IBM AIX 7.2 – Common Problem 202 – 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

/var fills to 100% causing errpt, syslog, and print services to fail.

Environment & Reproduction

Heavy errpt logging, large /var/spool, or runaway core dumps under bos.rte.

df -g /var
find /var -xdev -size +100M
errpt | head

Root Cause Analysis

Old errlog, mail spool, accounting data, or print jobs consume the /var JFS2 filesystem.

Quick Triage

Identify the largest consumers and the filesystem layout.

du -sm /var/* | sort -n
lsfs /var
lsvg -l rootvg

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Locate growing files and assess if /var needs extension via chfs.

find /var -xdev -size +50M -ls
lsfs -q /var
ls -la /var/adm/ras

Solution – Primary Fix

Prune old logs and extend /var with chfs if rootvg has free PPs.

errclear 30
rm /var/adm/ras/core*
chfs -a size=+1G /var

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Move /var/spool or /var/adm to a separate filesystem using migratepv or new JFS2 logical volume.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

/var usage drops below threshold and services log normally.

df -g /var
errpt | head
lssrc -s syslogd

Rollback Plan

Reverse the chfs extension only if PPs must be reclaimed; data pruning stays.

lsvg -l rootvg
chfs -a size=-512M /var
lsfs /var

Prevention & Hardening

Configure logrotate-like skulker, errclear cron, and monitor /var with topas.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related to syslogd respawn loops, qdaemon failures, and accton errors.

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 storage and JFS2 administration guide.