HP-UX Logical Volume Manager and
MirrorDisk/UX Release Notes
HP-UX 11i v3 April 2011 Web Release (B.11.31)
HP Part Number: 5900-1711
Published: April 2011
Edition: 9.0
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Contents
Logical Volume Manager and MirrorDisk/UX Release Notes...............................4
About this document.................................................................................................................4
LVM and MirrorDisk/UX overview...............................................................................................4
Overview of changes...........................................................................................................4
New and changed features in this release...................................................................................4
New features......................................................................................................................4
Handling VxVM GPT Formatted Disks................................................................................4
Known problems fixed in this version...........................................................................................4
Known problems and limitations.................................................................................................5
Known problems..................................................................................................................5
In Shared LVM, client panics after joining the Serviceguard cluster ........................................5
Limitations...........................................................................................................................6
Installation requirements............................................................................................................6
Required hardware..............................................................................................................6
Required software................................................................................................................6
Required patches.................................................................................................................6
Mass Storage Critical Resource Analysis.............................................................................6
mkfs and mkboot commands............................................................................................7
HP Serviceguard.............................................................................................................7
VxVM commands............................................................................................................7
Required disk space.............................................................................................................7
HP Insight Remote Support Software............................................................................................7
Compatibility issues..................................................................................................................8
Version 2.x volume groups....................................................................................................8
Moving from HP-UX 11i v2 to HP-UX 11i v3..............................................................................8
Moving volume groups from HP-UX 11i v3 to previous HP-UX releases.........................................9
Sharing volume groups in an HP Serviceguard cluster...............................................................9
Related documentation............................................................................................................10
Software Availability in Native Languages.................................................................................10
Contents 3
Logical Volume Manager and MirrorDisk/UX Release Notes
About this document
This document provides information about the Logical Volume Manager (LVM) and MirrorDisk/UX
products in the April 2011 web release of HP-UX 11i v3.
LVM and MirrorDisk/UX overview
Logical Volume Manager (bundle BaseLVM) is the HP-UX default Volume Manager. It provides user
with flexibility in configuring and managing mass storage resources. In HP-UX 11i v3, the LVM
kernel and commands are bundled with the core HP-UX product.
MirrorDisk/UX (bundle B2491BA) is an optionally purchased HP-UX product to enable LVM
mirroring functionality.
Overview of changes
The initial HP-UX 11i v3 release of LVM and MirrorDisk/UX was integrated with the new mass
storage stack, delivering significant performance, scalability, availability, and usability
enhancements. LVM was enhanced to support larger logical volumes, temporary quiescing of
volume groups, and striping with mirroring. Volume group availability was improved: resizing a
LUN and modifying volume group characteristics no longer required the volume group to be
recreated, and replacing a disk could be done online.
The April 2011 web release of LVM and MirrorDisk/UX provides an enhancement to deal with
VxVM GPT formatted disks. This release also provides defect fixes as described in “Known problems
fixed in this version” (page 4).
The LVM April 2011 web release can be downloaded from the LVM software download page:
http://www.hp.com/go/fsvm.
New and changed features in this release
New features
The following LVM feature is new with the April 2011 web release of HP-UX 11i v3:
Handling VxVM GPT Formatted Disks
Starting with the VxVM 5.1 SP1 release, VxVM uses GPT (GUID Partition Table) when configuring
disks that are larger than 1 TB in size with Cross-platform Data Sharing (CDS) format. An LVM
enhancement (QXCR1001097943) is added for this in the LVM April 2011 web release to detect
such GPT formatted disks when configuring these disks in LVM using pvcreate and
vgcfgrestore commands.
For example, with this enhancement, when a VxVM GPT disk is supplied for the LVM pvcreate
command, it reports the following error:
$ pvcreate /dev/rdisk/disk35
pvcreate: Could not perform LVM operation on VxVM disk “/dev/rdisk/disk35”
This enhancement will help customers avoid using VxVM GPT formatted disk in LVM by mistake.
However, customers can also enforce the pvcreate operation with the pvcreate -f option.
