Archive for the veritas volume manager Category Creating Veritas Volume using vxmake Posted July 13,

2012 Filed under: veritas volume manager | Leave a Comment We will see how to create a veritas volume using vxmake command. There are two ways to create a vx volume. A top to bottom approach wherein you create a volume and veritas creates the plex and subdisk for you. A bottom to top approach where in you create the objects and then build a volume. On a comparative note, vxassist is the easier way as it creates the volume top to bottom. Vxmake is comparatively difficult to manage in a production environment.. Knowing how to build a volume from scratch does not hurt and is a good exercise in learning the building blocks of VX. Lets see in detail how it works out. vxmake allows you to create objects individually. The approach will be to create Subdisks, associate plex with subdisk and put the plex in the volume. I am assuming that the disk test01 is part of the testdg diskgroup. 1. Create the Subdisk; #vxmake sd test01-01 test01,0,104857600 ( The value is in sectors ) 2. Build the Plex ; # vxmake plex testplex 3. Associate the Plex with subdisk ; # vxsd assoc testplex test01-01 assoc indicates we are associating the subdisk to the plex. 4. Attach the plex to volume ; # vxmake -U fsgen vol testvol plex=testplex 5. Check the status of the Objects. # vxprint -g testdg -hrtdg testdg default default 0 dm test01 c1t0d0s2 sliced 2048 104857600 v testvol fsgen DISABLED EMPTY 104857600 ROUND pl testplex testvol DISABLED EMPTY 104857600 CONCAT RW sd test01-01 testplex test01 0 104857600 0 c1t0d0 ENA 6. Start the volume ; # vxvol -g testdg start testvol 7. Check the status ; #vxprint -g testdg -hrt Missing Volboot file in VxVM Posted July 3, 2012 Filed under: veritas volume manager | Leave a Comment How to recover from a missing /etc/vx/volboot file? The volboot is an important file, it contains the hostid of the system and this is used by VxVM to establish the ownership of disks. The volboot is important in the management of vxconfigd as well. If the rootdisk is under VxVM control it also has the information of boot disk group information. During boot up, vxvm config dameon reads the volboot file, if the file is missing, vxconfigd fails and the boot sequence is aborted. Solution will be a) to copy the volboot file from backup and reboot the system. b) If a valid backup is not available we may need to run the sequence of commands to enable it again. Obtain the hostid of the system from vxprivutil. # vxprivutil list /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s3 |grep -i hostid # vxdctl stop ( stop the vxconfigd, if its running ) # vxiod set 10 # vxconfigd -m disable ( start the vxconfigd in disable mode ) # vxdctl init <hostid> ( hostid obtained from vxprivutil, this will recreate the /etc/vx/volboot file ) cfgadm:::Device being used by VxVM

Posted November 3, 2010 Filed under: Solaris, veritas volume manager | Leave a Comment root@abc>/> cfgadm -c unconfigure c1::dsk/c1t0d0 cfgadm: Component system is busy, try again: failed to offline: /devices/ssm@0,0/pci@1c,700000/pci@1/SUNW,isptwo@4/sd@0,0 Resource Information /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s2 Device being used by VxVM cfgadm unconfigure command fails here. The way to resolve this is to disable the disks path from DMP control. Since there is only one path to this disk, the -f (for force) option needs to be used: root@abc>/> vxdmpadm -f disable path=c1t0d0s2 root@abc>/> vxdmpadm getsubpaths ctlr=c1 NAME STATE[A] PATH-TYPE[M] DMPNODENAME ENCLR-TYPE ENCLR-NAME ATTRS ================================================================================ c1t0d0s2 DISABLED - c1t0d0s2 Disk Disk c1t6d0s2 ENABLED(A) - c1t6d0s2 Disk Disk You can see the path now disabled from DMP. root@abc>/> cfgadm -c unconfigure c1::dsk/c1t0d0 cfgadm goes through fine. root@abc>/> Rootdg corruption Server fails to boot Posted May 1, 2010 Filed under: veritas volume manager | Comments (1) There are times when one has to go through the cut Server has a bad panic/power trip and it corrupts the rootdg badly and the server is unable to boot with VxVM. Here is a procedure to recover from the situation. 1. Boot from the cdrom or from the network 2. Mount the rootdisk. 3. Once mounted, disable the start up of VxVM. - Edit /a/etc/system. Comment out the vx parameter as follow: *rootdev:/pseudo/vxio@0:0 *set vxio:vol_rootdev_is_volume=1 - cd /a/etc/vx/reconfig.d/state.d/ - rm root-done - touch install-db - cp -p /a/etc/vfstab /a/etc/vfstab.withvm - cp -p /a/etc/vfstab.prevm /a/etc/vfstab - init 6 4. Ensure the server comes up without veritas starting up. 5. Manually start the veritas volume manager. - vxiod set 10 - ps -ef |grep vxconfigd. If vxconfigd is not running, then run /usr/sbin/vxconfigd -m disable - vxdctl mode. Should see it is in disabled mode. - vxdctl init

