vxdctl

NAME

vxdctl - control the volume configuration daemon

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

The vxdctl utility manages aspects of the state of the volume configuration daemon, vxconfigd, sets the default disk group for the system, and also sets up the boot disk group if the root disk is under VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM) control.

The volboot file forms a key element in managing the state of vxconfigd and importing the boot disk group. This file contains a host ID that VxVM uses to establish ownership of physical disks. The host ID is used to ensure that two or more hosts do not interfere with each other when accessing disks on a shared SCSI bus or Storage Area Network (SAN). VxVM also uses host IDs to generate unique ID strings for stamping disks and disk groups.

The volboot file contains the name of the system-wide default disk group if this has been configured. If the root disk is under VxVM control, the volboot file also contains the name of disk group, the boot disk group, to which the root disk belongs.

vxconfigd operates in one of the following modes: enabled, disabled or booted.

The enabled state is the normal operating state. Most configuration operations are allowed in this state. Entering the enabled state imports all disk groups, and begins the management of device nodes stored in the /dev/vx/dsk and /dev/vx/rdsk directories.

In the disabled state, vxconfigd does not retain configuration information for the imported disk groups, and does not maintain the volume device directories. Most operations are disallowed in this state. Certain failures, such as the volboot file not being loaded or devices not being auto-configured, cause vxconfigd to enter the disabled state automatically.

The booted state is entered as part of normal system startup, prior to checking the root file system with fsck. If the root disk is under VxVM control, entering the booted mode imports the boot disk group. If the root disk is not under VxVM control, no disk groups are imported. vxconfigd then waits for a request to enter the enabled mode. The volume device node directories are not maintained in booted mode, because it may not be possible to write to the root file system.

The action performed by vxdctl depends upon the specified keyword operand(s).

KEYWORDS

cacheenable

Requests that caching of device opens are enabled in the VxVM kernel module.

At the VxVM configuration discovery time a disk device may be opened and closed multiple times. Depending on the disk array(s) being used, multiple opens of the same device could delay the startup time of the vxconfigd significantly. To minimize the delay in multiple opens, the first open of the device is cached and used for subsequent opens.

When the machine is booting, the caching is automatically enabled to speed up the boot process. Once the machine has been booted, the caching is disabled via the VxVM startup script.

If caching is enabled and the vxconfigd has been started and you do not plan to restart the vxconfigd or re-enable the VxVM configuration, then the device caching should be disabled by using the cachedisable.

cachedisable

Request that caching of device opens are disabled and the currently cached devices are flushed from the VxVM kernel module.

cacheflush

Request that any cached device open entries in the VxVM kernel module are flushed.

defaultdg

Specifies the system-wide default disk group that is aliased by the reserved name, defaultdg. You can use the command vxdg defaultdg to display the currently defined default disk group.

If bootdg is specified as the argument to this command, the default disk group is set to be the same as the currently defined system-wide boot disk group. You can use the command vxdg bootdg to display the currently defined boot disk group.

If nodg is specified as the argument, the default disk group is undefined.

disable

Requests that vxconfigd enter disabled mode. This may be necessary to perform some maintenance operations. This does not disable any configuration state loaded into the kernel. It only prevents further configuration changes to loaded disk groups until vxconfigd is re-enabled.

enable

Requests that vxconfigd enter enabled mode, import all disk groups, and rebuild the volume device node directories. This operation can be used even if vxconfigd is already in enabled mode. The primary purpose for using this operation when in enabled mode is to rebuild the volume device nodes. This operation causes vxconfigd to scan for any disks that were newly added since vxconfigd was last started. In this manner, disks can be dynamically configured to the system and then recognized by VxVM. If the multipathing support is available, this option also causes vxconfigd to rebuild the DMP internal database to reflect the new state of the system after addition of the disk devices. The new disk devices detected by vxconfigd are added in the DMP database with their associated subpaths and parent DMP device.

hostid

Changes the host ID in the volboot file, and on all disks in disk groups currently imported on this machine. It may be desirable to change the VxVM host ID for your machine if you change the network node name of your machine.