Known problems fixed in this version
The following table lists the known LVM and MirrorDisk/UX problems fixed in the April 2011 web
release of HP-UX 11i v3.
4 Logical Volume Manager and MirrorDisk/UX Release Notes
Table 1 LVM Fixes in HP-UX 11i v3 April 2011 Web Release
Defect ID Description
QXCR1001080067 pvdisplay -v takes a long time to complete if the physical volume has large number of
physical extents in use (about 0.5 million extents or more).
QXCR1001086866 vgchange -a y reports activation mode conflict failure with the following error message
when the previous vgchange -c reported success even though internally it did not change
the mode correctly.
$vgchange -a y vgname
vgchange: Activation mode requested for the volume group <vgname> conflicts with configured
mode.
QXCR1001095451 System panics after a physical volume is removed from a volume group when both of the
following conditions are true:
• The removed physical volume has extents allocated for a mirrored logical volume with
MWC (mirror write cache) enabled.
• There were write IOs on these extents and the logical volume was not closed properly.
The stack trace of the panic will look like below:
0xe000000000711ff0 $cold_vm_hndlr+0x750
0xe000000001dda780 bubbledown+0x0
0xe0000001c38f64b0 lvmp_vg_lvix_to_minor+0xd0
0xe0000001c38f6390 lvmp_vg_lvix_to_dev+0x50
QXCR1001110492 In a LVM shared volume group, if both internal resync (triggered by a physical volume
coming back online) and I/Os are targeted for the same extents (in any of the nodes), it may
lead to IOs hang when there is heavy I/O load and frequent intermittent disk failures.
QXCR1001101479 The lvcreate command allocates one extent in the physical volume group which has one
physical volume and the remaining extents in the next physical volume group when the logical
volume has distributed pvg-strict policy.
QXCR1001110394 The lvextend command allocates one extent in the physical volume group which has one
physical volume and the remaining extents in the next physical volume group when the logical
volume has distributed pvg-strict policy.
Known problems and limitations
This section provides a list of known problems and limitations as known to HP at time of publication.
If workarounds are available, they are included.
Known problems
In Shared LVM, client panics after joining the Serviceguard cluster
Defect ID: QXCR1001091075
Problem: In a Serviceguard cluster environment, one of the client panics with
the following stack trace.
0xe00000012f219ca0 slvmp_process_bad_reply+0x320
0xe000000000ed4490 invoke_callouts_for_self+0x460
0xe000000000ec6bf0 soft_intr_handler+0x1c0
Severity: Critical
Corrective Action: Currently, none.
Known problems and limitations 5
Limitations
This section provides a list of limitations as known to HP at time of publication.
• Logical volumes that have snapshots associated with them might experience an increase in
latencies associated with writes. This is also applicable for writes on (writable) snapshots
themselves.
• With the HP-UX 11i v3 September 2010 Update release, when the number of extents remaining
in a space-efficient snapshot logical volume’s pre-allocated pool falls beyond a certain internally
computed threshold, by default, LVM tries to increase the pre-allocated pool size by threshold
value. This does not guarantee that snapshot will not become over-commit. For example, if
the I/O rate is faster than auto pre-allocation, the snapshot becomes over-commit.
If auto pre-allocation is manually disabled, a message is logged in the syslog. This message
is displayed to inform you that further unsharing of data between the snapshot and its successors
might end up depleting the extents in the pre-allocated pool and lead to the snapshot and its
predecessors being marked as inoperative. As soon as you see this message in the syslog,
you must increase the pre-allocated extent pool size for the snapshot logical volume.
• For more limitations on snapshots, see the Using LVM Logical Volume Snapshots white paper.
Installation requirements
This section describes the installation requirements for this release.
Required hardware
LVM and MirrorDisk/UX have no hardware requirements beyond the requirements of the HP-UX
11i v3 operating system. Both products run on all supported HP 9000 and HP Integrity servers.
