IBM AIX 7.1 – Common Problem 228 – 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, syslogd, and print services to fail.

Environment & Reproduction

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

Root Cause Analysis

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

Quick Triage

Identify the largest consumers with du -sm /var/* | sort -n and check lsfs /var.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Locate growing files with find /var -xdev -size +50M -ls and check /var/adm/ras.

Solution – Primary Fix

Prune old logs with errclear 30, remove core dumps, and extend /var with chfs -a size=+1G /var.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

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

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

df -g /var stays below 80% and syslogd and qdaemon run cleanly.

Rollback Plan

Reverse chfs extension with chfs -a size=-512M /var if PPs must be reclaimed.

Prevention & Hardening

Configure skulker via cron, errclear, and monitor /var with topas FS panel.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

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

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

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 JFS2 and storage administration documentation.