The error message "Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdX#" is displayed during the first reboot after Bare Metal Restore.

Problem

In a multipath environment, if a Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE client has its /boot logical partition created on a disk partition, during the first boot, the messagefsck.ext3: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdX#may be reported on screen and system will drop to a shell (Figure):

Cause

In a BMR restore environment, the multipath environment is disabled.  In the /etc/fstab configuration file, the /boot mount entry gets replaced with the appropriate /dev/sdX# partition.  After a reboot of the client system, the multipath process gets activated, leading to the busy device message.

Solution

Manually identify and replace the /dev/sdX#   /boot ... entry with the correct /dev/mapper/<WWID_part#>   /boot ... entry in the /etc/fstab configuration file and reboot.

If unsure of the correct entry, please contact Veritas technical support.

For Example:

After BMR restore of client, the below entry exists in /etc/fstab file:

/dev/sdb1 /boot      reiserfs        acl,user_xattr 1    2

Replace it with correct device mapper path.  After correction, it may look like:

/dev/mapper/360060160a9c2120096edca20f650e311_part1 /boot reiserfs        acl,user_xattr 1    2

Then, reboot the client to complete this process.

Applies To

This issue affects NetBackup Bare Metal Restore 7.6.0.2 version and later on SuSE or RedHat Enterprise Linux.