IJ32892: UNABLE TO RUN COMMANDS FROM MMFSD DUE TO CXIFFLUSH ON AIX.

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• On an AIX node, in some occasions, including the /var
  file system becoming full, mmfsd is unable to run
  child processes, and that results in different failures,
  depending on the process which mmfsd attempts
  to run. Among the operations which have been seen
  to fail:
  
   - mmadddisk
   - mmauth
  
  Once the problem is triggered, it will remain
  until the mmfsd daemon is restarted. If the problem
  is initiated by the /var file system getting full,
  freeing up space on that file system is not
  enough to solve the problem.
  
  An indication that problem is taking place is
  in the output of command
  
    /usr/lpp/mmfs/bin/tslsfs nonexistent_FS
  
  (that is, passing the name of a nonexistent
  file system as parameter to the command
  above)
  
  In a system where the problem is occurring,
  the output will be
  
    mmcommon getEFOptions nonexistent_FS failed.
  Return code 1.
  
  while on a system without the problem,
  the output will be
  
    mmcommon: File system nonexistent_FS is not
  known to the GPFS cluster.
  

Local fix

• Once the issue in /var is resolved,
  the mmfsd should be restarted.
  

Problem summary

• On an AIX node, in some occasions, including the /var
  file system becoming full, mmfsd is unable to run
  child processes, and that results in different failures,
  depending on the process which mmfsd attempts
  to run. Among the operations which have been seen
  to fail:
  
   - mmadddisk
   - mmauth
  
  Once the problem is triggered, it will remain
  until the mmfsd daemon is restarted. If the problem
  is initiated by the /var file system getting full,
  freeing up space on that file system is not
  enough to solve the problem.
  
  An indication that problem is taking place is
  in the output of command
  
    /usr/lpp/mmfs/bin/tslsfs nonexistent_FS
  
  (that is, passing the name of a nonexistent
  file system as parameter to the command
  above)
  
  In a system where the problem is occurring,
  the output will be
  
    mmcommon getEFOptions nonexistent_FS failed.
  Return code 1.
  
  while on a system without the problem,
  the output will be
  
    mmcommon: File system nonexistent_FS is not
  known to the GPFS cluster.
  

Problem conclusion

• The Problem is fixed in 5.0.5 PTF 8.
  Benefits of the solution:
  
  With the fix, even though the problem may still
  occur as long as the issue in /var (likely
  being out of space) is present, when that
  issue is resolved, mmfsd will resume working
  properly.
  
  Operations which failed while the problem
  in /var was taking place can be retried.
  
  
  Work Around:
  
  Once the issue in /var is resolved,
  the mmfsd should be restarted.
  
  
  
  Problem trigger:
  
  A likely trigger for the problem is the
  /var file system being filled, possibly
  around the time an operation is taking
  place that results in information being produced
  to the mmfs.log file.
  
  
  Symptom:
  Unexpected Results/Behavior
  
  Platforms affected:
      AIX/Power only
  
  
  Functional Area affected:
      All Scale Users
  
  Customer Impact:
      High
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  SPEC SCALE STD

• Fixed component ID

  5737F33AP

Applicable component levels