AIX FAQ 1

WHAT IS MEANT BY JOURNAL LOG (JFSLOG)

Journaled File Systems LOG is used to stores transactional information about file system metadata changes and can be used to roll back incomplete operations if the machine crashes That's why log devices should always be protected by mirroring or raid 0+1 or raid 5

You cannot see files associate with jfslog devices because they're not mounted over any File Systems They're raw devices used by Logical Volumen Manager (LVM) to keep information about changes in metadata You can create a jfslog device and format it (destructive operation) and assign to any JFS, even more, you can assign the same jfslog more than one JFS You can create a jfslog type 2 to log metadata for JFS2 File Systems or use the new INLINE log device for JFS2 only

HOW TO RESTORE INITTAB FILE

# cd /tmp # tctl -f /dev/rmt0 rewind # chdev -l rmt0 -a block_size=512 # restore -s2 -xqdvf /dev/rmt0.1 ./tapeblksz # cat ./tapeblksz # chdev -l rmt0 -a block_size=[number in the ./tapeblksz file] Restore /etc/inittab: # cd / # tctl -f /dev/rmt0 rewind # restore -s4 -xqdvf /dev/rmt0.1 ./etc/inittab Your /etc/inittab file has been corrupted or truncated. To correct this situation, perform the following: boot system in service mode. Either boot the system from boot diskettes or boot tape select option 5 (perform system maintenance) from the INSTALL and MAINTENANCE menu. Enter the command/etc/continue hdisk0 from maintenance mode. Check to see that you have free space on those file systems that are mounted on logical volumes /dev/hd3 and /dev/hd4. If they are full, erase files that aren't needed.

Some space needs to be free on these logical volumes for the system to boot properly. Check to see if the /etc/inittab file looks ok. If not, goto the next step, else consult your local SE for further advice. Place the MOST recent 'mksysb' tape into the tape drive. If you don't have a 'mksysb' tape, get your INSTALL/MAINT floppy and insert into your diskette drive. Extract the /etc/inittab file from the media device mentioned. Change directories to root (eg., cd /) first, then execute the following command: restore -xvf/dev/fd0 ./etc/inittab - if a floppy disk restore -xvf/dev/rmt0 ./etc/inittab - if a tape device This will restore the contents of the /etc/inittab file to a reasonable format to boot the system up with. Depending on how current the /etc/inittab file is, you may have to manually add, modify, or delete the contents of this file. shutdown -Fr

LV HD5 (BOOT LOGICAL VOLUME) HAS BEEN CORRUPTED. TO CORRECT THIS SITUATION, PERFORM THE FOLLOWING:

Boot system in service mode. Either boot the system from boot diskettes or boot tape OF THE SAME VERSION AND LEVEL AS THE SYSTEM. To perform system maintenance functions from the INSTALL and MAINTENANCE menu, enter the following command, where hdisk0 is the drive that contains the boot logical volume (/blv) /usr/sbin/getrootfs hdisk0 From maintenance mode make sure /tmp has at least enough free disk space to create the tape image when the 'bosboot' command is executed. Make sure /dev/hd6 is swapped on via the lsps -a command. You don't want to get 'paging space low' messages when creating a new boot image on /dev/hd5. Recreate a new boot image by executing the command:

