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Volume reconfiguration

Volume reconfiguration is the process of creating, changing, and removing VxVM objects such as disk groups, volumes and plexes. In a cluster, all nodes co-operate to perform such operations. The vxconfigd daemons play an active role in volume reconfiguration. For reconfiguration to succeed, a vxconfigd daemon must be running on each of the nodes.

See "vxconfigd daemon" on page 399.

A volume reconfiguration transaction is initiated by running a VxVM utility on the master node. The utility contacts the local vxconfigd daemon on the master node, which validates the requested change. For example, vxconfigd rejects an attempt to create a new disk group with the same name as an existing disk group. The vxconfigd daemon on the master node then sends details of the changes to the vxconfigd daemons on the slave nodes. The vxconfigd daemons on the slave nodes then perform their own checking. For example, each slave node checks that it does not have a private disk group with the same name as the one being created; if the operation involves a new disk, each node checks that it can access that disk. When the vxconfigd daemons on all the nodes agree that the proposed change is reasonable, each notifies its kernel. The kernels then co-operate to either commit or to abandon the transaction. Before the transaction can be committed, all of the kernels ensure that no I/O is underway. The master node is responsible both for initiating the reconfiguration, and for coordinating the commitment of the transaction. The resulting configuration changes appear to occur simultaneously on all nodes.

If a vxconfigd daemon on any node goes away during reconfiguration, all nodes are notified and the operation fails. If any node leaves the cluster, the operation fails unless the master has already committed it. If the master node leaves the cluster, the new master node, which was previously a slave node, completes or fails the operation depending on whether or not it received notification of successful completion from the previous master node. This notification is performed in such a way that if the new master does not receive it, neither does any other slave.

If a node attempts to join a cluster while a volume reconfiguration is being performed, the result of the reconfiguration depends on how far it has progressed. If the kernel has not yet been invoked, the volume reconfiguration is suspended until the node has joined the cluster. If the kernel has been invoked, the node waits until the reconfiguration is complete before joining the cluster.

When an error occurs, such as when a check on a slave fails or a node leaves the cluster, the error is returned to the utility and a message is sent to the console on the master node to identify on which node the error occurred.

vxconfigd daemon

The VxVM configuration daemon, vxconfigd, maintains the configuration of VxVM objects. It receives cluster-related instructions from the kernel. A separate copy of vxconfigd runs on each node, and these copies communicate with each other over a network. When invoked, a VxVM utility communicates with the vxconfigd daemon running on the same node; it does not attempt to connect with vxconfigd daemons on other nodes. During cluster startup, the kernel prompts vxconfigd to begin cluster operation and indicates whether it is a master node or a slave node.

TWhen a node is initialized for cluster operation, the vxconfigd daemon is notified that the node is about to join the cluster and is provided with the following information from the cluster monitor configuration database:

On the master node, the vxconfigd daemon sets up the shared configuration by importing shared disk groups, and informs the kernel when it is ready for the slave nodes to join the cluster.

On slave nodes, the vxconfigd daemon is notified when the slave node can join the cluster. When the slave node joins the cluster, the vxconfigd daemon and the VxVM kernel communicate with their counterparts on the master node to set up the shared configuration.

When a node leaves the cluster, the kernel notifies the vxconfigd daemon on all the other nodes. The master node then performs any necessary cleanup. If the master node leaves the cluster, the kernels select a new master node and the vxconfigd daemons on all nodes are notified of the choice.

The vxconfigd daemon also participates in volume reconfiguration.

See "Volume reconfiguration" on page 398.

vxconfigd daemon recovery

In a cluster, the vxconfigd daemons on the slave nodes are always connected to the vxconfigd daemon on the master node. If the vxconfigd daemon is stopped, volume reconfiguration cannot take place. Other nodes can join the cluster if the vxconfigd daemon is not running on the slave nodes.

If the vxconfigd daemon stops, different actions are taken depending on which node this occurred:

If the CVM agent for VCS determines that the vxconfigd daemon is not running on a node during a cluster reconfiguration, vxconfigd is restarted automatically.

Warning: The -r reset option to vxconfigd restarts the vxconfigd daemon and recreates all states from scratch. This option cannot be used to restart vxconfigd while a node is joined to a cluster because it causes cluster information to be discarded.

It may sometimes be necessary to restart vxconfigd manually in a VCS controlled cluster to resolve a VxVM issue.

 To restart vxconfigd manually

  1. Use the following command to disable failover on any service groups that contain VxVM objects:

    # hagrp -freeze group

  2. Enter the following command to stop and restart the VxVM configuration daemon on the affected node:

    # vxconfigd -k

  3. Use the following command to re-enable failover for the service groups that you froze in step 1:

    # hagrp -unfreeze group