Troubleshooting
Problem
When customers attempt to set the boot list by running the bootlist command, they get the error below: # bootlist -m normal hdsik0 0514-221 bootlist: Unable to make boot device list for hdisk0
Cause
The possible causes for the error may be one of the below:
1- It could be a disk pathing issue.
2- The firmware is not up to date.
3- The disk is not set as bootable in the NVRAM.
Diagnosing The Problem
As a general diagnosis step, we need to check that hdisk0 is supported by AIX as a boot device:
# bootinfo -B hdisk0
If this command returns a value of 1, the selected disk is bootable by AIX. Any other value indicates that hdisk0 is not a candidate for being a bootable disk.
We may also need to run the command below to check all the bootable devices on the system:
# ipl_varyon -i
Resolving The Problem
1- If the issue is a disk pathing issue, we may run the below to diagnose and fix the issue:
# lspath -t -l hdisk0
If that command shows that there are missing or disabled paths, we may need to disable all the paths to the disk except for one path and try the bootlist command again. You may engage your SAN team to do that.
You may also run the command below and check if it will work or not:
# bootlist -m normal hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=0
Then, check if the bootlist is set correctly by:
# bootlist -m normal -o
hdisk0 blv=hd5 pathid=0
Note: On a VIO Client using virtual SCSI disks, you may see such an error since one path may not be working right. In that case, you would need to check the mapping for the disks and its paths on the VIO Server.
2- If working on the paths to the disk does not fix the issue, it may be that the firmware microcode version for the adapter is older and needs to be updated.. You may run the command below to check the current firmware version and compare it to the ones available on the Fix Central website:
# lsmcode -d fcs0
DISPLAY MICROCODE LEVEL 802111 fcs0 FC Adapter The current microcode level for fcs0 is 192101. For all adapters: # lsmcode -A | grep fcs |
If the firmware microcode level is not updated, you have to update it first and try to run the bootlist command again.
3- If none of the above fixed the issue, we would have to reboot the LPAR/server in order to probe the disks and detect the affected disk as bootable.
The explanation as to why the reboot could be the only option in that case is that the bootable status of a disk is set in NVRAM. AIX Developers have confirmed that this issue is an AIX architectural limitation and that a reboot is required to allow your hdisk to be added to the bootlist. Only a reboot will update the NVRAM to reflect the bootable status of hdisk0.
On pSeries systems, a disk is found to be bootable by the system firmware at IPL (Initial Program Load) time. Each LPAR runs its own private version of the firmware which probes for all available hardware for that partition and builds a device tree in the NVRAM.
When AIX boots, it reads this device tree and runs cfgmgr to configure the devices in AIX. If a disk is added AFTER boot time, it has usually not been configured correctly by the firmware to allow AIX to see that it is bootable. Rebooting will allow the firmware to probe the adapter and disks again to recognize the new disks and mark them as a bootable device.
After rebooting, "bootinfo -B hdisk0" command should return "1" indicating that hdisk0 is a bootable disk and it can then be added to the bootlist.
Note: Before rebooting, you have to run the bosboot command on the disk so that you can create a boot image on it:
# bosboot -ad /dev/ipldevice
# bosboot -ad /dev/hdisk0
If none of the above fixes the issue, please contact the AIX Software Support for more assistance on that error code.
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Document Information
More support for:
AIX
Software version:
Not Applicable
Operating system(s):
AIX
Document number:
629057
Modified date:
17 June 2018
UID
isg3T1023860