- vxdctl enable - vxdctl mode 6. Check the diskgroups. - vxdg list 7. Deport the rootdg so that it does not come up again. - vxdg deport rootdg 8. Zero out private and public region partitions from the disks on the rootdg. - format -d <c#t#d#> 9. Once this is done, the disks should show as error. - vxdisk list 10. Re encapsulate the disk. - cd /etc/vx/reconfig.d/state.d/ - rm install-db - vxdiskadm. Option 2 to encapsulate the primary bootdisk - Reboot machine upon completed Option 2 above. 11. Verify for the boot and all volumes coming up clean. - vxprint -ht, to verify all the volume are enabled. If the volume not started, then run vxvol -g groupname startall to start the volume. - Revert back the /etc/vfstab.withvm to /etc/vfstab - mount all the volume and verify. 12. Mirror to second bootdisk - vxdiskadm. Option 1 to Add or initialize the second bootdisk - vxdiskadm. Option 6 to mirror the secondary bootdisk VxVM Upgrade Posted February 13, 2010 Filed under: veritas volume manager | Leave a Comment Lets look at VxVM Upgrade this week The setup is a) Solaris 9 b) VxVM 4.0 / VxDMP > No powerpath c) Oracle databases. I upgraded to Storage Foundation 5.0 MP3. The tech plan is as below: 1. Install the VRTSspt Package. Down load the package from symantec website 2. Run the VRTSexplorer and keep the file at a safe location if you may need it in case you run in any issue. 3. Break the rootmirror 4. Unencapsulate the rootmirror. # mount /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 /alt.root # cd /alt.root/etc # touch /alt.root/etc/vx/reconfig.d/state.d/install-db rootdev:/pseudo/vxio@0:0 set vxio:vol_rootdev_is_volume=1 Remove the above lines from /alt.root/etc/system file Make changes to /etc/vfstab to ensure the system boots from the mirror disk ( c#t#d#) 5. Boot the server from rootmirror and verify for the server coming up. 6. Boot again from the rootdisk. 7. Check for the pre-requiste packages. Solaris 9 for Storage Foundation need

SUNWcfcl,SUNWcfclr, SUNWcfclx packages and patch 114477-04. 8. Install the packages first and then the patches. Packages and patches can be downloaded from http://www.sun.com/downloads and choose A-Z downloads 9. Verify the pre-staged software is not corrupted and working fine. ( You can do this by doing a tar and keeping the software ready) 10. Ensure all applications/Databases are shutdown and the file-systems are down. 11. Ensure all the apps/dbs are umounted clean . # echo 8192B.p S | fsdb -F vxfs <Raw_Device> | grep clean Receive: flags 0 mod 0 clean clean_value Note: A clean_value value of 0x5a indicates the file system is clean, 0x3c incidates the file system is dirty, and 069 indicates the file system is dusty. A dusty file system has pending extended operations. Note: If a file system is not clean, enter the following commands for that file system: Enter: fsck -F vxfs filesystem Enter: mount -F vxfs [Block_Device] [mountpoint] Enter: umount [mountpoint] Note: This should complete any extended operations that were outstanding on the file system and unmount the file system cleanly. 12. Run the upgrade_start -check # /storage_foundation/scripts/upgrade_start -check -Note: this is a veritas check script that will check to see if this machine is eligible for upgrade. 13.Ensure that the root mirror is removed from rootdg. # /sbin/vxdg g rootdg f rmdisk rootmirror 14. Un encapsulate the rootdisk Remove the following lines from /etc/system rootdev:/pseudo/vxio@0:0 set vxio:vol_rootdev_is_volume=1 Prevent veritas from starting up. #/usr/bin/cd /etc/vx/reconfig.d/state.d #/usr/bin/rm root-done #/usr/bin/touch install-db 15 . Deport all appdiskgroups. 16. Reboot the node to single user mode. 17. Remove all packages that start with VRTS but for VRTSvlic. Dont remove the VRTSvlic packages. I believe you can remove this as well, but I have not tried it myself. # pkginfo | grep VRTS # pkgrm VRTSxxxx 18. Install the Veritas 5.0 Software # ./installer Note : Answer the questions and complete the installation. Insome cases veritas may not start correctly and will require a reboot. 19. If you are upgrading from 4.0 or later the licenses should take of themselves. 20. Manually Encapsualte the rootdisk after upgrade. # vxdiskadm Choose option 2 and give the root disk for encapsulation. 21. Import the disk groups and mount the filesystems. 22. Ensure applications are working fine 23. Remirror the rootdrive follow standard procedures.

