VERITAS Volume Manager 3.5 Troubleshooting Guide (September 2004)

Recovery from Boot Disk Failure

Recovery by Reinstallation

Chapter 2

Recovery by Reinstallation

NOTE If you conﬁgured VxVM rootability by installing via Ignite-UX, consult the “System

Recovery” section of the Ignite-UX Administration Guide, before consulting this section.

In many instances, reinstalling from a saved Ignite-UX conﬁguration is sufﬁcient to

recover a failed boot disk.

Reinstallation is necessary if all copies of your boot (root) disk are damaged, or if certain

critical ﬁles are lost due to ﬁle system damage. On an HP-UX 11i system, ﬁrst use the

recovery methods described in “Recovery from a Failed VxVM Boot Mirror Disk” on

page 31 Follow the procedures below only if those methods fail.

If these types of failures occur, attempt to preserve as much of the original VxVM

conﬁguration as possible. Any volumes that are not directly involved in the failure do not

need to be reconﬁgured. You do not have to reconﬁgure any volumes that are preserved.

General Reinstallation Information

This section describes procedures used to reinstall VxVM and preserve as much of the

original conﬁguration as possible after a failure.

NOTE System reinstallation destroys the contents of any disks that are used for reinstallation.

All VxVM-related information is removed during reinstallation. Data removed includes

data in private areas on removed disks that contain the disk identiﬁer and copies of the

VxVM conﬁguration. The removal of this information makes the disk unusable as a VM

disk.

The system root disk is always involved in reinstallation. Other disks can also be

involved. If the root disk was placed under VxVM control, either during Veritas Veritas

Volume Manager installation or later, that disk and any volumes or mirrors on it are lost

during reinstallation. Any other disks that are involved in the reinstallation, or that are

removed and replaced, can lose VxVM conﬁguration data (including volumes and

mirrors).

If a disk, including the root disk, is not under VxVM control prior to the failure, no

VxVM conﬁguration data is lost at reinstallation. For information on replacing disks, see

“Removing and Replacing Disks” in the “Administering Disks” chapter of the VERITAS

Volume Manager Administrator’s Guide.

Although it simpliﬁes the recovery process after reinstallation, not having the root disk

under Veritas Volume Manager control increases the possibility of a reinstallation being

necessary. By having the root disk under VxVM control and creating mirrors of the root

disk contents, you can eliminate many of the problems that require system

reinstallation.

When reinstallation is necessary, the only volumes saved are those that reside on, or

have copies on, disks that are not directly involved with the failure and reinstallation.

Any volumes on the root disk and other disks involved with the failure or reinstallation

are lost during reinstallation. If backup copies of these volumes are available, the

volumes can be restored after reinstallation. On some systems, the root, stand, and usr

ﬁle systems are exceptions and cannot be restored from backup.