Dissimilar Disk Restore of a Solaris client fails if the client uses Solaris Volume Manager metadevices (volumes) created using slice 2 of Solaris disks.

Article: 100018296
Last Published: 2008-01-15
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Product(s): NetBackup

Problem

Dissimilar Disk Restore of a Solaris client fails if the client uses Solaris Volume Manager metadevices (volumes) created using slice 2 of Solaris disks.

Solution

This issue is observed on Solarisclients using Solaris Volume Manager (SVM) volumes created using slice 2 ofdisks.  For example, this issue would be seen when using Bare Metal Restore(BMR) to carry out a dissimilar disk restore (DDR) of a Solaris client usingmetadevices created asfollows:

hostname.domain.com# metainit d111 1 c1t0d0s2
hostname.domain.com#metainit d21 1 2 c2t500601603A20216Ad3s2c2t500601603A20216Ad4s2

In the example shown above, themetadevices d11 and d21 are created using slice 2 ( s2) ofthe disks being used for volume creation.

LogFiles/Messages:
If a DDR is carried out for such a client, BMR does notallow the user to map the SVM Volumes to any other slice but slice 2 of otherdisks.

If a mapping is done using slice 2, then the restore process failswith a message similar to the following:
Makingdatabase replica(s)
Making SVM plexd21
ERROR: failed to create plexd21.
ERROR: failed to createfilesystems on disk NONAME.

BareMetal Restore has failed.
Now, youwill be dropped to a shellprompt.
You may reboot the systemwhen you have completed diagnosis.

The restore log on the BMRmaster server also shows an error similar to thefollowing:
/usr/sbin/metainit -f d21 1 2/dev/dsk/c2t500601603A20216Ad2s0 /dev/dsk/c2t500601603A20216Ad3s0-i 32b
metainit: hostname.domain.com:c2t500601603A20216Ad2s0: No space left ondevice

Workaround:
This issue is not seen in thefollowing two cases - either may be used as a workaround:
1. Although theDissimilar Disk Restore fails, a self restore of the client will succeed.
2.If the metadevices are created using an SVM diskset, self restore as well as aDDR will succeed.

In general, slice 2 should never be used in SVMconfiguration due to its special nature in Solaris as the "backup" slice for theentire disk.
 

 

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