IBM AIX 7.2 – Common Problem 069 – 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

VIOS SSP cluster reports ‘pool full’; thin LUs cannot extend on client LPARs.

Environment & Reproduction

Shared Storage Pool overcommitted with thin-provisioned client disks.

Root Cause Analysis

Pool free space exhausted while client filesystems still grow.

Quick Triage

Run lssp -clustername -sp to see used vs free.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Use lssp -clustername -bd to list backing devices per LU.

Solution – Primary Fix

Extend SSP with chsp -add -clustername -sp hdiskN.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Reclaim by removing snapshots with snapshot -delete and rmbdsp.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

lssp shows >20% free and client I/O resumes without errors.

Rollback Plan

Move LU back to dedicated vSCSI with mkbdsp and rmbdsp.

Prevention & Hardening

Set SSP usage alerts at 70/80/90% via chsp -alert.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

POOL_FULL events, client write errors on SSP-backed disks.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.2.

View all aix-7.2 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

PowerVM Shared Storage Pool administration guide.