Re: Possible to add an LVM to existing Wheezy box

Ron,

Yes it is possible. Depending on how involved you want to get with this project there are a couple of ways to proceed.

To preserve the data, you're going to need to need equivalent space to move the data to. You can't just convert a normal ext4 partition to run on LVM. If you're planning on adding the other 2TB disk anyways now would be the best time as far as ease goes. This is due to you can just make the LVM with the new disk then clone the data to the new partition in the LVM. Then once you are comfortable that all your data is in place you would delete the original partition extend the LVM and file system to include what you just deleted.

If the new 2TB disk is out of reach you're going to have to find somehow to get that data off the disk before you make it a LVM other wise the pvcreate will overwrite the partition table and you'll be having all kinds of headaches to get it back. Let us know if you need more information or ideas.

Shane

On Tue, Dec 31, 2013 at 10:37 AM, Howard <hcsc2@tesco.net> wrote:

On 31/12/2013 16:44, Shane Johnson wrote:

Some more information would be helpful as well. Does the existing data
contain the OS? What are you trying to achieve by moving the data?

More info: existing partition

The existing partition would be from our 'filesystem backup' machine, which runs an earlier version of Debian. It runs on a 2TB disk with several partitions; mostly OS, but one partition of 1.7TB purely for filesystem backup data. All partitions (except /boot and swap) are formatted as XFS. That backup machine is becoming unreliable, and I want to take the 2TB disk from it and install it in a different, new, Wheezy box which will then takeover the 'backup' role on our network. We won't use the OS partitions on that disk, we'll only use the 1.7TB data partition. The data partition contains several years' worth of incremental backups, and provides us with the possibility to recover inadvertently deleted or changed files, even if deletion is not noticed for some considerable time. It also provides the historical context of what data was available to us during our projects, which can be important. This backup data now occupies virtually all of its 1.7TB partition, which is the reason for wanting to move to a larger filesystem space.

More info: the OS

The existing backup machine's OS will not be used when the disk is inserted into the new Wheezy box. The new box is already running Wheezy from a 250GB disk. The motherboard has connectivity for 3 more drives; my hope, if it were possible, would be to introduce the backup machine's disk as one of those, and a brand new 2TB disk as another. The Wheezy box will then have 3 disks:
sda - 250GB, D7 OS
sdb - 2TB, but only sdb6 (1.7TB) used, part of LVM
sdc - 2TB, part of LVM

In short, I want to preserve our backup facility by removing it from a possibly unreliable box, expanding the space available for backup increments, and replacing the backup machine with the new box.

I understand your question - I should, perhaps, have explained in the first instance that I didn't need to preserve the OS, only a data partition. Do you still think what I want to do is possible? Eduardo's suggestion of creating a new empty LVM might work, otherwise.

regards, Ron

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Shane D. Johnson

IT Administrator

Rasmussen Equipment