Moving LVM drives

Michael Schnell · External Since: Aug 28, 2004 Posts: 66

Hi experts,

I need to move some LVM drives from a Suse 11.1 to a new Suse 11.3 box.

The drives are attached with USB.

I created the lvm volumes on the 11.1 box, so LVM2 is used.

At the new box /dev/mapper/ does not show the lvm volumes so I can't
mount them.

On both systems I see similar information about the lvm disks when I
plug in the USB disks and do

"lvm lvmdiskscan"

"lvm vgscan"

"lvm vgs"

"lbm vgdisplay"

"lvm lvscan" (see below)

"lvm lvs"

"lvm lvdisplay"

only with

"lvm lvscan"

I see "ACTIVE" on the old system and "inactive" on the new one.

with

"dmsetup status"

and

"dmsetup info"

on the old system, I see information on the devices, but on the new
system I jut get "no devices found"

So I suppose that some automated activation fails to take place in the
new box, when starting up and/or plugging in the USB disk. Maybe some
daemon or kernel module is not loaded.

I already compared the /etc/lvm/lvm.conf files and added the lines
udev_rules = 1
udev_sync = 1
in the activation section but this did not help. (Seemingly they had
been auto-added by Suse on the old system. I did not find any
documentation on this.)

What is wrong ? How to configure Suse 11.3 to have the lvm automatically
activated ?

Thanks a lot for any help,
-Michael

David W. Hodgins · External Since: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 344

On Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:32:58 -0500, Michael Schnell wrote:

> I need to move some LVM drives from a Suse 11.1 to a new Suse 11.3 box.

Deactivate the vg on 11.1, move the drive, then activate it on 11.3.

"vgchange -a n VolumeGroupName" on 11.1.

"vgscan && vgchange -a y VolumeGroupName" on 11.3.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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Michael Schnell · External Since: Aug 28, 2004 Posts: 66

On 01.03.2011 00:33, David W. Hodgins wrote:

>
> "vgscan && vgchange -a y VolumeGroupName" on 11.3.
>
Dave,

Thanks a lot !

This in fact does work.

After vgchange I do see the appropriate device in /dev/mapper.

Other than with Suse 11.1 same is a symlink to ../dm-0 (with 11.1 this
was the device file).

But I in fact can mount it successfully using the mount instruction.

Unfortunately this is not "permanent". After a reboot i need to do
vgchange again to get the device back.

Is this what you expect ?

Unfortunately I think I do need a permanent configuration, as the LVs
are on USB drives and thus should mounted with automount.

Moreover even if I manually do vgchange and then see the volume, autofs
does not mount it when I try to access it's content.

Of course I doublechecked if the automount config files are done
correctly and a non LVM-volume configured in the same automount config
file does mount just fine when accessed.

How to proceed ?

Thanks a lot !

-Michael

Doug Freyburger · External Since: Dec 06, 2010 Posts: 10

Michael Schnell wrote:
> David W. Hodgins wrote:
>
>> "vgscan && vgchange -a y VolumeGroupName" on 11.3.
>
> This in fact does work.
>
> After vgchange I do see the appropriate device in /dev/mapper.
>
> Other than with Suse 11.1 same is a symlink to ../dm-0 (with 11.1 this
> was the device file).
>
> But I in fact can mount it successfully using the mount instruction.
>
> Unfortunately this is not "permanent". After a reboot i need to do
> vgchange again to get the device back.

vgchange -a y -A y VGname

The -A switch is for auto-backup. It records that the volume group is
supposed to be active at the next reboot.

Michael Schnell · External Since: Aug 28, 2004 Posts: 66

On 01.03.2011 21:12, Doug Freyburger wrote:
>
>
> vgchange -a y -A y VGname
>

Thanks,

Sorry but no. This syntax is not accepted, and the man says that "-A y"
is the default anyway. So "Autobackup" does not seem to do the trick.

I found a call to vgchange in /etc/init.d/boot.lvm.

It might as if same needs to be configured to be executed.

-Michael

Michael Schnell · External Since: Aug 28, 2004 Posts: 66

On 01.03.2011 22:30, Michael Schnell wrote:

> I found a call to vgchange in /etc/init.d/boot.lvm.
>
> It might as if same needs to be configured to be executed.
>

This seems to be the trick !

In the Yast run level editor, in Expert mode, boot.lvm can be assigned a
run level. By default it has none. I now set it to "B" (supposedly
"boot" and now my lvm device is in /dev/mapper after a reboot.

I would not have found this out without the help here !!!

Thanks a lot,
-Michael

David W. Hodgins · External Since: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 344

On Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:41:56 -0500, Michael Schnell wrote:

>> I found a call to vgchange in /etc/init.d/boot.lvm.
>> It might as if same needs to be configured to be executed.
> This seems to be the trick !

Glad you got it working. On my Mandriva system, it's handled
by /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit, if lvm has been installed ...

$ grep lvm /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
if [ -x /sbin/lvm ]; then
action "Setting up Logical Volume Management:" /sbin/lvm vgchange -a y --ignorelockingfailure

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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Michael Schnell · External Since: Aug 28, 2004 Posts: 66

On 02.03.2011 00:31, David W. Hodgins wrote:

> On my Mandriva system, it's handled
> by /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit, if lvm has been installed ...

Obviously, Suse only activates the scrip, if you actively create an LVM
in Yast. Moving LVM drives is not supported by that.

-Michael