man page of vxconfigd

vxconfigd - Veritas Volume Manager configuration daemon

SYNOPSIS

vxconfigd [-dfk] [-D diag_portal] [-I inquiry_portal] [-m mode] [-r reset] [-R request_portal] [-x arg]

DESCRIPTION

The Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) configuration daemon, vxconfigd, maintains disk configurations and disk groups in VxVM. vxconfigd takes requests from other utilities for configuration changes, and communicates those changes to the kernel and modifies configuration information stored on disk. vxconfigd also initializes VxVM when the system is booted.

OPTIONS

-d	Equivalent to -m disable, which starts vxconfigd in disabled mode.
-D diag_portal
	Specifies a rendezvous file path name for diagnostic operation connections to vxconfigd. /etc/vx/vold_diag is the default path name. The diagnostic portal exists in both the enabled and disabled operating modes.
-f	Starts vxconfigd in the foreground. This is often useful when debugging vxconfigd, or when tracing configuration changes. If -f is not specified, vxconfigd forks a background daemon process. The foreground process exits when the vxconfigd startup processing completes.
-I inquiry_portal
	Specifies a rendezvous file path name for inquiry operation connections to vxconfigd. /etc/vx/vold_inquiry is the default path name. The inquiry portal accepts only opcodes for connection requests and query requests submitted by vxprint. All other requests are rejected. The inquiry portal exists only when vxconfigd is operating in enabled mode.
-k	If a vxconfigd process is already running, -k kills it before any other startup processing. This is useful for recovering from a hung vxconfigd process. Killing the old vxconfigd and starting a new one usually does not cause problems for volume devices that are being used by applications, or that contain mounted file systems.
-m mode	Sets the initial operating mode for vxconfigd. Possible modes are: disable Starts vxconfigd in disabled mode. disable creates a rendezvous file for utilities that perform various diagnostic or initialization operations. disable can be used with the -r reset option as part of a command sequence to completely reinitialize Veritas Volume Manager configuration. Use the vxdctl enable operation to enablevxconfigd. enable Starts vxconfigd fully enabled (default). enable uses the volboot file to bootstrap and load in the boot disk group if the root disk is under VxVM control. It then scans all known disks for disk groups to import and imports those disk groups. enable also sets up entries in the /dev directories to define all of the accessible Veritas Volume Manager devices. If the volboot file cannot be read, or if the boot disk group cannot be imported, vxconfigd starts in disabled mode.
-r reset	Resets all Veritas Volume Manager configuration information stored in the kernel as part of startup processing. The reset fails if any volume devices are in use, or if an imported shared disk group exists. This option is primarily useful for testing or debugging.
-R request_portal
	Specifies a rendezvous file path name for regular configuration and query requests. /etc/vx/vold_request is the default. The regular request portal exists only when vxconfigd is operating in enabled mode.
-x arg	Turns on various parameters used for debugging or other aspects of vxconfigd operation. The argument, arg, is a decimal number, 1 through 9, or a string. A number value sets the debug information output level and is required to obtain any debug messages.
	The debugging level can also be changed while vxconfigd is running by using the vxdctl debug command.
	String arguments include: boot=volboot_path   Specifies the path name to use for the volboot file. This is primarily useful with the stub debug option. The volboot file contains the name of the boot disk group if the root disk is under VxVM control. It also contains a host ID that is stored on disks in imported disk groups to define ownership of disks as a sanity check for disks that might be accessible from more than one host. cleartempdir   Removes and recreates the /etc/vx/tempdb directory. This directory stores configuration information that is cleared after system reboots (or cleared for specific disk groups on import and deport operations). If the contents of this directory are corrupted, due to a disk I/O failure for example, vxconfigd will not start up if it is killed and restarted. Such a situation can be cleared by starting vxconfigd with -x cleartempdir. This option has no effect if vxconfigd is not started in enabled mode. Note: It is advisable to kill any running operational commands (vxvol, vxsd, or vxmend) before using the -x cleartempdir option. Failure to do so may cause these commands to fail, or may cause disastrous but unchecked interactions between those commands and the issuance of new commands. It is safe to use this option while running the graphical user interface, or while Veritas Volume Manager background daemons are running (vxsparecheck, vxnotify, or vxrelocd). darecs=darecs_path   Specifies the pathname to the file that contains persistent disk access records. This file contains a list of disks that are scanned and configured by VxVM. devprefix=prefixdir   Specifies a directory path name to prefix for any disk device accessed by vxconfigd. For example, with devprefix=/tmp, any access to a raw disk device named hdisk10would actually be directed to the file /tmp/dev/rdsk/hdisk10. In stubbed mode, vxconfigd can operate with such files being regular files. vxconfigd only requires entries in the prefixdir /dev directory in stubbed mode. See stub below for more information. log | nolog   Logs all vxconfigd console output directly to a file. This method of logging is very reliable in that any messages output before a system crash are available in the log file (if the crash did not corrupt the file system). You can enable direct vxconfigd logging with the -x log argument, and turn it off with the -x nolog argument. Logging is disabled by default. If direct logging is enabled, the default log file is /var/adm/ras/vxconfigd.log. This option can be used in conjunction with syslog | nosyslog. See syslog | nosyslog below for more information. The following command logs all debug and error messages to the specified log file:   vxconfigd -x9 -x log logfile=logfilename   Specifies an alternate vxconfigd direct log file. This option requires using the -x log argument. noautoconfig   vxconfigd usually configures disk devices that can be found by inspecting kernel disk drivers automatically. These auto_configured disk devices are not stored in persistent configurations, but are regenerated from kernel tables after every reboot. Invoking vxconfigd with -x noautoconfig prevents the automatic configuration of disk devices, forcing VxVM to use only those disk devices configured explicitly using vxdisk define or vxdisk init. nothreads   Runs vxconfigd single-threaded. request_threads=count   Specifies the number of request handlers that are configured when vxconfigd is started. The request_threads option overrides any default values or values set previously with the vxdctl command. The request_threads option is incompatible with the -x nothreads option. stub Specifies not to communicate configuration changes to the kernel. stub is typically used as a demonstration mode of operation for vxconfigd. In most aspects, a stubbedvxconfigd behaves like a regular vxconfigd, except that disk devices can be regular files and volume nodes are not created. A stubbed vxconfigd can run concurrently with a regular vxconfigd, or concurrently with any other stubbed vxconfigd processes, as long as different rendezvous, volboot, and disk files are used for each concurrent process. Other Veritas Volume Manager utilities can detect when they are connected to a vxconfigd that is running in stubbed mode. When a VM utility detects a stubbed-modevxconfigd, the utility typically stubs out any direct use of volumes or plexes itself. This allows utilities to make configuration changes in a testing environment that runs without any communication with the kernel or creation of real volumes or plexes. syslog | nosyslog   vxconfigd supports using the syslog() library call to log all of its console messages (this includes error, warning, and notice messages, but not debug messages). By default,vxconfigd redirects console messages to syslog() when it is first started. You can disable syslog() logging using the -x nosyslog argument, and turn it on with the -x syslogargument. You can also enable or disable syslog() logging at boot-time by editing the Veritas Volume Manager startup scripts. syslog can be specified along with log (described above) to obtain more reliable logging. For example, the following command logs all debug messages to the specified log file, and logs all error messages to both the direct log file and the conslog file:   vxconfigd -x9 -x log -x syslog synctrace   Flushes tracefile data to disk, invoking fsync, to ensure that the last entry is included in the file even if the system crashes. tagged=N   Displays the timestamp (in milliseconds) and elapsed time values of the vxconfigd subsystems that are executed when vxconfigd starts. The N argument controls the verbosity of the output. 1 is the lowest level of verbosity, and 8 is the highest. The command also displays the Begin and End messages of each subsystem, and any quantities that are relevant to that subsystem. For example, the number of LUN paths during device discovery. Elapsed time values are shown within the End messages and represent the computed elpased time between the Begin and End messages. Tagged messages can be used to help determine where time is being spect during vxconfigd startup. This is particularly useful in large LUN configurations. The following sample shows a typical output for tagged messages: timestamp | mstimestamp   Attaches a date and time-of-day timestamp to all messages written by vxconfigd to the console. If mstimestamp is used, a millisecond value is also displayed, allowing detailed timing of vxconfigd’s operation. tracefile=file   Logs all possible tracing information to the specified file.

