IBM AIX 7.1 – Common Problem 014 – Diagnosis and Fix

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Client LPAR loses storage paths because NPIV WWPN is unzoned on the SAN.

Environment & Reproduction

IBM AIX 7.2 LPAR exhibiting VIO Server / NPIV WWPN issue issues under standard PowerVM workloads.

lsmap -all -npiv
lsdev -Cc adapter | grep fcs

Root Cause Analysis

VFC adapter WWPN was regenerated or never zoned to target storage.

Quick Triage

Confirm scope with errpt, recent changes, and subsystem state via lssrc.

errpt -j FCP_ARRAY_ERR
lsattr -El fcs0

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Confirm WWPN on VIOS vs zoneset and pause/resume vfchost.

lsmap -vadapter vfchost0 -npiv
fcstat fcs0

Solution – Primary Fix

Re-zone NPIV WWPN at the SAN and recycle vfchost mapping.

rmdev -l vfchost0 -R
mkvdev -fcp fcs0 -vadapter vhost0
cfgmgr

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Recreate NPIV mapping with persistent WWPN reservation across reboot.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Confirm subsystem returns to RUNNING state and errpt shows no new entries.

lsmap -all -npiv
lspath

Rollback Plan

Restore prior configuration from mksysb or alt_disk_install clone if the fix regresses.

rmvdev -vtd vfchost0  # rollback if mapping wrong

Prevention & Hardening

Encode the fix in NIM customisation scripts and monitor via topas/nmon.

smit vios  # snapshot NPIV mappings via viosbr

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

errpt LABEL=FCP_ARRAY_ERR; SAN zoning errors

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.1.

View all aix-7.1 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

PowerVM NPIV Best Practices