VERITAS Volume Manager 3.5 Migration Guide (September 2004)

Chapter 2

Converting LVM to VxVM

Converting LVM Volume Groups to VxVM Disk Groups

# umount

file-system

Conversion and Reboot During conversion, after the analysis phase is complete, the disks to be converted

are deemed to be conversion ready. The vxvmconvert program asks if you are ready to commit to the

conversion changes. If you choose to complete the conversion, the system will try to unmount all of the

associated mounted ﬁle systems, stop and export the volume group, and then install the VxVM conﬁguration.

If vxvmconvert is unable to stop and export volume groups or unmount ﬁle systems, the conversion cannot be

completed without rebooting the system. You will have the option of aborting the conversion or completing the

conversion by rebooting the system. If you choose to reboot, vxvmconvert will trigger the completion of the

conversion automatically, during reboot, when it can be guaranteed that no processes have access to the

volumes that are being converted.

If you choose to abort rather than reboot to complete the conversion, vxvmconvert will return to the main

menu.

NOTE The LVM logical volumes to be converted must all be available to the vxvmconvert process. You

should not deactivate the volume group or any logical volumes before running vxvmconvert.

To Activate a Volume Group If you are not certain if the LVM volumes or the corresponding volume

groups are active, you can activate them with the following command:

# vgchange -a y

vol_grp_name

7. Converting a volume group

To do the actual conversion of LVM volume groups to VxVM disk groups, choose option 2 of the vxvmconvert

utility.

vxvmconvert will prompt for a name for the VxVM disk group that will be created to replace the LVM volume

group you are converting. This is the only object naming that is done through vxvmconvert. For details on

modifying VxVM volume names, see step “11. Tailoring your VxVM conﬁguration” on page 18.

As described earlier in step “2. Analyzing an LVM volume group to see if conversion is possible” on page 13,

the volume groups selected for conversion are analyzed to ensure that conversion is possible. After a

successful analysis phase, vxvmconvert will ask you to commit to the change or abort the conversion. When

you select to commit to conversion, the new VxVM metadata is written.

NOTE It is good practice to convert one volume group at a time to avoid errors during conversion.

The details of the conversion process are shown in “Examples” on page 22.

8. Taking actions if conversion fails

Conversion can fail for any of the reasons detailed in the “Volume Group Conversion Limitations” on page 11”

section. Messages from vxvmconvert will explain the type of failure, and any actions you can take before

retrying the conversion.

See Appendix A, “Conversion Error Messages,” on page 57 for complete details of speciﬁc error messages.

9. Implementing changes for new VxVM logical volume names

You must be sure that all applications and conﬁguration ﬁles refer properly to the new VxVM logical volumes.

See step “5. Planning for new VxVM logical volume names” on page 15 for details.