EXIT CODES

If errors are encountered, vxconfigd writes diagnostic messages to the standard error output. vxconfigd exits if it encounters some serious errors. If an error is encountered when importing the boot disk group during a normal startup, vxconfigd enters disabled mode. See the Veritas Volume Manager Troubleshooting Guide for a list of error messages and how to respond to them.Defined exit codes for vxconfigd are:

0	The requested startup mode completed successfully. This is returned if -f is not used to startup vxconfigd as a foreground process. If vxconfigd is started as a foreground process, it exits with a zero status if vxdctl stop is used to exit vxconfigd.
1	The command line usage is incorrect.
2	Enabled-mode operation was requested, but an error caused vxconfigd to enter disabled mode instead. This is also returned for boot-mode operation if startup failed. However, with boot-mode operation, the background vxconfigd process exits as well.
3	The -k option was specified, but the existing vxconfigd could not be killed.
4	A system error was encountered that vxconfigd cannot recover from. The specific operation that failed is printed on the standard error output.
5	The background vxconfigd process was killed by a signal before startup completed. The specific signal is printed on the standard error output.
6	A serious inconsistency was found in the kernel, preventing sane operation. This can also happen because of version mismatch between the kernel and vxconfigd.
7	The -r reset option was specified, but the Veritas Volume Manager kernel cannot be reset. Usually this means that a volume is open or mounted.
8	An interprocess communications failure (usually a STREAMS failure). Has made it impossible for vxconfigd to take requests from other utilities.
9	Volumes that must be started early by vxconfigd could not be started. The reasons, and possible recovery solutions, are printed to the standard error output.

FILES

/dev	Directory containing raw and block device nodes for volumes (raw device names start with "r").
/etc/vx/darecs	File containing a list of disks to be scanned and configured.
/etc/vx/tempdb	Directory containing miscellaneous temporary files. Files in this directory are recreated after reboot.
/etc/vx/volboot	File containing miscellaneous boot information. See vxdctl(1M) for more information on this file.
/var/adm/ras/vxconfigd.log	Default log file.