From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: "Adam T. Bowen" <adamb@agitate.org.uk>
Subject: Re: OS upgrade
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:05:09 +0000
Message-ID: <47B40445.30002@agitate.org.uk>
References: <47B333E8.27862.3DC385B1@dermot.sciencephoto.com>
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Hi,

I'm no expert on this subject, but seeing as nobody else has replied 
yet, I thought I would have a guess as to how this would work.

Beginner wrote:
> I want to upgrade, or re-install with CentOS and I don't want to have 
> to re-store all data on the RAID 5 volume but I am not sure that I 
> can because the LVM will use files from the system disk.

Will it?  We used to use LVM on HPUX and although there was an 
/etc/lvmtab file (think fstab), you could re-create it easily enough by 
running the lvscan command.  This same command exists on Linux (although 
there is no lvmtab), and according to the man page it runs 
automatically.  There is also a --mknodes switch which is nice.

If you want to be sure that you can just slap a new OS on and it will 
automatically scan for and set up your logical volumes, try booting from 
a live Linux CD (Knoppix for example) and see if you can still see your 
logical volumes.

Cheers

Adam

> Am I going to be able to maintain my existing LVM volumes during the 
> re-install? Is there a procedure to maintain LVM or store in after an 
> install or upgrade?
> 
> The system is backed but if I have to re-create the partitions and 
> restore it will be off-line for several days and I would need to 
> schedule it for a public holiday.
> 
> Any advice. Thanx,
> Dp.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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