Performing a giveback

About performing a giveback

To restore a cluster to normal operation, complete one of the following giveback operations from the takeover filer.

Initiating normal giveback

If you want to initiate giveback to the failed filer, enter the following command on the command line of the takeover filer:

cf giveback

Note
After a giveback, the takeover filer's ability to take over its partner automatically is not reenabled until the partner reboots successfully. If the partner fails to reboot, you can enter the cf takeover command to initiate a takeover of the partner manually.

Processes that can prevent giveback

The cf giveback command does not succeed if any of the following events are taking place on the emulated filer at the same time:

Dump and restore processes
Outstanding CIFS sessions
RAID disk additions
RAID reconstruction, RAID disk scrubbing
Volume creation
Disk ownership assignment (carried out on an FAS270c)
Disks being added to a volume (vol add)
Snapshot creation, deletion, or renaming
Quota initialization
Advanced mode repair operations such as WAFLiron
Filer panics
Backup dump and restore operations
SnapMirror transfers (if the partner is a SnapMirror destination)
SnapVault restorations
Disk sanitization operations
Note
If some of the listed events are in progress, you can terminate them by running the giveback process through the cf giveback -f command. See Terminating takeover filer processes to initiate giveback.

Terminating takeover filer processes to initiate giveback

Under some circumstances, you might want to terminate a process early in order to initiate a giveback operation.

To terminate a process early and initiate giveback to the failed filer, enter the following command:

cf giveback -f

Caution
If cf giveback -f is invoked and fails, you might need to reboot both cluster partners.

Forcing giveback

The takeover filer might detect an error condition on the failed filer that typically prevents a complete giveback, such as data not being flushed from NVRAM to the failed filer's disks.

To force the takeover filer to give back the resources of the failed filer even if the takeover filer detects an error that typically prevents a complete giveback, enter the following command:

cf forcegiveback

When the failed filer reboots as a result of a forced giveback, it displays the following message if data from the emulated filer did not fully synchronize with the failed filer's disks:

partner giveback incomplete, some data may be lost

Caution
Use cf forcegiveback only in desperate circumstances, when you cannot get cf giveback to succeed. You can lose uncommitted data if you use this command.

What happens when a giveback is interrupted

If the takeover filer experiences a failure or a power outage during the giveback process, the giveback process stops and the takeover filer returns to takeover mode when the failure is repaired or the power is restored. Some operations, such as quota initialization, always cause a giveback to fail.