Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

I have just been given a server to look after and I don't have any history. When I try to look at the volume groups lsvg rootvg etc.....

I get the error - unable to read descriptor area
It is running AIX 5.3.0.0

Any comments appreciated
Thanks in advance

Originally posted by: Kosala

Did you check for any failing/failed disks. What does lsvg -p rootvg say?

Kosala

Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

lsvg -p gives me the same error
0516-040 Unable to read the specified physical volume descriptor area

Went into smit and found

hdisk0 SCSI drive
hdisk1 SCSI drive
hdisk12 (disk array)

tried to view and no matter what I did to any of the hdisk(s) I recevied the above error.

how do I check for failed/failing drives?

regards
List

Originally posted by: DjRobin69

lspv
This will lists all disks on the system and show you the status

Originally posted by: Kosala

You can do a errpt and look for any alerts related to hardware. Further you can try "lspv hdiskX" and observe the state of the disk.

Kosala

Originally posted by: pillai

Hi,
if your server has shared volume group, you may get this error at the system restart state..so try this:
chvg -an volume-group-name...
not to set the autovary on VG..

cheers..

Originally posted by: 44RT_list

I ran lspv and received

hdisk0 ....... rootvg active
hdisk1 ....... rootvg active
hdisk2 ....... datavg active

all Ok

but still unable to read descriptor area.

cheers

Originally posted by: DjRobin69

Do you get the same for the other VG or only rootvg?

errpt -a | pg

Check for Disk errors then remove faulty didsk from vg

Make sure you have a working backup/mksysb then try removing the mirrored disks,

lsvg -l rootvg

rmlvcopy 1 LV-name hdiskx
For each LV copy

Remove dump devices from faulty disk

Remove disk from vg

syncvg -v rootvg

Originally posted by: EricGapinski

Assuming you booted from hdisk0 in rootvg, you might want to try reading from hdisk1. lsvg has a -n option that allows you to read from a specific disk, so to start getting some info:
lsvg -n hdisk1

Another command to query from the VGDA on the other disk directly with a little more info than the above:
lqueryvg -Atp hdisk1

If you get output back from the above commands, but not when you specify hdisk0,likely something has corupted the VGDA on hdisk0. In that case you might try altering your bootlist:
bootlist -m normal hdisk1

And then rebooting, which might get to to a "good" state. It's hard for me to say, since I've not ever run into this particular issue before.

I'm not currently aware of how to force the VGDA from one drive over to another without removing the "bad" disk and readding it, but there's probably a way. If I find it I'll let you know.

Good luck.