[linux-lvm] alternative to pvmove on root volume

[chris procter]

> On Thu, 28 Jan 2010, malahal at us.ibm.com wrote:
> > given that pvmove also works by mirroring I'm not convinced I haven't

> > just been lucky so far .  So does anyone have any ideas or even better
> > experiance on whether this is likely to work or am I setting myself up
> > for a world of pain if I try it on a live server?
> 
> Yes, pvmove works very similar. It will create a mirror for each segment
> one at a time, so it may have to create lot more mirrors depending on
> your configuration. If it ends up needing more 'lvconverts' (suspends),
> then the probability of failure (deadlock) will increase.

I've been testing using VMs cloned from the same template, the clones that I used pvmove on have deadlocked maybe 75% of the time, and the ones that I lvconverted have never deadlocked. However given your explanation I think its probable that I've just been lucky and my 10 or so tests haven't had enough 'suspends' to trigger the issue. Oh well back to the planned downtime route.

Thanks for the help :)

chris