If some disks are inaccessible at the time of a hostid operation, it may be necessary to use the vxdisk clearimport operation to clear out the old host ID on those disks when they become reaccessible. Otherwise, you may not be able to re-add those disks to their disk groups.

init

Reinitializes the volboot file with a new host ID, highest supported cluster protocol version, system-wide default disk group name, and boot disk group name (if the root disk is under VxVM control).

If a hostid operand is specified, this string is used; otherwise, a default host ID is used. The default host ID is normally taken as the network node name for the host (see uname(1M)). On systems with a hardware-defined system ID, the default host ID might be derived from this hardware ID.

initdmp

Creates user level nodes for all DMP devices that the kernel has detected. This removes all existing active DMP nodes in the /dev/vx/[r]dmp directory, and creates fresh nodes for the DMP devices that have been detected.

license [init]

Without any arguments, the vxdctl license command prints the list of features which are currently available based on known licensing information.

With the init argument specified, the vxdctl license init command requests that vxconfigd re-read any persistently stored license information. If licenses have expired, this can make some features unavailable. If new licenses were added, but are not yet recognized by vxconfigd, this command forces vxconfigd to rescan the licenses, and to make the new licenses available.

list

Lists the contents of the volboot file including the host ID, some sequence numbers, the cluster protocol version, the name of the system-wide default disk group (if any), and the name of the boot disk group (if the root disk is under VxVM control).

mode

Prints the current operating mode of vxconfigd. The output format is:

where operating_mode is one of enabled, disabled, booted, or not-running.

If the -c flag is specified and vxconfigd is in the enabled mode, the clustered state of vxconfigd is displayed. The output format is:

where clustered_state is one of cluster inactive, cluster active - role not set, cluster active - MASTER, cluster active - SLAVE. This information is only available if the VxVM cluster feature is enabled.

protocolrange

Print the cluster protocol range supported by the node. The output format is:

protocolversion

Prints the current cluster protocol version of the node. The output format is:

The protocolversion is a value in the range listed by vxdctl protocolrange. This information is only available if the VxVM cluster feature is enabled.

support

Displays information about the versions of VxVM objects and components that are supported by the configuration daemon that is currently running. Versions are printed as colon-separated name/value pairs:

vxconfigd_vrsn

Version of vxconfigd that is currently running.

dg_minimum

Lowest disk group version supported by vxconfigd.

dg_maximum

Highest disk group version supported by vxconfigd.

kernel

Highest kernel version supported by vxconfigd.

protocol_minimum

Lowest cluster protocol version supported by the node.

protocol_maximum

Highest cluster protocol version supported by the node.

protocol_current

Cluster protocol version currently running on the node.

The protocol version information is only meaningful for the VxVM cluster feature.

stop

Requests that vxconfigd exit. This may be necessary to reset VxVM, such as when the -r reset option is specified to vxconfigd. This command does not disable any configuration state that is loaded into the kernel. It only affects the ability to make configuration changes until vxconfigd is restarted. If the -k option is used, vxconfigd is stopped by sending it a SIGKILL signal. The command pauses for up to one second to verify that vxconfigd has exited. It returns an error if vxconfigd has not exited after one second's delay has elapsed.

upgrade

Requests that the cluster be upgraded to the highest cluster protocol possible. This is only available if the VxVM cluster feature is enabled.

FILES

/etc/vx/volboot

File containing miscellaneous boot information.

/etc/vx/darecs

File containing a list of disks to be scanned and configured.

NOTES

From release 4.0 of VxVM, the add disk and rm disk commands are no longer supported.

SEE ALSO

fsck(1M), signal(5), uname(1M), vxconfigd (1M), vxdg (1M), vxdisk (1M), vxdmp (7), vxintro (1M), vxlicinst(1), vxlicrep(1)