How to ensure VTOC is updated from VxVM in SunOS?

It is important to keep the VTOC in sync with the setup in VxVM else you risk not being able to boot up the disk after un-encapsulating.

SUN also advised that if the VxVM disk mirrors are not identical to the first disk, this would result in unusable mirrors.

Also after creation of VxVM rootdisk and rootmirrors, you may want to create the underlying partition on the rootdisk and rootmirror.

Here, i will show the steps for setting up new disk as RAID1 mirror

root@myserver # vxdisksetup -if c2t0d0
root@myserver # vxdg -g rootdg adddisk rootmirror2=c2t0d0
root@myserver # vxassist -g rootdg mirror rootvol rootmirror2 &
root@myserver # vxassist -g rootdg mirror usr rootmirror2 &
root@myserver # vxassist -g rootdg mirror var rootmirror2 &
root@myserver # vxassist -g rootdg mirror opt rootmirror2 &

Take a look at the VTOC

root@myserver # prtvtoc /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s2
* /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s2 partition map
*
* Dimensions:
* 512 bytes/sector
* 107 sectors/track
* 27 tracks/cylinder
* 2889 sectors/cylinder
* 24622 cylinders
* 24620 accessible cylinders
*
* Flags:
* 1: unmountable
* 10: read-only
*
* Unallocated space:
* First Sector Last
* Sector Count Sector
* 0 2889 2888
* 8395434 4286577640 5777
* 71127180 4232235550 8395433
* 58730481 12396699 71127179
*
* First Sector Last
* Partition Tag Flags Sector Count Sector Mount Directory
0 2 00 5778 8389656 8395433
1 3 01 8395434 4194828 12590261
2 5 00 0 71127180 71127179
3 15 01 2889 2889 5777
4 14 01 5778 71121402 71127179
5 0 00 33564402 25166079 58730480
6 4 00 12590262 4194828 16785089
7 7 00 16785090 16779312 33564401

Now, the VTOC is not updated. we need to use VxVM command to update VTOC. not really advisable to update using "format" command manually since its more error prone.

Tag Description (2nd column from right)
0x00 UNASSIGNED
0x01 BOOT
0x02 ROOT
0x03 SWAP
0x04 USR
0x05 BACKUP
0x06 STAND
0x07 VAR
0x08 HOME

Flag Description (right-most column)
0x00 MOUNTABLE
0x01 UNMOUNTABLE
0x10 READ-ONLY

Note that Swap is NOT mountable.


root@myserver # vxprint -htg rootdg
DG NAME NCONFIG NLOG MINORS GROUP-ID
DM NAME DEVICE TYPE PRIVLEN PUBLEN STATE
RV NAME RLINK_CNT KSTATE STATE PRIMARY DATAVOLS SRL
RL NAME RVG KSTATE STATE REM_HOST REM_DG REM_RLNK
V NAME RVG KSTATE STATE LENGTH READPOL PREFPLEX UTYPE
PL NAME VOLUME KSTATE STATE LENGTH LAYOUT NCOL/WID MODE
SD NAME PLEX DISK DISKOFFS LENGTH [COL/]OFF DEVICE MODE
SV NAME PLEX VOLNAME NVOLLAYR LENGTH [COL/]OFF AM/NM MODE
DC NAME PARENTVOL LOGVOL
SP NAME SNAPVOL DCO

dg rootdg all all 0 1076053596.1025.myserver

dm rootdisk c1t0d0s2 sliced 2632 71121402 -
dm rootmirror1 c1t1d0s2 sliced 2632 71121402 -
dm rootmirror2 c2t0d0s2 sliced 2632 71121402 -

v opt - ENABLED ACTIVE 25166079 ROUND - fsgen
pl opt-01 opt ENABLED ACTIVE 25166079 CONCAT - RW
sd rootdisk-05 opt-01 rootdisk 33558624 25166079 0 c1t0d0 ENA
pl opt-02 opt ENABLED ACTIVE 25166079 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror1-05 opt-02 rootmirror1 12584484 25166079 0 c1t1d0 ENA
pl opt-03 opt ENABLED ACTIVE 25166079 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror2-05 opt-03 rootmirror2 33558624 25166079 0 c2t0d0 ENA

v rootvol - ENABLED ACTIVE 8389656 ROUND - root
pl rootvol-01 rootvol ENABLED ACTIVE 8389656 CONCAT - RW
sd rootdisk-01 rootvol-01 rootdisk 0 8389656 0 c1t0d0 ENA
pl rootvol-02 rootvol ENABLED ACTIVE 8389656 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror1-01 rootvol-02 rootmirror1 0 8389656 0 c1t1d0 ENA
pl rootvol-03 rootvol ENABLED ACTIVE 8389656 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror2-01 rootvol-03 rootmirror2 0 8389656 0 c2t0d0 ENA

