IBM AIX 7.1 – Common Problem 088 – 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

MPIO shows paths in Failed state, lowering I/O throughput.

Environment & Reproduction

Common after fabric reboot or SAN zoning changes.

Root Cause Analysis

ODM path entries are stale relative to current fabric topology.

Quick Triage

Run lspath -l hdiskN to list path states and parent fscsi.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Check errpt -a for FCP_DEV_ERR or PATH_FAILED entries.

Solution – Primary Fix

Recover with chpath -l hdiskN -p fscsiX -s enable for each path.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Alternative: rmpath -l hdiskN -p fscsiX -d then cfgmgr to rediscover.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Verify with lspath that all paths show Enabled state again.

Rollback Plan

Capture preexisting attrs with lsattr -El hdiskN before chpath.

Prevention & Hardening

Set algorithm=round_robin and reserve_policy=no_reserve on shared LUNs.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related: SDDPCM messages and FSCSI_ERR4 codes in errpt.

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

IBM Docs: MPIO management and fcstat diagnostics.