Clearing putil/tutil fields: What are they, and why are they set in the first place?

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Article ID: 100004707

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Description

Error Message

vxvm:vxplex: ERROR: Volume is locked by another utility

Cause

The lock is set when a a recovery or administration operation within Volume Manager is interrupted.

Resolution

The putil/tutil fields are used for "locks" on volumes, plexes, subdisks, and disks, during most types of configuration changes and/or recoveries.

For example, if attaching a plex to a volume, the plex will have its "tutil0" field set to "ATT". Once the attach is complete, the "tutil0" field is cleared automatically.

If you attempt to perform a function on an entity with a set putil/tutil flag, you'll get this error message:

vxvm:vxplex: ERROR: Volume is locked by another utility

Putil fields are permanent, and will stay set, even after a reboot. Tutil fields are temporary, and will not survive a reboot.

To textually list the tutil/putil fields, use the command:

# vxprint -h vol01

Disk group: test

TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0

v vol01 fsgen ENABLED 8919040 - ACTIVE -

vol01-01 vol01 DETACHED 8919470 - STALE - -

sd test01-01 vol01-01 ENABLED 8919470 0 - - -

This only lists the 0 fields (there are also 1 and 2 fields as well), but these are usually the ones that get set anyway.

The recognized generic field names are:

tutil - A set of strings representing all of the temporary utility fields.

tutil0 or t0 - A string representing the first temporary utility field.
tutil1 or t1 - A string representing the second temporary utility field.

tutil2 or t2 - A string representing the third temporary utility field.
putil - A set of strings representing all of the permanent utility fields.
putil0 or p0 - A string containing the first permanent utility field.
putil1 or p1 - A string containing the second permanent utility field.
putil2 or p2 - A string containing the third permanent utility field

What should you do before clearing the lock?
Make sure that no recover command is taking place.

# ps -ef | grep vx

# vxtask list

If there is a "vxvol", or "vxplex", or "vxrecover", going on, then the putil/tutil fields are probably set for a reason.

What command do you use to clear the lock?
# vxmend -g clear all

*where itemname is the volume, plex, subdisk or disk that has a tutil/putil flag set