vgchange -c n fails

[Dan Copeland]

Admins,

I have a clustered volume group that has a bcv set for backup purposes. When I try to import the volume group on my backup server, the vgchange -c n fails. Here is the output:

vgchange -c n /dev/vgeb_rdw0_pdb
vgchange: Failed to set the specified attributes for volume group "/dev/vgeb_rdw0_pdb".

I ran this right after I imported the volume group.

Any thoughts?

tia,
Frank

[Stefan Farrelly]

Are you sure you need to do this vgchange command on a bcv ? we dont on the bcv's we split off and mount for backups - dont need to.

[Dan Copeland]

how do you activate the volume group then? the production set is activated already w/ -a e correct?

[Jean-Louis Phelix]

Hello Franck,

If you really have imported all of your physical volumes and got no error, it could be a problem with a duplicate minor for /dev/vgeb_rdw0_pdb/group. Another problem could be a "corrupted" lvm entry in kernel. In ths case you could export the volume and import it again using another minor. This could also be fixed by a reboot.

Regards,

Jean-Louis.

[Animesh Chakraborty]

hi,
Have you forgot to split bcv by any chance?
Are you using same major and minor number for bcv volume group also ?(though not necessary)
Just a thought....
I have similar setup and doing it without any problem
just vgchange -c n /dev/vgxx
vgchange -a y /dev/vgxx

[Dietmar Konermann]

Hi, Frank!

Is your backup server part of the SG cluster? If yes, do You run vgchgid before importing the VG?

Regards...
Dietmar.

[Dan Copeland]

Dietmar,

1. yes
2. no

is the pvchange necessary?

[Dan Copeland]

sorry--typo. meant vgchgid

[Dietmar Konermann]

Hi, Frank!

Yes, it is. Currently your BCV volume group is an exact copy... including the same VGID. The cluster LVM refuses to remove the cluster flags because this VG is knwon to be still active in exclusive mode.

In general, VGIDs need to be unique from a cluster-wide perspective. So vgchgid is a must here.

Regards...
Dietmar.

[Ashwani Kashyap]

Hi Frank ,

If you are mounting the BCV's on a different server than your production , then you don't need to do a vgchange -c n and vgchgid , provided your backup server is not in SG cluster .

IF yout backup server is also in a SG cluster then before importing do a vgchgid on all the bcv disks , then import them and activate them normally .