Increase the Size of a Dump Device

If you are receiving the following error in your AIX errpt, you need to increase the size of your dump device:

example:root:/# errpt
IDENTIFIER TIMESTAMP  T C RESOURCE_NAME  DESCRIPTION
E87EF1BE   0925150011 P O dumpcheck      The largest dump device is too small.

First, identify the largest dump device using the /usr/lib/ras/dumpcheck -p command, as in the following example:

example:root:/# /usr/lib/ras/dumpcheck -p
The largest dump device is too small.

Largest dump device
         lg_dumplv
Largest dump device size in kb
         1048576
Current estimated dump size in kb
         1501593

To view information about the current dump devices, run:

example:root:/# sysdumpdev -l
primary              /dev/lg_dumplv
secondary            /dev/sysdumpnull
copy directory       /var/adm/ras
forced copy flag     TRUE
always allow dump    FALSE
dump compression     ON
type of dump         fw-assisted
full memory dump     disallow

In this example, the "dump device" that needs to be increased is "lg_dumplv". If a file system needs to be increased, the output will give a "file system name".

If a logical volume needs to be increased, review the current size of this logical volume using the lslv command, similar to the following example:

example:root:/# lslv lg_dumplv
LOGICAL VOLUME:     lg_dumplv              VOLUME GROUP:   rootvg
LV IDENTIFIER:      0001c02b0000d60000000114a8a42e67.11 PERMISSION:     read/write
VG STATE:           active/complete        LV STATE:       opened/syncd
TYPE:               sysdump                WRITE VERIFY:   off
MAX LPs:            512                    PP SIZE:        128 megabyte(s)
COPIES:             1                      SCHED POLICY:   parallel
LPs:                8                      PPs:            8
STALE PPs:          0                      BB POLICY:      relocatable
INTER-POLICY:       minimum                RELOCATABLE:    yes
INTRA-POLICY:       middle                 UPPER BOUND:    32
MOUNT POINT:        N/A                    LABEL:          None
MIRROR WRITE CONSISTENCY: on/ACTIVE
EACH LP COPY ON A SEPARATE PV ?: yes
Serialize IO ?:     NO

Note the number of LPs, and increase the logical volume by a reasonable extent. In this example, I can double the size of the logical volume by adding an additional 8 LPs, as shown in the example command below:

example:root:/# extendlv lg_dumplv 8

If a file system needs to be increased, review the current and estimated sizes of the file system provided by the dumpcheck utility. Then, expand the filesystem using a command similar to the following example:

chfs -a size=8G /var/adm/ras