Affected versions: IBM AIX 7.2

📖 ~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.

Illustrative mockup for aix-7.2 — multipath_mpio_path_failed_diag
Diagnostic view for multipath-mpio-path-failed — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Primary Fix

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

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Illustrative mockup for aix-7.2 — multipath_mpio_path_failed_fix
Remediation steps for multipath-mpio-path-failed — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

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: SDDPCM messages and FSCSI_ERR4 codes in errpt.

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

IBM Docs: MPIO management and fcstat diagnostics.

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