Sun Microsystems Ultra 5, Service Manual

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Chapter 7 Storage Devices 7-13
7.2.4.4 Software Constraints
When using Solstice DiskSuite 4.1 software, it is recommended that you have a
minimum of three metadevice databases to maintain a “quorum.” It is further
recommended that the databases be maintained on different disks, which would
require three IDE hard drives in the system. Because the Ultra 5 system can support
only two hard drives, only two metadevice databases are possible. This limitation
has a known impact.
Solstice DiskSuite software will function with only two disks and two database
replicas. However, if one disk fails, there is not a quorum. No problem with the
system will be seen until after the system is powered down. After the system is
powered down, it will not power on and boot in multiuser mode without system
administration intervention.
For example, if the quorum is not seen during boot due to a hard drive failure, the
system boots in single-user mode. The problem is reported by the system when the
machine is rebooted. The output is similar to the following example:
If you see the message shown above, use the recovery procedure in the next section
to replace broken database replicas.
ok boot
Hostname: demo
metainit: demo: stale databases
Use metadb to delete databases which are broken.
Ignore any "Read-only file system" error messages.
Reboot the system when finished to reload the metadevice
database.
After reboot, repair any broken database replicas
which were deleted.
Type Ctrl-d to proceed with normal startup,
(or give root
password for system maintenance):