Overview of Troubleshooting the System

Prerequisites for Troubleshooting the System

To troubleshoot storage management problems that are related to Solaris Volume Manager, you need to do the following:

• Have root privilege

• Have a current backup of all data

General Guidelines for Troubleshooting Solaris Volume Manager

You should have the following information on hand when you troubleshoot Solaris Volume Manager problems:

• Output from the metadb command

• Output from the metastat command

• Output from the metastat -p command

• Backup copy of the /etc/vfstab file

• Backup copy of the /etc/lvm/mddb.cf file

• Disk partition information from the prtvtoc command (SPARC® systems) or the fdisk command (x86 based systems)

• The Solaris version on your system

• A list of the Solaris patches that have been installed

• A list of the Solaris Volume Manager patches that have been installed

Any time you update your Solaris Volume Manager configuration, or make other storage or operating system-related changes to your system, generate fresh copies of this configuration information. You could also generate this information automatically with a cron job.

General Troubleshooting Approach

Although no single procedure enables you to evaluate all problems with Solaris Volume Manager, the following process provides one general approach that might help.

1. Gather information about current the configuration.

2. Review the current status indicators, including the output from the metastat and metadb commands. This information should indicate which component is faulty.

3. Check the hardware for obvious points of failure:

   • Is everything connected properly?

   • Was there a recent electrical outage?

   • Have there been equipment changes or additions?