One of the more bizarre error conditions for /var being full is that networking cannot be initialized at bootup. The basic networking functions (loopback interfaces) are the first step in getting network cards initialized, and if this step fails, all networking is disabled. All versions of HP-UX (10xx through 11.31) use net.init (found in /sbin/init.d) but if it fails, all subsequent network startup scripts will also fail. The after-boot symptoms will be:
- netstat -in shows no lan interfaces
- netstat -rn shows no routes
- all network access is disabled
You’ll only be able to access the system with the real console — and this is the way to differentiate between a ‘hang’ and failed networking. These error messages will be in /etc/rc.log:
Set privilege group …………………………………………. N/A
Display date ……………………………………………….. N/A
Copy processor logs to /var/tombstones …………………………
msgcnt 4 vxfs: mesg 001: vx_nospace – /dev/vg00/lvol8 file system full (1 block extent)
msgcnt 3 vxfs: mesg 001: vx_nospace – /dev/vg00/lvol8 file system full (1 block extent)
Configure Loopback interfaces (lo0) …………………………… FAIL *
VxVM volume recovery start …………………………………… OK
The code in net.init is trying to create a temporary file named: stcp.conf.$$ in /var/tmp or in /tmp. Fix the problem in /var by searching for big directories (NOT big files). Here’s the commands:
# du -kx /var | sort -rn | head -20
Then look at the largest directories. /var/tmp is always a possible candidate for junk files that need to be removed. Similarly, /var/mail, /var/spool and /var/opt may need to be cleaned up. Once a few megabytes have been cleaned up, run this command:
# /sbin/init.d/net.init start
If you get nothing back, then networking will be started upon reboot.
– See more at: http://serviceitdirect.com/blog/network-fails-var-full#sthash.dHCem486.dpuf
Tags: HP-UX