VERITAS Volume Manager 4.1 Release Notes (5900-0591, March 2010)

VERITAS Volume Manager 4.1 Release Notes
Known Problems and Workarounds
Chapter 1 19
Installation Issues
Upgrading Systems Running VxVM 3.5 Prior to Command Cumulative Patch 06
Before upgrading a system that is running under VxVM 3.5 at a patch level prior to Command
Cumulative Patch 06 (PHCO_30834), it is strongly recommended that you download and apply
this patch, and then run the ckpublen.sh utility script. If the script reports that any disks
need to be re-initialized, back up the file systems and data residing on the volumes on those
disks, and restore them after re-initializing the disks and recreating the volumes. You can
then proceed to upgrade the system with the VERITAS Storage Foundation 4.1 software.
Cautionary Note when using HP-UX Maintenance Mode Boot (MMB)
HP-UX Maintenance Mode Boot (MMB) is meant to be used in the recovery from catastrophic
failures that have prevented the target machine from booting. If a mirrored root is configured,
then when booting in MMB mode, only one mirror is activated. Therefore, any writes to the
root filesystem in this mode could cause root filesystem corruption later when both mirrors
are configured.
The vx_emerg_start script is provided to be used when starting the Volume Manager in
MMB mode. This script will avoid writing to the root file system, unless absolutely necessary.
If it needs to update the volboot file, then it will request that you reinvoke the
vx_emerg_start script, using the -f option, to perform the write.
It is recommended that after the vx_emerg_start script has been run to start the Volume
Manager while in MMB mode on a mirrored root, that the half of the mirror not booted from is
removed. This can be carried out as follows:
• Determine which disk you booted from.
•Use the vxdisk list command to find your boot disk in the DEVICE column on the far left.
• Find the Disk Media (DM) name of your boot device by looking up your boot device in the
DISK column. This will be a name such as rootdisk01, rootdisk02 and so on. Also note
the name of the mirror disk DM.
•Use the vxprint -g rootdg rootvol command. If you have a mirrored root volume, you
will see two lines with pl on the far left side. Look at each pl (or plex) entry and
immediately below it will be the subdisk associated with the plex. It will start with an sd
in the far left column.
• Look at the NAME field immediately to the right of the sd column. This will show the
subdisk name, which is made up of the DM name followed by -nn, where nn is a number
such as 03, 04, and so on. This should allow you to identify the DM name of the disk that
is not your boot disk. You can remove the plex and its associated subdisk by executing the
vxplex command as follows: