[linux-lvm] Shrinking what part of a PV a VG uses, Is it possible?

[linux-lvm] Shrinking what part of a PV a VG uses, Is it possible?

[Sverre Rabbelier]

Heya,

I've got two Harddisks, a 250GB (hdb) and a 120GB (hda).
HDB is fully in use by only one VG (unknowingly named "lvg").
Which consists of threre LV, being:
lvm> lvscan
  ACTIVE            '/dev/lvg/root' [117.19 GB] inherit
  ACTIVE            '/dev/lvg/home' [78.12 GB] inherit
  ACTIVE            '/dev/lvg/swap' [4.06 GB] inherit

Also, it's not fully in use (the VG):
lvm> vgs
  VG   #PV #LV #SN Attr  VSize   VFree
  lvg    1   3   0 wz--n 233.66G 34.28G

The trouble is, that on hda I have a Windows XP installation.. (you know 
what's going to be next right?).
Indeed, I want to have the data on hdb (or at least, some 20GB of it) to 
be readable by Windows.
I know of only one way to do that, which would be to format a part of 
hdb as FAT, which is OK by me.
Point being, all of hdb is LVG partitioned, so how am I going to format 
any of it as FAT?

My first choice would be to partition a part of the VG as 
Windows-readable, but I didn't think that's possible (if it is, please 
tell me!).
My second choice would be to shrink the VG 'lvg', making it not use all 
of the disk, and partition the remainder (the 34.28G), as FAT.
But when reading the help files, I ran into:
lvm> help pvresize
  pvresize: Resize a physical volume in use by a volume group
  Not implemented.  Use pvcreate options.

But reading 'info pvcreate' didn't point me in the right direction... at 
all!
My last option would be to remove LVM from hdb, but I have no idea how 
to do that without losing all my data...

So my question is, how do I achieve my goal? How do I get Windows to be 
able to read some (or all?!) of hdb?


Thanks in advance,

Sverre Rabbelier.

Re: [linux-lvm] Shrinking what part of a PV a VG uses, Is it possible?

[gwood]

On Tue, Apr 04, 2006 at 02:16:08PM +0200, Sverre Rabbelier wrote:
> My first choice would be to partition a part of the VG as 
> Windows-readable, but I didn't think that's possible (if it is, please 
> tell me!).
You might want to look at 'explore2fs'.

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm

It claims to support LVM, and will give windows sort of access to the
data - it can't treat it as a normal drive, but you get an explorer type
front end to it

[linux-lvm] pvmove on a root partition

[Christopher Probst]

Hello LVMers

Doing a pvmove

pvmove /dev/hdb1 /dev/hdb2 where /dev/hdb1 is mounted on "/"

makes my system unuseable. I can't log into my machine even in a text 
console. Has anybody tried this before?

Christo

Re: [linux-lvm] pvmove on a root partition

[Ralf Müller]

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On Tuesday 04 April 2006 20:58, Christopher Probst wrote:

> pvmove /dev/hdb1 /dev/hdb2 where /dev/hdb1 is mounted on "/"
>
> makes my system unuseable. I can't log into my machine even in a text
> console. Has anybody tried this before?

Yes - about a year before. And I failed. After asking I have been told 
there is some locking problem somewhere and there have to be major 
changes before this would work - if I remember correctly. The answer 
gave not the impression that this is rated a high priority problem.

Regards
Ralf

-- 
Van Roy's Law: -------------------------------------------------------
       An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.

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Re: [linux-lvm] pvmove on a root partition

[Christopher Probst]

Hello Ralf,

Thank you very much for the info. I guess I won't pvmove on a root partition 
for a while ;)

Christopher




>From: Ralf M�ller <ralf@bj-ig.de>
>Reply-To: LVM general discussion and development <linux-lvm@redhat.com>
>To: LVM general discussion and development <linux-lvm@redhat.com>
>Subject: Re: [linux-lvm] pvmove on a root partition
>Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 10:48:54 +0200
>
>On Tuesday 04 April 2006 20:58, Christopher Probst wrote:
>
> > pvmove /dev/hdb1 /dev/hdb2 where /dev/hdb1 is mounted on "/"
> >
> > makes my system unuseable. I can't log into my machine even in a text
> > console. Has anybody tried this before?
>
>Yes - about a year before. And I failed. After asking I have been told
>there is some locking problem somewhere and there have to be major
>changes before this would work - if I remember correctly. The answer
>gave not the impression that this is rated a high priority problem.
>
>Regards
>Ralf
>
>--
>Van Roy's Law: -------------------------------------------------------
>        An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.


><< attach4 >>




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