volwatch(8)						      System Manager's Manual						       volwatch(8)

NAME

       volwatch - Monitors the Logical Storage Manager (LSM) for failure events and performs hot sparing

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/sbin/volwatch [-m] [-s] [-o] [mail-addresses...]

OPTIONS

       Runs volwatch with the mail notification support to notify root (by default) or other specified users when a failure occurs. This option is
       started by default.  Runs volwatch with hot spare support.  Specifies an argument to pass directly to volrecover if it is running  and  hot
       spare support is enabled.

DESCRIPTION

       The volwatch command monitors LSM waiting for exception events to occur. When an exception event occurs, the volwatch command uses mailx(1)
       to send mail to: The root account.  The user accounts specified when you use the rcmgr command to set the VOLWATCH_USERS  variable  in  the
       /etc/rc.config.common file.  The user account that you specify on the command line with the volwatch command.

       The  volwatch  command uses the volnotify command to wait for events to occur. When an event occurs,  there is a 15 second delay before the
       failure is analyzed and the message is sent.  This delay allows a group of related events to be collected and reported  in  a  single  mail
       message. By default, the volwatch command automatically starts when the system boots.

       You  can enter the volwatch -s command to start the volwatch command with hot-spare support.  Hot-spare support: Detects LSM events result-
       ing from the failure of a disk, plex, or RAID5 subdisk.	Sends mail to the root account (and other specified  accounts)	with  notification
       about  the  failure  and identifies the affected LSM objects.  Determines which subdisks to relocate, finds space for those subdisks in the
       disk group, relocates the subdisks, and notifies the root account  (and other specified accounts) of these actions  and	their  success	or
       failure.

	      When a partial disk failure occurs (that is, a failure affecting only some subdisks on a disk), redundant data on the failed portion
	      of the disk is relocated and the existing volumes comprised of the unaffected portions of the disk remain accessible.

									  Note

       Hot-sparing is only performed for redundant (mirrored or RAID5) subdisks on a failed disk. Non-redundant subdisks on a failed disk are  not
       relocated, but you are notified of the failure.

       Only one volwatch daemon can be running on a system or cluster node at any time.

       Hot-sparing  does  not  guarantee the same layout of data or the same performance after relocation. You may want to make some configuration
       changes after hot-sparing occurs.

   Mail Notification Support
       The following is a sample mail notification when a failure is detected:

       Failures have been detected by the Logical Storage Manager:

       failed disks:

       medianame

	...

       failed plexes:

       plexname

	...

       failed log plexes:

       plexname

	...

       failing disks:

       medianame
	...

       failed subdisks:

       subdiskname

	...

       The Logical Storage Manager will attempt to find spare disks, relocate failed subdisks and then recover the data in the failed plexes.

       The following describes the sections of the mail message: The medianame list under failed disks specifies disks that appear  to	have  com-
       pletely failed; The medianame list under failing disks indicates a partial disk failure or a disk that is in the process of failing. When a
       disk has failed completely, the same medianame list appears under both failed disks: and failing disks.	The  plexname  list  under  failed
       plexes shows plexes that have been detached due to I/O failures experienced while attempting to do I/O to subdisks they contain.  The plex-
       name list under failed log plexes indicates RAID5 or dirty region log (DRL) plexes that have experienced  failures.  The  subdiskname  list
       specifies subdisks in RAID5 volumes that have been detached due to I/O errors.

   Enabling Hot-Sparing
       By default, hot-sparing is disabled. To enable hot-sparing, enter the volwatch command with the -s option, for example:

       # volwatch -s

       To  use hot-spare support you should configure a disk as a spare, which identifies the disk as an available site for relocating failed sub-
       disks.  Disks that are identified as spares are not used for normal allocations unless you explicitly specify otherwise. This ensures  that
       there is a pool of spare disk space available for relocating failed subdisks and that this disk space is not consumed by normal operations.

       Spare  disk  space  is  the first space used to relocate failed subdisks.  However, if no spare disk space is available or if the available
       spare disk space is not suitable or sufficient, free disk space is used.

       You must initialize a spare disk and place it in a disk group as a spare before it can be used for replacement purposes. If  no	disks  are
       designated  as  spares  when  a failure occurs, LSM automatically uses any available free disk space in the disk group in which the failure
       occurs. If there is not enough spare disk space, a combination of spare disk space and free disk space is used.

       When hot-sparing selects a disk for relocation, it preserves the redundancy characteristics of the LSM object to which the  relocated  sub-
       disk  belongs.	For  example,  hot-sparing ensures that subdisks from a failed plex are not relocated to a disk containing a mirror of the
       failed plex. If redundancy cannot be preserved using available spare disks and/or free disk space, hot-sparing  does  not  take	place.	If
       relocation is not possible, mail is sent indicating that no action was taken.

       When  hot-sparing  takes  place, the failed subdisk is removed from the configuration database and LSM takes precautions to ensure that the
       disk space used by the failed subdisk is not recycled as free disk space.

   Initializing and Removing Hot-Spare Disks
       Although hot-sparing does not require you to designate disks as spares, Compaq recommends that you initialize at least one disk as a  spare
       within  each  disk group; this gives you control over which disks are used for relocation. If no spare disks exist, LSM uses available free
       disk space within the disk group.  When free disk space is used for relocation purposes, it is likely that there may be performance  degra-
       dation after the relocation.

