Umount /var

[robin uy]

I need to expand /var fs. When I tried to umount /var, it came back saying device is busy. fuser showed a list of processes active... Is it safe to kill these processes, extend the fs and restart the system?
some of the process are swagentd, syslogd, nettl, ptydaimon rpcd, cron, automount, envd, basicdsd, vtdaemon, pdclientd, sendmail, daiglogd, dtlogin, psdisk.exec, nmbd, lpshed...
I don't know what some of these processes do.

[MARTINACHE]

Hi,

I think that you cant't modify /var like this.

I propose you 3 solutions :

1) Do it in single user

2) Ignite :
2.1) Create an Ignite Tape :
make_recovery -ACi

(with -i option, you will go directly to interactive mode, when booting on tape)

2.2) Reboot
2.3) Boot on Ignite Tape
2.4) In the menu modify /var size
2.5) Restore you /vg00 with your Ignite Tape

3) Use Online JFS (if you bought it , if /var is vxfs)

Regards,

Patrice.

[Cheryl Griffin · Accepted solution]

Without OnlineJFS (or AdvancedJFS) you must umount the filesystem first in order to expand it.

/var is a critical filesystem because it is used by most applications and by the system.

Most of the processes you listed can be stopped and restarted, however if you do not know what they are, it may not be as safe as shutting the system down, rebooting into single user mode, extending the filesystem and then rebooting into multiuser mode. By using this method, you are guaranteed that everything is stopped properly and restarted properly.

[James R. Ferguson]

Robin:

If you have Online JFS then you can do this without shutting down anything. If you do not, the simplest thing to do is to boot, interrupt the boot process, interact with the IPL and boot to single user mode. When there, do your LVM maintenance, and when done, reboot. This is straightforward and clean.

...JRF...

[Dave Wherry]

I would be hesitant to kill all of those processes. Likely, there is something there that should be running. It could cause some erratic behavior and force you to reboot anyway.
Another method is to seperate some of the subdirectories into new file systems. Such as /var/adm/crash, /var/spool or /var/adm/sw. You may have to do this in single user because of running processes.
For example, save whatever is in /var/adm/sw. Then delete everything in that directory. Create a new logical volume and file system and mount it as file system /var/adm/sw. Then restore to it.
This will free up a lot of space under /var.

[Richard Darling]

Robin, I just recently had to extend /var to install patches:
1) boot into single user mode:

reboot and interrupt the boot process;
selected BO;
interact with IPL - "Y"es
At the ISL> prompt enter hpux -is

You will then be able to extend the file system...
RD

[Murray Jones]

You'll need to do it in single user mode, and you'll need to extend it using the comnmandline - not SAM - as SAM will try to use /var for temp files etc.

Easiest way is:
organise an outage
Shutdown the system to single user mode:
# shutdown now
check to see which filesystems are mounted - and unmount /var if it is still mounted:
# umount /var
extend the logical volume
# lvextend .....
Extend the filesystem to occupy the increased space:
# extendfs .....
mount it up and check it out:
# mount /var


Cheers,

Murray Jones