Error Message

VxVM vxdctl ERROR V-5-1-1589 enable failed: License has expired or is not available for operation

Note: This error may also have other causes. This article is specific to a scenario where vxconfigd is unable to open files, and the vxdctl enable fails with the specified error.

• There are an excessive number of vxstat commands already running on the system.
• vxconfigd is unable to get any more open files. Therefore, vxdctl enable fails with the error
  "VxVM vxdctl ERROR V-5-1-1589 enable failed: License has expired or is not available for operation"
• If there are too many processes which need to communicate with vxconfigd and 1024 files are opened (which seems to be a hard limit) then vxconfigd cannot open more files . So during vxdctl enable it tries to read the array support library keys and fails to open the files, this results in the license error.

Snip of vxconfigd log:

03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-0 ddl_find_devices_in_system: Initiating complete device discovery
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-14871 ddl_vendor_api_init entered
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-14872 ddl_vendor_api_init exited
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-0 Check ASL - libvxap.so
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-14563 checkasl: ASL Key file - /etc/vx/aslkey.d/libvxap.key
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-14566 checkasl: Failed to open key file - /etc/vx/aslkey.d/libvxap.key
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE  V-5-1-4838 ddl_search_and_place: Library libvxap.so validation fails
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-0 Check ASL - libvxpp.so
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-14563 checkasl: ASL Key file - /etc/vx/aslkey.d/libvxpp.key
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-14566 checkasl: Failed to open key file - /etc/vx/aslkey.d/libvxpp.key
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE  V-5-1-4838 ddl_search_and_place: Library libvxpp.so validation fails
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-0 Check ASL - libvxsena.so
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-14563 checkasl: ASL Key file - /etc/vx/aslkey.d/libvxsena.key
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-14566 checkasl: Failed to open key file - /etc/vx/aslkey.d/libvxsena.key
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE  V-5-1-4838 ddl_search_and_place: Library libvxsena.so validation fails
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-0 Check ASL - libvxvpath.so
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-14563 checkasl: ASL Key file - /etc/vx/aslkey.d/libvxvpath.key
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-14566 checkasl: Failed to open key file - /etc/vx/aslkey.d/libvxvpath.key                          
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE  V-5-1-4838 ddl_search_and_place: Library libvxvpath.so validation fails
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE  V-5-1-6474 ddl_claim_devices: ERROR creating foreign list
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-0 ddl_make_device_info: returned 1
03/21 15:55:30:  VxVM vxconfigd DEBUG  V-5-1-26495 vxvm:vxconfigd: ERROR: Could not open file /etc/vx/.vxdmprawdev for reading

Workaround

Increase the limit of the max-file-descriptor attribute to a higher value should resolve the issue. In the case that we found this issue, the soft limit was set at 256.

Increasing the soft limit to a higher number, such as 2048, should resolve the issue.


Example:
 
Note: ulimit is not a Veritas command. Changing the value may impact other processes. We recommend that this action only be performed by an experienced Unix, or Linux, administrator after consideration of the potential impact.

The vxdctl enable command fails with ERROR V-5-1-1589.