Veritas File Systems with Disk Layout Version 4 or Version 5 Cannot be Mounted or Upgraded with Veritas File System Release 5.1

Introduction:

As documented in the 5.1 Release Notes, Veritas File System (VxFS) 5.1 supports only disk layout Version 6 and Version 7, and no prior disk layout versions can be created or mounted.

If an upgrade to release 5.1 is performed, it will not be possible to mount any file systems with disk layout Version 4 or Version 5, nor will it be possible to upgrade from disk layout Version 4 or Version 5 to disk layout version 6 or Version 7.  


How to Determine if Affected:

Systems upgraded to the 5.1 release with disk layout Version 4 or Version 5 file Systems are affected.

Use the fstyp command to determine the file system version:

# /opt/VRTS/bin/fstyp -v /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup/volname | grep version
magic a501fcf5 version 4 ctime Thu May 12 11:29:31 2006

As per the upgrade notes in the 5.1 documentation all VxFS file systems with disk layout version 4 and 5 must be upgraded to layout version 6 or 7 before installing or upgrade to Storage Foundation 5.1.

See the vxupgrade man page or see the product documentation at sort.Veritas.com/documents for instructions on how to upgrade to disk layout version 6 or 7 before upgrading to the 5.1 release.

 

Document Errata:

The following information in the Veritas Storage Foundation and High Availability (SF/HA) Version 5.1 Installation Guide is incorrect.

The following is extracted from the SF/HA 5.1 Installation Guide on the Solaris platform.   Please refer to the individual Installation Guide on other platforms for the actual page number.

------------ Existing SF/HA 5.1 Installation Guide on Solaris platform -----------

Page 185 - Performing pre-installation checks and configuration

9  If required, upgrade VxFS disk layouts to a supported version.
Some previous layout versions cannot be mounted on VxFS 5.1. You can
upgrade these layout versions online before installing VxFS 5.1, or upgrade
them using vxfsconvert after installing VxFS 5.1.
 

Page 211 - Upgrade disk layout versions

In this release, you can create and mount only file systems with disk layout Version
6 and Version 7. No prior versions can be created or mounted.
Use the vxfsconvert or vxupgrade utilities to upgrade older disk layout versions
to disk layout Version 7.
The vxfsconvert command converts an unmounted file system from disk layout
Version 5 or prior to disk layout Version 7.
The vxupgrade command upgrades a mounted file system from disk layout Version
6 to Version 7. The vxupgrade cannot upgrade any previous versions because
those versions cannot be mounted.
See the vxfsconvert or vxupgrade man pages.
For more information about disk layouts, see the Veritas File System
Administrator's Guide.
------------ End Existing SF/HA 5.1 Installation Guide on Solaris Platform ------------

Please note that the above information on vxfsconvert is incorrect.   After substantive consideration, Veritas decided that it would not be feasible to use vxfsconvert to upgrade the disk layout version from 4 or 5 to higher versions.    Veritas decided that the only feasible way to upgrade the disk layout version from 4 or 5 was to run vxupgrade after the filesystem was mounted.   As a result, the solution for Etrack 1922948 is to allow disk layout version 4 or 5 to be mounted on SF 5.1 so that vxupgrade can be performed to upgrade the disk layout version.

Please note that actively using version 4 and 5 file systems with SF 5.1 without upgrading is still not supported.  Please upgrade the disk layout version immediately to a supported version after the filesystem is mounted.  Please don't try to use any filesystem with disk layout version 4 or 5 with your application programs on SF 5.1.

The documentation for SF 5.1 Rolling Patch 1 (5.1RP1) incorrectly indicates that Etrack 1933798 (which is a child etrack of Etrack 1922948) is fixed.  This fix is not ready as of the 5.1RP1 release and is not actually included.

For example on the Solaris platform, the Veritas Storage Foundation and High Availability Solution 5.1 Rolling Patch 1 (5.1RP1) Release Notes on Solaris platform has the following etrack listed as fixed which is not correct.

Page  19 - Veritas File System fixed Issues in 5.1 RP1 release

Etrack 1933798 - File System with Disk Layout Version 4 and 5 cannot be mounted on VxFS 5.1

Please refer to the 5.1RP1 Release Notes on other platform for the actual page number.

Upgrading File Systems Post 5.1 Installation:

File systems must be upgraded prior to installing SF 5.1 because 5.1 no longer supports mounting version 4 and 5 file systems and the vxupgrade command requires that file systems be mounted before it can run.

