Unsupported Upgrade to the Solaris 10 OS Corrupts the /etc/path_to_inst File (6216447)

Problem Summary: Sun Cluster 3.1 8/05 software does not support upgrade to the March 2005 release of the Solaris 10 OS. An attempt to upgrade to that release might corrupt the /etc/path_to_inst file. This file corruption would prevent the node from booting successfully. The corrupted file would appear similar to the following, in that it contains duplicate entries for some of the same device names except that the physical device name contains the prefix /node@nodeid:

…
"/node@nodeid/physical_device_name" instance_number "driver_binding_name"
…
"/physical_device_name" instance_number "driver_binding_name"

In addition, some key Solaris services might fail to start, including networking and file-system mounting, and messages might print on the console which state that the service is misconfigured.

Workaround: Use the following procedure.

How to Recover From a Corrupted /etc/path_to_inst File

The following procedure describes how to recover from an upgrade to Solaris 10 software that results in a corrupted /etc/path_to_inst file.

This procedure does not attempt to correct any other problem that can be associated with upgrading a Sun Cluster configuration to the March 2005 release of the Solaris 10 OS.

Perform this procedure on each node that was upgraded to the March 2005 release of the Solaris 10 OS.

Before You Begin

If a node cannot boot, boot the node from the network or from a CD-ROM. Once the node is up, run the fsck command and mount the local file system in a partition such as /a. In Step 2, use the name of the local-file-system mount in the path to the /etc directory.

Steps

1. Become superuser or an equivalent role on the node.

2. Change to the /etc directory.

   # cd /etc

3. Determine whether the path_to_inst file is corrupted.

   The following characteristics are present if the path_to_inst file is corrupted:

   • The file includes a block of entries that contain /node@nodeid at the beginning of physical device names.

   • Some of the same entries are listed again but without the /node@nodeid prefix.

   If the file is not of this format, then some other problem exists. Do not continue this procedure. Contact your Sun service representative if you need assistance.

4. If the path_to_inst file is corrupted as described in Step 3, run the following commands.

   # cp path_to_inst path_to_inst.bak # sed -n -e "/^#/p" -e "s,node@./,,p" path_to_inst.bak > path_to_inst

5. Inspect the path_to_inst file to ensure that the file is repaired.

   A repaired file will reflect the following changes:

   • The /node@nodeid prefix is removed from all physical device names.

   • There are no duplicate entries for any physical device name.

6. Ensure that the permissions of the path_to_inst file are read only.

   # ls -l /etc/path_to_inst -r--r--r-- 1 root root 2946 Aug 8 2005 path_to_inst

7. Perform a reconfiguration reboot into non-cluster mode.

   # reboot -- -rx

8. After you repair all affected cluster nodes, go to How to Upgrade Dependency Software Before a Nonrolling Upgrade in Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS to continue the upgrade process.