topic Re: Restore volumes in Operating System - Linux

Restore volumes

Fadia Almarei — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:49:38 GMT

Dear All

i have a RHEL AS 4.6 server , non of my volume groups appears that is configured for EMC devices , EMC said that the devices has the data, colud i use vgcfgrestore command to pvcreate the devices and restore the data on them using vgcfgrestore command.

BR;
Fadia Almarei

Re: Restore volumes

Matti_Kurkela — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:00:06 GMT

I guess this is the continuation of your previous thread, but more information is needed.

What was done just before the problem started?
Has someone made any changes at the EMC side? If yes, what kind of changes?

RedHat's instructions for making the system detect SCSI/FC changes without rebooting:
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-3942

Are the disks visible to the server (as /dev/sd* devices or whatever)? If not, the problem is elsewhere. Check the connectivity and SAN zoning, if applicable.

How are the disks connected? SCSI? FibreChannel? What is the status of the SCSI or FC cards?

Do you have the EMC symcli tools (or even the inq utility) installed? If yes, do they indicate the system sees the correct disks?

Do you have EMC PowerPath installed? If so, what does "powermt display dev=all" report?
Does "powermt check" help? (If it does, remember to run "powermt save" after it.)

After the low-level disks are visible, run "vgscan". If it does not find all the volume groups, run "vgscan -vvv" to get more clues about what is happening.

MK

Re: Restore volumes

Fadia Almarei — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:08:13 GMT

what i have is a DL580 server with 2 Emulex HBA card, EMC powerpath software installed on them, what we did is just do unmasking for unneeded deices and then reboot so nothing of SAN volume groups appears, what we did that we configure the devices we use the sd name rather than emcpower name in configuring our volume group, so after the unmasking and restarting we have all the devices to found as uninitialized devices , this is the case.

Re: Restore volumes

skt_skt — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:53:08 GMT

In additions what does the "lvmdiskscan" returns?

Also if you are sure about what LUN/disks are used against needed VG then do "vgimport" with the /dev/sdx device list.

Re: Restore volumes

Fadia Almarei — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:01:05 GMT

Dear All

i want to ask the question in another way

i have lost my volume group vg01
i have information about this volume group on the /etc/lvm/backup &restore directories
and the devices i have appears as not configured
what i did is i ovcreate the device for vg01 to have the same UUID
#vgcreate --pvcreate --restorefile vg01_00035.vg --uuid UU6ZvI-4Mm3-bye8-YAOD-kvE1-1E9J-PUgWnt /dev/emcpowerj
then
#vgcfgrestore --file vg01_00035.vg vg01
by doing this i get backe vg01 but it does not appear on the /dev
another thing i need to now how to restore the lvm

#[root@NODE-I ~]# vgdisplay -a vg01
vgdisplay: invalid option -- a
Error during parsing of command line.
[root@NODE-I ~]# vgdisplay -v vg01
Using volume group(s) on command line
Finding volume group "vg01"
Volume group vg01 is exported
--- Volume group ---
VG Name vg01
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 1
Metadata Sequence No 36
VG Access read/write
VG Status exported/resizable
MAX LV 0
Cur LV 1
Open LV 0
Max PV 0
Cur PV 1
Act PV 1
VG Size 99.61 GB
PE Size 4.00 MB
Total PE 25499
Alloc PE / Size 25499 / 99.61 GB
Free PE / Size 0 / 0
VG UUID 1jbe1g-pB07-h2to-qMbQ-qyHC-tVeB-JwoHmn

Volume group vg01 is exported
--- Physical volumes ---
PV Name /dev/emcpowerj
PV UUID UU6ZvI-4Mm3-bye8-YAOD-kvE1-1E9J-PUgWnt
PV Status allocatable
Total PE / Free PE 25499 / 0

kindly help , this is an urgant case

Re: Restore volumes

Matti_Kurkela — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:26:34 GMT

The VG devices should appear when you activate the VG:

vgchange -a y vg01

I think the vgcfgrestore was overkill for your specific problem: if your explanation of events leading to the problem is complete, nothing has overwritten the data on the disk, just confused the mapping/order of the disks presented to the server.

In this case, a simple "powermt check" followed by "vgscan" and "vgchange -a y" should have fixed it.

But now your vg01 is in "exported" state for some reason. You must vgimport it first, otherwise the LVM tools will ignore the VG.

vgimport -v vg01
or
vgimport -v -a

then
vgchange -a y

MK

Re: Restore volumes

Fadia Almarei — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:17:06 GMT

thank you all

i solve the problem in the following steps
1- pvcreate --restorefile /dev/lvm/archive/vg01_00035.vg --uuid UU6ZvI-4Mm3-bye8-YAOD-kvE1-1E9J-PUgWnt /dev/emcpowerj
2- vgcfgrestore --file /dev/lvm/archive/vg01_00035.vg vg01
3- vgexport vg01
4- vgimport vg01
5- vgchange â a y vg01
6- mount /dev/vg01/udb /u11

and all the partitions return with their data

Re: Restore volumes

skt_skt — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:06:02 GMT

Good to know your problem is solved. Rate the answers accordingly and i hope that would help any other users having the same issue to refer a resloved thread.

Re: Restore volumes

Fadia Almarei — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 06:35:09 GMT

thank you all