Extending Filesystems in Sun Cluster using VxVM Posted October 25, 2009 Filed under: Solaris, Sun cluster, veritas volume manager | Tags: Sun cluster, Veritas Leave a Comment I did an activity to add LUNS to existing database file systems running sun Cluster 3.1, Solaris 9 OS with VxVM. The steps I followed are : a) Get the LUN information from Storage and update the sd.conf accordingly on both the servers b) Make the LUNS Visible on the server. Run the command on both the nodes #update_drv -f sd c) Verify for the LUNS present; # format d) Configure emcpower devices. Run on both the servers. # /etc/powermt config # /etc/powermt save e) Create the Sun Cluster DID devices. Run on both nodes if required. # devfsadm # scgdevs f) Verify the sun Cluster DID devices. # scdidadm -L g) Add the disks to veritas diskgroup ; # vxdiskadm h) Grow the FS Identifying multiple paths for a disk under VxVM control Posted December 8, 2008 Filed under: veritas volume manager | Leave a Comment This is a routine task for people dealing with VERITAS volume manager. There are times when one need to confirm the number of paths for the disk. This can be accomplished by the below command. # vxdisk list <diskname> In this one can look at the numpaths value at the bottom of the output. Mirroring an Empty volume under VxVM Posted November 14, 2008 Filed under: veritas volume manager | Leave a Comment If you are mirroring empty Veritas plexes, this post is for you. Normally we would wait ensuring the plexes are in sync. If the plex size is large, then the waiting time is more. A workaround is # vxassist -g <dgname> make testvol 1g layout=mirror init=active dgname01 dgname02 init=active is the keyword here. This should save lot of time. Identifying and Replacing failed disks in V880 Posted October 17, 2008 Filed under: Servers, veritas volume manager | Leave a Comment Hi, recently i ran in to a problem of failed disk with V880. I wanted to make sure if the disk has indeed failed. Server was running VxVM. Did these commands to identify the disk failure. V880 has internal FCAL loop. So to identify that #luxadm probe Found Enclosure: SUNWGS INT FCBPL Name:LoopA Node WWN:508002000011d7d8 Logical Path:/dev/es/ses0 #luxadm display LoopA

SUNWGS INT FCBPL DISK STATUS SLOT DISKS (Node WWN) 0 On (O.K.) 2000002037f87099 1 On (O.K.) 2000002037f39796 2 On (Login failed) 3 Not Installed 4 Not Installed 5 Not Installed 6 Not Installed 7 Not Installed 8 Not Installed 9 Not Installed 10 Not Installed 11 Not Installed SUBSYSTEM STATUS FW Revision:9218 Box ID:0 Node WWN:508002000011d7d8 Enclosure Name:LoopA SSC100s 0=Base Bkpln, 1=Base LoopB, 2=Exp Bkpln, 3=Exp LoopB SSC100 #0: O.K.(11.A) SSC100 #1: O.K.(11.A) SSC100 #2: Not Installed SSC100 #3: Not Installed Temperature Sensors 0 Base, 1 Expansion 0:21C 1:Not Installed Here we can identify the disk failure at the slot no 2. This is a good way to identify the failed disk under internal FCAL loop. Since its a VxvM disk, make sure its in failed was or removed state. # vxdisk list DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS c1t0d0s2 sliced rootdisk rootdg online c1t1d0s2 sliced disk01 rootdg online c1t1d0s2 sliced - online - - disk02 rootdg failed was:c1t2d0s2 Run vxdiskadm option 4 to remove the disk for replacement. After running vxdiskadm the output should look similar to this: # vxdisk list DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS c1t0d0s2 sliced rootdisk rootdg online c1t1d0s2 sliced disk01 rootdg online c1t2d0s2 sliced - - online - - disk02 rootdg removed was:c1t2d0s2 1. Put the disk into offline state; # vxdisk offline c1t2d0s2 2. VxVM is ready for removal of the disk, run the luxadm offline to remove the WWN entries and device links for the failed drive ; # luxadm -e offline /dev/rdsk/c1t2d0s2 3. Do the luxadm to remove the device. ; #luxadm remove_device /dev/rdsk/c1t2d0s2 4. check the device file ; #devfsadm -C ; # ls -ld /dev/rdsk/c1t2d0*

