Fujitsu M10-1/M10-4/M10-4S Servers: When Updating to Oracle Solaris 11.2 from Oracle Solaris 11.1 MPXIO may change disk path names

Asset ID:	1-72-1992858.1
Update Date:	2015-03-30
Keywords:

Solution Type Problem Resolution Sure

Solution 1992858.1 : Fujitsu M10-1/M10-4/M10-4S Servers: When Updating to Oracle Solaris 11.2 from Oracle Solaris 11.1 MPXIO may change disk path names

Applies to:

Fujitsu M10-4 - Version All Versions and later
Fujitsu M10-1 - Version All Versions and later
Fujitsu M10-4S - Version All Versions and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Symptoms

The device path names of the internal drives might be changed when Solaris is updated from Solaris 11.1 to Solaris 11.2

Even when the device path names are changed, Solaris can boot. But, if any software uses the path name directly, that software will fail to access the internal drives.

Cause

When MPxIO is not enabled in Solaris 11.1, MPxIO will be enabled by updating to Solaris 11.2. As a result, the device paths will be changed.

Solaris MPxIO for the drives shown in Table 1 will be enabled by Solaris 11.2 as default.

If MPxIO is already enabled manually in Solaris 11.1, while updating to Solaris 11.2, the device path name will not changed,

Table1. Drives that Solaris MPxIO enables in Solaris11.2

Internal SAS drive Part Number	Internal SAS drive Drive vendor and product name
7106318	TOSHIBA AL13SEB600 or TOSHIBA MBF2600RC
7107814	TOSHIBA MK1001CRZB
7107816	TOSHIBA MK2001CRZB

Table2. Example of how path names will be changed

	MPxIO is disabled	MPxIO is enabled
Physical device path name (OBP device tree)	/pci@8800/pci@4/pci@0/pci@0/scsi@0/iport@f/disk@w50000394281b5312,0	/scsi_vhci/disk@g50000394281b5310
Logical device path name (Path name of disk device)	/dev/rdsk/c2t50000394281B5312d0	/dev/rdsk/c0t50000394281b5310d0

See Solaris 11.2 Release notes for additional information.

Solution

To resolve this problem the preferred solution is to modify the specified device path of the internal drive in Solaris or any application to use the MPXIO device. The other less desirable solution is to disable MPxIO.

Confirming the device path

Use the following procedure to obtain the device path, vendor name, product name and MPxIO setting of an internal drive:

When MPxIO is enabled “scsi_vhci” is included in the displayed device path name for the internal drive:

# format

Searching for disks...done

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:

0. c0t50000394281b5310d0 <TOSHIBA-MBF2600RC- 3706 cyl 64986 alt 2 hd 27 sec 668>
/scsi_vhci/disk@g50000394281b5310
/dev/chassis/FUJITSU-BBEXP. 500000e0e06d31bf/03N0_HDD00/disk

NOTE: When accessing the drive the device path name will be “/dev/rdsk/scsi_vhci/…” or “/dev/dsk/scsi_vhci/…”
The format command does not show the prefix “/dev/(r)dsk”.

When MPxIO is disabled, “scsi_vhci” is not included in displayed device path name for the internal drive:

# format

Searching for disks...done

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:

0. c2t50000394281B5312d0 <TOSHIBA-MBF2600RC-3706 cyl 64986 alt 2 hd 27 sec 668>
/pci@8800/pci@4/pci@0/pci@0/scsi@0/iport@f/disk@w50000394281b5312,0
/dev/chassis/FUJITSU-BBEXP. 500000e0e06d31bf/03N0_HDD00/disk

How to Disable MPxIO for internal drives ( less desirable solution):

# stmsboot -D mpt_sas -d

How to activate the boot environment using beadm(1M) or pkg(1M).

After changing the MPxIO setting the following error messages may be seen when the boot environment is activated by either the beadm(1M) command or the pkg(1M) command (pkg(1M) uses beadm(1M) internally)

The activation of the boot environment will fail with the following example error messages:

# beadm activate S11U1SRU20B04-z_stress-2.10-1
Error while accessing "/dev/rdsk/c2t500003942823F352d0s0":

No such file or directory

Unable to activate S11U1SRU20B04-z_stress-2.10-1.

Error installing boot files.

# pkg update --be-name SRU11.2.1.5.0

....

Error while accessing "/dev/rdsk/c2t5000039258004102d0s0": No such file or directory

pkg: unable to activate SRU11.2.1.5.0

The device path recognized by beadm(1M) is changed by enabling/disabling MPxIO for internal drives.

Please execute the following command to fix the issue with beadm(1M) or pkg(1M).

# /usr/sbin/zpool status

References

<BUG:15824482> - SUNBT7206053 MPXIO SUPPORT FOR TOSHIBA HARD DISK DRIVES

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