Environment
Novell Open Enterprise Server (Linux based)
Situation
When attempting to create a pool on a new disk, or a disk that
has been zeroed out, in nssmu that disk is not presented as an
option for the pool.
Going into Devices and initializing the disk makes no
difference.
Resolution
The new disk needs to have a DOS segment manager on it before
a pool can be created on it. A DOS segment manager can be created
in two ways. In this example, /dev/sdb is being used for the
pool.
1. Execute 'fdisk /dev/sdb' then press 'w'. This will write a
DOS partition table to the disk.
2. Execute 'evmsgui' (X-based) or 'evmsn' (console-based). A
message is presented:
NWSegMgr:
Invalid or uninitialized partition found on drive sdb.
You can initialize this disk by answering YES to the following question,
Invalid or uninitialized partition found on drive sdb.
You can initialize this disk by answering YES to the following question,
but you will later need to commit this change when you exit
from evms.
Committing this change will cause any existing partition
information to
be discarded and an empty partition table created on the
drive.
If you choose NO, you should exit evms and correct the problem
on the
drive.
Question: Would you like to initialize the drive and discard any
Question: Would you like to initialize the drive and discard any
partitions currently on
it?
Answering YES to this question and saving the changes lays out
a DOS segment manager.
After this, nssmu will be able to use the disk in a
pool.
Additional Information
Another sign of this problem is seeing the following in
/var/log/evms-engine.log:
Sep 26 11:43:56 SERVER _0_ Engine: plugin_user_message:
Message is: NWSegMgr:
Invalid or uninitialized partition found on drive sdb.
Invalid or uninitialized partition found on drive sdb.
You can initialize this disk by answering YES to the following
question, but you will later need to commit this change when you
exit from evms. Committing this change will cause any existing
partition information to be discarded and an empty partition table
created on the drive.
If you choose NO, you should exit evms and correct the problem
on the drive.
Question: Would you like to initialize the drive and discard
any partitions currently on it?
Sep 26 11:43:56 SERVER_0_ Engine: plugin_user_message: Answer
is: "No"