~urgent~ help with disk management please

[Kenner_1]

Hello,

I am really not an expert with HPUX so please help me !

We have a server rp2405 with two disks , the machine started to cycle boot for undetermined reason ... No explanation of why yet, HP will send us a replacement disk .

I need to know how to access this disk so I can maybe save data on it.

What I supposed would work is to plug the disk in an other machine and just mount the partition :D

But it is not as simple as that apprently.

Sorry I am used to Solaris world where you run format command and here it is .

I would really appreciate a quick answer and help with this as we have to give back the supposedly faulty disk this afternoon.

Many thanks in advance,

Maya

[Devender Khatana]

Hi kenner,

Please mention which disk of your system is faulty out of two one which caontains the OS or the additial one.
Were they mirrored earlier ?
Is system booting now?
if booting then post output of :-
#bdf
#vgdisplay -v /dev/vg*
#lvdisplay -v /dev/vg*/lvol*

& what was the application running on it ?

Revert back fast for a quick reply.
Devender

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hii Maya,

Do you have a tapedrive ?

http://www.software.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=IGNITEUXB

Download and install ignite and create a bootable tape.

Hope this helps,
Robert-Jan

[Ravi_8]

Hi,

One way i can think is using vgexport and vgimport,

Plug in the disk to machine(where it is used to reboot)

#vgexport -v -m

[Kenner_1]

Hi,

no the machine did not want to boot anymore, it was cycling reboot .
the disks were not mirrored and it is the first disk ( the boot one ) that is supposed to be either failing or corrupted kernel.
i do not have a tape on any hp system I have.

Can't I just plug this disk on an other hpux machine and see its partition and mount it ?

Thanks, Maya

[Devender Khatana · Accepted solution]

Yes Kenner,
You can obviously do import this volume group on another HP System. First physically connect this disks to another system without changing SCSI ID's of both disks. Then do a vgimport as follow :-

SAM->Disks & File Systems ->Volume Groups

From Acion tab do a Import.
This will sense these disks & just do import these file systems on your new system.
Do not specify mount points there but do a manual mount as you are doing it temporarily only there. It will create file system device files uder /dev/vgxx directory. Where vgxx is the vg name you selected while importing.

HTH,
Devender

[Ravi_8]

Hi,

since the machine is doing cycling reboot, it may not be disk problem.
I would log call with HP

[melvyn burnard]

Well this may not be just a disc issue, there could be other reasons.
I recommend you log a call with your local HP Response Centre and get their help.

[Kenner_1]

yes thank you,

i logged a call at HP but there were not able to determine the reason of the cycling boot arguing either kernel corruption or disk problem.

Maya

[Kenner_1]

Last one please,

the machine on which I plugged my disk already has a disk which I removed.

when trying to import my disk with SAM it says that my disk is already recorded in lvmtab file ( which is true as they were already a disk ).

how do I "erase" previous disk configuration in order to import a new one.

alternate question : i do not want to loose the disk that was here previoulsy , will I be able to re-import its fstab easily ( actually I guess same method I am trying to use now ? )

Thanks, Maya

[Devender Khatana]

Hi maya,

Just try by booting the alternate kernel. It use to be there by default. Just power cycle the machine. After initial testing it flashes a message " Press Any key with 10 Sec ". just do that then it will come to PDC Prompt. Here you can give
bo pri
It will ask interact with IPL-Y/N
Just give Y
Then it comes to IPL Prompt :-
IPL>
Just give a `hpux -ls` command. it displays the contents of the /stand file system. Select any file other than /stand/vmunix what is displayed there & do

IPL>hpux /stand/filename (vmunix.prev Generally)

& if it is not working tell exactly then post the error logs displayed on screen from powering on till reboot.

HTH,
Devender

[Kenner_1]

!! :D

HP engineer did not ask me to do this !
I had to boot with hpux -mp and -is but not with alternate boot file...

both boot option did not change the cycling boot.

if you are interested , this happens during test phase at processor test apparently, i have an alert saying that a non-critical thing happened , I acknowledge the alert , I have three or four like that then bing reboot again ...

Maya

[melvyn burnard]

>f you are interested , this happens during test phase at processor test apparently, i have an alert saying that a non-critical thing happened , I acknowledge the alert , I have three or four like that then bing reboot again ...


Well then this appears to be a hardware failure on the system and not a boot disc issue.
Get a hwardware call logged, or if you had one open for the disc, get them to investigate further.

[Devender Khatana]

Hi Maya,

It appears to be some critical hardware error. Just wait for HP to diagnose it & find out what is wrong.

Share with us also what it concluded to.

HTH,
Devender

[Kenner_1]

Ok ok ok ...

possible test : if i take a bootable disk from the other machine and plug it in my "faulty" one I should have the same error, no ?

the hardware of machine are identical .

will try that immediatly.

Maya

[Devender Khatana]

Hi Maya,

As you said it is giving critical error message even before the start of boot sequence, you can try to power cycle without a disk also. Also with other systems's disk it should give same problem if it is a h/W problem and not if it is a disk problem.

HTH,
Devender

[Kenner_1]

Last reply,

first of all thanks to all of you with your replies it was really useful, at least for my knowledge :D

it is really a disk failure, when booting with no disk I do not have the error, when booting with a valid boot disk, the machine succesfully boots.

Thanks afain, Maya