IFL with Linux LVM2
IFL with Linux LVM2
Is there any way to make use of the program to make backups/restores of logical volumes made with LVM2. The data is on a secondary disk of a desktop running Linux only, and only the primary disk contains the OS. The secondary has only data files. If possible, I would prefer to make the backups/restores to another machine on the LAN; however, if not possible in that way, I can attach an externally enclosed USB drive to this machine. The thing is, I want to be able to backup individual volumes on this disk separately, not the whole disk. II this sort of thing is doable, can you point me to a resource describing the procedure?
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TeraByte Support(TP)
- Posts: 305
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm
Re: IFL with Linux LVM2
P19 wrote:
> Is there any way to make use of the program to make backups/restores of
> logical volumes made with LVM2. The data is on a secondary disk of a
> desktop running Linux only, and only the primary disk contains the OS. The
> secondary has only data files. If possible, I would prefer to make the
> backups/restores to another machine on the LAN; however, if not possible in
> that way, I can attach an externally enclosed USB drive to this machine.
> The thing is, I want to be able to backup individual volumes on this disk
> separately, not the whole disk. II this sort of thing is doable, can you
> point me to a resource describing the procedure?
Yes, once booted from the IFL boot disk, the command 'start lvm' will activate any LVM volumes it detects, and the LVM volumes should then show up as drives in IFL (/dev/mapper devices). You can then work with them as you do with regular drives, including backing up and restoring them to/from TBI image files. The command 'stop-lvm' will deactivate the LVM volumes, and then they will not show up in IFL.
This KB article has some information on it:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=562
> Is there any way to make use of the program to make backups/restores of
> logical volumes made with LVM2. The data is on a secondary disk of a
> desktop running Linux only, and only the primary disk contains the OS. The
> secondary has only data files. If possible, I would prefer to make the
> backups/restores to another machine on the LAN; however, if not possible in
> that way, I can attach an externally enclosed USB drive to this machine.
> The thing is, I want to be able to backup individual volumes on this disk
> separately, not the whole disk. II this sort of thing is doable, can you
> point me to a resource describing the procedure?
Yes, once booted from the IFL boot disk, the command 'start lvm' will activate any LVM volumes it detects, and the LVM volumes should then show up as drives in IFL (/dev/mapper devices). You can then work with them as you do with regular drives, including backing up and restoring them to/from TBI image files. The command 'stop-lvm' will deactivate the LVM volumes, and then they will not show up in IFL.
This KB article has some information on it:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=562
Re: IFL with Linux LVM2
Tom, hi.
The KB link was exactly what I needed. It looks like the program has everything I need for the LVM backup & restore functionality. What a deal! Thanks.
The KB link was exactly what I needed. It looks like the program has everything I need for the LVM backup & restore functionality. What a deal! Thanks.
Re: IFL with Linux LVM2
On a secondary disk with one volume group and multiple volumes, these volumes show up separately in the IFL GUI windows for "Select Source Drive", and this is what is needed for backing up volumes individually. In this same window I also see the underlying disk sdb. As I have not tried backing up with IFL and LVM previously, I was hoping to get a clarification here about one point. If I wanted to backup all of the logical volumes on this disk at one time, say for example, initially, can I not simply select the underlying disk sdb to backup completely? Then, when I want to restore the whole thing, I could select it again to restore. Would this not work, or would I loose some of the LVM metadata and such?
Incidentally, for the record I wanted to mention that the command to activate these volumes is "start-lvm". The little dash in there is mandatory.
Incidentally, for the record I wanted to mention that the command to activate these volumes is "start-lvm". The little dash in there is mandatory.
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TeraByte Support(TP)
- Posts: 305
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm
Re: IFL with Linux LVM2
P19 wrote:
> On a secondary disk with one volume group and multiple volumes, these
> volumes show up separately in the IFL GUI windows for "Select Source
> Drive", and this is what is needed for backing up volumes
> individually. In this same window I also see the underlying disk sdb. As I
> have not tried backing up with IFL and LVM previously, I was hoping to get
> a clarification here about one point. If I wanted to backup all of the
> logical volumes on this disk at one time, say for example, initially, can I
> not simply select the underlying disk sdb to backup completely? Then, when
> I want to restore the whole thing, I could select it again to restore.
> Would this not work, or would I loose some of the LVM metadata and such?
Yes, that would work. It would treat the disk as an unsupported file system and do a sector by sector backup. But it would back up everything on the disk, including the LVM meta data. The backup image would likely be larger than the combined size of the indivudual LVM images, but it would be a way to ensure that you have everything backed up.
This should be done when the LVMs are not activated (before running 'start-lvm'). Another way to say that is that the LVM volumes should not be visible in IFL when doing this.
> On a secondary disk with one volume group and multiple volumes, these
> volumes show up separately in the IFL GUI windows for "Select Source
> Drive", and this is what is needed for backing up volumes
> individually. In this same window I also see the underlying disk sdb. As I
> have not tried backing up with IFL and LVM previously, I was hoping to get
> a clarification here about one point. If I wanted to backup all of the
> logical volumes on this disk at one time, say for example, initially, can I
> not simply select the underlying disk sdb to backup completely? Then, when
> I want to restore the whole thing, I could select it again to restore.
> Would this not work, or would I loose some of the LVM metadata and such?
Yes, that would work. It would treat the disk as an unsupported file system and do a sector by sector backup. But it would back up everything on the disk, including the LVM meta data. The backup image would likely be larger than the combined size of the indivudual LVM images, but it would be a way to ensure that you have everything backed up.
This should be done when the LVMs are not activated (before running 'start-lvm'). Another way to say that is that the LVM volumes should not be visible in IFL when doing this.