Volume Troubleshooting

The volume state indicates the current condition of a volume. The volume state appears in the state column of the grid and in the Volume Properties window. When a volume is unhealthy, an alert icon appears on the volume and the volume is listed in the Alert Monitor window. This section describes the following volume states and provides suggestions on how to correct problems associated with the unhealthy states:

Volume State: Started

The volume is accessible and has no known problems. This is the normal volume state. No user action is required.

Volume State: Stopped

The volume is disabled and is not available for use.

To return the volume to a usable state, start the volume.

Volume State: Uninitialized

The volume is enabled, but is not initialized. If this state appears during volume creation, no user action is necessary.

To put the volume in a usable state, start the volume.

Volume State: Degraded

The RAID-5 volume is in a degraded mode. This usually occurs when one or more subdisks are unavailable and read requests require data reconstruction. An underlying disk may have failed completely or there may be I/O errors on part of a disk. Alternatively, an underlying disk may be disconnected.

Make sure that the physical disks are turned on, plugged in, and attached to the computer. Repair any disk, controller, or cable problems. Scan the disks on the system (Hosts > Scan Disks) to make sure that the Volume Manager recognizes any newly attached hardware. To return the RAID-5 volume to a healthy state, recover the volume.
If there has been a partial or complete disk failure, either replace the disk or move the affected subdisks to another disk.

Volume State: Unusable

The RAID-5 volume is unusable. This usually occurs when there is a double disk failure (that is, when two subdisks in the same stripe or the parity and one subdisk in a stripe are damaged or inaccessible). The underlying disks may have failed or become inaccessible.

Make sure that the physical disks are turned on, plugged in, and attached to the computer. Repair any disk, controller, or cable problems. Scan the disks on the system (Hosts > Scan Disks) to make sure that the Volume Manager recognizes any newly attached hardware. Run the following command to reattach the disks to their disk group:
/etc/vx/bin/vxreattach [device_name]
To return the RAID-5 volume to a healthy state, recover the volume.
If two of the volume's disks have failed, the RAID-5 volume's data is unusable. Replace the failed disks and then try to restart the volume by running the following command:
vxvol -f start volume_name
Restore the volume from backup.
To prevent this problem in the future, enable logging for RAID-5 volumes.

Volume Troubleshooting

Technical documentation

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Volume State: Started

Volume State: Stopped

Volume State: Uninitialized

Volume State: Degraded

Volume State: Unusable