IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 015 – 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

System crashed and savecore reports primary dump device too small.

Environment & Reproduction

IBM AIX 7.3 LPAR exhibiting kernel dump / dumpdev full issues under standard PowerVM workloads.

sysdumpdev -l
sysdumpdev -e

Root Cause Analysis

Dump device sized smaller than required by current memory footprint.

Quick Triage

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

sysdumpdev -e
lsvg -l rootvg | grep dump

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Estimate required size and verify free PPs in rootvg.

sysdumpdev -e
lsvg rootvg

Solution – Primary Fix

Extend the dump LV to the estimated size.

extendlv lg_dumplv 32

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Move secondary dump to a dedicated dumpvg with sufficient capacity.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

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

sysdumpdev -l
sysdumpdev -e

Rollback Plan

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

extendlv lg_dumplv -32  # if previously oversized

Prevention & Hardening

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

smit dump  # periodic sysdumpdev -e check

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

errpt LABEL=DSI_PROC; dump truncated

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.3.

View all aix-7.3 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

AIX system dump configuration