       Follow  these guidelines when choosing a disk to configuring as a spare: The hot-spare feature works best if you specify at least one spare
       disk in each disk group containing mirrored or RAID5 volumes.  If a given disk group spans multiple controllers and has more than one spare
       disk,   set up the spare disks on different controllers (in case one of the controllers fails).	For a mirrored volume, the disk group must
       have at least one disk that does not already contain one of the volume's mirrors. This disk should either be a spare disk with some  avail-
       able space or a regular disk with some free space.  For a mirrored and striped volume, the disk group must have at least one disk that does
       not already contain one of the volume's mirrors or another subdisk in the striped plex. This disk should either be a spare disk	with  some
       available  space  or  a	regular  disk  with some free space.  For a RAID5 volume, the disk group must have at least one disk that does not
       already contain the volume's RAID5 plex or one of its log plexes. This disk should either be a spare disk with some available  space  or  a
       regular	disk  with  some  free space.  If a mirrored volume has a DRL log subdisk as part of its data plex (for example, volprint does not
       list the plex length as LOGONLY),  that plex cannot be relocated. Therefore, place log  subdisks  in  plexes  that  contain  no	data  (log
       plexes).  By default, the volassist command creates log plexes.	For mirroring the root disk, the rootdg disk group should contain an empty
       spare disk that satisfies the restrictions Although it is possible to build LSM objects on spare disks, it is preferable to use spare disks
       for  hot-spare  only.   When relocating subdisks off a failed disk, LSM attempts to use a spare disk large enough to hold all data from the
       failed disk.

       To initialize a disk as a spare that has no associated subdisks, use the voldiskadd command and enter y at the following prompt:  Add  disk
       as a spare disk for newdg? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) y

       To initialize an existing LSM disk as a spare disk, enter:

       # voledit set spare=on medianame

       For example, to initialize a disk called test03 as a spare disk, enter:

       # voledit set spare=on test03

       To remove a disk as a spare, enter:

       # voledit set spare=off medianame

       For example, to make a disk called test03 available for normal use, enter:

       # voledit set spare=off test03

   Replacement Procedure
       In  the	event of a disk failure, mail is sent, and if volwatch was configured to run with hot sparing support with the -s option, volwatch
       attempts to relocate any subdisks that appear to have failed. This involves finding appropriate spare disk or free disk space in  the  same
       disk group as the failed subdisk.

       To determine which disk from among the eligible spare disks to use, volwatch tries to use the disk that is closest to the failed disk.  The
       value of closeness depends on the controller, target, and disk number of the failed disk. For example, a disk on the same controller as the
       failed  disk  is  closer  than a disk on a different controller; a disk under the same target as the failed disk is closer than one under a
       different target.

       If no spare or free disk space is found, the following mail message is sent explaining the disposition of volumes on the failed disk:

       Relocation was not successful for subdisks on disk dm_name in volume v_name in disk group dg_name.  No replacement was made and the disk is
       still unusable.

       The following volumes have storage on medianame:

       volumename ...

       These  volumes  are  still  usable,  but the redundancy of those volumes is reduced. Any RAID-5 volumes with storage on the failed disk may
       become unusable in the face of further failures.

       If non-RAID5 volumes are made unusable due to the failure of the disk, the following is included in the mail message:

       The following volumes:

       volumename ...

       have data on medianame but have no other usable mirrors on other disks. These volumes are now unusable and the data on them is unavailable.
       These volumes must have their data restored.

       If RAID5 volumes are made unavailable due to the disk failure, the following message is included in the mail message:

       The following RAID-5 volumes:

       volumename ...

       have  storage  on  medianame  and  have	experienced other failures. These RAID-5 volumes are now unusable and data on them is unavailable.
       These RAID-5 volumes must have their data restored.

       If spare disk space is found, LSM attemps to set up a subdisk on the spare disk and use it to replace the failed subdisk. If this  is  suc-
       cessful, the volrecover command runs in the background to recover the contents of data in volumes on the failed disk.

       If the relocation fails, the following mail message is sent:

       Relocation was not successful for subdisks on disk dm_name in volume v_name in disk group dg_name.  No replacement was made and the disk is
       still unusable.

       error message

       If any volumes (RAID5 or otherwise) are rendered unusable due to the failure, the following is included in the mail message:

       The following volumes:

       volumename ...

       have data on dm_name but have no other usable mirrors on other disks. These volumes are now unusable and the data on them  is  unavailable.
       These volumes must have their data restored.

       If the relocation procedure completes successfully and recovery is under way, the following mail message is sent:

       Volume v_name Subdisk sd_name relocated to newsd_name, but not yet recovered.

       Once  recovery has completed, a message is sent relaying the outcome of the recovery procedure. If the recovery was successful, the follow-
       ing is included in the mail message:

       Recovery complete for volume v_name in disk group dg_name.

       If the recovery was not successful, the following is included in the mail message:

       Failure recovering v_name in disk group dg_name.

SEE ALSO

       mailx(1), rcmgr(8), voldiskadm(8), voledit(8), volintro(8), volrecover(8)

																       volwatch(8)