PowerPath: How to configure an AIX host booting from SRDF devices?

Summary: The purpose of this article is to clearly describe what is officially supported by DELL EMC and to clarify the required steps to deploy an operational platform booting either from a R1 or from a R2 device. ...

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.

Instructions

Environment :
OS : AIX (any release) with boot from SAN configured.
DELL EMC SW : PowerPath 6.1 and above
DELL EMC SW : classical R1-R2 SRDF
DELL EMC SW : SRDF Metro
DELL EMC HW : VMAX family

DELL EMC doesn't officially support boot from SAN with PowerPath on SRDF R1/R2 devices on AIX, as opposed to Solaris or Linux where a "powercf -Z" can do the trick. Without precautions, the following symptom will be observed :

Initially, the host boots from a R1 device. lspv is then showing the following :

# lspv | grep rootvg
hdiskpower0     000b8d313342518d                    rootvg          active


Upon a reboot on the R2 device, lspv |grep rootvg now returns : 

# lspv | grep rootvg
hdiskpower0     000b8d313342518d                    rootvg          active      
hdiskpower41    000b8d313342518d                    rootvg          active


the duplicate PVID will not be an issue to boot, but will be an issue to varyon other VG. To avoid this kind of issue, PowerPath needs to be completely uninstalled and re-installed. "PowerPath updates" instead of "PowerPath uninstall / PowerPath install" sequence will cause the above issue.

If PowerPath is completely uninstalled and reinstalled, an "lspv | grep rootvg" will result in the following sequence :

boot from R1 device :
# lspv | grep rootvg
hdiskpower0     000b8d313342518d                    rootvg          active


Boot from R2 device :
# lspv | grep rootvg
hdiskpower41    000b8d313342518d                    rootvg          active


In an SRDF metro configuration, the above issue doesn't exist since, thanks to the identity spoofing mechanism. the host (and PowerPath) is not aware of the difference between the R1 and the R2 devices ... and everything works as it was a classical and regular boot from SAN.

Affected Products

PowerPath for AIX

Products

PowerPath for AIX
Article Properties
Article Number: 000019678
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 17 Oct 2025
Version:  3
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