Required software
Because LVM is installed with the HP-UX 11i v3 operating environment, there are no software
requirements beyond the requirements of the HP-UX 11i v3 operating system. MirrorDisk/UX
requires the BaseLVM™ product.
Required patches
In HP-UX 11i v3, LVM and MirrorDisk/UX do not require any software patches.
For each of the following subsystems, you can download patches from the following website:
http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/mainPage.do
Mass Storage Critical Resource Analysis
The Mass Storage Critical Resource Analysis (MS CRA) tool checks for a maximum of two mirror
copies of a logical volume. However, Version 2.0 and higher volume groups allow up to five mirror
copies. To enable MS CRA to check for a maximum of five mirror copies of a volume, you must
install the following patch, or a superseding patch:
• PHCO_37562
MS CRA checks for a maximum of 511 physical volumes in a volume group. However, Version
2.1 volume groups allow up to 2048 physical volumes. To enable MS CRA to check for a maximum
of 2048 physical volumes in a volume group, you must install the following patch:
• PHCO_38145
PHCO_38145 supersedes PHCO_37562. Installing PHCO_38145 enables both checks.
6 Logical Volume Manager and MirrorDisk/UX Release Notes
mkfs and mkboot commands
The mkfs and mkboot commands check whether a specified disk device is being used by LVM;
if so, they display an error message. For these commands to correctly check whether a device is
part of a Version 2.x volume group, you must install the following patches:
• PHCO_37328
• PHCO_37340
• PHCO_37394
These patches are delivered in the FEATURE11i bundle.
HP Serviceguard
To support Version 2.0 volume groups, HP Serviceguard 11.18 requires the April 2008 patch.
Customers requiring Version 2.1 volume group support or Version 2.0 and higher cluster lock disks
must install the HP Serviceguard September 2008 patch. For more information, see the HP
Serviceguard Version A.11.18 Release Notes.
Cluster device special files (cDSFs) require the installation of the following patches on HP-UX 11iv3
September 2010 OE:
• PHSS_41225 11.31 Serviceguard A.11.20.00 patch
• PHCO_41235 11.31 iocdsfd(1M) and io_cdsf_config(1M) patch
For more information, see the New Features for the September 2010 Patch section of the HP
Serviceguard Version A.11.20 Release Notes.
VxVM commands
Several VxVM commands check whether a specified disk device is being used by LVM before
overwriting it. For these commands to correctly check whether a device is part of a Version 2.x
volume group, you must install the following patch:
• PHCO_37836 for VxVM 4.1
• PHCO_40294 for VxVM 5.0
Required disk space
Because LVM is installed with the HP-UX 11i v3 operating environment, it consumes no additional
disk space.
MirrorDisk/UX consumes no additional disk space aside from a license key.
HP Insight Remote Support Software
HP strongly recommends that you install HP Insight Remote Support software to complete the
installation or upgrade of your product and to enable enhanced delivery of your HP Warranty,
HP Care Pack Service or HP contractual support agreement. HP Insight Remote Support supplements
your monitoring, 24x7 to ensure maximum system availability by providing intelligent event
diagnosis, and automatic, secure submission of hardware event notifications to HP, which will
initiate a fast and accurate resolution, based on your product’s service level. Notifications may be
sent to your authorized HP Channel Partner for on-site service, if configured and available in your
country. The software is available in two variants:
• HP Insight Remote Support Standard: This software supports server and storage devices and
is optimized for environments with 1-50 servers. Ideal for customers who can benefit from
proactive notification, but do not need proactive service delivery and integration with a
management platform.
• HP Insight Remote Support Advanced: This software provides comprehensive remote monitoring
and proactive service support for nearly all HP servers, storage, network, and SAN
HP Insight Remote Support Software 7
environments, plus selected non-HP servers that have a support obligation with HP. It is
integrated with HP Systems Insight Manager. A dedicated server is recommended to host both
HP Systems Insight Manager and HP Insight Remote Support Advanced.
Go to http://www.hp.com/go/insightremotesupport for details on both versions.