A hotfix has been created that enables mounting version 4 and 5 file systems for the purposes of running vxupgrade to upgrade the disk layout version.  Actively using version 4 and 5 file systems without upgrading is not supported.   Please upgrade the disk layout version immediately to a supported version after the filesystem is mounted.  Please don't try to use any filesystem with disk layout version 4 or 5 with your application programs on SF 5.1.

If impacted by this situation, contact Veritas Support and request the following patch:

Hotfix 1 for Veritas File System 5.1RP1   ( VxFS 5.1RP1HF1 ) 

Hotfix 1 for Veritas File System 5.1RP2 on Linux    ( VxFS 5.1RP2HF1 on Linux )

Hotfix 1 for Veritas File System 5.1RP2 on Aix    ( VxFS 5.1RP2HF1 on AIX)

Hotfix 2 for Veritas File System 5.1RP2 on Solaris    (VxFS 5.1RP2HF2 on Solaris SPARC and x64)

The hotfix patches are cumulative and can be applied to any patch level VxFS5.1 installation (5.1 GA, 5.1P1, 5.1RP1).  

After the patch installation, file systems can be upgraded using the following procedure:

# mount -F vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup/volume /mountpoint
# vxupgrade -n 5 /mountpoint  (for version 4 file systems)
# vxupgrade -n 6 /mountpoint
# vxupgrade -n 7 /mountpoint

 

In case a filesystem with Disk Layout Version 4 or 5 requires fsck after upgraded to 5.1 or above

Please note that Veritas strongly recommends customers to upgrade the Disk Layout Version BEFORE the upgrade to VxFS 5.1 or above.   Veritas also recommends customers to make sure that the filesystems are unmounted cleanly before the upgrade to VxFS 5.1 or above.   Customers can check if a filesystem is unmounted cleanly by running a simple fsck against the filesystem.  For example,

# fsck -m -F vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/vvrdg/volvxfs
UX:vxfs fsck: INFO: V-3-20915: sanity check: /dev/vx/rdsk/vvrdg/volvxfs OK

If fsck reported that the above message, the filesystem is unmounted cleanly.

In case a filesystem is found to be unclean after the upgrade to VxFS 5.1 or above, Veritas recommends the customer to move the filesystem back to the original pre-upgrade system (if one is still available) and run the fsck on the original system to clean up the filesystem.  

If it is not possible to move the filesystem back to the original system, it is recommended that the fsck binary from original system be used to clean up the filesystem.   The reason is that the fsck binary from VxFS 5.1 or above doesn't support Disk Layout Version 4 or 5.

Please note that there will be several versions of the fsck binary depending on the Intent Log version of the filesystem.   Please first check the Intent Log version of the filesystem with the fsdb command.  For example,

# echo '8192B.p S' | /opt/VRTS/bin/fsdb -F vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/datadg/datavol | grep log_version

log_version 11 logstart 0  logend 0

In the above example, the Intent Log version is 11.     Please choose the correct fsck binary from the following locations.

Solaris:
/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/sparcv9/fsck           <<< this is version for the latest intent log version
/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/sparcv9/fsck_logv10
/usr/lib/fs/vxfs/sparcv9/fsck_logv11

AIX:
/sbin/helpers/vxfs/bin/fsck           <<< this is version for the latest intent log version
/sbin/helpers/vxfs/bin/fsck_logv10
/sbin/helpers/vxfs/bin/fsck_logv9

Linux:

/sbin/fsck.vxfs           <<< this is version for the latest intent log version
/sbin/obj32/fsck_logv10
/sbin/obj32/fsck_logv11
/sbin/obj32/fsck_logv9
/sbin/obj64/fsck_logv11
 

HP-UX:
/sbin/fs/vxfs5.0/fsck    <<< this is version for the latest intent log version
/sbin/fs/vxfs5.0/fsck_logv11
/sbin/fs/vxfs5.0/fsck_logv9

Please store the required binary in a temporary directory.   Please DON'T replace the VxFS 5.1 fsck binary with any of the above binary.  The above vxfs binaries should only be used for Disk Layout Version 4 or 5 filesystems.  Please don't run them on any filesystems with higher Disk Layout Version.)    For example, run the following command to clean up the Disk Layout Version 4 filesystems.

# /tmp/fsck -F vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/datadg/datavol