IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 229 – 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

df -g shows %Used at 100% and writes fail with ENOSPC even though du seems lower.

Environment & Reproduction

Common on /var, /tmp, or application JFS2 mounts after log spikes or open deleted files.

Root Cause Analysis

Either real space is consumed or inodes are exhausted, or processes hold deleted files keeping blocks in use.

Quick Triage

Run df -g and df -v to compare blocks and inodes side by side.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Use fuser -dV /fs to find processes holding deleted files and du -sm /fs/* to locate big consumers.

Solution – Primary Fix

Free space by trimming logs, then grow the filesystem with chfs -a size=+1G /fs.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

If inodes are full, recreate the FS with a smaller nbpi using crfs after backup.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

df -g shows healthy free space and applications resume writing without ENOSPC.

Rollback Plan

If chfs grew the FS unintentionally, shrink with chfs -a size=-1G /fs after data move.

Prevention & Hardening

Configure errnotify on JFS2 J2_FS_FULL and rotate alog/syslog regularly.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Often masks paging-space-low and JFS2 log full 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 chfs and JFS2 administration references.