Symptoms

devices were reconfigured using the same host lun devices without cleaning up PowerPath after unmasking the previous devices. Later, the dead paths were removed with a "powermt check".or devices were added to the configuration and a panic later occurred, leaving the boot archive inconsistent.environment : Solaris 10 or Solaris 11EMC SW : PowerPath for Solaris (any release)# format emcpower0aNo disks found!# format...Specify disk (enter its number): 165selecting c1t500009792318B960d42[disk formatted]format> ppartition> labelReady to label disk, continue? yWarning: error setting drive geometry.Warning: error writing VTOC.Label failed.partition>

Cause

The device is missing entries in /devices/pseudoAll the entries in /dev/dsk and /dev/rdsk are correct ... but are pointing nowhere: 294998 2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 Jun 26 12:55 emcpower0 -> ../../devices/pseudo/emcp@0:wd,blk 294997 2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jun 26 12:55 emcpower0a -> ../../devices/pseudo/emcp@0:a,blk 291378 2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jun 26 12:55 emcpower0b -> ../../devices/pseudo/emcp@0:b,blk 289256 2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jun 26 12:55 emcpower0c -> ../../devices/pseudo/emcp@0:c,blk 295005 2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jun 26 12:55 emcpower0d -> ../../devices/pseudo/emcp@0:d,blk 289257 2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jun 26 12:55 emcpower0e -> ../../devices/pseudo/emcp@0:e,blk 289258 2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jun 26 12:55 emcpower0f -> ../../devices/pseudo/emcp@0:f,blk 289259 2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jun 26 12:55 emcpower0g -> ../../devices/pseudo/emcp@0:g,blkno emcp@0 entry in /devices/pseudo.

Resolution

The entry in /devices/pseudo need to be recreated. First of all, check that the issue is not caused by the presence of the HPOvPerfAgt package. Otherwise, use one of the 4 following methods. If the 1st method fails, the second method should succeed. In the worst-case scenario, the last one should succeed.1) try to recreate the emcp entries in /devices/pseudo using the "devfsadm -i emcp" command# devfsadm -i emcp# ls /devices/pseudo/emcp@0 (check that the entries now exist - note that emcp@0 is for emcpower0; for emcpowerXX, look for emcp@XX)# bootadm update-archive (to consolidate the configuration change in the boot information) 2) The previous command might be unsuccessful in creating the new entries in /devices. The command below is based on the fact that, when a successful "emcpadm renamepseudo" command is run, all the entries in /devices are rebuilt. This is a side-effect of this command which will be very useful to fix the issue here.Pick-up an unused pseudo device (not currently mounted and part of a filesystem) which is not having any issue (which is showing up in format and for which entries exist under /devices). Let's say this good pseudo-device is emcpower7. And let's assume that there is no emcpower1007 in the configuration so that emcpower1007 is a possible new name. Run :# emcpadm renamepseudo -s 7 -t 1007# emcpadm renamepseudo -s 1007 -t 7# powermt save# bootadm update-archiveIt is important to use a "good" pseudo device .... and not the pseudo device which has no entry in /devices otherwise the command will fail (see paragraph 4 below) and will not fix the /devices entries.With the above commands, after the first one, the issue should already be fixed. The second rename is just there to get the original pseudoname back. The last 2 commands are there to consolidate the change.3) try to unmanage / manage the problematic device (this will probably fail)# powermt unmanage dev=emcpower0aERROR: Unmanage failed4) try to rename the problematic pseudo device (this will probably fail)# emcpadm renamepseudo -s 0 -t 1000 5) completely reconfigure the problematic device# powermt remove dev=0# powermt save>> unmask the device from the Storage Group# devfsadm -C (to remove the entries in /dev/dsk and /dev/rdsk for the native paths)# rm /dev/dsk/emcpower0*# rm /dev/rdsk/emcpower0*>> mask the device back into the Storage Group# devfsadm (to recreate the entries for the native paths)# powermt config (to reconfigure Powerpath)# powermt display dev=all (check that the pseudo device was reconfigured)# powermt save# ls /devices/pseudo/emcp@0 (check that the entries now exist - note that emcp@0 is for emcpower0; for emcpowerXX, look for emcp@XX)# bootadm update-archive (to consolidate the configuration change in the boot information)

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