[linux-lvm] Recover Partition Table - vgdisplay/vgscan fails

Sat Sep 24 21:49:12 UTC 2005

We tested out the below steps and they appeared to work.

First you need to remove the partition table on /dev/sd01. So issue the
"fdisk /dev/sdo1" then delete the partition table and write out the changes.

A reboot is required since most of the lvm command fail due to the VDGA
being inconsistent with what is in the kernel. All of the filesystems, that
are in datavg, need to be commented out of /etc/fstab to avoid having the OS
try and mount them on reboot. When the system comes back up all the volume
groups, logical volumes and filesystem should be up except for datavg, and
its logical volumes and file-systems. The LVM commands no longer will error
out.

Once the system is back up a VGDA needs to be created on /dev/sdo1.
"pvcreate -v /dev/sdo1"
Recover the old VGDA data, for /dev/sdo1. "vgcfgrestore -v -n datavg
/dev/sdo1"

Scan for volume groups, "vgscan"
Activate the "newly" found datavg volume group, "vgchange -a y datavg"

At this point we were able to see datavg, all of the logical volumes, under
datavg, and mount the filesystems. We un-commented the filesystems entries,
in /etc/fstab, rebooted a few times and verified that the filesystem
were available on the reboot.

Len Smith

On 9/23/05, paul.stein at thomson.com <paul.stein at thomson.com> wrote:
>
> Additional information explaining what caused the below errors:
>  +++++++++++++++ start +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  <root at paxton:~># fdisk /dev/sdo1
> Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF
> disklabel
> Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
> until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
> content won't be recoverable.
>
> The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 3541.
> There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
> and could in certain setups cause problems with:
> 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
> 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
> (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
> Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by
> w(rite)
>  Command (m for help): o
> Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
> until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
> content won't be recoverable.
>
> The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 3541.
> There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
> and could in certain setups cause problems with:
> 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
> 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
> (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
> Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by
> w(rite)
>  Command (m for help): m
> Command action
> a toggle a bootable flag
> b edit bsd disklabel
> c toggle the dos compatibility flag
> d delete a partition
> l list known partition types
> m print this menu
> n add a new partition
> o create a new empty DOS partition table
> p print the partition table
> q quit without saving changes
> s create a new empty Sun disklabel
> t change a partition's system id
> u change display/entry units
> v verify the partition table
> w write table to disk and exit
> x extra functionality (experts only)
>  Command (m for help): n
> Command action
> e extended
> p primary partition (1-4)
> p
> Partition number (1-4): 1
> First cylinder (1-3541, default 1):
> Using default value 1
> Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-3541, default 3541):
> Using default value 3541
>  Command (m for help): t
> Selected partition 1
> Hex code (type L to list codes): 8e
> Changed system type of partition 1 to 8e (Linux LVM)
>  Command (m for help): m
> Command action
> a toggle a bootable flag
> b edit bsd disklabel
> c toggle the dos compatibility flag
> d delete a partition
> l list known partition types
> m print this menu
> n add a new partition
> o create a new empty DOS partition table
> p print the partition table
> q quit without saving changes
> s create a new empty Sun disklabel
> t change a partition's system id
> u change display/entry units
> v verify the partition table
> w write table to disk and exit
> x extra functionality (experts only)
>  Command (m for help): p
>  Disk /dev/sdo1: 29.1 GB, 29133909504 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3541 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sdo1p1 1 3541 28443051 8e Linux LVM
>  Command (m for help): v
> 62 unallocated sectors
>  Command (m for help): v
> 62 unallocated sectors
>  Command (m for help): w
> The partition table has been altered!
>  Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
>  WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or
> resource busy.
> The kernel still uses the old table.
> The new table will be used at the next reboot.
> Syncing disks.
>  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ end ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* linux-lvm-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:linux-lvm-bounces at redhat.com]
> *On Behalf Of *Stein, Paul (TLR Corp)
> *Sent:* Friday, September 23, 2005 11:20 AM
> *To:* linux-lvm at redhat.com
> *Subject:* [linux-lvm] Recover Partition Table - vgdisplay/vgscan fails
>
>  I inadvertantly blew away the partition table on /dev/sdo that was in
> use. While the system is still running and no errors have occured...yet, I
> need
> to get the partition table restored and be able to vgdisplay the datavg.
> Below is the sampling of error messages.
>  <root at paxton:/proc/lvm># vgdisplay datavg
> vgdisplay -- ERROR: VGDA in kernel and lvmtab are NOT consistent; please
> run vgscan
> <root at paxton:/proc/lvm># vgscan
> vgscan -- reading all physical volumes (this may take a while...)
> vgscan -- found active volume group "rootvg"
> vgscan -- found active volume group "localvg"
> vgscan -- found active volume group "datavg"
> vgscan -- ERROR "vg_read_with_pv_and_lv(): current PV" can't get data of
> volume group "datavg" from physical volume(s)
> vgscan -- "/etc/lvmtab" and "/etc/lvmtab.d" successfully created
> vgscan -- WARNING: This program does not do a VGDA backup of your volume
> groups
>    Is it safe to clear VGDA using the "dd if=/dev/zero of=PhysicalVolume
> bs=512 count=1" shown in the pvcreate man pages and the come back and
> recreate the VGDA using pvcreate, or use pvcreate outright not using the
> dd method? Or, is there a better method to get /dev/sdo back into the datavg
> group while recreating the partition table?
>   Paul Stein
>
> _______________________________________________
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> linux-lvm at redhat.com
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> read the LVM HOW-TO at http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/
>
>
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