Moving LVM disks from one machine to another.

[stovesy]

I have hardware problems on one particular sever, causing it to crash after a few minutes, so I need to move the physical hard discs to another PC.

I have 2 drives, both using LVM
The LVM partitions are in good condition and work on the poorly machine until is crashes.

The problem is, that when I move these disks to another PC:
GRUB starts as normal
The system starts to boot
The Red Hat Nash line appears

But the LVM volume (System) is not found during the initial scan.

If I boot from a live CD, I can mount all my LVM volumes.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.
Thanks

[SlowJet]

The default LVM install is only unique within the computer it was installed on unless you changed the VolGroup00 name to a more global name.

If the second PC has a system already then there will be a VG name conflict.

Start up in the LiveCD, vgrename the fromcompters LVM VolGroup00 name to something else like VolGroupF10-Feb2009.


If this is not the case then supply more info and check the log files for messages in linux rescue mode.

SJ

[stovesy]

Yeh, sorry.

Didn't make it clear that one HD has my system on it.

I'm not trying to import it into another installation, just moving 2 HD's from one case to another.

I would have thought that I could just place the HD into the new case, and boot into it...
Doesn't seem to be the case.

I wonder if maybe moving drive assignment has LVM confused (Maybe the System volume was on hda and is now on sda or something else ??)

Cheers.

[SlowJet]

No, it mounts by /dev/VG/LV name
The controller type would need to be compatible with the drive types. ide or SATA or SATA-IO
(BIOS setting for controllers the same.)
The /boot would need to be the same /dev/sda1
(Maybe a grub initrd problem.)
But you need the facts within the logs and/or error messages.

# cat /etc/fstab

#
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Sat Nov 29 20:54:50 2008
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or vol_id(8) for more info
#
/dev/VolGroup71/LogVol71root / ext4 defaults 1 1
/dev/VolGroup72/LogVol72home /home ext4 defaults 1 2
UUID=142713a4-97d7-4fc5-aa82-f29b0c514eaf /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/VolGroup72/LogVol72swap swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/VolGroup71/LogVol71swap swap swap defaults 0 0

[stovesy]

Thanks for you help.

I think I'm getting way out of my depth on this one though.
I now nothing of how /boot or initrd work, so I'm going to try another way.

Install a fresh to a new HD, and them copy stuff over.

Thanks again.

[SlowJet]

Yep, Fedora is a 4D learning curve, fought with denial, and overcome by acceptance, consistant effort, and practice, practice, practice.

cd /
ls
cat file
cd ../

cd /
ls
cat file | more
cd ../

...


SJ

[Chilly Willy]

Seems to me that if you can mount ALL with a live CD then it should be easy to tie them all together or at least use the live CD to copy. As to how to go about the tie, I've only done it once & THAT was with help. So I don't think I would be of any use to you on that. And there again, I COULD be totally off the wall on this, as well.

[SlowJet]

They (being the fromcomputer VolGroup00 disks) is going to be untieable to a new default install on the newcomputer with VolGroup00.

If he used custom partitioning and creates a nice layout for his needs, then the from disks can be added,
vgchaange -a
lvs
mkdir /mnt/oldslash
mount /dev/mapperVolGroup00-LogVol00 /mnt/oldslash

So yes you off the wall but as this is the main LVM problem that occurs for newbies and there is no easy work around,
the question will be asked again and again.

SJ

[Chilly Willy]

Well that is why I ask such questions when I read something like this. How else is someone to learn.( although I really didn't pose it as a question - I WAS questioning if it could be as I was thinking) BUT I still am a bit confused as it still seems that the two volumes could be renamed & made as one. What am I not seeing here? (& as I've already admitted, I know very little about LVM's) BTW: it now appears that what I did wasn't the same? (referring to expanding my LVM onto a bigger HD - posted on here) I ended up with 2 volumes & had to rename the one to "tie" it in.

And my apologizes to the OP if I'm "hijacking" your thread. But I hope this will make us BOTH better understand.