Disk encapsulation with vxdisk (nopriv option)

[Raj1986]

HI,

I read somewhere "You can encapsulate a disk that does not have space available for the VxVM private region partition by using the vxdisk utility. This is done by configuring the disk as a nopriv devices that does not have a private region. "
 
Whats wrong when i do:

vxdisk define c0d0s0  type=nopriv
VxVM vxdisk ERROR V-5-1-538 Device c0d0s0: define failed:
        Device path not valid

Below are the partition details:

partition> p
Current partition table (original):
Total disk cylinders available: 1563 + 2 (reserved cylinders)

Part      Tag    Flag     Cylinders        Size            Blocks
  0       root    wm       3 - 1562       11.95GB    (1560/0/0) 25061400
  1 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)           0
  2     backup    wm       0 - 1562       11.97GB    (1563/0/0) 25109595
  3 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)           0
  4 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)           0
  5 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)           0
  6 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)           0
  7 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)           0
  8       boot    wu       0 -    0        7.84MB    (1/0/0)       16065
  9 alternates    wu       1 -    2       15.69MB    (2/0/0)       32130

partition>

Please let me know for which slice I should run the vxdisk command.

Thanks
Raj

 

[Marianne]

What is your O/S and VxVM version?
Please also explain why you want to encapsulate the root partition only?

Have a look at this doc:
http://sfdoccentral.symantec.com/sf/5.0/solaris/html/vxvm_admin/ag_ch_disks_vm25.html
Extract:
You can encapsulate a disk that does not have space available for the VxVM private region partition by using the vxdisk utility. This is done by configuring the disk as a nopriv devices that does not have a private region.

The drawback with using nopriv devices is that VxVM cannot track changes in the address or controller of the disk. Normally, VxVM uses identifying information stored in the private region on the physical disk to track changes in the location of a physical disk. Because nopriv devices do not have private regions and have no identifying information stored on the physical disk, tracking cannot occur.

One use of nopriv devices is to encapsulate a disk so that you can use VxVM to move data off the disk. When space has been made available on the disk, remove the nopriv device, and encapsulate the disk as a standard disk device.

A disk group cannot be formed entirely from nopriv devices. This is because nopriv devices do not provide space for storing disk group configuration information. Configuration information must be stored on at least one disk in the disk group.

Creating a nopriv disk

Warning: Do not use nopriv disks to encapsulate a root disk. If insufficient free space exists on the root disk for the private region, part of the swap area can be used instead.

[Marianne]

I found this post that seems to describe a similar problem:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/sf-basic-50-solaris-10-x86-vxdiskadm-gt-these-disk-devices-do-not-appear-be-valid

Seems the problem is with device names not being recognized (Device path not valid).
This points to possible Solaris x86 compatibility issues.

[Raj1986]

Hi Marianne Thanks for the reply.

Actually I am trying to learn VXVM, hence i have installed it on a virtual machine for practice. I was getting error when i was encapsulating the disk c0d0 because I didnt have enough space for private region. So I decided to use the nopriv option, as this is just a test machine I didnt hesitate to do so.

Requesting you to please guide me how to proceed to encapsulate the disk. Please explain me step by step coz i am a Linux guy and new to Solaris too.

bash-3.00# uname -a
SunOS node1.localdomain.com 5.10 Generic_141445-09 i86pc i386 i86pc
bash-3.00#


bash-3.00# pkginfo -l VXVMvrts
ERROR: information for "VXVMvrts" was not found
bash-3.00# pkginfo -l VRTSvxvm
   PKGINST:  VRTSvxvm
      NAME:  VERITAS Volume Manager, Binaries
  CATEGORY:  system
      ARCH:  i386
   VERSION:  4.1,REV=09.30.2005.21.22
   BASEDIR:  /
    VENDOR:  VERITAS Software
      DESC:  Virtual Disk Subsystem
    PSTAMP:  VERITAS-4.1x64_p1.12:03-March-2006
  INSTDATE:  Jan 10 2006 02:14
   HOTLINE:  800-342-0652
     EMAIL:  support@veritas.com
    STATUS:  completely installed
     FILES:      734 installed pathnames
                  23 shared pathnames
                  18 linked files
                  97 directories
                 388 executables
              188283 blocks used (approx)

Thanks
Raj

[Marianne]

The Release Notes for 4.1 lists some Solaris patches that need to be installed.
See page 4 of http://sfdoccentral.symantec.com/sf/4.1/solaris64/pdf/sf_notes.pdf.

The first and biggest problem that I see is with the fact that VxVM seems to have a problem with your device names: Device path not valid.  The problem could be related to the O/S patches mentioned in the Release Notes. It might also be a good idea to look for VxVM patches as well (4.1 MP2 for SPARC was quite stable).

The second problem is that I don't see a swap partition on the boot disk. Swap normally resides on slice 1. My experience is with Solaris Sparc only, but as far as I know every Unix O/S needs a swap partition. When encapsulating a boot disk, VxVM will take 1 slice from swap to use for the private region.

I'm hoping that x86/x64 users will respond - they will be best to advise about O/S device names as well as VxVM and O/S patch levels (as per the link to the other post that I referred to in my previous post). You simply won't ever see this kind of problem on SPARC....

[Jaeha]

I am not sure the device name is correct ??  Normally solaris device name has CxxDxxTxxSxx, but I cannot see the "Txx"(target).

vxdisk define c0d0s0  type=nopriv
                         ^^^^^^^^

if the device name was correct, then it might be some compatibility issue as someone already mentioned.

rootdisk should not be encapsulated with "nopriv" option, and you have to use conventional way,

# vxdiskadm --> select 2      Encapsulate one or more disks




Regards,
Jaeha