[linux-lvm] Restoring LVM configuration

[linux-lvm] Restoring LVM configuration

[Reid]

Hi,

Through a number of steps in an attempt to upgrade my server I ended up losing the
lvm.conf configuration file and my backup of it.

Part of the problem occured when I moved the disks from one controller to another on my
server.  For some reason the partition information was lost.  This was recovered without
too many troubles leaving me with a boot (ext2) and lvm2 partitions on one drive and a
lvm2 partition on the other.

I noticed on the LVM how-to that you might be able to recreate the configuration using
pvcreate after looking at /etc/lvm/archive/VolumeGroupName_XXXXX.vg but I am unable to in
this case because the root file system was part of the LVM itself.  (If I could mount it
to find out the configuration then I wouldn't be having such a problem!)

Ideally I would like to be able to create a configuration using Knoppix so that I could
mount the drives and write it onto them.  

The next best thing for me would be to find some way to get the files off of the drives
and onto a spare drive (basically recreate my backup) without losing file names/directory
structure.

Thanks.

Re: [linux-lvm] Restoring LVM configuration

[Dave Wysochanski]

On Tue, 2007-02-20 at 13:24 -0500, Reid wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Through a number of steps in an attempt to upgrade my server I ended up losing the
> lvm.conf configuration file and my backup of it.
> 
> Part of the problem occured when I moved the disks from one controller to another on my
> server.  For some reason the partition information was lost.  This was recovered without
> too many troubles leaving me with a boot (ext2) and lvm2 partitions on one drive and a
> lvm2 partition on the other.
> 
> I noticed on the LVM how-to that you might be able to recreate the configuration using
> pvcreate after looking at /etc/lvm/archive/VolumeGroupName_XXXXX.vg but I am unable to in
> this case because the root file system was part of the LVM itself.  (If I could mount it
> to find out the configuration then I wouldn't be having such a problem!)
> 
> Ideally I would like to be able to create a configuration using Knoppix so that I could
> mount the drives and write it onto them.  
> 
> The next best thing for me would be to find some way to get the files off of the drives
> and onto a spare drive (basically recreate my backup) without losing file names/directory
> structure.
> 

Are you still in need of help?

If so, do you know the details of your original setup that created the
LVM2 configuration (kernel version, lvm version, etc)?

I am working on a LVM command/enhancement that will read the LVM
information off the drives and allow recreation of the lvm
configuration.

Let me see if I can get something together for you to try recovery in
your situation.