bosboot -a -d /dev/hdisk0 Turn key to normal mode shutdown -Fr

WHAT IS LVCB

If you are using LV as a raw device then LVCB could be overwritten (1st 512 bytes of first 4kb block in LV). (I had a similiar problem with database-log on raw device - creating it LVCB was overwritten and now I get warnings that LVCB is not there). For my application it is not a problem - problem would be if I would recreate the LVCB - then my database would fail)Are you sure you need to recreate LVCB???Here is some information from docu:The logical volume control block (LVCB) is the first 512 bytes of a logical volume. This area holds important information such as the creation date of the logical volume, information about mirrored copies, and possible mount points in the journaled filesystem (JFS). Certain Logical Volume Manager commands are required to update the LVCB, as part of the algorithms in Logical Volume Manager. The old LVCB is read and analyzed to see if it is a valid. If the information is valid LVCB information, the LVCB is updated. If the information is not valid, the LVCB update is not performed and the following warning message is issued: Warning, cannot write lv control block data Most of the time, this is a result of database programs accessing raw logical volumes (and bypassing the JFS) as storage media. When this occurs, the information for the database is literally written over the LVCB. Although this might seem fatal, it is not the case. Once the LVCB is overwritten, you can still do the following: Expand a logical volume Create mirrored copies of the logical volume Remove the logical volume Create a journaled filesystem to mount the logical volume. There are limitations to deleting LVCBs. The logical volumes with deleted LVCB's face possible, incomplete importation into other AIX systems. During an importvg, the Logical Volume Manager command scans the LVCB's of all defined logical volumes in a volume group for information concerning the logical volumes. If the LVCB is deleted, the imported volume group will still define the logical volume to the new AIX system, which, is accessing this volume group, and you can still access the raw logical volume. However, any journaled file system information is lost and the associated mount point will not be imported into the new AIX system. You must create new mount points and the availability of previous data stored in the filesystem is not assured. Also, during this import of logical volume with an erased LVCB, some non-jfs information concerning the logical volume, which is displayed by the lslv command, cannot be found. When this occurs, the system uses default logical volume information to populate the logical volume's ODM information. Therefore, some output from lslv will be inconsistent with the real logical volume. If any logical volume copies still exist on the original disks, the information will not be correctly reflected in the ODM database. Use rmlvcopy and mklvcopy commands to rebuild any logical volume copies and synchronize the ODM

IF LVCB IS CORRUPT
lslv -m hd4 LP PP1 PV1

PP2 PV2 0001 0101 hdisk0 0101 hdisk1 0002 0102 hdisk0 0102 hdisk1 0003 0011 hdisk0 lquerylv -L `getlvodm -l hd4` -r > /tmp/mapfile vi /tmp/mapfile 00045f6fb152134a 101 1 00045f6fb152134a 102 2 00045f6fb152134a 011 3 00045f8fb4330a3a 101 1 00045f8fb4330a3a 102 2 #Remove lines relating to the good hdisk. Here hdisk0 (PVID 00045f6fb152134a) is the good copy, leaving the last two lines.

00045f8fb4330a3a 101 1 00045f8fb4330a3a 102 2

#Remove the bad copies, 2 in the command is the last number bottom right in the mapfile lreducelv -l `getlvodm -l hd4` -s 2 /tmp/mapfile

lslv -l hd4 will work

mklvcopy -am -k hd4 2 hdisk1 #Everything should be properly mirrored again

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JFS AND ENHANCED JFS

There are many differences between JFS and Enhanced JFS. Table 1. Functional Differences between JFS and Enhanced JFS Function Optimization JFS Enhanced JFS 64-bit kernel 32 terabyte 4 petabytes

32-bit kernel

Maximum file system size

Note: This is an architectural limit. AIX currently only supports up to 16 terabytes. Maximum file size 64 gigabytes 4 petabytes

Note: This is an architectural limit. AIX currently only supports up to 16 terabytes. Number of I-nodes Large file support Online defragmentation namefs DMAPI No Compression Yes Yes Yes No Yes Fixed at file system creation As mount option Yes Yes Dynamic, limited by disk space

Default

Quotas Deferred update

Yes

Yes Yes Yes No Yes

Direct I/O support Note:

Cloning with a system backup with mksysb from a 64-bit enabled JFS2 system to a 32-bit system will not be successful. Unlike the JFS file system, the JFS2 file system will not allow the link() API to be used on its binary type directory. This limitation may cause some applications that operate correctly on a JFS file system to fail on a JFS2 file system. Journaling

Before writing actual data, a journaling file system logs the metadata, thus incurring an overhead penalty that slows write throughput. Directory organization

An index node, or i-node, is a data structure that stores all file and directory properties. When a program looks up a file, it searches for the appropriate i-node by looking up a file name in a directory. Scaling

The main advantage of using Enhanced JFS over JFS is scaling.

FILES AFFECTED BY USER CREATION

rw rw rw rw rw

/etc/passwd /etc/security/user /etc/security/user.roles /etc/security/limits /etc/security/environ

rw rw r x

/etc/group /etc/security/group /usr/lib/security/mkuser.default /usr/lib/security/mkuser.sys