The putil/tutil fields are used for "locks" on volumes, plexes, subdisks, and disks, during most types of configuration changes and/or recoveries.
For example, if attaching a plex to a volume, the plex will have its "tutil0" field set to "ATT". Once the attach is complete, the "tutil0" field is cleared automatically.
If you attempt to perform a function on an entity with a set putil/tutil flag, you'll get this error message:
vxvm:vxplex: ERROR: Volume is locked by another utility
Putil fields are permanent, and will stay set, even after a reboot. Tutil fields are temporary, and will not survive a reboot.
To textually list the tutil/putil fields, use the command:
# vxprint -h vol01
Disk group: test
TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0
v vol01 fsgen ENABLED 8919040 - ACTIVE -
vol01-01 vol01 DETACHED 8919470 - STALE - -
sd test01-01 vol01-01 ENABLED 8919470 0 - - -
This only lists the 0 fields (there are also 1 and 2 fields as well), but these are usually the ones that get set anyway.
The recognized generic field names are:
tutil
A set of strings representing all of the temporary utility fields.
tutil0 or t0
A string representing the first temporary utility field.
tutil1 or t1
A string representing the second temporary utility field.
tutil2 or t2
A string representing the third temporary utility field.
putil
A set of strings representing all of the permanent utility fields.
putil0 or p0
A string containing the first permanent utility field.
putil1 or p1
A string containing the second permanent utility field.
putil2 or p2
A string containing the third permanent utility field
What should you do before clearing the lock?
Make sure that no recover command is taking place.
# ps -ef | grep vx
# vxtask list
If there is a "vxvol", or "vxplex", or "vxrecover", going on, then the putil/tutil fields are probably set for a reason.
What command do you use to clear the lock?
#vxmend -g clear all
*where itemname is the volume, plex, subdisk or disk that has a tutil/putil flag set