To download the software, go to Software Depot: http://hp.com/go/softwaredepot
Select Insight Remote Support from the menu on the right.
Compatibility issues
Version 2.x volume groups
• Version 2.2 volume groups are not recognized on previous releases of HP-UX, including
versions of HP-UX 11i v3 prior to the March 2010 Update release. Version 2.1 volume groups
are not recognized on previous releases of HP-UX, including versions of HP-UX 11i v3 prior
to the September 2008 release. Version 1.0 volume groups are supported on all supported
versions of HP-UX, including 11i v1, 11i v2, and 11i v3.
• The following HP-UX product does not currently support Version 2.x volume groups:
◦ HP Process Resource Manager (HP PRM)
This product plans to add support of Version 2.x volume groups. For the most recent information
on this products, see the IT Resource Center (ITRC) at http://itrc.hp.com, or consult the release
notes for the specific product.
Encrypted Volume and File System (EVFS) v1.1 and greater supports Version 2.x volume groups.
Moving from HP-UX 11i v2 to HP-UX 11i v3
If you are migrating a system from HP-UX 11i v2 to HP-UX 11i v3, see the LVM migration white
paper described in “Related documentation”. It contains information on migrating an LVM
configuration from the legacy naming model to the agile naming model.
Existing LVM configurations created on HP-UX 11i v2 continue to work on HP-UX 11i v3 under the
legacy naming model. However, there is a change in behavior for Alternate Links (PVLinks):
In HP-UX 11i v3, management of multipathed devices is available outside of LVM using the next
generation mass storage stack. By default, the next generation mass storage stack distributes I/O
requests across all available paths to a multipathed disk, even when using legacy device special
files. Using LVM with persistent or legacy device special files might cause I/O requests to be sent
across alternate links, even if the links are not configured as PVLinks; this does not introduce any
errors, but it does differ from PVLink behavior in previous releases.
When using LVM configuration commands on legacy device special files, LVM does not select an
alternate path if the path corresponding to the specified device special file is unavailable, unless
the unavailable path and the alternate path are configured as part of an active volume group.
When using LVM configuration commands on persistent device special files, LVM succeeds if at
least one of the paths to the device is available.
HP recommends converting volume groups with multipathed disks to persistent device special files
and using native multipathing, as described in the migration white paper in “Related
documentation”.
However, if you want backward-compatible PVLink behavior, you must use legacy device special
files for physical volumes, and disable the mass storage stack multipathing for those physical
volumes. To disable multipathing on legacy device special files, use the scsimgr command to
configure a global device tunable called leg_mpath_enable.
For each multipathed disk, enter the following command:
# scsimgr save_attr -D /dev/rdisk/diskn -a leg_mpath_enable=false
Alternatively, you can disable multipathing for all legacy device files with this command:
8 Logical Volume Manager and MirrorDisk/UX Release Notes
# scsimgr save_attr -a leg_mpath_enable=false
Note that this has no effect on multipathing through persistent device special files. For more
information, see scsimgr(1M).
Moving volume groups from HP-UX 11i v3 to previous HP-UX releases
If a volume group used on HP-UX 11i v3 is accessed from a system running a previous release of
HP-UX 11i, you might encounter these compatibility issues:
• Version 2.x volume groups: As noted in “Version 2.x volume groups” (page 8), Version 2.x
volume groups are not recognized on previous releases of HP-UX.
• Logical volumes larger than 2 TB: Releases prior to HP-UX 11i v3 can only access data within
the first 2 TB of a logical volume. If a logical volume larger than 2 TB is created on HP-UX 11i
v3, its use is not recommended on any previous HP-UX release. The volume group can be
activated and the logical volume can be used, but any data in that logical volume beyond 2
TB will be inaccessible.
NOTE: Patches PHKL_36745, PHCO_36744, and PHCO_37939 resolve this compatibility
issue for HP-UX 11i v2. Installing these patches enables the creation and use of logical volumes
up to 16 TB.
