vgcfgrestore - unable to restore config bec. of PV size???

[Amitav]

and yes, plz do not forget to assign points for the answers u received, as all of us are taking out our time and giving an extended help...!!

[cam9269]

We managed to put in a new disk which is supposed to have the same capacity being that we put in a similar part number although, it's marked as a seagate disk as opposed to an HP disk currently installed

But when this new disk was plugged into the system, we still see that it is less than the disk sizes of the other disks currently installed. Here's a diskinfo o/p for your reference (c6t0d0 is the replaced disk)

SCSI describe of /dev/rdsk/c6t0d0:
vendor: SEAGATE
product id: ST336753LC
type: direct access
size: 35566479 Kbytes
bytes per sector: 512
---------------------------------------------
SCSI describe of /dev/rdsk/c4t8d0:
vendor: HP 36.4G
product id: ST336753LC
type: direct access
size: 35566480 Kbytes
bytes per sector: 512

[Michael Steele_2]

size: 35566479 Kbytes
bytes per sector: 512
---------------------------------------------

size: 35566480 Kbytes
bytes per sector: 512


It is odd that c6t0d0 is seagate and c4t8d0 is hp. I admit to have never seen this.

I'd check my firmware on everything including the PDC. I'm thinking the new disk is the latest and greatest and you're old somewhere in the GSP, PDC, ...

[Michael Steele_2]

oh, diskinfo -v for disk firmware versions. 'fcmsutil' for HBA's. ts99 for pdc.

[Bill Hassell]

This is not that unusual. Unfortunately, 36GB is not always 36GB...I have seen the numbers off by 24 to over 1000. Here is the key:

vendor: SEAGATE
product id: ST336753LC

vendor: HP 36.4G
product id: ST336753LC

Even though the mfr is Seagate with the exact same Seagate product number, the vendor ID is the giveaway that it is not the same disk. There are a large number of reasons for the variations, none of which make it easy for sysadmins. You can always replace the disk with a bigger one but the reverse won't work.

So diskinfo is your friend -- hopefully you have this info before you have to replace the disk. Always replace with the same vendor ID and product ID. Sometimes, this information is printed on the drive...sometimes not.

[cam9269]

Thanks Bill, that's what we are thinking now. We are now ordering the exact part number as seen from the failed disk. Am just waiting for the delivery then we can continue with this replacement.

[Kapil Jha · Accepted solution]

Hi Bill,

I have one question for you, here the problem is becuase this guy is using vgcfgrestore and disks are in PVG.
size if disk is just 1KB less....
so what would happen if he removes disks from PVG temporary.....add it with normal LVM command..........put back in PVG and sync it.
It should work right ??
Lemme know if my understanding is correct.

BR,
Kapil+

[Bill Hassell]

Yes, you can remove the disk completely, then add it back as a new disk in the VG. You'll need to lvreduce any mirror information on that disk so it is unused in the VG. Then pvcreate the replacement disk, vgextend it into the VG and then lvextend -m 1 the lvols onto it for mirroring. Just make sure there are enough extents on the new disk to handle the mirrored PEs.

[cam9269]

Thanks for the inputs guys, just how do I remove/add a disk from a PVG? This may be my next plan of action if I can't get my disk until early next week

[Kapil Jha]

PVG is nothing but a acsii file, which just make sure that you do not mirror the disk in same group/controller.
remove the disk entry from PVG from /etc/lvmpvg add disk as explained by Bill and then put the entry back in PVG file.

BR,
Kapil+