VERITAS Volume Manager 3.5 Release Notes (August 2002)

Chapter 1

VERITAS Volume Manager™ Release Notes

Patches and Fixes in This Version

NOTE In the case where VxVM and XP512 BCs are being used together; if the BCs are split, you

cannot then import the split BC to the machine on which P-Vol is currently being used. The

reason for this is that the split BC and the P-Vol will have the same private region, and

VxVM allows you to import only one of them; by default, it chooses P-Vol. If you want,

however, you can import the split BC (S-Vol) onto a secondary host.

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 includes Disk Access (DA) records with

information about the disk devices obtained by the vxconﬁgd scan pass. VxVM relies on the operating

system kernel to notify it of disk status changes. The HP-UX kernel does not currently notify VxVM of

disk status changes.

• Workaround: Use either of the following commands to force an update of the VxVM conﬁguration

database:

# vxdisk online diskname

This command updates the status of the diskname disk.

# vxdctl enable

This command updates the status of all the VxVM disks.

NOTE The vxdctl enable command initiates an entire disk device scan. Therefore the length of

time VxVM takes to scan all of the devices in the environment of that particular host will

increase as the number of devices increases. If you know which disk’s state has been

changed, it is faster to use vxdisk online diskname to update that disk only.

Run vxdctl enable to Show Status Changes for LVM Disks

• Problem: VxVM output will not reﬂect status changes for LVM disks until vxdctl(1M) is run. For example,

if you clear an LVM disk with pvremove(1M), vxdiska_list will still list the status of that disk as “LVM,”

until you run vxdctl enable. This is also true for VEA output and the output from other VxVM commands.

• Workaround: Run vxdctl enable after making any changes to LVM disks to update VxVM’s database.

VEA Continues Running With No rootdg

• Problem: If rootdg is on an external device which must be shut down, then VxVM commands cannot run.

• Workaround: None needed—VEA continues to run, although it cannot complete operations (commands

are not being executed).

VxVM and Older Quantum Disk Drives

• Problem: The VxVM makes use of the kernel-to-kernel passthrough ioctl SCSI command feature in

HP-UX. VxVM issues SCSI inquiry commands to devices on the system to recognize individual disks and

sort out host to device connection pathways.

Some older Quantum disks (models PD210S and PD425S) do not respond properly to SCSI inquiry

command when the device is in certain states. As a consequence, these devices are not recognized by

VxVM and, as such, cannot be used as disks for VxVM. A vxdisk command may list the device in error

state or may not list at all.