How to Recover From a Boot Device Failure

If you have a root (/) mirror and your boot device fails, you need to set up an alternate boot device.

The high-level steps in this task are as follows:

• Booting from the alternate root (/) submirror

• Determining the erred state database replicas and volumes

• Repairing the failed disk

• Restoring state database replicas and volumes to their original state

Initially, when the boot device fails, you'll see a message similar to the following. This message might differ among various architectures.

Rebooting with command:
Boot device: /iommu/sbus/dma@f,81000/esp@f,80000/sd@3,0   
The selected SCSI device is not responding
Can't open boot device
...

When you see this message, note the device. Then, follow these steps:

1. Boot from another root (/) submirror.

   Since only two of the six state database replicas in this example are in error, you can still boot. If this were not the case, you would need to delete the inaccessible state database replicas in single-user mode. This procedure is described in How to Recover From Insufficient State Database Replicas.

   When you created the mirror for the root (/) file system, you should have recorded the alternate boot device as part of that procedure. In this example, disk2 is that alternate boot device.

   ok boot disk2 SunOS Release 5.9 Version s81_51 64-bit Copyright 1983-2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Hostname: demo ... demo console login: root Password: <root-password> Dec 16 12:22:09 host1 login: ROOT LOGIN /dev/console Last login: Wed Dec 12 10:55:16 on console Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.9 s81_51 May 2002 ...

2. Determine how many state database replicas have failed by using the metadb command.

   # metadb flags first blk block count M p unknown unknown /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s3 M p unknown unknown /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s3 a m p luo 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s3 a p luo 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s3 a p luo 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s3 a p luo 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s3

   In this example, the system can no longer detect state database replicas on slice /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s3, which is part of the failed disk.

3. Determine that half of the root (/), swap, and /usr mirrors have failed by using the metastat command.

   # metastat d0: Mirror Submirror 0: d10 State: Needs maintenance Submirror 1: d20 State: Okay ... d10: Submirror of d0 State: Needs maintenance Invoke: "metareplace d0 /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 <new device>" Size: 47628 blocks Stripe 0: Device Start Block Dbase State Hot Spare /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 0 No Maintenance d20: Submirror of d0 State: Okay Size: 47628 blocks Stripe 0: Device Start Block Dbase State Hot Spare /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s0 0 No Okay d1: Mirror Submirror 0: d11 State: Needs maintenance Submirror 1: d21 State: Okay ... d11: Submirror of d1 State: Needs maintenance Invoke: "metareplace d1 /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s1 <new device>" Size: 69660 blocks Stripe 0: Device Start Block Dbase State Hot Spare /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s1 0 No Maintenance d21: Submirror of d1 State: Okay Size: 69660 blocks Stripe 0: Device Start Block Dbase State Hot Spare /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s1 0 No Okay d2: Mirror Submirror 0: d12 State: Needs maintenance Submirror 1: d22 State: Okay ... d12: Submirror of d2 State: Needs maintenance Invoke: "metareplace d2 /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s6 <new device>" Size: 286740 blocks Stripe 0: Device Start Block Dbase State Hot Spare /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s6 0 No Maintenance d22: Submirror of d2 State: Okay Size: 286740 blocks Stripe 0: Device Start Block Dbase State Hot Spare /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s6 0 No Okay

   In this example, the metastat command shows that the following submirrors need maintenance:

   • Submirror d10, device c0t3d0s0

   • Submirror d11, device c0t3d0s1

   • Submirror d12, device c0t3d0s6

4. Halt the system, replace the disk. Use the format command or the fmthard command, to partition the disk as it was before the failure.

   ---

   Tip –

   If the new disk is identical to the existing disk (the intact side of the mirror, in this example), quickly format the new disk. To do so, use the prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s2 | fmthard -s - /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s2 command (c0t3d0, in this example).

   ---

   # halt ... Halted ... ok boot ... # format /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0

5. Reboot the system.

   Note that you must reboot from the other half of the root (/) mirror. You should have recorded the alternate boot device when you created the mirror.

   # halt ... ok boot disk2

6. To delete the failed state database replicas and then add them back, use the metadb command.

   # metadb flags first blk block count M p unknown unknown /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s3 M p unknown unknown /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s3 a m p luo 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s3 a p luo 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s3 a p luo 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s3 a p luo 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s3 # metadb -d c0t3d0s3 # metadb -c 2 -a c0t3d0s3 # metadb flags first blk block count a m p luo 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s3 a p luo 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s3 a p luo 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s3 a p luo 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s3 a u 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s3 a u 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s3

7. Re-enable the submirrors by using the metareplace command.

   # metareplace -e d0 c0t3d0s0 Device /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 is enabled # metareplace -e d1 c0t3d0s1 Device /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s1 is enabled # metareplace -e d2 c0t3d0s6 Device /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s6 is enabled

   After some time, the resynchronization will complete. You can now return to booting from the original device.