5. Replace the disk physically 6. Run the devfsadm ; # devfsadm 7. verify with luxadm display ; # luxadm display LoopA 8. label the disk ; use format and label 9. # vxdctl enable 10. # vxdisk list ; you would see a new disk. 11. Now use vxdiskadm option 5 to replace the disk. Give yes to the access question. 12. Verify the sync ; # vxtask list Thats it you should see the replaced disk doing just fine. Veritas recovery features Posted August 19, 2008 Filed under: Recovery, veritas volume manager | Leave a Comment In this post i will explain the volume recovery and disk group recovery in veritas volume manager. As an admin, we may face situations where one deletes a volume accidentally or destroy a dg by mistake. If we do not have configuration backups of the objects, we are in for some trouble. In order to save our a** its always better to be proactive and do the objects backups. From 3.5 MP3 ( if am correct) vxvm offers vxconfigbackup & vxconfigrestore options for automatic object backups. vxconfigbackupd is a daemon which runs in the background and do upto date backups of all the disk group and the objects associated with it. All the backups are stored in /etc/vx/cbr/bk/dgname directory. Whenever a configuration change occurs, vxconfigbackupd daemon updates the directories with the latest configuration. One can also manually do the object backups using the vxconfigbackup command. One can use the -l option to change the default location of the backups. vxconfigbackup -l /var/vxvmbackups datadg This would update all the configuration backups to /var/vxvmbackups directory for datadg. If we need to recover the configuration information for the entire datadg, we can use the vxconfigrestore option. There can be situations where the configuration information is completely lost due to system outages or reboots. /etc/vx/bin/vxconfigrestore -p /var/vxvmbackups datadg # to precommit the changes /etc/vx/bin/vxconfigrestore -c /var/vxvmbackups datadg # to commit the changes A vxprint output will give the confirmation vxprint -g datadg I just explained how to go about backingup and recovering configuration data using the vxconfigbackup and vxconfigrestore options. There may be situations when someone accidentally deletes the volume of a diskgroup. In such situations, backups of individual object information will come in handy You can schedule a cron to backup individual object configuration /usr/sbin/vxprint -rhmvps ${volume_name} > ${DIR_NAME}/${volume_name}.${DATE} using the backed up file and vxmake we can easily recover the deleted volume configuration vxmake -g <dgname> -d <file_name> Verify the recovery using vxprint ; vxprint -g datadg -hrt Start the volume ; vxvol -g <dgname> start <vol_name> Volume is ready to do I/O. As with the case with any recovery options, these options should be experimented before using in the production setup. vxvm interview questions How do you replace a failed boot disk under meta in solaris? Step by step explanation? How do you remove meta only for the root slice? remaining slices should run under meta? what you would do if you want to replace a slice using metareplace option?

