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IBM General Parallel File System for AIX: Administration and Programming Reference

mmchdisk Command

Name

mmchdisk - Changes state or parameters of one or more disks in a GPFS file system.

Synopsis

mmchdisk Device {suspend | resume | stop | start | change} -d "DiskDesc[;DiskDesc... ]" [-N { all | mount | NodeName[,NodeName ... ] } ]

Or,

mmchdisk Device { resume | start } -a [-N { all | mount | NodeName[,NodeName ... ] } ]

Description

Use the mmchdisk command to change the state or the parameters of one or more disks in a GPFS file system.

The state of a disk is a combination of its status and availability, displayable with the mmlsdisk command. Disk status is either ready or suspended. Transitional status of replacing, replacement, or being emptied might also appear if a disk is being deleted or replaced. A suspended disk is one that the user has decided not to place any new data on. Existing data on a suspended disk may still be read or updated. Typically, a disk is suspended prior to restriping a file system. Suspending a disk tells the mmrestripefs command that data should be migrated off that disk. Data may be read from a suspended disk. Disk availability is either up or down.

Be sure to use stop before you take a disk off-line for maintenance. You should also use stop when a disk has become temporarily inaccessible due to a disk failure that is repairable without loss of data on that disk (for example, an adapter failure or a failure of the disk electronics).

The Disk Usage (dataOnly, metadataOnly, or dataAndMetadata) and Failure Group parameters of a disk are adjusted with the change option (see the IBM General Parallel File System for AIX: Concepts, Planning, and Installation Guide and search for recoverability considerations). mmchdisk change does not move data or metadata that resides on the disk. After changing disk parameters, in particular, Disk Usage, you may have to issue the mmrestripefs command with the -r option to relocate data so that it conforms to the new disk parameters.

The mmchdisk command can be issued for a mounted or unmounted file system. When maintenance is complete or the failure has been repaired, use the mmchdisk command with the start option. If the failure cannot be repaired without loss of data, you can use the mmdeldisk command.

Parameters

Device
The device name of the file system to which the disks belong. File system names need not be fully qualified. fs0 is as acceptable as /dev/fs0.

This must be the first parameter.

-d "DiskDesc[;DiskDesc... ]"
A descriptor for each disk to be changed. In an SP environment, you must use the virtual shared disk name. In an HACMP environment, you must use the logical volume name.

Specify only disk names when using the suspend, resume, stop, or start options. Delimit multiple disk names with semicolons and enclose list in quotation marks. For example, "gpfs1vsd;gpfs2vsd"

When using the change option, include the disk name and any new Disk Usage and Failure Group positional parameter values in the descriptor. Delimit descriptors with semicolons and enclose list in quotation marks, for example, "gpfs1vsd:::dataOnly;gpfs2vsd:::metadataOnly:12"

Disk descriptors Each disk descriptor must be specified in the form:

DiskName:::DiskUsage:FailureGroup

DiskName
In an SP environment, you must specify the virtual shared disk name. For details on generating a virtual shared disk, see Specifying disk descriptors and the mmcrvsd command. To use an existing virtual shared disk in the file system, only the virtual shared disk name need be specified in the disk descriptor. GPFS performance and recovery processes function best with one disk per virtual shared disk. If you want to create virtual shared disks with more than one disk, refer to the IBM Parallel System Support Programs for AIX: Managing Shared Disks manual.

In an HACMP environment, you must specify the logical volume name. For details on generating a logical volume, see Specifying disk descriptors and the mmcrlv command. To use an existing logical volume group in the file system, only the logical volume name need be specified in the disk descriptor. The disk name must be set up the same on all of the nodes in the nodeset.

Logical volume use in an HACMP environment:

  1. Any disk resources (volume groups and logical volumes) that will be used by GPFS must not belong to any HACMP/ES resource group. HACMP/ES will not be in control of these disk resources and is not responsible for varying them on or off at any time. The responsibility to keep the disks in the proper state belongs to GPFS in the HACMP environment. For further information on logical volume concepts, see the AIX System Management Guide: Operating System and Devices.

  2. When using single-node quorum Fibre Channel attached disks are not supported.

Disk Usage
If a value is not specified, the disk usage remains unchanged:
  • dataAndMetadata
  • dataOnly
  • metadataOnly

Failure Group
A number identifying the failure group to which this disk belongs. You can specify any value from -1 (where -1 indicates that the disk has no point of failure in common with any other disk) to 4000. If you do not specify a failure group, the value remains unchanged.

-a
Specifies to change the state of all of the disks belonging to the file system, Device. This operand is only valid on the resume and start options.

-N {all | mount | NodeName[,NodeName ... ] }
Specify the nodes to participate in the restripe of the file system after the state or parameters of the disks have been changed. Valid values are:

all
Indicates that all nodes in the GPFS nodeset, whether or not they have the file system mounted, should participate in the restripe. This is the default when the -N option has not been specified.

mount
Indicates that only the nodes which have the file system mounted should participate in the restripe of the file system.

NodeName[,NodeName ... ]
A comma-separated list of target nodes that should participate in the restripe.

