UNIX: Solving Stale PP Error after VIO2 shutdown in AIX

I had a customer that had 2 VIOs setup for their LPARs. When VIO2 was shutdown/powered back on, as expected the rootvg on the server showed "stale partition" or "stale PP" error

To remediate this problem the rootvg on client server needs to be varyon, but then we also have a second problem where the sysdump is holding onto the rootvg; thus disabling us to perform varyon

So in order to do a VG varyon, we need to release rootvg from the clutches of sysdump

I trust you have raised a CR for this task

1. The first step is to make note of the sysdump location

@stepper:/# sysdumpdev
primary              /dev/lg_dumplv
secondary            /dev/lg_dumplvII
copy directory       /var/adm/ras
forced copy flag     TRUE
always allow dump    TRUE
dump compression     ON

2.  Change the sysdumpdev to a temporary "null" device

@stepper:/# sysdumpdev -p /dev/sysdumpnull
primary              /dev/sysdumpnull
secondary            /dev/lg_dumplvII
copy directory       /var/adm/ras
forced copy flag     TRUE
always allow dump    TRUE

dump compression     ON

@stepper:/#  sysdumpdev -s /dev/sysdumpnull
primary              /dev/sysdumpnull
secondary            /dev/sysdumpnull
copy directory       /var/adm/ras
forced copy flag     TRUE
always allow dump    TRUE

dump compression     ON

3. Perform the varyon

# varyonvg rootvg

4.  Sync rootvg

# syncvg -v rootvg

(NOTE: will probably give error "Unable to synchronize logical volume")

5. Check the vg and make sure all PV are active

# lsvg -p rootvg

6. Set the sysdumpdev back to their original values (from step 1)

# sysdumpdev -p /dev/hd7

# sysdumpdev -s /dev/hd71

7. Check that everything is ok now

# lsvg rootvg