what is the significance of 51% state database replicas in SVM? what are the common errors you find in Solaris Volume manager? You have a boot disk under svm, the machine fails to boot and remains in ok prompt? what could bethe possible reason? metastat -p shows a metavolume needs replacement. Metavolume is a single way mirror only. Actually you find disk and metavolumes are ok and I/O is happening to the filesystems how will youremove the metareplace message that comes out of metastat. 8. How to create a shared disk group in VxVM? 9. What is the difference between private and public regions in Veritas Volume manager? 10. what would you do if the private region of a particular disk group is full? What are the designconsiderations for the size of private region in Vxvm disk group? 11. How to replace a corrupt private region? in vxvm 3.5 and greater versions 12. How would you convert a volume from gen to fsgen? why should you do that? 13. How can you unencapsulate a boot disk in VxVM? 14. How to identify multiple paths for a disk. 15. What is the difference between Vxdmp and EMC powerpath? 16. vxdisk -o alldgs list o/p shows some disk groups in braces What does that signify? 17. what are the various layouts that are available in VxVM? 18.What is a layered volume? how to create it using vxmake? 19.How to quickly mirror a volume, if the volume is empty? 20. How to grow a volume? 21. What is the difference between failing and failed disks? 22. How to replace a failed disk in Veritas? 23. Plex is in a disabled state. How will you recover? what are the steps to follow? 24.what is the difference between detached and disassociate state of plexes? 25. Whats the boot process of VxVM? 26. Whats the difference between SVM and VxVM? What would you recommend to your clients? why? 27.What are the various clusters you have worked on? 28. Which cluster is better VCS or Sun cluster? 29. Compare and contrast VCS and Sun Cluster. 30.how will you start VCS service? What are the configuration files in VCS? 31. How would switch a service group? 32. How would you freeze a service group? 33. What is a Split brain scenario ? =# Name the mandatory disk group in VxVM 3.5 ? How will you configure VxVM in 3.5 ? ANS: rootdg is the mandatory disk group in VxVM 3.5, vxinstall is the command to configure VxVM, Itwill create the disk groups, initializes the disks and adds them to the group.# How will you create private and shared disk group using VxVM ?ANS: For Private DG:Command: vxdg initFor Shared DG:Command: vxdg -s init < disk1 disk2 disk3 ># Which are the different layouts for volumes in VxVM ? ANS: mirror, stripe, concat (default one), raid5, stripe-mirror, mirror-stripe.# What is the basic difference between private disk group and shared disk group ? ANS: Private DG: The DG which is only visible for the host on which you have created it, if the host is apart of cluster, the private DG will not be visible to the other cluster nodes. Shared DG: The DG which is sharable and visible to the other cluster nodes.# How will you add new disk to the existing disk group ?

ANS: Run vxdiskadm command, which will open menu driven program to do various disk operations,select add disks option or you can use another command vxdiskadd.# How will you grow/shrink the volume/file system ? What is the meaning of growby and growtooptions ? What is the meaning on shrinkto and shrinkby options ? ANS: vxassist command is used to do all volume administration, following is the description and syntax.Growby option: This is will grow your file system by adding new size to the existing file system. Growto option: This will grow your file system as per the new size. This WILL NOT ADD new size to theexisting one. Shrinkby option: This will shrink your file system by reducing new size from existing file system. Shrinkto option: This will shrink your file system as per the new size. This WILL NOT REDUCE the filesystem by reducing new size.Command:vxassist -g [growto, growby, shrinkto, shrinkby] length# How will you setup and unsetup disks explicitly using VxVM ? ANS: You can use /etc/vx/bin/vxdiskunsetup to unsetup the disk, and /etc/vx/vxdisksetup to setup thedisk.# How will you list the disks, which are in different disk groups ? ANS: vxdisk list is the command will list the disks from the DG which is currently imported, you cancheck the same using vxprint command too. vxdisk -o alldgs list command list all the disks which are indifferent dg's.