IBM AIX 7.1 – Common Problem 242 – 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

LPAR fails to boot from hdisk0 and SMS shows no bootable device.

Environment & Reproduction

Triggered after disk replacement, mksysb restore, or bosboot run without -a.

Root Cause Analysis

Boot logical volume hd5 is missing or bootlist points to an unbootable disk.

Quick Triage

Run bootlist -m normal -o and lspv | grep boot to see current settings.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

From SMS or service console, inspect bosboot logs in /var/adm/ras/bosinst.data.

Solution – Primary Fix

Run bosboot -a -d /dev/hdisk0 then bootlist -m normal hdisk0 to fix the boot.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

From maintenance shell, mount rootvg, chroot, and re-run bosboot -ad ipldevice.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

LPAR boots from hdisk0 in normal mode and bootlist -o is correct.

Rollback Plan

Boot from mksysb media or alt_disk_copy to restore previous boot state.

Prevention & Hardening

Maintain mksysb backups and run bosboot -a after kernel-impacting installp.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related to ODM corruption, hd5 LV issues, and mksysb restore problems.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.1.

View all aix-7.1 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

IBM AIX 7.2 bosboot and bootlist reference.