time finder clone on AIX

Question

Hello, I am trying to clone an AIX volume group for the first time. The volume group is made out of 3 devices (DEV001, DEV002, DEV003). I'm trying to clone them to the target devices DEV004, DEV005, DEV006 on the secondary host. I have created the device group below -

root@wfscr04:/prod/oe/b/db#symclone -g oebdg query

Device Group (DG) Name: oebdg
DG's Type : REGULAR
DG's Symmetrix ID : 000187461303

Source Device Target Device State Copy
--------------------------------- ---------------------------- ------------ ----
Protected Modified Modified
Logical Sym Tracks Tracks Logical Sym tracks CGDP SRC <=> TGT (%)
--------------------------------- ---------------------------- ------------ ----

DEV001 0101 2883599 0 DEV004 06DD 0 .X.. CopyOnAccess 0
DEV002 0227 2883598 0 DEV005 06ED 0 .X.. CopyOnAccess 0
DEV003 0237 2883598 0 DEV006 06FD 0 .X.. CopyOnAccess 0

Total --------
Track(s) 8650795
MB(s) 270337

I have run the following commands on the primary host -
symclone create DEV001 sym ld DEV004
symclone create DEV002 sym ld DEV005
symclone create DEV003 sym ld DEV006

symclone activate DEV001 sym ld DEV004
symclone activate DEV002 sym ld DEV005
symclone activate DEV003 sym ld DEV006

I then went to the secondary host and ran -
cfgmgr
importvg -y b_db10vg hdiskpower10

The import fails with the following message -

root@wfscr12:/#importvg -y b_db10vg hdiskpower10
0516-002 lqueryvg: The volume group version is incompatible with this level
of the operating system and cannot be activated.

I'm not sure why the error. Should I have run an exportvg on the source server before trying to importvg on the target server? Both servers are running AIX 5.2 ml 3.

MarcT2 · Accepted Answer

The issue could be because your activate commands all occurred separately. Each member of the volume group is therefore at a different point in time (even if its only a matter of seconds) when its activate occurred.

The best bet is to put the Symmetrix volume numbers in into a file, with the source in the left column and the target on the right and use:

# symclone activate -f -consistent

...to activate them all in one hit. The consistent flag causes the Symmetrix to briefly hold IO to the affected devices whilst the activate occurs.

If you still have problems, then export the vg at the source and re-try the activate and see if the vg imports. That guarantees a clean copy - but "hot splits" should work ok.

Best Regards,
Marc

dynamox · Answer

can you see them ok in PowerPath ...powermt display dev=all looks clean ?

xe2sdc · Answer

Brad are you 100% sure that both hosts run the same OS version ??http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg3T1010285-s-

SKT2 · Answer

since it is telling about the VG version, i would suspect if the LVM version conflict

bodnarg · Answer

There may still be a version conflict, but in my experience with cloning things on AIX I thought you were supposed to use the "recreatevg" to avoid any issues with pvid conflicts or the such.

Seems odd that you'd get an error like you are if this is the issue - but I've seen odder matchings of error messages and their resolution.

rawstorage · Answer

To add to what Stefano has said if you are opeating on timefinder clone, and you are at SE 6.3 or above you have the option when adding your clone target devices with -tgt option. This reduces the number of commands required to create activate etc. + it is easier to work out your relationships.

e.g. symld -g group add dev 123 -tgt

when creating etc you just need to append -tgt to the command and all devices will get acted on at the same time. Just remember that if you are writing to your source as stefano has said to use -consistent.

symclone -g group activate -tgt -consistent

Message was edited by:
Paul Martin

xe2sdc · Answer

To add to what Stefano has said ...I think that you can read my mind .. I wanted to explain that you can activate all the clones at the same time with a single command line ... symclone activate DEV001 sym ld DEV004 DEV002 sym ld DEV005 DEV003 sym ld DEV006But as you said, it's suggested to upgrade to a recent (and decent) S.E. and use -tgt

SKT2 · Answer

i think you may need the license for SYMAPI Feature: TF/CG / Symmetrix or SYMAPI Feature: TimeFinder

brad12341 · Answer

I think MarkT may be on to something - do all three of these striped metas as a group with -file. I went ahead an unmounted and varied off the source. I then ran -

symclone -sid 1303 create -f file1
symclone -sid 1303 activate -f file1 -consistent

The activate failed saying I did not have the correct license. I'm guessing I need a special license to use -consistent?

I went back and ran the activate without conistent. I then went to the target server and ran cfgmgr and importvg. I got the same error -

root@wfscr12:/#importvg -y b_db10vg hdiskpower42
0516-082 lqueryvg: Unable to access a special device file.
Execute redefinevg and synclvodm to build correct environment.
0516-082 lqueryvg: Unable to access a special device file.
Execute redefinevg and synclvodm to build correct environment.
0516-1140 importvg: Unable to read the volume group descriptor area
on specified physical volume.

Both AIX servers are running 5.2 ml3.

xe2sdc · Answer

I think MarkT may be on to something - do all three of these striped metas as a group with -file. I went ahead an unmounted and varied off the source. I then ran -

symclone -sid 1303 create -f file1
symclone -sid 1303 activate -f file1 -consistent

The activate failed saying I did not have the correct license. I'm guessing I need a special license to use -consistent?

I went back and ran the activate without conistent. I then went to the target server and ran cfgmgr and importvg. I got the same error -

root@wfscr12:/#importvg -y b_db10vg hdiskpower42
0516-082 lqueryvg: Unable to access a special device file.
Execute redefinevg and synclvodm to build correct environment.
0516-082 lqueryvg: Unable to access a special device file.
Execute redefinevg and synclvodm to build correct environment.
0516-1140 importvg: Unable to read the volume group descriptor area
on specified physical volume.

Both AIX servers are running 5.2 ml3.

brad12341 · Answer

OK, I got this working witout -consitient. I had some odm corruption or confusion but now everything works after reconfiguring.

I'm still not using -consistient and I will follow up with our EMC rep to see if we own that license.

Thanks - Brad

dynamox · Answer

hey Brad,did you have to re-install ODM and PowerPath ..or just ODM sets. Other then that you used the same LVM commands ?

MarcT2 · Answer

You could try the following - not sure if the licensing requirements are different.

There is an alternative to the "-consistent" option, which can only be used if the clone is activated from the source machine running EMC PowerPath. Use "-ppath SRCDEVS" in place of the "-consistent".

-consistent creates a consistent split by holding IO for the affected devices at the Symmetrix FA, using a feature called ECA (Enginuity Consistency Assist).

-ppath SRCDEVS creates a consistent split by using a PowerPath feature to hold IO at the host.

I think the ppath option was there first, and we've had great success in using it at a big AIX site in the UK. Without this option the VG would import, but occasionally the journaled filesystem would refuse to mount, and could not be repaired with fsck.

BR, Marc

DA · Answer

Could it be that your ODM on the target did not get updated with the new PVID's? When you ran cfgmgr, were target devices already on the system? Have you tried, as was suggested earlier, recreatevg?

xe2sdc · Answer

Brad please don't forget to mark your threads as answered when you have good answers. And hopefully mark better ones so that anybody can easily find what worked for you.

Symmetrix

time finder clone on AIX

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