[linux-lvm] pvcreate & vgcfgrestore won't work

[Bryn M. Reeves]

Ralf Sparr wrote:
> Hi list,
> 
> as mentioned in my earlier post, LVM complains about
> "Incorrect metadata area header checksum". As this occurs
> often (many questions, rarely answers in the list) I tried to create
> some 'new' via

Running pvcreate followed by vgcfgrestore is the correct way to fix a 
broken MDA checksum - I've used this many times to recover from these 
situations.

> # pvcreate --force --uuid 7vFXd3-MYnt-TVdG-luYr-rDPn-o8a1-vjewWk
> --restorefile /etc/lvm/archive/alice_00038.vg alice

Your syntax is wrong. You've got:

pvcreate -f -u=$UUID --restorefile=/path $VGNAME

But pvcreate is expecting a PV path as the last argument (the device to 
be initialised as a PV), not a VG name (are you confusing this with the 
vgcfgrestore arguments?).

This works just fine for me:

# pvcreate -f --uuid 6cxF7v-f0XU-3EK1-QhA2-YSVT-yEe3-vQnE09 
--restorefile /etc/lvm/archive/l0_00000.vg /dev/loop0
   Can't initialize physical volume "/dev/loop0" of volume group "l0" 
without -ff

# pvcreate -ff --uuid 6cxF7v-f0XU-3EK1-QhA2-YSVT-yEe3-vQnE09 
--restorefile /etc/lvm/archive/l0_00000.vg /dev/loop0
Really INITIALIZE physical volume "/dev/loop0" of volume group "l0" [y/n]? y
   WARNING: Forcing physical volume creation on /dev/loop0 of volume 
group "l0"
   Physical volume "/dev/loop0" successfully created

# vgcfgrestore -f /etc/lvm/archive/l0_00000.vg l0
   Restored volume group l0

Regards,
Bryn.