IBM AIX 7.2 – Common Problem 226 – 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

errpt shows PERM hardware errors on hdisk devices; I/O latency spikes and apps stall.

Environment & Reproduction

Occurs on POWER LPARs after SAN path loss, failing disks, or HBA firmware mismatch.

Root Cause Analysis

Disk or adapter reports media or transport errors; AIX logs DISK_ERR4/SC_DISK_ERR entries.

Quick Triage

Run errpt -a | more and lspath to spot Missing paths and recent disk errors.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Use errpt -aN hdiskN, lspath -l hdiskN, fcstat fcsN to confirm path and adapter state.

Solution – Primary Fix

Replace failing disk or restore SAN paths, then run cfgmgr and chpath -s enable on Missing paths.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

If hardware is healthy, update FC adapter firmware via diag or reseat cables on the affected fabric.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

errpt clean for 24h, lspath shows all Enabled, and I/O latency returns to baseline.

Rollback Plan

Disable new paths with chpath -s disable and revert firmware via diag download menu if regression appears.

Prevention & Hardening

Schedule errpt -d H -T PERM monitoring and keep MPIO and HBA firmware on supported levels.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

May co-occur with LVM stale partitions and JFS2 read errors on the same VG.

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 AIX 7.2 errpt and diag command references in IBM Documentation.