From: onepeanutwhistle on

* * * * * * * * CROSS POSTED: * * * * * * * *
alt.linux.redhat, alt.os.linux.redhat, linux.redhat,
linux.redhat.install

Hello to All:

My home computer system consists of a 2002 built MicronPC ClientPro
325 with its original Intel D845GRG motherboard whose CPU is a Pentium
4, 2.0GHz, 400 FSB and 2GB of RAM.

I have two each 40GB IDE hard disks such that hda, a WDC
WD400BB-00DEA0, on the Primary Master, has Windows XP Pro on hda1, and
is formatted NTFS, hda2 (FAT32) is a shared partition for both
systems. The 2nd hard disk, a Maxtor 6L040L2, on the Primary Slave,
(hdb) has eleven Linux partitions and is formatted EXT3 (now) for my
Linux system, presently a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 (Tikanga).

As can be guessed, the system had originally been a single boot XP
system, as originally built by Micron. The 2nd hard disk was later
added for dual boot with RHEL3 (Taroon). The hdb partitions were
originally sized through the advice of others, and although I've
adjusted their sizes with Partition Magic 8 and GParted in the early
days of EXT2, I've never retired my partition quantities from my
original choices.

The 2nd hard disk (hdb) is exclusively for Linux and approximately
17GB, of its total 40GB, is unpartitioned.

My hdb information:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id Partition
/dev/hdb1 * 1 17 136521 83 /boot
/dev/hdb2 18 1292 10241437+ 83 /usr
/dev/hdb3 1293 1419 1020127+ 83 /usr/local
/dev/hdb4 1420 4866 27688027+ 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 1420 1674 2048256 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdb6 1675 1929 2048256 83 /var
/dev/hdb7 1930 2184 2048256 83 /
/dev/hdb8 2185 2439 2048256 83 /spare
/dev/hdb9 2440 2503 514048+ 83 /opt
/dev/hdb10 2504 2567 514048+ 83 /home
/dev/hdb11 2568 2631 514048+ 83 /tmp

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hdb7 1.9G 1.2G 641M 66% /
/dev/hdb1 130M 13M 110M 11% /boot
tmpfs 950M 0 950M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/hdb10 487M 11M 451M 3% /home
/dev/hdb9 487M 76M 386M 17% /opt
/dev/hdb8 1.9G 35M 1.8G 2% /spare
/dev/hdb11 487M 217M 245M 47% /tmp
/dev/hdb2 9.5G 4.0G 5.0G 45% /usr
/dev/hdb3 965M 38M 878M 5% /usr/local
/dev/hdb6 1.9G 368M 1.5G 21% /var
/dev/hda2 2.0G 1.5G 538M 74% /mnt/share

"system-config-lvm" says that all my Linux partitions are of a
"Uninitialized Disk Entity" class. This is due to the fact that I was
not courageous enough to create anything with LVM back then. Suffice
to say that nothing has been done to enjoy the benefits of LVM since.

Question: Since my RHEL5.1 Tikanga is used as a running & viable
system, and as long as I have recent partition backups, would I be
able to "Initialize all the Disk Entities" and probably not loose
anything? My Red Hat software is up-to the-minute current.

Thank you in advance,
Onepeanutwhistle
From: Mauricio Tavares on
onepeanutwhistle(a)aol.com wrote:
> * * * * * * * * CROSS POSTED: * * * * * * * *
> alt.linux.redhat, alt.os.linux.redhat, linux.redhat,
> linux.redhat.install
>
> Hello to All:
>
> My home computer system consists of a 2002 built MicronPC ClientPro
> 325 with its original Intel D845GRG motherboard whose CPU is a Pentium
> 4, 2.0GHz, 400 FSB and 2GB of RAM.
>
> I have two each 40GB IDE hard disks such that hda, a WDC
> WD400BB-00DEA0, on the Primary Master, has Windows XP Pro on hda1, and
> is formatted NTFS, hda2 (FAT32) is a shared partition for both
> systems. The 2nd hard disk, a Maxtor 6L040L2, on the Primary Slave,
> (hdb) has eleven Linux partitions and is formatted EXT3 (now) for my
> Linux system, presently a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 (Tikanga).
>
> As can be guessed, the system had originally been a single boot XP
> system, as originally built by Micron. The 2nd hard disk was later
> added for dual boot with RHEL3 (Taroon). The hdb partitions were
> originally sized through the advice of others, and although I've
> adjusted their sizes with Partition Magic 8 and GParted in the early
> days of EXT2, I've never retired my partition quantities from my
> original choices.
>
> The 2nd hard disk (hdb) is exclusively for Linux and approximately
> 17GB, of its total 40GB, is unpartitioned.
>
> My hdb information:
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id Partition
> /dev/hdb1 * 1 17 136521 83 /boot
> /dev/hdb2 18 1292 10241437+ 83 /usr
> /dev/hdb3 1293 1419 1020127+ 83 /usr/local
> /dev/hdb4 1420 4866 27688027+ 5 Extended
> /dev/hdb5 1420 1674 2048256 82 Linux swap
> /dev/hdb6 1675 1929 2048256 83 /var
> /dev/hdb7 1930 2184 2048256 83 /
> /dev/hdb8 2185 2439 2048256 83 /spare
> /dev/hdb9 2440 2503 514048+ 83 /opt
> /dev/hdb10 2504 2567 514048+ 83 /home
> /dev/hdb11 2568 2631 514048+ 83 /tmp
>
> Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> /dev/hdb7 1.9G 1.2G 641M 66% /
> /dev/hdb1 130M 13M 110M 11% /boot
> tmpfs 950M 0 950M 0% /dev/shm
> /dev/hdb10 487M 11M 451M 3% /home
> /dev/hdb9 487M 76M 386M 17% /opt
> /dev/hdb8 1.9G 35M 1.8G 2% /spare
> /dev/hdb11 487M 217M 245M 47% /tmp
> /dev/hdb2 9.5G 4.0G 5.0G 45% /usr
> /dev/hdb3 965M 38M 878M 5% /usr/local
> /dev/hdb6 1.9G 368M 1.5G 21% /var
> /dev/hda2 2.0G 1.5G 538M 74% /mnt/share
>
> "system-config-lvm" says that all my Linux partitions are of a
> "Uninitialized Disk Entity" class. This is due to the fact that I was
> not courageous enough to create anything with LVM back then. Suffice
> to say that nothing has been done to enjoy the benefits of LVM since.
>
> Question: Since my RHEL5.1 Tikanga is used as a running & viable
> system, and as long as I have recent partition backups, would I be
> able to "Initialize all the Disk Entities" and probably not loose
> anything? My Red Hat software is up-to the-minute current.
>
> Thank you in advance,
> Onepeanutwhistle