# What is the private region in VxVM ? ANS: Private region stores the structured VxVM information, it also stores the disk ID and diskgeometry. In short words it has metadata of the disk.# If, vxdisk list command gives you disks status as "error", what steps you will follow to make therespective disks online ? ANS: If you faced this issue because of fabric disconnection then simply do vxdisk scandisks, otherwiseunsetup the disk using using /etc/vx/bin/vxdiskunsetup and setup the disks again using /etc/vx/bin/vxdisksetup, this will definitely help! [ /etc/vx/bin/vxdiskunsetup will remove the privateregion from the disk and destroys data, backup the data before using this option]what is the significance of 51% state database replicas in SVM?if the system is having 51 % of replica the system will bootup normally, but if there are less then or = 50% of replicasare present in the system , then the system will panic. Inthis situation boot the system into single user mode anddelete the unavailable replica and create new set ofreplicas and boot the system.what are the common errors you find in Solaris Volume manager?Disk c#t#d# is faulty and need to be replaced QuestionWhat is a layered volume? how to create it using vxmake? Answer# 1 stripe- mirrorconcat - mirror are layered volumes and ## First make subdisksvxmake -g sybdg sd sybdg32-15 sybdg32,14607200,1365376vxmake -g sybdg sd sybdg36-19 sybdg36,21389040,1365376vxmake -g sybdg sd sybdg53-19 sybdg53,25483768,1365376vxmake -g sybdg sd sybdg54-17 sybdg54,22355000,1365376vxmake -g sybdg sd sybdg55-25 sybdg55,1767000,1365376vxmake -g sybdg sd sybdg56-30 sybdg56,27216512,1365376##Now make the plexesvxmake -g sybdg plex datadev93-SV00A sd=sybdg32-15vxmake -g sybdg plex datadev93-SV01A sd=sybdg36-19vxmake -g sybdg plex datadev93-SV02A sd=sybdg53-19vxmake -g sybdg plex datadev93-SV00B sd=sybdg54-17vxmake -g sybdg plex datadev93-SV01B sd=sybdg55-25vxmake -g sybdg plex datadev93-SV02B sd=sybdg56-30## Now create sub volumes containing the plexes.vxmake -g sybdg vol datadev93-SV00 plex=datadev93SV00A,datadev93-SV00B use_type=genvxmake -g sybdg vol datadev93-SV01 plex=datadev93SV01A,datadev93-SV01B use_type=genvxmake -g sybdg vol datadev93-SV02 plex=datadev93SV02A,datadev93-SV02B use_type=gen##Let them be subvolumesvxedit -g sybdg set layered=on datadev93-SV00 datadev93-SV01 datadev93-SV02## Activate!vxvol -g sybdg init active datadev93SV00vxvol -g sybdg init active datadev93-SV01vxvol -g sybdg init active datadev93-SV02## Turn into subdisks so we can add them all to another plexvxmake -g sybdg sd datadev93-SD00 datadev93SV00,0,1365376vxmake -g sybdg sd datadev93-SD01 datadev93-SV01,0,1365376vxmake -g sybdg sd datadev93-SD02 datadev93-SV02,0,1365376## Now create a new plex with all subvolumes invxmake -

g sybdg plex datadev93-A sd=datadev93-SD00,datadev93-SD01,datadev93-SD02 layout=stripest_width=128## Now make the main volumevxmake -g sybdg vol datadev93 plex=datadev93-Ause_type=genvxvol -g sybdg init active datadev93#vxedit -g sybdg set user=sybase group=dba datadev93 Veritas File System fixed issues The following table contains information about fixed issues in this release of VxFS. IncidentDescription 472089vxfs_ninode and vx_bc_bufhwm tunables are now dynamic. 478142fsck binaries are included for older log versions. 511750Swap space and tunable changes were required for using fsck and mkfs on big file systems. Veritas Volume Manager fixed issues The following table contains information about fixed issues in this release of VxVM.IncidentDescription137175The vxdiskadm utility no longer truncates default disk names to 9 characters.140947I/O policy settings were not persistent between reboots.229538Multiple enclosures of the same type generated unexpected enclosure-based names.272263Changing a disk's I/O policy could hang vxconfigd.272309Incomplete records in /etc/vx/disk.info could cause vxconfigd to dump core.272891vxnotify did not receive events relating to the change of controller states in DMP.311530Renaming an enclosure with a longer name caused vxconfigd to dump core.506139If the naming scheme was changed, the default arguments to vxconfigd were not preserved. Recover/Start a volume that has a plex in the disabled& recover state January 6, 2008 by sun4u The vxprint -ht output gives, among other things, the kernel state (column 4) and the state (column 5)of a plex . Consider the following case: # vxprint -ht -g testdg DG NAME NCONFIG NLOG MINORS GROUP-IDDM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATERV NAME RLINK_CNT KSTATE STATE PRIMARY DATAVOLS SRLRL NAME RVG KSTATE STATE REM_HOST REM_DG REM_RLNKV NAME RVG KSTATE STATE LENGTH USETYPE PREFPLEX RDPOLPL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODESD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFS LENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODESV NAME PLEX VOLNAME NVOLLAYR LENGTH [COL/]OFF AM/NM MODE dg testdg default default 84000 970356463.1203.alu dm testdg01 c1t4d0s2 sliced 2179 8920560 dm testdg02 c1t6d0s2 sliced 2179 8920560 v test DISABLED ACTIVE 17840128 fsgen SELECTpl test-01 test DISABLED RECOVER 17841120 CONCAT RWsd testdg01-01 test-01 testdg01 0 8920560 0 c1t4d0 ENAsd testdg02-01 test-01 testdg02 0 8920560 8920560 c1t6d0 ENA From the above output, it can be seen that the volume test has plex test-01 in the DISABLED andRECOVER state. To recover the volume test, use the vxmend command. This operation applies only to volumes, or toplexes associated with a volume. This will manually reset or change the state of a plex or volume. The following is the procedure to recover/start this volume: 1. Bring plex test-01 to the DISABLED and OFFLINE state using the following command: vxmend oforce off <recover_plex> For example,# vxmend -o force off test-01 The below output shows plex test-01 in the DISABLED and OFFLINE state: # vxprint -ht -g testdg DG NAME NCONFIG NLOG MINORS GROUP-IDDM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATERV NAME RLINK_CNT KSTATE STATE PRIMARY DATAVOLS SRLRL NAME RVG KSTATE STATE REM_HOST REM_DG REM_RLNKV NAME RVG KSTATE STATE LENGTH USETYPE PREFPLEX RDPOLPL NAME

VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODESD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFS LENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODESV NAME PLEX VOLNAME NVOLLAYR LENGTH [COL/]OFF AM/NM MODE dg testdg default default 84000 970356463.1203.alu dm testdg01 c1t4d0s2 sliced 2179 8920560 dm testdg02 c1t6d0s2 sliced 2179 8920560 v test DISABLED ACTIVE 17840128 fsgen SELECTpl test-01 test DISABLED OFFLINE 17841120 CONCAT RWsd testdg01-01 test-01 testdg01 0 8920560 0 c1t4d0 ENAsd testdg02-01 test-01 testdg02 0 8920560 8920560 c1t6d0 ENA 2. Bring plex test-01 to the DISABLED and STALE state using the following command: vxmend on <recover_plex> For example, # vxmend on test-01 The below output shows plex test-01 in the DISABLED and STALE state: # vxprint -ht -g testdg DG NAME NCONFIG NLOG MINORS GROUP-IDDM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATERV NAME RLINK_CNT KSTATE STATE PRIMARY DATAVOLS SRLRL NAME RVG KSTATE STATE REM_HOST REM_DG REM_RLNKV NAME RVG KSTATE STATE LENGTH USETYPE PREFPLEX RDPOLPL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODESD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFS LENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODESV NAME PLEX VOLNAME NVOLLAYR LENGTH [COL/]OFF AM/NM MODE dg testdg default default 84000 970356463.1203.alu dm testdg01 c1t4d0s2 sliced 2179 8920560 dm testdg02 c1t6d0s2 sliced 2179 8920560 v test DISABLED ACTIVE 17840128 fsgen SELECTpl test-01 test DISABLED STALE 17841120 CONCAT RWsd testdg01-01 test-01 testdg01 0 8920560 0 c1t4d0 ENAsd testdg02-01 test-01 testdg02 0 8920560 8920560 c1t6d0 ENA 3. Bring plex test-01 to the DISABLED and CLEAN state using the following command: vxmend fix clean <recover_plex> For example, # vxmend fix clean test-01 The below output shows plex test-01 in the DISABLED and CLEAN state: # vxprint -ht -g testdg DG NAME NCONFIG NLOG MINORS GROUP-IDDM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATERV NAME RLINK_CNT KSTATE STATE PRIMARY DATAVOLS SRLRL NAME RVG KSTATE STATE REM_HOST REM_DG REM_RLNKV NAME RVG KSTATE STATE LENGTH USETYPE PREFPLEX RDPOLPL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODESD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFS LENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODESV NAME PLEX VOLNAME NVOLLAYR LENGTH [COL/]OFF AM/NM MODE dg testdg default default 84000 970356463.1203.aludm testdg01 c1t4d0s2 sliced 2179 8920560 dm testdg02 c1t6d0s2 sliced 2179 8920560 v test DISABLED ACTIVE 17840128 fsgen SELECTpl test-01 test DISABLED CLEAN 17841120 CONCAT RWsd testdg01-01 test-01 testdg01 0 8920560 0 c1t4d0 ENAsd testdg02-01 test-01 testdg02 0 8920560 8920560 c1t6d0 ENA 4. Once plex test-01 is in the DISABLED/CLEAN state, the volume test can be started with the followingcommand: vxvol start <volume> For example, # vxvol start test It can be seen in the below output that the volume is now ENABLED and ACTIVE: # vxprint -ht -g testdg DG NAME NCONFIG NLOG MINORS GROUP-IDDM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATERV NAME RLINK_CNT KSTATE STATE PRIMARY DATAVOLS SRLRL NAME RVG KSTATE STATE REM_HOST REM_DG REM_RLNKV NAME RVG KSTATE STATE LENGTH USETYPE PREFPLEX RDPOLPL NAME

VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODESD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFS LENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODESV NAME PLEX VOLNAME NVOLLAYR LENGTH [COL/]OFF AM/NM MODE dg testdg default default 84000 970356463.1203.alu dm testdg01 c1t4d0s2 sliced 2179 8920560 dm testdg02 c1t6d0s2 sliced 2179 8920560 v test ENABLED ACTIVE 17840128 fsgen SELECTpl test-01 test ENABLED ACTIVE 17841120 CONCAT RWsd testdg01-01 test-01 testdg01 0 8920560 0 c1t4d0 ENAsd testdg02-01 test-01 testdg02 0 8920560 8920560 c1t6d0 ENA Questionwhat is the difference between detached and disassociatestate of plexes? Answer# 2 when you detach the plex from volume means i/o performancewill stop from detached plexwe can understand that we took the backup of the plex we canattach this plex any time to any volume Disassociate plex means we are breaking the link betweenvolume and plex we can can't attach this plex to any volumebut if server reboot plex will be sync with volumeQuestionWhats the boot process of VxVM? Boot Process of vxvm is as similar as solaris booting butthe only difference is when we bring the root disk undervxvm control there is one entrie will be createdunder /etc/system file starts with "rootdev" This will readby the kernel before loading the modules and it helpssystem to mount root volume rather than root partition. QuestionWhats the difference between SVM and VxVM? What would yourecommend to your clients? why? Answer# 1 SVM: Inbuild in Solaris. Only available for Solaris Can't decrease online the volume size.VxVM: 2. Third party tool. 2. Available for all popular OS (Solaris,Linux,Windows,HP-UX,AIX etc.) 3. Can resize (increase or decrease) the volume online.Questionhow will you start VCS service? What are the configurationfiles in VCS? Answer# 2 hastart etc/VRTSvcs/conf/config/main.cf etc/llttab etc/llthosts etc/gabtab etc/VRTSvcs/conf/config/types.cf QuestionHow would switch a service group? Answer# 2 (1) hagrp -switch {Service Group} -to {target node} (2) hagrp -offline {Service Group} -sys {current node} (3) hagrp -online {Service Group} -sys {target node} These are some of the L3 level unix interview questions1. How do you replace a failed boot disk under meta in solaris? Step by stepexplanation?2. How do you remove meta only for the root slice? remaining slices should run undermeta?3. what you would do if you want to replace a slice using metareplace option?4. what is the significance of 51% state database replicas in SVM?5. what are the common errors you find in Solaris Volume manager?6. You have a boot disk under svm, the machine fails to boot and remains in okprompt? what could be the possible reason?7. metastat -p shows a metavolume needs replacement. Metavolume is a single waymirror only. Actually you find disk and metavolumes are ok and I/O is happening tothe filesystems how will you remove the metareplace message that comes out of metastat.8. How to create a shared disk group in VxVM?9. What is the difference between private and

public regions in Veritas Volumemanager?10. what would you do if the private region of a particular disk group is full? What arethe design considerations for the size of private region in Vxvm disk group?11. How to replace a corrupt private region? in vxvm 3.5 and greater versions12. How would you convert a volume from gen to fsgen? why should you do that?13. How can you unencapsulate a boot disk in VxVM?14. How to identify multiple paths for a disk.15. What is the difference between Vxdmp and EMC powerpath?16. vxdisk -o alldgs list o/p shows some disk groups in braces What does thatsignify?17. what are the various layouts that are available in VxVM?18.What is a layered volume? how to create it using vxmake?19.How to quickly mirror a volume, if the volume is empty?20. How to grow a volume?21. What is the difference between failing and failed disks?22. How to replace a failed disk in Veritas?