steps needed to perform for a fresh root mirroring:

http://us-support2.external.hp.com/cki/bin/doc.pl/sid=0574163a1c0ce51fa0/screen=ckiDisplayDocument?docId=200000055534397

HTH,
Shiju

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Jeff,

If it is possible for you to do, reduce the mirror on the disk, then do a vgreduce to remove the mirror disk from the vg, do a "pvcreate -B /dev/rdsk/c0t8d0" to create a bootable disk, add the disk into the root VG, do a mkboot to put the lif info, then add the mirror to the mirror disk. This way you can be sure that you have followed all the steps and have not missed anything.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Jeff Harr]

Ok, all the help seems to have worked. You know, looking through my notes I have the mkboot -B there, but when I tried to use it it had said "the disk is already a part of the volume group" or something like that. I then went "What the hell?" followed by "I guess I have to use SAM :(". Anyway, the -B never got used.

Incidentally, the idea of using -lq (Clay's) rules, I've since added that.

Big thanks to all, hope I gave everyone enough points :) And by the way, what's the etiquette for giving out points? Anything I should know? I just did it off-the-cuff.

Later,
Jeff

[Helen French]

Jeff,

Glad it is working for u. Check this out to find more about forum, points etc:

http://us-support.external.hp.com/estaff/bin/doc.pl/screen=estaffAssistance/distrib_redir=0+1013801924|*?Page=file0002

HTH,
Shiju