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

VERITAS Volume Manager 4.1 Release Notes
Known Problems and Workarounds
Chapter 126
Subdisks are not Aligned on Cylinder Boundaries After a Relayout
• When relayout is performed on a volume, VxVM does not grow subdisks such that they
end on cylinder boundaries. If you subsequently increase the size of the volume, its
subdisks are not grown using contiguous disk space.
• To ensure that a volume’s subdisks are grown using contiguous disk space, specify the
attribute layout=nodiskalign to vxassist, as shown here:
# vxassist growby volume length layout=nodiskalign
NOTE Specifying layout=nodiskalign permanently enforces this layout policy on the
volume.
Resizing Layered Volumes Fails while Resynchronization is Ongoing.
• Problem: Due to the current implementation to handle the resize of layered volumes, it is
recommended that you do not grow or shrink layered volumes (stripe-mirror,
concat-mirror, and so on) while resynchronization is ongoing.
Internally, VxVM converts the layout of layered volumes and updates the configuration
database before it shrinks or grows their sizes. This causes any ongoing operation, such as
the resynchronization, to fail.
• Workaround: If the system reboots before the grow or shrink of a layered volume
completes, the volume is left with an intermediate layout. In this case, the user has to use
vxassist convert to restore the volume to its original layout.
After a layered volume is resized, the volume names, the plex names and the subdisk
names associated with the subvolumes, are changed.
Stopping and Starting Layered Volumes
If a layered volume is in use when a vxvol stopall command is issued, then only the
sub-volumes are disabled. The layered volume remains enabled. When a vxvol stop
layered-volume command is issued, then only the top layered volume is stopped. The
sub-volumes remain enabled. When a vxvol start layered-volume command is issued, then
only the top layered volume is started. The sub-volumes remain disabled.
VxVM Commands Do Not Always Show Current Status of VxVM Disks
• Problem: The VEA and frequently used VxVM commands, such as vxdisk and vxprint,
do not necessarily show the current status of disks managed by VxVM. VxVM builds and
maintains a configuration database in system memory. This configuration database also