Veritas Volume Manager 4.1 Troubleshooting Guide (HP-UX 11i v3, February 2007)

Using VxVM Maintenance Mode Boot (MMB)
34 VERITAS Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide
When you have recovered the volumes on the VxVM root disk, and performed any other
necessary repairs, reboot the system:
# reboot
Fixing a Missing or Corrupt /etc/vx/volboot File
The following messages may be displayed at boot time if the /etc/vx/volboot file is
missing or its contents are incorrect:
vxvm:vxconfigd: ERROR: enable failed: Volboot file not loaded
transactions are disabled.
vxvm:vxconfigd: FATAL ERROR: Bootdg cannot be imported during boot
Error returned from vxconfigd -m boot, halting
◆ Description: During system bootup, the VxVM configuration daemon reads the file
/etc/vx/volboot. If that file is missing or corrupted, the configuration daemon
fails and aborts the boot sequence.
◆ Action: Reboot from recovery media and run the following command:
# vx_emerg_start -m hostname
This determines if the volboot file is present, and rewrites it if it is not present.
Using VxVM Maintenance Mode Boot (MMB)
Another method for performing limited recovery on a VxVM boot disk is to use the VxVM
Maintenance Mode Boot (MMB). MMB mode is initiated by booting the system and
gaining control at the ISL prompt. Boot the system from the primary or secondary boot
device, and enter the following command at the boot prompt:
hpux -vm
This causes the bootloader and the HP-UX kernel to take alternate actions in finding the
parts of the system that are required to boot the system.
The bootloader starts reading the stand file system at 1KB block 3168 instead of locating
it from the LIF label. The VxVM kernel rootability code uses root volume extent
information in the /stand/rootconf file to set up the extents of the root volume, and
init is instructed to bring the system up to single-user mode. When invoked from the
pre_init_rc script, the vxconfigd daemon exits gracefully if it determines from the
kernel that the system is in MMB mode. The system is left running with only the root
volume mounted, and VxVM runs with temporary objects pointing to the root volume.