Chapter 10. Troubleshooting Storage Issues

This section describes how to work around known issues for EVMS devices, software RAIDs, multipath I/O, and volumes.

10.1. Is DM-MP Available for the Boot Partition?

In the initial release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, DM-MP is not available for the boot partition, because the boot loader cannot handle multipath I/O. Therefore, we recommend you set up a separate boot (/boot) partition when using multipathing. This issue has been resolved in Support Pack 1 and later.

10.2. Rescue System Cannot Find Devices That Are Managed by EVMS

The Linux rescue system does not automatically activate volume manager support for LVM or EVMS. For example, if you are using EVMS as the volume manager for your system device, you might not be able to see the device in order to mount it under the rescue system.

You must manually activate EVMS in order for the Linux rescue system to detect system devices that are managed by EVMS.

  • At the terminal console prompt, enter the following as the root user:

    evms_activate
    

10.3. Volumes on EVMS Devices Do Not Appear After Reboot

If you create volumes on EVMS devices and they cannot be found after you reboot the server, run chkconfig to make sure that evms_activate runs before FSTAB.

  • At a terminal console prompt, enter either

    chkconfig evms on
    

    or

    chkconfig boot.evms on
    

    This ensures that evms_activate runs before FSTAB each time your servers reboot.

10.4. Volumes on EVMS Devices Do Not Appear When Using iSCSI

If you have installed and configured an iSCSI SAN, and have created and configured EVMS disks or volumes on that iSCSI SAN, your EVMS volumes might not be visible or accessible after reboot. This problem is caused by EVMS starting before the iSCSI service. iSCSI must be started and running before any disks or volumes on the iSCSI SAN can be accessed.

To resolve this problem, use the chkconfig command at the Linux server console of every server that is part of your iSCSI SAN to correct the order that iSCSI and EVMS are started.

  • At a terminal console prompt, enter

    chkconfig boot.evms on
    

    This ensures that EVMS and iSCSI start in the proper order each time your servers reboot.

10.5. Device Nodes Are Not Automatically Re-Created on Restart

Effective in SUSE Linux Enterprise 10, the /dev directory is on tmpfs and the device nodes are automatically re-created on boot. It is no longer necessary to modify the /etc/init.d/boot.evms script to delete the device nodes on system reboot as was required for previous versions of SUSE Linux.

The following procedure is provided for users who might encounter this issue for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and earlier:

  1. Open the /etc/init.d/boot.evms script in a text editor.

  2. Add the following lines to the Stop section:

    mount -n -o remount,rw /
    
    echo -en "\nDeleting devices nodes"
    
    rm -rf /dev/evms
    
    mount -n -o remount,ro /
    

    For example, the Stop section looks like this after the edit:

    stop)
    
        echo -n "Stopping EVMS"
    
        mount -n -o remount,rw /
    
        echo -en "\nDeleting devices nodes"
    
        rm -rf /dev/evms
    
        mount -n -o remount,ro /
    
        rc_status -v
    
      ;;
    
  3. Save the file.

  4. Continue with Section 2.1.3.5, “Restart the Server”.


SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server Storage Administration Guide 10 SP3/SP4