When attempting to initialize disk using the vxdiskadm menu system you may encounter the error message:



Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

prtvtoc: /dev/vx/rdmp/: No such device or address
prtvtoc: /dev/vx/rdmp/: No such device or address

This error can indicate that the disk is not labeled correctly and the partition table does not contain a whole disk partition as slice 2. Volume Manager cannot initialize a Solaris disk that does not have a whole disk partition at slice 2.

This situation can also produce a number of path disabled and enabled messages in the system log.

Verify using the prtvtoc command:
# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/ | egrep -v "^\*"

If partition slice 2 does not exist, correct the error by relabeling the device with a standard Solaris label. Following relabeling the device should initialize without issue.

The following example demonstrates this condition.

Error Logs:
Apr 28 10:00:00 server scsi: [ID 243001 kern.info] /pci@1e,600000/pci@0/pci@8/QLGC,qlc@0,1/fp@0,0 (fcp0):
Apr 28 10:00:00 server  FCP: Report Lun Has Changed target=20100
Apr 28 10:00:00 server vxdmp: [ID 917986 kern.notice] NOTICE: VxVM vxdmp V-5-0-112 disabled path 118/0xa8 belonging to the dmpnode 296/0x10
Apr 28 10:00:00 server vxdmp: [ID 824220 kern.notice] NOTICE: VxVM vxdmp V-5-0-111 disabled dmpnode 296/0x10
Apr 28 10:00:00 server vxdmp: [ID 238993 kern.notice] NOTICE: VxVM vxdmp 0 dmp_tur_temp_pgr: open failed: error = 6 dev=0x128/0x12

Attempting to Initialize Device:

# vxdisk -e list | grep c2t1d0
emc_disk_26  auto      -             -            error        c2t1d0s2 -                      

Attempting to initialize device using the vxdiskadm option 1 to initialize a device:

emc_disk_26

Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y

prtvtoc: /dev/vx/rdmp/emc_disk_26s2: No such device or address
prtvtoc: /dev/vx/rdmp/emc_disk_26s2: No such device or address


If Storage Foundation 5.0 MP3 or higher is installed, the following message is displayed instead:

 emc_disk_26

Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
 This disk device does not appear to be valid.  The disk may not be
 formatted (format(1M)), may have a corrupted VTOC, the device file
 for the disk may be missing or invalid, or the device may be turned-off
 or detached from the system.  This disk will be ignored.
 Output format: [Device_Name,Disk_Access_Name]

All of these error outputs indicate that the device is not properly labeled with a full disk backup slice at partition 2.
 

 

Determine if the disk's partition slice 2 is valid by attempting to request the device's partition table:

# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s2
prtvtoc: /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s2: Unable to read Disk geometry errno = 0x5
 

The next step is to verify device in format:

# format c2t1d0s2
selecting c2t1d0s2
format> part

partition> print
Current partition table (original):
Total disk cylinders available: 44798 + 2 (reserved cylinders)

Part      Tag    Flag     Cylinders         Size            Blocks
 0       root    wu       0 - 15728        1.20GB    (15729/0/0) 2516640
 1       swap    wm   44000 - 44589       46.09MB    (590/0/0)     94400
 2 unassigned    wm       0                0         (0/0/0)           0
 3 unassigned    wm       0                0         (0/0/0)           0
 4 unassigned    wm       0                0         (0/0/0)           0
 5 unassigned    wm       0                0         (0/0/0)           0
 6 unassigned    wm       0                0         (0/0/0)           0
 7 unassigned    wu       0                0         (0/0/0)           0

Note that the backup partition at slice 2 is missing.  The device will need to be relabeled with a complete backup slice.  Create the slice 2 partition using the total cylinder size as indicated in the print output above.

partition> 2
Part      Tag    Flag     Cylinders         Size            Blocks
 2 unassigned    wm       0                0         (0/0/0)           0

Enter partition id tag[unassigned]: backup
Enter partition permission flags[wm]: wu
Enter new starting cyl[0]: 0
Enter partition size[0b, 0c, 0e, 0.00mb, 0.00gb]: 44798c
partition> label
Error occurred with device in use checking: No such device
Ready to label disk, continue? y

partition> quit
format> quit

# vxdctl enable

Now attempt to initialize the disk:

 emc_disk_26

Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
 The following disk device has a valid VTOC, but does not appear to have
 been initialized for the Volume Manager.  If there is data on the disk
 that should NOT be destroyed you should encapsulate the existing disk
 partitions as volumes instead of adding the disk as a new disk.
 Output format: [Device_Name]

 emc_disk_26

Encapsulate this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) n

 emc_disk_26

Instead of encapsulating, initialize? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) y
 Initializing device emc_disk_26.

Enter desired private region length
[,q,?] (default: 65536)
 VxVM  NOTICE V-5-2-120
Creating a new disk group named testdg containing the disk
 device emc_disk_26 with the name testdg01.

# vxdisk list
DEVICE       TYPE            DISK         GROUP        STATUS
disk_0       auto:none       -            -            online invalid
disk_1       auto:none       -            -            online invalid
emc_disk_26  auto:cdsdisk    testdg01     testdg       online