Preserving LVM after after os reload

[Tim Frost]

Sherin,

On Fri, 2010-10-22 at 12:33 +0530, Sherin George wrote:

> 
> Hi guys,
> 
> I have two disks, one with OS and a second disk containing an LVM.  I
> would like to OS reload the server without losing LVM.
> 
> I heard that LVM is self sustaining. Is that true ? Should I backup
> something(using vgcfgbackup &  vgexport ?)  to get LVM running after
> os reload.

LVM (and raid) store meta-data on the disk so that they are able to be
recovered (and a RAID array can be rebuilt).  

If you don't touch the partition table (or at least don't do anything
that might affect the partition holding the LVM, during partitioning),
you *should* be OK.  Your situation, with the LVM on a separate disk
from the OS, should fit that restriction.  In fact, if you use the
Ubuntu alternate CD instead of the desktop CD, you should be able to
tell the installer where to mount the individual pieces of the LVM (and
tell it to NOT format those partitions, if you want to preserve the data
on them).

The caveat about using the Ubuntu alternate CD is important, because
space constraints mean that the LVM/RAID features have NOT been included
in the kernel on the Live/Desktop CD, but are available if you use the
alternate CD to do the install.  For other distributions, you will need
to check the documentation for that distribution to find out how to get
LVM support during the install.

Nothing is guaranteed, however, so backups of the LVM configuration and
of the contents of that disk (to external media) are a good safety
measure.

> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> --
> Sherin
> 

Tim

-- 
Tim Frost <timfrost at xtra.co.nz>
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