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Khurram_Tariq's avatar
Khurram_Tariq
19 years ago

Unable to initialize disk using vxdisksetup

I'm in the middle of setting up Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC 5.0 on RHEL 4 Update 3. I have Sun StorEdge 6920 as the storage array. Here's wat happened:

- SFORAC documentation asked me to create the minimum possible LUN on the array for coordinator disks
- I created the smallest LUN (16 MB) on the array
- When trying to initialize it (using vxdisksetup -i Disk_0 format=cdsdisk) I got the error about disk being too small
- I extended the disk size on the array to 50 MB
- The servers still saw the coordinator disks (/dev/sda to /dev/sdc) of size 16 MB. Since I'm not well versed in Linux I rebooted both servers so they can see the new LUN size

Fdisk is able to view the new LUN size & manipulate it as well however vxdisksetup still would not allow me to initialize the disks. I've tried the following:

# fdisk /dev/sda
Chose o & then w

# vxdisksetup -i Disk_0 format=cdsdisk
VxVM vxdisk ERROR V-5-1-535 Device Disk_0: Invalid attributes

# vxdisksetup -i Disk_0 format=cdsdisk
VxVM vxdisksetup ERROR V-5-2-0 Disk is too small for supplied parameters

Then I zero filled the LUN:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M

Repeated the steps above to get the same errors. I've also tried to use simple format but it doesnt work either. Have I missed out something or is it just that VxVM does not like volumes expanded by the array? Please help.
business continuity
Storage Foundation
  • xoneill's avatar
    xoneill
    Level 0
    7 years ago

    Very old thread, but came across same error code on a Sun 10 box.  May have nothign to do with the poster's issue- but may offer some insight.

    Got the following error when trying to initilize 1TB LUNs:

    # /etc/vx/bin/vxdisksetup -i c2t50060E8007DC5771d26
    VxVM vxdisksetup ERROR V-5-2-2480 Disk is too small for supplied parameters

    LUN basically had a format (previosuly used) that needed to be wiped/re-qritten with EFI format using 'format -e' (expoert mode).  Full detailes below...

    ===========
    Veritas response:

    Response By Email:
    Hi,

    Kindly run

    #vxdctl enable

    then try to run
    vxdisk list c2t50060E8007DC5771d27

    this error no falg shouln't be there

    errno: Device path not valid

    If errno flag is vanished then try to initialise disk with vxdisksetup -i

    In case if it is still there then you need to foramt your disk with EFI format

    you are running with solaris 10 then disk should be formated with EFI level(format -e) as disk is greater than 1 TB

    For any further query kindly let me know

    regards,
    Devendra

    ---
    regarding Format -e option issue yes it seems you already have data in that disk with partition 6 so without converting it into EFI level we can try to erase that partition and try to initialize the disk.

    regards,
    Devendra
    ---
    Transcript of fix:

    # format -e c2t50060E8007DC5771d27
    selecting c2t50060E8007DC5771d27
    [disk formatted]


    FORMAT MENU:
    disk - select a disk
    type - select (define) a disk type
    partition - select (define) a partition table
    current - describe the current disk
    format - format and analyze the disk
    repair - repair a defective sector
    label - write label to the disk
    analyze - surface analysis
    defect - defect list management
    backup - search for backup labels
    verify - read and display labels
    save - save new disk/partition definitions
    inquiry - show vendor, product and revision
    scsi - independent SCSI mode selects
    cache - enable, disable or query SCSI disk cache
    volname - set 8-character volume name
    !<cmd> - execute <cmd>, then return
    quit
    format> ;
    `' is not expected.
    format> label
    [0] SMI Label
    [1] EFI Label
    Specify Label type[0]: 1
    Warning: This disk has an SMI label. Changing to EFI label will erase all
    current partitions.
    Continue? y
    format> q
    # /etc/vx/bin/vxdisksetup -i c2t50060E8007DC5771d27
    VxVM vxdisksetup ERROR V-5-2-2480 Disk is too small for supplied parameters
    # devfsadm
    # vxdctl enable
    /etc/vx/bin/vxdisksetup -i c2t50060E8007DC5771d27
    # /etc/vx/bin/vxdisksetup -i c2t50060E8007DC5771d27
    #

    ---

     

     

  • Thomas_Brandste's avatar
    Thomas_Brandste
    Level 2
    18 years ago
    i have the same problem. how can this be solved? i want to set up coordinator disks as described in the "Vertias Storage Foundation Cluster File System Administrators Guide (Version 5)"

    My System: SunFire V240
    Solaris 10 (06/06 with the latest patches)
    Veritas Storage Foundation HA Suite 5.0

    Please help

    Cheers Brandy
  • Volker_Hermin1's avatar
    Volker_Hermin1
    Level 4
    18 years ago
    The error occurs when vxdisksetup is run for disks that do not appear to be SCSI disks. I say "appear to" because the method used to find this out relies on a rather kludgy "grep 'SCSI'" on the output of the disk inquiry command. So it is well possible that it vxdisksetup fails even on SCSI disks, especially if they're iSCSI or similar.
    The reason why vxdisksetup doesn't like non-SCSI-disks is because it is assumed that non-SCSI means IDE/ATA/SATA, which in turn means the disk geometry cannot be reliably determined. This is due to LBA-adressing and other ancient PC cruft.
    How to fix it? Not sure. Technically speaking, you could certainly hack vxdisksetup (it's a script) to ignore the error and just go on, but I wouldn't run an investment bank's production on the result ;-)
  • Thomas_Brandste's avatar
    Thomas_Brandste
    Level 2
    18 years ago
    its working now. all coordinator disks have a size of 19mb. but vxdisksetup didn't create cdsdisks with the standard value 65xxx (means 6,5mb). the fix was to take a half amount of this value and create it with ~3mb.