IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 231 – 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

System fails to boot or LED hangs after kernel or device driver update.

Environment & Reproduction

Happens when bosboot was skipped after a fileset update or bootlist points to a stale disk.

Root Cause Analysis

Boot image on hd5 is out of date or bootlist references a removed/renamed disk.

Quick Triage

From SMS or service mode, check bootlist -m normal -o and run errpt for BOOT_FAILURE.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Boot from install media to maintenance, importvg rootvg, then inspect lslv hd5.

Solution – Primary Fix

Run bosboot -ad /dev/ipldevice then bootlist -m normal hdisk0 hdisk1 and reboot.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

If hd5 is damaged, recreate it with mklv -y hd5 then re-run bosboot.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

LPAR boots normally from disk and bootlist -m normal -o lists the correct devices.

Rollback Plan

Boot from alt_disk_install clone via altinst_rootvg if the primary disk still fails.

Prevention & Hardening

Always run bosboot and update bootlist after kernel or multibos updates.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related to multibos rollback issues and altinst_rootvg drift.

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 bosboot and bootlist command references.