SGI for Second Hard Disk Installation

SYSTEM: 1.5T CV/i Echospeed Plus (Software Version 9.1)

PROBLEM/SYMPTOM

The optional second hard disk failed to be installed on the system. The 1.5T CV/i with Version 9.1 software was configured with a 9GB system hard disk and an optional 18GB hard disk. When attempting to install the second hard disk via the Install guide GUI in the Service desktop, an error message "the 2nd hard disk install failed" appeared, and the optional second hard disk could not be configured on the system.

TROUBLESHOOTING HISTORY/HINT

The root cause was suspected to be the mismatched capacities of the two hard disks, and the following verification steps were taken:

1.Opened a C-shell window.

2.Ran the scsistat command in the C-shell window, with the screen output as follows:Device 0 1 Disk  SGI  IBM DPSS-309170MDevice 0 2 Disk  SGI  ST3184062CThis confirmed the hardware was installed correctly on the system.

3.Executed the mount –p command, and the screen displayed the following mount information:/dev/dsk/dsk0d1s6  /usr/dev/dsk/dsk0d1s7  /export/home/dev/dsk/dsk0d1s5  /export/home1This verified the second hard disk was not mounted to the file system.

4.Entered the commands cd /dev/dsk and ls –la, with the screen showing a device entry: 15:32 dks0d2s7. This led to the suspicion that dks0d2s7 was the second hard disk, prompting further verification.

5.Ran the df –m /dev/dsk/dks0d2s7 command, and the screen output was: Dks0d2s7 xfs 17495MB. This confirmed dks0d2s7 was the second hard disk and had been successfully configured in the UNIX system, increasing suspicion of an application software issue.

6.Executed mount dev/dsk/dks0d2s7 /tmp and df –m /tmp, with the screen showing /tmp had 17885MB of space. This confirmed the second hard disk could be mounted to the file system, and the problem was suspected to lie in the repartitioning of the second hard disk. Subsequent steps focused on finding the linked command file for the "install 2nd hard disk" button in the Install guide GUI.

7.Ran the find / -name "install*" –print command and found the install2disk command file in the /export/home/sdc/scripts directory.

8.Assumed the file was a JavaScript command and ran more install2Disk, with the screen displaying capacity matching entries such as:

36GB/No……….18GB/18GB…….18GB/No………..9GB/9GB……….9GB/No…………4GB/9GB……….

This confirmed a 9GB hard disk could not be configured with an 18GB hard disk.

ROOT CAUSE/SOLUTION

Troubleshooting confirmed there was no hardware damage. The root cause was a software bug in Version 9.1, which prevented the configuration of hard disks with mismatched capacities. The issue was resolved by replacing the mismatched disk with one of the same capacity.

Note

The install2disk file contains instructions on how to repartition the system hard disk.