v swapvol - ENABLED ACTIVE 4194828 ROUND - swap
pl swapvol-01 swapvol ENABLED ACTIVE 4194828 CONCAT - RW
sd rootdisk-02 swapvol-01 rootdisk 8389656 4194828 0 c1t0d0 ENA
pl swapvol-02 swapvol ENABLED ACTIVE 4194828 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror1-02 swapvol-02 rootmirror1 8389656 4194828 0 c1t1d0 ENA
pl swapvol-03 swapvol ENABLED ACTIVE 4194828 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror2-02 swapvol-03 rootmirror2 8389656 4194828 0 c2t0d0 ENA

v usr - ENABLED ACTIVE 4194828 ROUND - fsgen
pl usr-01 usr ENABLED ACTIVE 4194828 CONCAT - RW
sd rootdisk-03 usr-01 rootdisk 12584484 4194828 0 c1t0d0 ENA
pl usr-02 usr ENABLED ACTIVE 4194828 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror1-03 usr-02 rootmirror1 37750563 4194828 0 c1t1d0 ENA
pl usr-03 usr ENABLED ACTIVE 4194828 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror2-03 usr-03 rootmirror2 12584484 4194828 0 c2t0d0 ENA

v var - ENABLED ACTIVE 16779312 ROUND - fsgen
pl var-01 var ENABLED ACTIVE 16779312 CONCAT - RW
sd rootdisk-04 var-01 rootdisk 16779312 16779312 0 c1t0d0 ENA
pl var-02 var ENABLED ACTIVE 16779312 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror1-04 var-02 rootmirror1 41945391 16779312 0 c1t1d0 ENA
pl var-03 var ENABLED ACTIVE 16779312 CONCAT - RW
sd rootmirror2-04 var-03 rootmirror2 16779312 16779312 0 c2t0d0 ENA

For automated step, try this
# vxbootsetup

For manual step, try these
Notice that you did NOT create the disk partitions manually when you initialized the mirror disk. This is because VxVM automatically does its partitioning for you. This is also true for the root disk after it has been re-initialized and brought into rootdg. That is, the original rootdisk partition scheme has been replaced by Veritas's partition scheme. This means that the underlying partitions for each volume(swap, /opt, /var, /home) are not physically laid out on the drives corresponding to the veritas volumes.

In some situations though, you might want to be able to access the partitions corresponding to each volume by manually mounting the slice. In a recovery situation for example, you may want to boot from cdrom and access the /opt partition by manually mounting the slice without the veritas drivers loaded. This is not possible unless you create the underlying partition mapping directly to the opt volume using the "vxmksdpart" command.

All underlying partitions except / should be created. The / partition is automatically created and is mapped correctly to the corresponding veritas root volume.

One Caveat, you cannot use partition 3 or 4 because this is typically where Veritas stores is private and public region. The following is snipped from the "format" utility listing the Veritas partitions. This shows that the root partition exists but the swap, /var, /opt, home partitions are not mapped on the drive(Veritas knows where they exist on the drive because of its private and public regions):

Part      Tag    Flag     Cylinders        Size            Blocks

  0       root    wm       1 - 2282        3.91GB    (2282/0/0)  8194662        <=== "/" exists
  1 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)           0        <=== Unassigned
  2     backup    wm       0 - 4923        8.43GB    (4924/0/0) 17682084
  3          -    wu       0 -    0        1.75MB    (1/0/0)        3591        <=== Private Region
  4          -    wu       1 - 4923        8.43GB    (4923/0/0) 17678493        <=== Public Region
  5 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)           0        <=== Unassigned
  6 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)           0        <=== Unassigned
  7 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)           0        <=== Unassigned

You may use the unassigned partitions which are 1, 5, 6, and 7 to map to the veritas volumes. Be sure to document which partitions map to the Veritas volumes for future reference. The "vxmksdpart" arguments are the subdisk (which maps directly to the volume), slice, tag and flag. Be sure to use the correct tag and flag for your particular Solaris version. Reference the man page for "fmthard" for correct options. Use the "vxprint" command to get the correct subdisk names: Generic command # /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxmksdpart

In my case
Rootdisk:
# /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxmksdpart -g rootdg rootdisk-02 1 0x03 0x01 <=== swap
# /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxmksdpart -g rootdg rootdisk-05 5 0x00 0x00 <=== /unassigned
# /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxmksdpart -g rootdg rootdisk-03 6 0x04 0x00 <=== /usr
# /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxmksdpart -g rootdg rootdisk-04 7 0x07 0x00 <=== /var

RootMirror:

# /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxmksdpart -g rootdg rootmirror1-02 1 0x03 0x01 <=== swap
# /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxmksdpart -g rootdg rootmirror1-05 5 0x00 0x00 <=== /unassigned
# /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxmksdpart -g rootdg rootmirror1-03 6 0x04 0x00 <=== /usr
# /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxmksdpart -g rootdg rootmirror1-04 7 0x07 0x00 <=== /var

References:
http://sysunconfig.net/unixtips/jmr_Mirroring_Boot_Disks_Veritas_Volume_Manager.htm
http://unixway.com/vm/veritasvm/rootdg.html