what is /dev/ipldevice and bosboot

Mag

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Jun 12, 2006, 7:32:04 AM6/12/06

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What is the significance of /dev/ipldevice?

Recently, I was applying a ML on AIX. When I was doing it, smitty
update_all, was failing because of bosboot.

/dev/ipldevice did NOT exist, so I did this:
ln /dev/hdisk0 /dev/ipldevice
bosboot -ad /dev/hdisk0
bosboot -ad /dev/ipldevice

Not sure, why ML was failing to apply, any thoughts?

Hajo Ehlers

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Jun 12, 2006, 9:17:54 AM6/12/06

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Sure.
During updates often device drivers are updated or new kernel
extentsion has been added. All needs a bosboot which will use the
ipldevice.

Also keep in mind that custom devices which will not be configured by
cfgmgr ( like tsm tape drives ) need to be added to the boot image
which can be done only if the ipldevice exist. So its a very important
link to the boot disk.
Otherwise these devices are gone after a reboot.

So i would check why your ipldevice has been gone. I have seen this
happen from EMC power path installations adding a rc.emcpower entry to
the inittab.

A simple
$ grep ipldevice /etc/*
might help also

hth
Hajo

Nicholas Buckley

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Jun 12, 2006, 1:25:38 PM6/12/06

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Hi Hajo,

>
> So i would check why your ipldevice has been gone. I have seen this
> happen from EMC power path installations adding a rc.emcpower entry to
> the inittab.
>

Would you care to expand a bit on this observation ?

I don't quite see the connection - but as I run pSeries that SAN-boot from
DMX using PowerPath I think perhaps I need to ... !!

Many thanks,

Nick

Niel Lambrechts

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Jun 12, 2006, 1:59:06 PM6/12/06

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This is usually caused by powerpath v4.3 bug (Advisory ETA emc101218).

You can check if you are affected by:
# grep "BOOT_DISK\=" /etc/rc.emcpower

If it finds a line starting with "lslv -l hd5" you _are_ affected. You
can either upgrade powerpath or fix it by doing the following:

1. Change the lslv line from
lslv -l hd5 | fgrep hdisk | awk '{ print $1 }' 2>/dev/null
to
lslv -m hd5 | fgrep hdisk | awk '{ print $3 }' 2>/dev/null

2. Ensure /dev/ipldevice exists
If it does not, determine boot disk (e.g. hdisk0) and do ln /dev/hdisk0
/dev/ipldevice
3. savebase -v
4. bosboot -ad /dev/ipldevice

This problem may also cause missing ODM data (e.g. server IP address
lost during reboot).

Regards,
Niel

Hajo Ehlers

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Jun 12, 2006, 2:07:03 PM6/12/06

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Hi Nick,
For some reason the rc.empower in EMCpower 4.3 removed the
/dev/ipldevice on our AIX 5.1 boxes -
I never investigated further since we do not boot from SAN and the
removal from the /etc/inittab solved the problem.
But on a previous thread about powerpath/ipldevice the EMC 'ETA
emc101218 ' on powerlink has been mentioned.

But for SAN boot on a CLX600 using powerpath for the rootvg disk this
script is mandatory AFAIK.

So as long as you have a /dev/ipldevice which links to a valid boot
device everthing should be fine.

regards
Hajo

Niel Lambrechts

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Jun 12, 2006, 3:09:34 PM6/12/06

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Niel Lambrechts wrote:
> 1. Change the lslv line from
> lslv -l hd5 | fgrep hdisk | awk '{ print $1 }' 2>/dev/null
> to
> lslv -m hd5 | fgrep hdisk | awk '{ print $3 }' 2>/dev/null

Found another similar EMC Advisory (ETA emc110178).

It would be better to change the lslv line to:
Line 136 after: BOOT_DISK=`lslv -m hd5 | fgrep hdisk | awk '{
print $3 }' | head -1 2>/dev/null`

This will properly handle the case where hd5 consists of two or more LPs.

Regards,
Niel