IBM AIX 7.2 – Common Problem 008 – 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 DISK_ERR4 and one mirror copy goes stale in rootvg.

Environment & Reproduction

IBM AIX 7.2 LPAR exhibiting disk failure / LVM mirror issues under standard PowerVM workloads.

lsvg -p rootvg
lspv hdisk1

Root Cause Analysis

Physical disk media error breaks one side of an LVM mirror.

Quick Triage

Confirm scope with errpt, recent changes, and subsystem state via lssrc.

errpt -j DISK_ERR4
lsvg -l rootvg

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Confirm mirror staleness and identify which PV must be replaced.

lsvg -M rootvg | grep stale
lspv -l hdisk1

Solution – Primary Fix

Replace the failed disk and resync the mirror.

replacepv hdisk1 hdisk2
syncvg -v rootvg

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Use migratepv to move LVs off the failing disk before reducepv.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Confirm subsystem returns to RUNNING state and errpt shows no new entries.

lsvg -p rootvg
lsvg -M rootvg | grep -v stale

Rollback Plan

Restore prior configuration from mksysb or alt_disk_install clone if the fix regresses.

unmirrorvg rootvg hdisk2  # rollback if resync stalls

Prevention & Hardening

Encode the fix in NIM customisation scripts and monitor via topas/nmon.

smit chvg  # enable auto-on for mirrored rootvg

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

errpt LABEL=DISK_ERR4; LVM stale partitions

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

AIX Storage management Redbook