[linux-lvm] vgscan errors

[Heinz J . Mauelshagen]

On Fri, Mar 08, 2002 at 02:12:14AM -0700, Andreas Dilger wrote:
> On Mar 08, 2002  09:44 +0100, Heinz J . Mauelshagen wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 07, 2002 at 11:17:23AM -0600, Kelly Corbin wrote:
> > > OK, now I have another problem.  I got vgscan to run fine now off of my 
> > > boot CD, but now the system fails the vgscan on boot (/ is an LVM) with 
> > > an 'ERROR 28 writing volume group backup file /etc/...'
> > > 
> > > I'm assuming this is because the initrd created by lvmcreate_initrd is 
> > > not big enough to accomodate the metadata backup.
> > 
> > Exactly.
> > 
> > > What size is this 
> > > generally (lvmcreate_initrd says it calculates this automatically) and 
> > > to what size should I set this manually to get this to work?  How much 
> > > space do I need for the backups during vgscan?
> > 
> > Calculate your given initrd size plus your /etc/lvconf/* backup sizes
> > you need to store in the initrd once vgscan is run
> > and change the INITRDSIZE to that number in kilobytes + 1MB.
> 
> I think a lot of people have this same problem (not enough free space in
> initrd).  Can't we just disable backups somehow?

Andreas,

vgscan creates cache copies of the metadata in /etc/lvmtab.d/.

So if just vgscan and "vgchange -ay" run in the initrd, there's one copy
for every VG in /etc/lvmtab.d/ *and*

export LVM_VG_MAX_BACKUPS=no

disables automatic backup creation in /etc/lvmconf/.

vgchange needs little modification to read the data directly from the devices
rather than from the cache files.

Should I put that into LVM 1.0.4?  ;-)


> It's the initrd after
> all, so it's not like the backups are useful.  Alternately, it is better
> to just fix the script to have more leeway in the INITRDSIZE in the
> first place.
> 
> Cheers, Andreas
> --
> Andreas Dilger  \ "If a man ate a pound of pasta and a pound of antipasto,
>                  \  would they cancel out, leaving him still hungry?"
> http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/               -- Dogbert
> 
> 
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-- 

Regards,
Heinz    -- The LVM Guy --

*** Software bugs are stupid.
    Nevertheless it needs not so stupid people to solve them ***

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Heinz Mauelshagen                                 Sistina Software Inc.
Senior Consultant/Developer                       Am Sonnenhang 11
                                                  56242 Marienrachdorf
                                                  Germany
Mauelshagen at Sistina.com                           +49 2626 141200
                                                       FAX 924446
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