• Striped Mirrors: Releases prior to HP-UX 11i v3 only support extent-based striping via the -D
option to lvcreate. If a logical volume using simultaneous mirroring and non-extent-based
striping is created on HP-UX 11i v3, attempts to import or activate its associated volume group
will fail on a previous HP-UX release. To import the volume group, you must remove the
incompatible logical volumes or reduce them to a single mirror.
NOTE: Patches PHKL_36745, PHCO_36744, and PHCO_37939 resolve this compatibility
issue for HP-UX 11i v2. Installing these patches enables the creation and use of striped mirrors.
• Mirror Write Cache (MWC): When a volume group containing a logical volume using the
Mirror Write Cache is activated on HP-UX 11i v3, its Mirror Write Cache format is converted
to a new format. Importing or activating the volume group on a previous HP-UX release does
not recognize the new format and triggers a full resynchronization of the mirrors.
NOTE: Patch PHKL_36244 adds support for the new MWC format to HP-UX 11i v2. Installing
this patch avoids the unnecessary resynchronization.
As of this writing, larger logical volumes and striped mirrors are only available on HP-UX 11i v3
and HP-UX 11i v2 (with patches). For up-to-the-moment information, contact your Hewlett-Packard
support representative or consult the Hewlett-Packard IT Resource Center site: http://itrc.hp.com
(Americas and Asia Pacific) or http://europe.itrc.hp.com (Europe) for LVM patches.
Sharing volume groups in an HP Serviceguard cluster
To share a volume group in an HP Serviceguard cluster where the cluster nodes have different
versions of the LVM product installed, use the following guidelines:
• To share a version 2.1 volume group, you must install the HP-UX 11i v3 September 2008
release or above on all the cluster nodes.
• To share a 2.2 volume group, you must install the HP-UX 11i v3 March 2010 release or above
on all the cluster nodes.
• To use the Multi Node Online Reconfiguration (MORE) feature, you must install the HP-UX 11i
v3 September 2009 release or above on all nodes of the cluster. Further, you can use MORE
only on version 2.1 or above volume groups.
Compatibility issues 9
NOTE: MORE does not operate in a cluster with both HP-UX 11i v3 September 2009 and
HP-UX 11i v3 March 2010 nodes. During a rolling update from HP-UX 11i v3 September
2009 to HP-UX 11i v3 March 2010, you cannot use MORE on the shared volume group.
Related documentation
LVM and MirrorDisk/UX manpages are installed with the product and provide the latest
documentation for all LVM commands and options. These manpages can be displayed via the man
command.
In addition, LVM user documentation is available in English at http://www.hp.com/go/
hpux-core-docs. Available documents include:
• HP-UX Logical Volume Manager and MirrorDisk/UX Release Notes (this version and previous
versions)
• HP-UX System Administrator's Guide: Logical Volume Management (this document is localized)
• LVM 2.0 Volume Groups in HP-UX 11i v3
• LVM New Features in HP-UX 11i v3
• LVM Limits
• LVM Migration from Legacy to Agile Naming Model: HP-UX 11i v3
• LVM Online Disk Replacement (LVM OLR)
• Using the vgmodify command to Perform LVM Volume Group Dynamic LUN Expansion (DLE)
and Contraction (DLC)
• LVM Volume Group Quiesce/Resume
• SLVM Single-Node Online Reconfiguration (SLVM SNOR)
• SLVM Online Reconfiguration
• When Good Disks Go Bad: Dealing with Disk Failures under LVM
• Using the vgversion Command to Perform LVM Volume Group Version Migration
• Using LVM Logical Volume Snapshots
Software Availability in Native Languages
The commands delivered with LVM and MirrorDisk/UX support localized message catalogs. The
kernel components which generate messages directly to the console and the system log are available
only in the English language.
LVM and MirrorDisk/UX manpages are available in English and Japanese.
The HP-UX System Administrator's Guide: Logical Volume Management is available in English,
Japanese, and Simplified Chinese. These documents are on http://www.hp.com/go/hpux-core-docs.
10 Logical Volume Manager and MirrorDisk/UX Release Notes
