Cannot remove or create virtual volumes [SOLVED]

[sanchez78]

Hello all,

In August 2013 we have bought a 3par 7200 with SSD(8x100GB), SAS(24x600GB) and NLSAS(12x2TB) tiers. Everything runs fine and can be managed quite well. Release version 3.1.2 (MU2).

Last week I've been organizing our virtual volumes a bit. Moved some VM's to other volumes. Removed some empty virtual volumes and it's vluns. Also removed some unused CPGs.

All went well except for one Virtual Volume. I cannot remove 'VMFS06Volume'. It can be listed by 'showvv' and can be selected in several GUI tasks, but when trying to perform the task it says: VV VMFS06Volume not found.

See the commands I used:

Code: Select all

AX3PAR01 cli% showvv -d
Id Name         Rd Mstr  Prnt Roch Rwch PPrnt PBlkRemain -------------VV_WWN------------- ------CreationTime------
 1 .srdata      RW 0/1/-  ---  ---  ---   ---         -- 60002AC0000000000000000100002A42 2013-09-11 19:24:18 CEST
 0 admin        RW 1/0/-  ---  ---  ---   ---         -- 60002AC0000000000000000000002A42 2013-09-11 19:16:52 CEST
 7 VMFS01volume RW 0/1/-  ---  ---  ---   ---         -- 60002AC0000000000000000700002A42 2013-09-24 14:46:08 CEST
 6 VMFS02volume RW 1/0/-  ---  ---  ---   ---         -- 60002AC0000000000000000600002A42 2013-09-24 13:46:35 CEST
 8 VMFS03volume RW 1/0/-  ---  ---  ---   ---         -- 60002AC0000000000000000800002A42 2013-10-02 15:18:48 CEST
 9 VMFS04volume RW 0/1/-  ---  ---  ---   ---         -- 60002AC0000000000000000900002A42 2013-10-02 15:34:27 CEST
12 VMFS06Volume RW 0/1/-  ---  ---  ---   ---         -- 60002AC0000000000000000C00002A42 2013-10-23 12:25:18 CEST
20 VMFS08volume RW 0/1/-  ---  ---  ---   ---         -- 60002AC0000000000000001400002A42 2013-11-29 13:21:11 CET
25 VMFS09Volume RW 0/1/-  ---  ---  ---   ---         -- 60002AC0000000000000001900002A42 2013-12-18 12:25:39 CET
26 VMFS10Volume RW 1/0/-  ---  ---  ---   ---         -- 60002AC0000000000000001A00002A42 2014-01-07 09:54:31 CET
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 total                                               0

AX3PAR01 cli% checkvv VMFS06Volume
VV VMFS06Volume not found

AX3PAR01 cli% removevv VMFS06Volume
Removing vv VMFS06Volume
select q=quit y=yes n=no: y
VV VMFS06Volume not found

AX3PAR01 cli%

Further troubleshooting shows:
- that I also cannot even create virtual volumes anymore. I create a volume at the CLI, but when I showvv. No volume has been created.
- that in the GUI at Storage Systems->AX3PAR01->Virtual Volumes in the CPG Space tab, I cannot see the spreading over the tiers (I used AO until now)

What can I do to fix this? Are there any services that I can restart?

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

[sanchez78]

Hereby a screenshot which shows 0GiB User Space. I used to get an overview with every volume displaying the amount of data on which tier (SSD/SAS/NLSAS).

[zQUEz]

you have an exclamation mark against your CPG's. Click into there and see what that is all about?

[sanchez78]

That's the warning saying I have too little space left on my SSD tier. That was why I was cleaning things up and set up some new volumes in other CPGs.

Growth warning at 250 GiB. Message/alert also being showed at the bottom, see screenshot.

[zQUEz]

I've never received a degraded message on a low space condition. I run my SSD at 100% all day everyday on a T400, granted only at 3.1.1MU3. I get alert messages, but never a degraded message. If you are sure, then fair enough. I've just never seen it and would investigate further.

[sanchez78]

Ok. At first I didn't either, but when I saw AO was filling the CPG's to 100% I set the Growth Warning of SSD_r1 to 250GiB. When I remove the warning threshold, the exclamation mark dissappears.

Thanks for your effort to help me though!

[zQUEz]

back to your original issue, are you using the default admin account 3paradm or another account with correct permissions? I assume so, else you would get a different error, but can't hurt to ask.
Have you tried removing that volume with a pattern switch - such as:
`removevv -pat VMFS06*`
Else, I would be logging a support call to HP, because there isn't much else I can think of and the error messages you are getting don't really point to anything useful.

[sanchez78]

A support call has been logged at HP.

Keep you informed.

[sanchez78]

HP Support was able to solve the problem. Executing the following command in the cli did the trick:
setsysmgr clear_cache

All volumes are shown correctly now via e.g. ‘showvv’,

Code: Select all

AX3PAR01 cli% showvv
                                                          ----Rsvd(MB)----- --(MB)--
Id Name         Prov Type CopyOf BsId Rd -Detailed_State-  Adm Snp      Usr    VSize
1 .srdata      full base ---       1 RW normal              0   0    61440    61440
0 admin        full base ---       0 RW normal              0   0    10240    10240
7 VMFS01volume tpvv base ---       7 RW normal            896   0   993152  2097152
6 VMFS02volume tpvv base ---       6 RW normal           1152   0  1100544  2097152
8 VMFS03volume tpvv base ---       8 RW normal           1152   0  1478784  2097152
9 VMFS04volume tpvv base ---       9 RW normal            640   0   798208  2097152
20 VMFS08volume tpvv base ---      20 RW normal           1536   0  2079360  3145728
25 VMFS09Volume tpvv base ---      25 RW normal           1408   0  1730560  4194560
26 VMFS10Volume tpvv base ---      26 RW normal           2304   0  3086848  4194304
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 total                                                  9088   0 11339136 19994880
AX3PAR01 cli%

and also the view of the CPG space in the GUI is being displayed correctly again, see attachment.

HP asked to upgrade to 3.1.3 (MU3) as soon as it's available. These problems should be fixed automatically then.

Regards.