vold(8) System Manager's Manual vold(8)
NAME
vold - Logical Storage Manager configuration daemon
SYNOPSIS
/sbin/vold [-kfd] [-r reset] [-m mode] [-x debug] [-D diag_portal] [-R request_portal]
OPTIONS
The following options are recognized: Kills any vold process that is currently running before performing any other startup processing.
This is useful for recovering from a hung vold process. Killing the old vold and starting a new one should not cause any problems for vol-
ume or plex devices that are being used by applications or that contain mounted file systems. Runs vold in the foreground. This is often
useful when debugging vold, or when tracing configuration changes.
If this flag is not used, vold forks a background daemon process and the foreground process exits as soon as vold startup processing
completes. This is equivalent to -m disable, which starts vold in disabled mode. Resets all Logical Storage Manager configuration
information stored in the kernel as part of startup processing. This will fail if any volume or plex devices are currently in use.
This option is primarily useful for testing or debugging. Sets the initial operating mode for vold. Possible values for mode are:
Starts fully enabled (default). This will use the /etc/vol/volboot file to bootstrap and load in the rootdg disk group. It will then
scan all known disks looking for disk groups to import, and will import those disk groups. This will also set up the /dev/vol and
/dev/rvol directories to define all of the accessible Logical Storage Manager devices. If the volboot file cannot be read or if the
rootdg disk group cannot be imported, vold will be started in disabled mode. Starts in disabled mode. This creates a rendezvous
file for utilities that perform various diagnostic or initialization operations. This can be used with the -r reset option as part
of a command sequence to completely reinitialize the Logical Storage Manager configuration. Use the voldctl enable operation to
enable vold. Handles boot-time startup of the Logical Storage Manager. This starts the rootdg disk group and the root and /usr file
system volumes. This mode is capable of operating before the root file system is remounted to read-write. The voldctl enable option
should be called later in the boot sequence to trigger vold to rebuild the /dev/vol and /dev/rvol directories. Turns on various
parameters used for debugging or other miscellaneous aspects of vold operation. The debug option argument is a decimal number (0-9)
which will set a tracing output level, or one of the following strings: Attaches a date and time-of-day timestamp to all messages
written by vold onto the console. If mstimestamp is used, then a millisecond value is also displayed, allowing detailed timing of
vold's operation. The vold daemon can support use of syslog() to log all of its regular console messages.
For Tru64 UNIX, this support is enabled by default and can be disabled by using -x nosyslog.
Note
If the syslog option is enabled, all console output will be directed through the syslog() interface. However, both syslog and log
(described below) can be used together to get reliable logging, into a private log file, along with distributed logging through sys-
logd. As an alternative to the use of syslog(), vold can directly log all of its console output to a file. This logging is reli-
able, in that any messages which are output just before a system crash will be available in the log file, presuming that the crash
does not result in file system corruption.
For Tru64 UNIX, this support is disabled by default and can be turned on with -x log. If enabled, the default log file location is
/var/lsm/vold.log. Specifies an alternate location for the vold logfile. This option implies -x log. This option causes the
/etc/vol/tempdb directory to be removed and recreated. This directory stores configuration information that is cleared on reboots
(or cleared for specific disk groups on import and deport operations). If the contents of this directory become corrupt, such as due
to a disk I/O failure, then vold will fail to start up if it is killed and restarted. Such a situation can be cleared by starting
vold with -x cleartempdir. This option has no effect if vold is not started in enabled mode.
Note
It is advisable to kill any running operational utilities (volume, volsd, or volmend) before using the -x cleartempdir option.
Failure to do so may cause those commands to fail, or may cause disastrous but unchecked interactions between those commands and the
issuance of new commands. This option can be used while running the Visual Administrator (dxlsm), or while LSM background daemons
are running (volnotify). This vold invocation will not communicate configuration changes to the kernel. It is typically used as a
demonstration mode of operation for vold. In most aspects, a stubbed vold will act like a regular vold, except that disk devices
can be regular files and volume and plex device nodes are not created. A stubbed vold can run concurrently with a regular vold, or
concurrently with any other stubbed vold processes, as long as different rendezvous, volboot, and disk files are used for each con-
current process.
