How to reinstall VxBoot in InfoScale for Windows and Storage Foundation for Windows (SFW)

book

Article ID: 100009335

calendar_today

Updated On:

Resolution

Issue:
After restarting the server, the Dynamic Disk Groups assigned to that server do not automatically import.
 
Troubleshooting:
As there are few things that can be the cause of this issue, the suggestions below should help resolve this problem:
 
1) Verify VxBoot.sys is installed properly:
Vxboot.sys, which is responsible for auto-importing dynamic volumes, may not be installed correctly on the machine.
The Registry.txt file collected by vxexplorer, should show:
 
InstsatVxboot:     REG_DWORD                      0xfffffff8
 
This is the return code from running " instsat i \vxboot.inf" during SFW installation. This value of -8 shows that instsat.exe could not find vxboot.inf from the pathname passed to it as an argument.
 
Registry.txt may also show that the key SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vxboot is empty.  
If the above is correct, and VxBoot.sys does not appear to be on the machine properly, then there are two options available.
 
2) Reinstall SFW or VxBoot:
The first option is to uninstall and reinstall Storage Foundation for Windows (SFW). In cases where reinstalling SFW is impractical, you can manually install VxBoot using the steps below:
 
1. Copy the correct version of vxboot.sys to the windows\system32\drivers directory if it isn't already there. This can be obtained from a successful install of SFW.
 
2. Copy vxboot.inf to the windows\inf directory if it isn't already there.
 
3. Get instsat.exe from the winvm archive directory. A search can be performed to locate this file properly from version to version.
 
4. In a command window run instsat I c:\windows\inf\vxboot.inf    (The flag argument is a capital i.)
 
5. If instsat returns an error, use this command instsat R c:\windows\inf\vxboot.inf and then instsat I c:\windows\inf\vxboot.inf
 
6. Check that the SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vxboot registry key looks correct.
 
7. Reboot the node.
 
(The instat command may hang after execution, let run for approximately 3 minutes before using Ctrl-C to terminate)
 
This should resolve the issue and allow for the Dynamic Disk Groups to properly import.
 

 

Issue/Introduction

Storage Foundation for Windows Dynamic Disk Group do not auto-import after a restart of the server. In some cases manually re-installing VxBoot can fix this situation. Overview of VxBoot:
  • VxBoot is a subset of VxConfig. It is packaged as a kernel mode driver instead of a user-space library.
  • VxBoot runs just after the VxIO driver when Windows is booted.
  • VxBoot reads the volume configuration from the disks and loads the configuration into the VxIO driver so the VxIO driver can perform I/O to dynamic boot volumes.
  • VxBoot initializes VxIO in time for Windows to use VxIO to load the O/S from the boot disk
During the SFW server installation, SFW replaces the following operating system files:
  • dmboot.sys is replaced with vxboot.sys
  • dmio.sys is replaced by vxio.sys
  • dmadmin.exe is replaced by vxsvc.exe

The registry keys associated with Vxboot are:
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vxboot
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\System\vxboot
Vxboot errors could occur if for any reason the default registry values are changed. This can result in issues with auto-importing a Dynamic (secondary) disk group. If vxboot has been renamed or removed from the %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers directory you can receive a Invalid version of vxboot related error message. Such errors have been noticed on systems that have Dell OpenManager Array Manager installed on them or in case of a bad installation.
Powered by Wolken Software