vgdisplay: Volume group not activated

[bunty.....]

today i needed to reboot my server,
after rebooting, i got this error:

# vgdisplay -v /dev/vg76
vgdisplay: Volume group not activated.
vgdisplay: Cannot display volume group "/dev/vg76".

i have lots of data under this VG, please help me.

thanks
bunty

[Pete Randall]

Try "vgchange -a y /dev/vg76".


Pete

[bunty.....]

hi pete,
will i have the data using this command or will i loose my data?

[John Payne_2]

The VG needs to be activated before you can use the Volume. This normally happens on bootup. No data is modified/overwritten by activating the volume.

John

[Patrick Wallek]

The purpose of vgchange is to activate a VG so your data is accessable. So NO your data should not be affected.

However you might want to check /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log and/or /etc/rc.log to see why this VG was activated when your machine booted.

[Torsten.]

Be sure this is not a cluster volume group. In this case the disk is only visible from the node that runs the package.


In case of a bad disk try to activate in quorum mode:

vgchange -a y -q n vg76

[Patrick Wallek]

I should add that once you activate the VG you will need to mount the filesystems from this VG. The easiest is to do a

# mount -a

[bunty.....]

# vgchange -a y /dev/vg76
vgchange: Warning: Couldn't attach to the volume group physical volume "/dev/dsk/c26t4d7":
Cross-device link
vgchange: Cross-device link
vgchange: Warning: couldn't query physical volume "/dev/dsk/c26t4d7":
The specified path does not correspond to physical volume attached to
this volume group
vgchange: Warning: couldn't query physical volume "/dev/dsk/c29t4d7":
The specified path does not correspond to physical volume attached to
this volume group
vgchange: Warning: couldn't query all of the physical volumes.
vgchange: Couldn't activate volume group "/dev/vg76":
Quorum not present, or some physical volume(s) are missing.


#vgdisplay -v /dev/vg31
:::
:::
:::
--- Physical volumes ---
PV Name /dev/dsk/c20t4d7
PV Status available
Total PE 1151
Free PE 227
Autoswitch On


i think vg76 got corrupted and we cannt access this data

[MarkSyder]

This begins to look very familiar - I had a similar problem a few weeks ago that was caused by a disc having an unused lvol on it.

I'll try to dig out my notes so I can remind myself what HP told me to do. Meanwhile, you might like to click on my user profile and look at my questions - I asked about it on here and got some good answers.

Mark Syder (like the drink but spelt different)

[MarkSyder]

My question was http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=985492

I hope this is of some help to you.

Mark

[MarkSyder]

I was hoping someone more knowledgeable than me might have chipped in by now, but they haven't, so I'll see if I can help a bit more. Try the following commands:

ioscan -fnC disk
vgdisplay -v vg76
strings /etc/lvmtab|pg
diskinfo /dev/rdsk/c20t4d7

Post the result and hope someone can suggest something.

Mark

[Nguyen Anh Tien]

Hi Bunty.
I have some question??
1, These VGs are belong to VGs in cluster env, aren't they??
2, how about "ioscan -fnC disk" result?? is there any "NO_HW" status????
SOLUTION1:
issue below command:
1, ioscan -fnC disk
2, strings /etc/lvmtab
3,vgchange -a r /dev/vgxx
note: vgchange -a r is active vg in readonly mode. it do not change anything in VG
4, post result to this topic
HTH
tienna

[Devender Khatana]

Hi,

THe reason for this error is your server can not see one disk belonging to that VG. The disk with device file /dev/dsk/c20t4d7 is not at the path it should be. It could be due to some SAN changes prior to reboot. The device should not have failed actually but would have device file changed.

Is it the dual path device or two seperate devices?

#ioscan -fnC disk
#diskinfo /dev/rdsk/c20t4d7


HTH,
Devender

[Sivakumar TS]

Dear Bunty,

Ensure that the disk is online, by iosacn and diskinfo.

If it is only a alternate link and this got lost due to some path change ( due to some change in the SAN connectivity etc) then there shouldnt be any data loss.

With Regards,

Siva.

[Mark Nieuwboer]

Hi bunty,

Sometimes after a reboot the device files aren't in place anymore of the device in a extarnal disk cabinet.
do a insf -e to install all device files.
After this try to activate the vg.
if this is not working.
Try to give the result asked by mark syder.

grtz. Mark

[Kyris]

What's your setup...long shot..If it's a mirrored boot disk and one fails, it may be a quorum problem.
Go to single user mode, interupt boot process...ISL > hpux -lq
Hope it helps..
kyris

[Indrajit_1]

Hi;
Try this

#vgchange -a r vg_name

#vgdisplay -v vg_name


cheers
indrajit