Convert a root vg from LVM (VxFS) to VxVM (VxFS)

[jamesps]

How can I convert from LVM to VxVM? I am using VxFS with LVM right now. If I do a vxvmconvert it says:

The Volume Configuration Daemon (vxconfigd) is either not running or not enabled.
Please correct the problem before re-running vxvmconvert.

The vxconfigd daemon is running though:
root 25244 1 0 09:45:27 ? 0:00 /usr/sbin/vxconfigd -k -m enable

What should I check? Can I convert a root vg if it's under the LVM control? The VxVM installation guide says no... Is there another way to do it? I have another empty disk in the system I could use to migrate/copy the root vg data...

james

[Sandman! · Accepted solution]

James,

For converting vg00 from LVM to VXVM you need to Ignite the system (backup the entire system first and use make_tape_recovery) into single user mode and choose "Advanced Installation" from the menu of choices. Thereafter choose VXVM on the "Filesystem" tab instead of the default LVM choice presented.

best of luck!

[jamesps]

Sounds like a lot of work :) Is that the only way? I remember a while back I used vxvmconvert for the same purpose... I may be wrong though.
Btw this is a B.11.11 and Base-VXVM B.03.50.5 is installed.

[jamesps]

After reading through the VxVM Admin Guide I found out that I can use vxcp_lvmroot which does just that - converting root vg's:

Note: These procedures should be carried out at init level 1.

To set up a VxVM root disk and a bootable mirror of this disk, use the vxcp_lvmroot
utility. This command initializes a specified physical disk as a VxVM root disk named
rootdisk## (where ## is the first number starting at 01 that creates a unique disk
name), copies the contents of the volumes on the LVM root disk to the new VxVM root
disk, optionally creates a mirror of the VxVM root disk on another specified physical disk,
and make the VxVM root disk and its mirror (if any) bootable by HP-UX.
The following example shows how to set up a VxVM root disk on the physical disk
c0t4d0:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxcp_lvmroot -b c0t4d0

[Alzhy]

Yep -- that is all explained in that good book. It should work well and as advertised.

However, just like on our Solaris machines, we let the OS's native volume manager/mirroring to still manage the OS/swap disk groups. In the cae of Solaris - SVM/Disksuite. In the case of HP-UX - LVM/MirrorDisk-UX. For the rest, it's VxVM.