hfs to vxfs

[Andrew Brain or Yong Ji]

What do you recommend for converting an hfs to a vxfs ?

[Anthony Goonetilleke]

There is no tool that I know of to convert directly but what I have done in the past is something along the lines of what I have outlined below

1. umount /mount_point
2. newfs -F vxfs /dev/vg03/rlvol1
3. mount /dev/vg03/lvol1
Note: The output from this is: the file system is corrupted
4. fsck -F vxfs /dev/vg03/lvol1
5. mount /dev/vg03/lvol1
6. fstyp /dev/vg03/lvol1
Note: The output from this is 'vxfs' which confirms your filesystem is now VXFS.
7. Restore from the backup.

These instructions are from the ITRC but they are stil fairly generic and works well.

[Amit Jadhav]

1. Backup all the data from your file system /dev/vgn/lvoln
2.copy the /etc/fstab to /etc/fstab.org
3.umount the file system
4.newfs -F vxfs /dev/vgn/rlovln
5.mount /dev/vgn/lvoln
6.change the /etc/fstab file for the /dev/vgn/lvoln to include "vxfs".
7.Copy the backed up data (recover the from backup)
8.reboot the system.

[Rick Garland]

The file /etc/default/fs will have the FSTYP that newfs uses to create new filesystems.
If the entry still states hfs and you don't include the options for newfs, any new filesystems you create will be the hfs type. You can change this file so that LOCAL=vxfs, this way options are not needed for the newfs command to specify filesystem type.

As to changing, much like what everyone has said, MAKE SURE you have good backups. Use newfs to recreate the filesystems with vxfs type and restore from the backups.

[Lynne Seamans]

OK, well, I understand about backing up and restoring, but then how do you
convert file systems you can't run without, say the root file system? Is there such a thing as a stand alone restore?

[Brian M. Fisher]

The processes listed above will work well unless you need to change the root mount point. Then the best way is to use Ignite:
1) make_recovery -A
2) boot from recovery tape
3) Interupt boot process to change logical volume parameters & let recovery finish.

Brian
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