Storage space partition

Bob McClure Jr bob at bobcatos.com
Fri Apr 14 20:02:41 UTC 2006


On Fri, Apr 14, 2006 at 03:46:03PM -0400, Nair, Murlidharan T wrote:
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com
> [mailto:redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Bob McClure
> Jr
> Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 3:43 PM
> To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> Subject: Re: Storage space partition
> 
> On Fri, Apr 14, 2006 at 03:33:47PM -0400, Nair, Murlidharan T wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com
> > [mailto:redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Bob
> McClure
> > Jr
> > Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 3:06 PM
> > To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> > Subject: Re: Storage space partition
> > 
> > On Fri, Apr 14, 2006 at 02:44:35PM -0400, Nair, Murlidharan T wrote:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com
> > > [mailto:redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Bob
> > McClure
> > > Jr
> > > Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 1:17 PM
> > > To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> > > Subject: Re: Storage space partition
> > > 
> > > On Fri, Apr 14, 2006 at 11:46:24AM -0400, Nair, Murlidharan T wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > <much snippage>
> > > > 
> > 
> > > [root at bioinformatics ~]# pvcreate /dev/emcpowera
> > >   Physical volume "/dev/emcpowera" successfully created
> > > 
> > >  [root at bioinformatics ~]# vgcreate bio01VG /dev/emcpowera
> > >   Found duplicate PV XKollgX4GsBzbFyJsK13JS62S3P4b0Vr: using
> /dev/sdb
> > > not /dev/emcpowera
> > >   Found duplicate PV XKollgX4GsBzbFyJsK13JS62S3P4b0Vr: using
> /dev/sdc
> > > not /dev/emcpowera
> > >   Found duplicate PV XKollgX4GsBzbFyJsK13JS62S3P4b0Vr: using
> /dev/sdb
> > > not /dev/emcpowera
> > >   Found duplicate PV XKollgX4GsBzbFyJsK13JS62S3P4b0Vr: using
> /dev/sdc
> > > not /dev/emcpowera
> > >   Found duplicate PV XKollgX4GsBzbFyJsK13JS62S3P4b0Vr: using
> /dev/sdb
> > > not /dev/emcpowera
> > >   Found duplicate PV XKollgX4GsBzbFyJsK13JS62S3P4b0Vr: using
> /dev/sdc
> > > not /dev/emcpowera
> > >   Volume group "bio01VG" successfully created
> > 
> > Okay, now I'm not sure what is going on.  It is more common for linux
> > to identify the drives as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc. rather than
> > /dev/emcpowera.  What might be more useful would be to run
> > 
> >   fdisk -l # That's ell as in list.
> > 
> > and see what drives show up.  Is it possible that /dev/emcpowera is
> > the physical SAN disk(s) and that /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc are the
> > virtual disks created by the SAN?  If so, the latter should be
> > partitioned and pvcreated.
> > 
> > Also note that you created the partition and then ignored it.  Had you
> > used the partition, it would have been called /dev/emcpowera1 when you
> > ran pvcreate.
> > 
> > Rick Stevens, feel free to jump in here.  I'm operating from very
> > recent and limited experience with a SAN.
> > 
> > <snippage>
> > 
> > I just noticed that the partition it created was called emcpowera1.
> Here
> > is part of the output
> > ========================================================
> > Disk /dev/emcpowera: 700.0 GB, 700079669248 bytes
> > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 85113 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> > 
> >          Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> > /dev/emcpowera1               1       85113   683670141   8e  Linux
> LVM
> > 
> > Command (m for help): w
> > The partition table has been altered!
> > 
> > Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
> > Syncing disks.
> > ========================================================
> > I assumed that it would create the partition with the same name so
> when
> > I did a pvcreate I used 
> > pvcreate /dev/emcpowera
> > 
> > I am thinking of doing a pvremove I ran the test here is what I got
> > ==================================================================
> > [root at bioinformatics /]# pvremove -t -v /dev/emcpowera
> >   Test mode: Metadata will NOT be updated.
> >   /dev/cdrom: open failed: Read-only file system
> >   Found duplicate PV XKollgX4GsBzbFyJsK13JS62S3P4b0Vr: using /dev/sdb
> > not /dev/emcpowera
> >   Found duplicate PV XKollgX4GsBzbFyJsK13JS62S3P4b0Vr: using /dev/sdc
> > not /dev/emcpowera
> >   Labels on physical volume "/dev/emcpowera" successfully wiped
> >     Test mode: Wiping internal cach
> > ==================================================================
> > Then I can start back with pvcreate correct?  Also will there be any
> > consequences of running vgcreate on /dev/emcpowera that used dev/sbd ?
> > If so how can I fix it?
> > 
> > Thanks for your time ../Murli
> 
> Did you run "fdisk -l"?  I wanted to see if /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc
> showed up.  If either sdb or sdc are synonyms for emcpowera, it would
> be better to use it/them just because it's more customary and will
> result in fewer surprises.
> 
> Cheers,
> -- 
> Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
> bob at bobcatos.com             http://www.bobcatos.com
> The best things in life aren't things.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 
> Here is the output of fdisk -l 
> 
> Disk /dev/sda: 36.3 GB, 36364615680 bytes
> 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 34680 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sda1               1          31       31728   de  Dell Utility
> /dev/sda2              32        7748     7902208   83  Linux
> /dev/sda3   *        7749        7848      102400   83  Linux
> /dev/sda4            7849       34680    27475968    5  Extended
> /dev/sda5            7849        8872     1048560   83  Linux
> /dev/sda6            8873       10920     2097136   82  Linux swap
> /dev/sda7           10921       14925     4101104   83  Linux
> /dev/sda8           14926       19915     5109744   83  Linux
> /dev/sda9           19916       34630    15068144   83  Linux
> 
> Disk /dev/sdb: 700.0 GB, 700079669248 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 85113 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sdb1               1       85113   683670141   8e  Linux LVM
> 
> Disk /dev/sdc: 700.0 GB, 700079669248 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 85113 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sdc1               1       85113   683670141   8e  Linux LVM
> 
> Disk /dev/emcpowera: 700.0 GB, 700079669248 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 85113 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
>          Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/emcpowera1               1       85113   683670141   8e  Linux LVM
> 
> 
> Cheers ../Murli

Okay, I somewhat expected that.  Your SAN appears to be showing your
machine multiple variants of the same device.  I don't know what your
SAN hardware is, but my sole experience is with HP's MSA-1500 with
MSA-20 and MSA-30 shelves.  On it, we had to go into "Selective
Storage Presentation" to keep linux from seeing 16 or more devices,
most of which were bogus.  Otherwise, every time you run "vgscan" or
anything related, it's going to see multiple instances of the real
virtual (?) disk.

Once you get that sorted out, I'd run pvcreate on the partition,
/dev/sdb1, rather than the whole drive /dev/sdb.

Cheers,
-- 
Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
bob at bobcatos.com             http://www.bobcatos.com
The best things in life aren't things.




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