The hostname or IP address used for a node must refer to the adapter port over which the GPFS daemons communicate. Alias interfaces are not allowed. Use the original address or a name that is resolved by the host command to that original address. You may specify a node using any of these forms:
Format Example
Short hostname k145n01
Long hostname k145n01.kgn.ibm.com
IP address 9.119.19.102

Options

suspend
Instructs GPFS to stop allocating space on the specified disk. Place a disk in this state when you are preparing to restripe the file system off this disk because of faulty performance. This is a user-initiated state that GPFS never uses without an explicit command to change disk state.
Note:
A disk remains suspended until it is explicitly resumed. Restarting GPFS or rebooting nodes does not restore normal access to a suspended disk.

resume
Informs GPFS that a disk previously suspended is now available for allocating new space. If the disk is currently in a stopped state, it remains stopped until you specify the start option. Otherwise, normal read and write access to the disk resumes.

stop
Instructs GPFS to stop any attempts to access the specified disks. Use this option to tell the File System Manager that a disk has failed or is currently inaccessible because of maintenance.
Note:
A disk remains stopped until it is explicitly started by the mmchdisk command with the start option. Restarting the GPFS Server daemon or rebooting does not restore normal access to a stopped disk.

start
Informs GPFS that disks previously stopped are now accessible. This is accomplished by first changing the disk availability from down to recovering. The file system metadata is then scanned and any missing updates (replicated data that was changed while the disk was down) are repaired. If this operation is successful, the availability is then changed to up. If the metadata scan fails, availability is set to unrecovered. This could occur if too many other disks are down. The metadata scan can be reinitiated at a later time by issuing the mmchdisk start command again.

Note:
If more than one disk in the file system is down, they should all be started at the same time by issuing the mmchdisk Device start -a command. If you start them separately and metadata is stored on any disk that remains down, the mmchdisk start command fails.

change
Instructs GPFS to change the Disk Usage parameter, the Failure Group parameter, or both, according to the values specified in the DiskDesc.

Exit status

0
Successful completion.

1
A failure has occurred.

Security

You must have root authority to run the mmchdisk command.

In an SP environment:

  1. Verify the authentication method set for SP security services:
    1. If your authentication method is set to compatibility, Kerberos authentication is required. Issue the k4init command.
    2. If your authentication method is set to DCE, dce_login authentication is required.
    3. If your authentication method is set to NONE/std, there must be an entry in the /etc/sysctl.mmcmd.acl file on every node in the nodeset for the root user at every other node in the nodeset.

    For further information, see the latest IBM Parallel System Support Programs for AIX: Administration Guide, IBM Parallel System Support Programs for AIX: Command and Technical Reference, and RS/6000: Planning Volume 2, Control Workstation and Software Environment manuals at www.rs6000.ibm.com/resource/aix_resource/sp_books/pssp. Search for information on sysctl.

  2. You may issue the mmchdisk command from any node running GPFS or the CWS.
  3. If you are executing mmchdisk from the CWS on a multi-partitioned system, the SP_NAME environment variable must be properly set. It is suggested that you use a separate window for each partition and set the environment variable accordingly. For further information, see the IBM Parallel System Support Programs for AIX: Administration Guide and search for understanding system partitioning.

In an HACMP environment:

  1. When using rcp and rsh for remote communication, a properly configured /.rhosts file must exist in the root user's home directory on each node in the GPFS cluster. If you have designated the use of a different remote communication program on either the mmcrcluster or the mmchcluster command, you must insure:
    1. Proper authorization is granted to all nodes in the GPFS cluster.
    2. The nodes in the GPFS cluster can communicate without the use of a password.
  2. You may issue the mmchdisk command from any node in the GPFS cluster.

Examples

  1. To suspend active disk gpfs1vsd , enter:
    mmchdisk fs0 suspend -d gpfs1vsd 
    
    To confirm the change, enter:
    mmlsdisk fs0
    
    The system displays information similar to:
    disk         driver   sector failure holds    holds
    name         type       size   group metadata data  status        availability
    ------------ -------- ------ ------- -------- ----- ------------- ------------
    gpfs1vsd     disk        512      -1 yes      yes   suspended     up           
    gpfs2vsd     disk        512      -1 yes      yes   ready         up           
    gpfs3vsd     disk        512      -1 yes      yes   ready         up           
    gpfs4vsd     disk        512      -1 yes      yes   ready         up           
     
    
  2. To specify that metadata should no longer be stored on disk gpfs1vsd , enter:
    mmchdisk fs0 change -d "gpfs1vsd:::dataOnly"
    
    To confirm the change, enter:
    mmlsdisk fs0
    
    The system displays information similar to:
    disk         driver   sector failure holds    holds
    name         type       size   group metadata data  status        availability
    ------------ -------- ------ ------- -------- ----- ------------- ------------
    gpfs1vsd     disk        512      -1 no       yes   ready         up           
    gpfs2vsd     disk        512      -1 yes      yes   ready         up           
    gpfs3vsd     disk        512      -1 yes      yes   ready         up           
    gpfs4vsd     disk        512      -1 yes      yes   ready         up           
    

See also

Displaying GPFS disk states

mmadddisk Command

mmdeldisk Command

mmlsdisk Command

mmrpldisk Command

Location

/usr/lpp/mmfs/bin


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