AIX 6.

1
High Impact / Highly Pervasive APAR IV90915
IV90915 - Potential data loss using Virtual FC with num_cmd_elems > 256
On AIX LPARs using Virtual Fibre Channel (NPIV) adapters, if num_cmd_elems is
increased higher than 256, DMA errors may be seen in the error report, and
possible undetected data loss may occur, with applications accessing disks
through this adapter.
The num_cmd_elems attribute can be viewed using lsattr, for example:
# lsattr -E -l fcs0 -a num_cmd_elems
With the fix applied, it is safe to run with num_cmd_elems > 256.
The fix will require a reboot.
If the LPAR is configured with multiple Virtual FC adapters and the disks use
multipathing through redundant adapters, then num_cmd_elems can be lowered to
256 or below on the fly without rebooting. This is possible by bringing down and
modifying one adapter at a time, for example:
- First confirm the disks have multiple paths through different Virtual FC
adapters
# lspath
- Next, for each Virtual FC adapter that needs modification, find the protocol
device, and confirm that any disks using it have a redundant path that they can
use while bringing this one down.
# lsdev -p fcs0
- Once confirmed that it will be safe to do so, move that device and it's
children to defined state
# rmdev -Rl fscsi0
- Modify the num_cmd_elems for the adapter
# chdev -l fcs0 -a num_cmd_elems=256
- Restore the defined devices to active state
# cfgmgr
- Confirm all paths to the disks are Enabled
# lspath
- Repeat this process for the other Virtual FC adapter(s)