Disk Replacement with SDS

1. Identify the failed disk to be replaced by examining the /var/adm/messages file and the
metastat command output.
2. Locate any state database replicas that might have been placed on the failed disk.
Use the metadb command to find the replicas.
The metadb command might report errors for the state database replicas that are located on the failed
disk. In this example, c0t1d0 is the problem device.

# metadb
flags first blk block count
a m u 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4
a u 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4
a u 2084 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4
W pc luo 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4
W pc luo 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4
W pc luo 2084 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4

3. Locate any state database replicas that might have been placed on the failed disk.
Use the metadb command to find the replicas.
The metadb command might report errors for the state database replicas that are located on the failed
disk. In this example, c0t1d0 is the problem device.

# metadb
flags first blk block count
a m u 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4
a u 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4
a u 2084 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4
W pc luo 16 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4
W pc luo 1050 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4
W pc luo 2084 1034 /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4

4. Locate and delete any hot spares on the failed disk.

Use the metastat command to find hot spares. In this example, hot spare pool hsp000 included
c0t1d0s6, which is then deleted from the pool.

# metahs -d hsp000 c0t1d0s6

hsp000: Hotspare is deleted

5. Replace the failed disk.

This step might entail using the cfgadm command, the luxadm command, or other commands as
appropriate for your hardware and environment. When performing this step, make sure to follow your
hardware's documented procedures to properly manipulate the Solaris state of this disk.

6. Repartition the new disk.

Use the format command or the fmthard command to partition the disk with the same slice
information as the failed disk. If you have the prtvtoc output from the failed disk, you can format
the replacement disk with the fmthard -s /tmp/failed-disk-prtvtoc-output command.

7. If you deleted state database replicas, add the same number back to the appropriate slice.
In this example, /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4 is used.

# metadb -a -c 3 c0t1d0s4

8. If any slices on the disk are components of RAID-5 volumes or are components of RAID-0
volumes that are in turn submirrors of RAID-1 volumes, run the metareplace -e command
for each slice.
In this example, /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4 and mirror d10 are used.

# metareplace -e d10 c0t1d0s4

9. If any soft partitions are built directly on slices on the replaced disk, run the metarecover
-m -p command on each slice that contains soft partitions. This command regenerates the
extent headers on disk.
In this example, /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4 needs to have the soft partition markings on disk
regenerated. The slice is scanned and the markings are reapplied, based on the information in the state
database replicas.

# metarecover c0t1d0s4 -m -p

10. If any soft partitions on the disk are components of RAID-5 volumes or are components of
RAID-0 volumes that are submirrors of RAID-1 volumes, run the metareplace -e
command for each slice.
In this example, /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4 and mirror d10 are used.

# metareplace -e d10 c0t1d0s4

11. If any RAID-0 volumes have soft partitions built on them, run the metarecover command
for each RAID-0 volume.
In this example, RAID-0 volume, d17, has soft partitions built on it.

# metarecover d17 -m -p

12. Replace hot spares that were deleted, and add them to the appropriate hot spare pool or pools.
In this example, hot spare pool, hsp000 included c0t1d0s6. This slice is added to the hot spare
pool.

# metahs -a hsp000 c0t1d0s6

hsp000: Hotspare is added

13. If soft partitions or nonredundant volumes were affected by the failure, restore data from
backups. If only redundant volumes were affected, then validate your data.
Check the user and application data on all volumes. You might have to run an application-level
consistency checker, or use some other method to check the data.

Additional References:
1) Solaris Volume Manager Admin Guide
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/816-4520

2) EIS DVD Installation Checklists

3) Info Doc 28196 Solstice DiskSuite[TM] - How to mirror the root disk
4) Info Doc 17665 Solstice DiskSuite[TM] - 'Needs Maintenance' and "Last Erred" states.
5) Info Doc 22755 Solstice DiskSuite[TM] 4.X Software and Solaris[TM] Volume Manager
Software - Mirrored Boot Disk Recovery