Other Logical Storage Manager utilities can detect when they are connected to a vold that is running in stubbed mode. When a utility
detects a stubbed-mode vold, it will normally stub out any direct use of volume or plex devices, itself. This allows regular utili-
ties to be used for making configuration changes in a testing environment that runs without any communication with the kernel or
creation of real volume or plex devices.
Note
Stub mode is for internal use. Specifies the pathname to use for the volboot file, which by default is /etc/vol/volboot. This is
primarily used with the stub debug option. The volboot file might contain an initial list of disks that are used to locate the root
disk group. 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. Specifies a directory pathname to prefix for any disk device
accessed by vold. For example, with devprefix=/tmp, any access to a raw disk device named dsk2 would actually be directed to the
file /tmp/dev/rdisk/dsk2. In stubbed-mode, vold can operate with such files being regular files. vold only requires entries in the
prefixdir /dev/rdisk directory in stubbed mode. Logs all possible tracing information in the given file. Flushes tracefile data to
disk, with fsync(2), to ensure that the last entry will be included in the file, even if the system crashes. Normally, vold auto-
matically configures disk devices that can be found by inspecting kernel disk drivers. These auto_configured disk devices are not
stored in persistent configurations, but are regenerated from kernel tables after every reboot. Invoking vold with -x noautoconfig
prevents the automatic configuration of disk devices, forcing the Logical Storage Manager to use only those disk devices configured
explicitly using voldisk define or voldisk init. Also, one or more disks containing rootdg configurations must be recorded in the
/etc/vol/volboot file. Specifies a rendezvous file pathname for diagnostic operation connections to vold. By default,
/etc/vol/vold_diag is used. The diagnostic portal exists in both the enabled and disabled operating modes. Specifies a rendezvous
file pathname for regular configuration and query requests. By default, this is /etc/vol/vold_request. The regular request portal
exists only when vold is operating in enabled mode.
DESCRIPTION
The Logical Storage Manager configuration daemon, vold, is responsible for maintaining configurations of disks and disk groups in the Logi-
cal Storage Manager. The vold daemon takes requests from other utilities for configuration changes, and communicates those changes to the
kernel and modifies configuration information stored on disk. The vold daemon is also responsible for initializing the Logical Storage Man-
ager when the system is booted.
EXIT CODES
If errors are encountered, vold writes diagnostic messages to the standard error output. Some serious errors will cause vold to exit. If an
error is encountered when importing the rootdg disk group during a normal startup, vold will enter disabled mode. Refer to the error mes-
sages section of the Logical Storage Manager manual for a description of the diagnostics and the suggested course of action.
Defined exit codes for vold are: The requested startup mode completed successfully. This is returned if -f is not used to startup vold as a
foreground process. If vold is started as a foreground process, then it will exit with a zero status if voldctl stop is used to cause vold
to exit. The command line usage is incorrect. Enabled-mode operation was requested, but an error caused vold to enter disabled mode
instead. This is also returned for boot-mode operation if startup failed. However, with boot-mode operation, the background vold process
exits as well. The -k option was specified, but the existing vold could not be killed. A system error was encountered that vold cannot
recover from. The specific operation that failed is printed on the standard error output. The background vold process was killed by a sig-
nal before startup completed. The specific signal is printed on the standard error output. A serious inconsistency was found in the ker-
nel, preventing sane operation. This can also happen because of version mismatch between the kernel and vold. The -r reset option was
specified, but the Logical Storage Manager kernel cannot be reset. Usually this means that a volume is open or mounted. An interprocess
communications failure (usually a STREAMS failure) has occurred, making it impossible for vold to take requests from other utilities. Vol-
umes that must be started early by vold could not be started. The reasons, and possible recovery solutions, are printed to the standard
error output. For Tru64 UNIX, the only early-started volume is the root file system (if defined on a volume).
FILES
Directory containing block device nodes for volumes. Directory containing raw device nodes for volumes. File containing miscellaneous
boot information. See voldctl(8) for more information on this file. Directory containing miscellaneous temporary files. Files in this
directory are recreated after reboot.
SEE ALSO
syslog(3), syslogd(8), volintro(8), voldctl(8)
vold(8)