Remove duplicated bootlist entries

UNIX AIX
1

Hello.

I have a server with 2 boot disk but in the bootlist there are 5 paths of one disk but no path of the other.
How can I remove paths from one disk to insert paths from the other disk?

Thanks in advance.

server074:root:/# bootlist -om normal
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=0
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=1
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=2
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=3
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=4

server074:root:/# bootlist -m normal hdisk0 hdisk3

server074:root:/# bootlist -om normal
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=0
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=1
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=2
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=3
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=4
2

Can you show us the output from:-

lsvg rootvg
lsvg -l rootvg
lsvg -p rootvg

How are your disks provided and connected? It would be good to know how you have generated 5 paths. It's not necessarily a problem, just a little unusual.

If these are SAN/VIO etc provided, then there may not be a need to mirror and assign the bootlist to both (or all)

Kind regards,
Robin

3

Yes, of course. Here there are ...

VOLUME GROUP:       rootvg                   VG IDENTIFIER:  00f8138d00004c000000013c6dd59129
VG STATE:           active                   PP SIZE:        512 megabyte(s)
VG PERMISSION:      read/write               TOTAL PPs:      198 (101376 megabytes)
MAX LVs:            256                      FREE PPs:       42 (21504 megabytes)
LVs:                12                       USED PPs:       156 (79872 megabytes)
OPEN LVs:           11                       QUORUM:         1 (Disabled)
TOTAL PVs:          2                        VG DESCRIPTORS: 3
STALE PVs:          0                        STALE PPs:      0
ACTIVE PVs:         2                        AUTO ON:        yes
MAX PPs per VG:     32512
MAX PPs per PV:     1016                     MAX PVs:        32
LTG size (Dynamic): 256 kilobyte(s)          AUTO SYNC:      no
HOT SPARE:          no                       BB POLICY:      relocatable
PV RESTRICTION:     none                     INFINITE RETRY: no

rootvg:
LV NAME             TYPE       LPs     PPs     PVs  LV STATE      MOUNT POINT
hd5                 boot       1       2       2    closed/syncd  N/A
hd8                 jfs2log    1       2       2    open/syncd    N/A
hd4                 jfs2       4       8       2    open/syncd    /
hd2                 jfs2       12      24      2    open/syncd    /usr
hd9var              jfs2       12      24      2    open/syncd    /var
hd3                 jfs2       8       16      2    open/syncd    /tmp
hd1                 jfs2       5       10      2    open/syncd    /home
hd10opt             jfs2       4       8       2    open/syncd    /opt
hd11admin           jfs2       1       2       2    open/syncd    /admin
livedump            jfs2       2       4       2    open/syncd    /var/adm/ras/livedump
fslv00              jfs2       24      48      2    open/syncd    /soft
lg_dumplv1          sysdump    8       8       1    open/syncd    N/A

rootvg:
PV_NAME           PV STATE          TOTAL PPs   FREE PPs    FREE DISTRIBUTION
hdisk0            active            99          25          13..00..00..00..12
hdisk3            active            99          17          00..00..00..00..17

server074:root:/# lsdev -Cc disk
hdisk0  Available 02-T1-01 HP HSV450 Enterprise Virtual Array
hdisk1  Available 12-T1-01 HP HSV450 Enterprise Virtual Array
hdisk2  Available 12-T1-01 HP HSV450 Enterprise Virtual Array
hdisk3  Available 12-T1-01 HP HSV450 Enterprise Virtual Array

The 5 paths were generated when the rootvg wasn't mirrorred.
We have just mirrored the rootvg, and added the bosboot.

Kind regards.

4 
 

[*] bootlist -m normal hdisk0 pathid=0,2
[*] bootlist -m normal hdisk0 pathid=0 hdisk0 pathid=2

It is IBM's (?) OpenFirmware limitation, that you can have up to 5 devices in the boot list. Every path is seen as a separate device in OF. Check your paths with lspath command, but in a general case you don't need to many paths to each device. 2 or 4 paths are enough most of times. Remove unnecessary paths with rmpath command.

2 Likes
5

Great !!! Thank you very much

server074:root:/# bootlist -m normal hdisk0 pathid=0,2 hdisk3

server074:root:/# bootlist -om normal
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=0
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=2
hdisk3 blv=hd5 pathid=0
hdisk3 blv=hd5 pathid=2
hdisk3 blv=hd5 pathid=3
6

I notice that you have the following in the output of lsvg -l rootvg

lg_dumplv1          sysdump    8       8       1    open/syncd    N/A

Is this intentional? I have seen both a mirror on the dump device and a secondary dump device allocated on the 'other' disk in rootvg. I'm not sure which one is more sensible, but if hdisk0 failed, you would ungracefully lose your dump device and might have trouble recreating it.

Robin

7

Actually, I'm not sure why. This is the dump configuration:

server074:root:/# sysdumpdev -l
primary              /dev/lg_dumplv1
secondary            /dev/sysdumpnull
copy directory       /var/adm/ras
forced copy flag     FALSE
always allow dump    TRUE
dump compression     ON
type of dump         traditional

I have created another LV in the other disk:

server074:root:/# lspv -l hdisk3 | grep dump
livedump              2       2       01..01..00..00..00    /var/adm/ras/livedump
lg_dumplv1            8       8       08..00..00..00..00    N/A

server074:root:/# lspv -l hdisk0 | grep dump
lg_dumplv2            8       8       08..00..00..00..00    N/A
livedump              2       2       02..00..00..00..00    /var/adm/ras/livedump

server074:root:/# sysdumpdev -Ps /dev/lg_dumplv2
primary              /dev/lg_dumplv1
secondary            /dev/lg_dumplv2
copy directory       /var/adm/ras
forced copy flag     FALSE
always allow dump    TRUE
dump compression     ON
type of dump         traditional
8

I found this article and it suggests you have it set up in the preferred configuration now. Mirroring is slightly discouraged for the system dump device in case a crash is caused by mirroring software.

Understanding dump devices

I hope that this is useful to anyone else finding this thread.

Kind regards,
Robin