Volume group backup

[ramesh_6]

Hi,

Is there anyway we can backup the volume group to the tape.

Actually my plan is to backup the volume groups and restore them on to a new server. Any help is appreciated.

Regds
Ramesh

[PIYUSH D. PATEL]

Hi,

I havent tried such a thing but there are some options :

If you are taking the disks from the old server to the new server then you can export the volume groups and then import it on the new server. This works only if you aretransferring the old disks also.

Or else you would have to take the backup and restore.

Piyush

[PIYUSH D. PATEL]

Hi,

There are various things in volume group backup.

vgcfgbackup backs up the vg info...how many volume groups are there and how many lvols etc. The data in the lvols of the volume group can be backed up only by tape backup.

Piyush

[ramesh_6]

What i am basically doing is

My servers are connected to seagate external storage which is going to replaced by EMC. So what i planned is

1) system image backup using ignite-UX (Make recovery tape). I have completed this

2) Volume group backup. (Where i got struck)

IF i can backup each volume group it will be easy for me to restore the voluem group on to the EMC saving a lot of administration time.

IS there anyway this is possible.

Regds
Ramesh

[Shahul]

Hi

It depends.. After upgrading to EMC box , Will U be able to connect ur old externel storage box? If yes, U have options like vgexport and import, pvmove, direct dumb ..etc. Other wise U will have to go for normal backup and restore.

Best of luck
Shahul

[ramesh_6]

I am not carrying the seagate storage. It is going to be scrapped.

[Martin Johnson]

How about using make_tape_recovery? It can be configured to get non-root volume groups.


Marty

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Ramesh,

What do you mean by volume group backup. This is just simple data backup and restore. Take a backup of your data using fbackup or any other backup utility, create new vg / lv /mount point on the emc and mount them at the directories where your old vg's lv were mounted and then restore the data.

What is so special about volume group backup that you want to do.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Mihaita Bighiu]

Hi,

It look for me that you are doing a data migration from one storage to another.
If you have a tape drive connected to yout system shutdown the DB (if there is any) and do a backup for all FS which are on your vg. You do not have to backup vg00 ( use make_recovery for this).
After the EMC connection is up and you have recreated the FS on EMC disks, do the restore of your data on the new disk.

MB

[Greg Martin]

1) you can use dd to copy all data from a physical disk or logical volume or lun to tape or another physical disk or logical disk or lun, and restore from tape to disk or logical disk or lun. If your luns are of the same size, this would probably work-maybe even for a whole vg at one swell foop if contained in one lun. AT least lv to lv to a new vg created with same size lv's. (To try the full vg, do a vgexport with a mapfile vefore and vgimport following the data move.) Definite maybe.

2) losing your Seagate external storage before geting the EMC up and running is definitely not acceptable.

3) best solution is to attach both new and old arrays simultaneously. Perhaps Seagate is scsi and EMC fibre? Hopefully you have the space for i/o cards. Or even if both are scsi, you may be able to daisy chain temporarily though beyond the load normally recommended number of disks for bandwidth onsiderations.

4) make a new volume group with same size lv's as original.

5) use dd to copy rlv to rlv; edit /etc/fstab to reflect new vg; umount old; mount new; deactivate old vg, etc.

or

6) make file systems in lv's and use normal cp -rp. (temporarily mount each new lv fs on /mnt; umount new;
umount old; mount new in place of old; edit /etc/fstab.

or

7) if you have mirrordisk, add new luns to your original vg, mirror to new luns, split, vgreduce
the old Seagate luns, and voila! Probably the easiest.

Greg.

[Rahul Mehta]

Hi,
I see your problem here,
There are couple of ways to do it.

1 make-recovery tape.
2 use " command" vgcfgbackup where u can provied a file as output
Now you can copy that file using tar or cpio on the tape.

Now when you need it back , you can use vgcfgrestore.

Now there is definately some problem if you move the disks.

Best solution in your case is either you use dd to copy your disks layout ,volume info and data to new disks.
Second option is you can add emc disk to the volume groups with old disks still present(i.e plan emc layout and add proper disk to proper volume group by vgextend .

Now create make_recvoery
tape .
make_recovery -i -A -v
which will preserve all the volume info.
Shutdown the server and remove old segate disks .

Boot the server with make_recovery and resotre information by selecting the root disk from your emc drive.
after this make_recovery will restore complete root volume according to your need .
reboot the server and
execute VGSCAN to update your voulme information.
You are good to go.

Rahul