Help with vg config files filling up root /

[Ray Allen_1]

Hi Guru's,

We have a server that has several vg's with all of their vg config files in /etc/lvmconf causing root to remain at 98%, and fills up root everytime a backup vg config file is created.
I am trying to figure out the best way to resolve this issue. Either creating another filesystem and creating a softlink to the new mountpoint or just moving all non-vg00 vg config files to another directory.

/dev/vg00/lvol3 212992 209576 3416 98% /

-rw------- 1 root sys 330752 Oct 9 11:31 /etc/lvmconf/vg00.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2181120 Jun 20 16:37 /etc/lvmconf/vg04.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 8693760 Jun 20 09:27 /etc/lvmconf/vg07.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2181120 Jul 30 08:13 /etc/lvmconf/vg04conmgmt2.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 1182720 Oct 9 11:31 /etc/lvmconf/vg01.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Mar 5 2007 /etc/lvmconf/vg02.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Jun 20 16:37 /etc/lvmconf/vg03.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Jun 20 09:27 /etc/lvmconf/vg05.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 5113856 Jun 20 09:27 /etc/lvmconf/vg06_1.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Jul 30 08:13 /etc/lvmconf/vg03conmgmt2.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Oct 12 11:57 /etc/lvmconf/vg03dbatest.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Jul 30 08:13 /etc/lvmconf/vg02conmgmt2.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Jul 30 08:13 /etc/lvmconf/vg05conmgmt2.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2293760 Jul 30 08:13 /etc/lvmconf/vg06_1conmgmt2.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Jun 20 09:27 /etc/lvmconf/vg02_substitute.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2181120 Oct 12 14:10 /etc/lvmconf/vg04dbatest.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Oct 9 11:31 /etc/lvmconf/SBLTEST1_VG02.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Oct 9 11:31 /etc/lvmconf/SBLTEST1_VG03.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2181120 Oct 9 11:31 /etc/lvmconf/SBLTEST1_VG04.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 2140160 Oct 9 11:31 /etc/lvmconf/SBLTEST1_VG05.conf
-rw------- 1 root sys 3874816 Oct 9 11:31 /etc/lvmconf/SBLTEST1_VG06_1.conf




Any suggestions would greatly appreciated.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I guess the standard sized root partition for you is not enough.

These files are big, but you need to leave them on the root fs. I do not believe it would be possible to put these files on a mounted filesystem.

The answer in this case is to make an ignite make_tape_recovery or make_net_recovery, boot the system off the image, manually intervene and rebuild the system with a larger root fs.

SEP

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Ray:

You could remove the "*.conf.old" versions leaving the latest copies of your LVM metadata only.

The '/etc' directory absolutely needs to remain a subordinate directory of the '/' filesystem and not a mountpoint itself should you need/want to boot into single user mode.

Having these files available in single-user mode is also a good reason to leave them where they are deposited by default.

Regards!

...JRF...

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

There are several approaches that will work and obviously a soft link forom /etc/lvmconf to a directory in another filesystem is a good approach. Another answer (though I'm sure you would forget occasionally would be to always specify no VG backup when the lvmcommands are executed (not the default behavior) and then specify another directory when you explicitly execute vgcfgbackup after running any lvm maintenance commands.

In any event, you do not want to soft-link /etc/lvmconf to a directory that is not housed in vg00 because the VG you need to restore may be the very one that is unavailable. The other downside to not having it in /etc/lvmconf is that you are guaranteed to have /etc available in single-user mode.

If / is at 98% you really are an accident waiting to happen and moving /etc/lvmconf out is really throwing a Band-Aid at the problem. You ought to think seriously about using Ignite and build a larger / filesystem

[Ray Allen_1]

Thanks all for your excellent responses.

If I were to extend root with Ingnite, would that leave all the other filesystems and non-vg00 filesystems intact, or would I have to rebuild and restore from backup?

[A. Clay Stephenson]

All of the vg00 filesystems and LVOL's would be recreated and you can optionally modify the size of each. You then would need to do a standard vgimport to import all of your non-vg00 data. If vg00 is mirrored, you would also have to recreate the mirroring.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

You didn't indicate your OS version but if this is 11.0 and up, I would also extend the size of /stand while you are doing this. By making / and /stand about twice their default size, it becomes possible to do an OS upgrade should you need to rather than a cold install. The most reason for an upgrade failure is insufficient capacity in these filesystems. While the remainder of the filesystems in vg00 can easily be extended, / and /stand because they must be contiguously allocated cannot readily be extended.

[TwoProc]

Ray, I had the same problem here, but fixed it in a different way. Looking at what was stored in /, included /etc, and lots of other directories right off /. I found that while there where none of these that looked promising to move, I did find that I could take /etc/opt and /etc/lp and move them off to new mount points (50 meg and 100 Meg respectively) and this gave me the space I needed to let my lvm commands make their own backups without the hassle.

Consider moving /etc/opt and /etc/lp to their own mount points, which should save you about 55 meg or so (that's their size here anyways).

[Ray Allen_1]

Thanks again everyone for your help.

I have temporarily created a mountpoint in vg00 and a softlink to it from /etc/lvmconf. At somepoint I will have to increase root via Ignite.

Your suggestions and points are well taken.

[Ray Allen_1]

Temporarily created a mountpoint in vg00 and a softlink to it from /etc/lvmconf.