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Missing or damaged configuration files

VxVM no longer maintains entries for tunables in /etc/system as was the case for VxVM 3.2 and earlier releases. All entries for Veritas Volume Manager device driver tunables are now contained in files named /kernel/drv/vx*.conf, such as /kernel/drv/vxio.conf.

See the Veritas Volume Manager Administrator's Guide.

Restoring a copy of the system configuration file

If the system configuration file is damaged, the system can be booted if the file is restored from a saved copy.

 To restore a copy of the system configuration file

1. Boot the system with the following command:

   ok boot -a

2. Press Return to accept the default for all prompts except the following:
   • The default pathname for the kernel program, /kernel/unix, may not be appropriate for your system's architecture. If this is so, enter the correct pathname, such as /platform/sun4u/kernel/unix, at the following prompt:

Enter filename [/kernel/unix]:/platform/sun4u/kernel/unix

• Enter the name of the saved system file, such as /etc/system.save at the following prompt:

  Name of system file [/etc/system]:/etc/system.save

• Enter /pseudo/vxio@0:0 as the physical name of the root device at the following prompt:

  Enter physical name of root device

  [...]:/pseudo/vxio@0:0

Restoring /etc/system if a copy is not available on the root disk

If /etc/system is damaged or missing, and a saved copy of this file is not available on the root disk, the system cannot be booted with the Veritas Volume Manager rootability feature turned on.

The following procedure assumes the device name of the root disk to be c0t0d0s2, and that the root (/) file system is on partition s0.

 To boot the system without Veritas Volume Manager rootability and restore the configuration files

1. Boot the operating system into single-user mode from its installation CD-ROM using the following command at the boot prompt:

   ok boot cdrom -s

2. Mount/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 on a suitable mount point such as /a or /mnt:

   # mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a

3. If a backup copy of/etc/system is available, restore this as the file /a/etc/system. If a backup copy is not available, create a new /a/etc/system file. Ensure that /a/etc/system contains the following entries that are required by VxVM:

   set vxio:vol_rootdev_is_volume=1

   forceload: drv/driver

   ...

   forceload: drv/vxio

   forceload: drv/vxspec

   forceload: drv/vxdmp

   rootdev:/pseudo/vxio@0:0

Lines of the form forceload: drv/driver are used to forcibly load the drivers that are required for the root mirror disks. Example driver names are pci, sd, ssd, dad and ide. To find out the names of the drivers, use the ls command to obtain a long listing of the special files that correspond to the devices used for the root disk, for example:

# ls -al /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2

This produces output similar to the following (with irrelevant detail removed):

lrwxrwxrwx ... /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2 ->
../../devices/pci@1f,0/pci@1/pci@1/SUNW,isptwo@4/sd@0,0:c

This example would require lines to force load both the pci and the sd drivers:

forceload: drv/pci

forceload: drv/sd

4. Shut down and reboot the system from the same root partition on which the configuration files were restored.