IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 205 – 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

varyonvg fails with 0516-052 or 0516-013 errors and the volume group stays offline.

Environment & Reproduction

After disk path loss, MPIO change, or import on a different LPAR.

lsvg -o
varyonvg datavg
lspv

Root Cause Analysis

VGDA on member PVs is stale, disks are missing, or quorum is lost.

Quick Triage

Confirm disk visibility and PV state before retrying varyonvg.

lspv
lsdev -Cc disk
lquerypv -h /dev/hdisk1

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Check VGDA timestamps and quorum policy on the VG.

lqueryvg -p hdisk1 -At
lsvg datavg | head
errpt | head

Solution – Primary Fix

Restore the disk path, then varyonvg with force or non-quorum where appropriate.

cfgmgr
varyonvg -f datavg
lsvg -l datavg

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Recreate the VG with recreatevg from a savevg backup if VGDA is unrecoverable.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

VG is online, filesystems mount, and lsvg shows active state.

lsvg -o
mount /datavg/fs01
df -g

Rollback Plan

Varyoffvg and reimport from a known-good PV if the fix introduced issues.

varyoffvg datavg
exportvg datavg
importvg -y datavg hdisk2

Prevention & Hardening

Use MPIO with redundant paths, regular savevg, and avoid disabling quorum casually.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related to errpt LVM_SA_QUORCLOSE, paging hangs, and JFS2 read errors.

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

IBM AIX 7.3 LVM administration and disaster recovery guide.