First of all, try to create the lvm in your unused partitions. You
probably should change their partition type to linux lvm (8e). Maybe
that is all system-config-lvm needs to know it can use them.

Last time I used lvm, I had an unused partition in one disk and an
entire unused disk. I have not used system-config-lvm but instead did
the steps by hand. In words it would go like this:

o Ok, I need to create the physical volumes in those two partitions so
lvm can play with them.

pvcreate /dev/sda8 /dev/sdb1

o I am creating a lvm and it shall be called tim, which will be composed
of a partition in disk sda and this other partition (i.e. the one for
the entire disk) in disk sdb.

vgcreate tim /dev/sda8 /dev/sdb1

o Now I am going to create two partitions, alpha (50GB) and beta
(150GB), inside tim without using the entire space I have allocated.

lvcreate -L50G -nalpha tim
lvcreate -L150G -nbeta tim

o Format alpha and beta as ext3.

mke2fs -j /dev/tim/alpha
mke2fs -j /dev/tim/beta

o Mount them, alpha in /export/home (yes, I have some solaris naughty
habits) and beta in /export/hosts (for vmware)

mount /dev/tim/alpha /export/home
mount /dev/tim/beta /export/hosts
df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 23G 1.9G 20G 9% /
[...]
/dev/mapper/tim-alpha 50G 180M 47G 1% /export/home
/dev/mapper/tim-beta 148G 188M 140G 1% /export/hosts

In your case, you could then move the contents of your /home to
/export/home. Once you see that works, you could then move more stuff
and create more partitions in tim. As you empty the non-lvm partitions,
you could then add them to the lvm either as-is or group them in one
single blob and then add the blob.
--
Mauricio raub-kudria-com
(if you need to email me, use this address =)
From: Johnny Rebel on
onepeanutwhistle(a)aol.com wrote:
> * * * * * * * * CROSS POSTED: * * * * * * * *
> alt.linux.redhat, alt.os.linux.redhat, linux.redhat,
> linux.redhat.install
>
> Hello to All:
>
> My home computer system consists of a 2002 built MicronPC ClientPro
> 325 with its original Intel D845GRG motherboard whose CPU is a Pentium
> 4, 2.0GHz, 400 FSB and 2GB of RAM.
>
> I have two each 40GB IDE hard disks such that hda, a WDC
> WD400BB-00DEA0, on the Primary Master, has Windows XP Pro on hda1, and
> is formatted NTFS, hda2 (FAT32) is a shared partition for both
> systems. The 2nd hard disk, a Maxtor 6L040L2, on the Primary Slave,
> (hdb) has eleven Linux partitions and is formatted EXT3 (now) for my
> Linux system, presently a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 (Tikanga).
>
> As can be guessed, the system had originally been a single boot XP
> system, as originally built by Micron. The 2nd hard disk was later
> added for dual boot with RHEL3 (Taroon). The hdb partitions were
> originally sized through the advice of others, and although I've
> adjusted their sizes with Partition Magic 8 and GParted in the early
> days of EXT2, I've never retired my partition quantities from my
> original choices.
>
> The 2nd hard disk (hdb) is exclusively for Linux and approximately
> 17GB, of its total 40GB, is unpartitioned.
>
> My hdb information:
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id Partition
> /dev/hdb1 * 1 17 136521 83 /boot
> /dev/hdb2 18 1292 10241437+ 83 /usr
> /dev/hdb3 1293 1419 1020127+ 83 /usr/local
> /dev/hdb4 1420 4866 27688027+ 5 Extended
> /dev/hdb5 1420 1674 2048256 82 Linux swap
> /dev/hdb6 1675 1929 2048256 83 /var
> /dev/hdb7 1930 2184 2048256 83 /
> /dev/hdb8 2185 2439 2048256 83 /spare
> /dev/hdb9 2440 2503 514048+ 83 /opt
> /dev/hdb10 2504 2567 514048+ 83 /home
> /dev/hdb11 2568 2631 514048+ 83 /tmp
>
> Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> /dev/hdb7 1.9G 1.2G 641M 66% /
> /dev/hdb1 130M 13M 110M 11% /boot
> tmpfs 950M 0 950M 0% /dev/shm
> /dev/hdb10 487M 11M 451M 3% /home
> /dev/hdb9 487M 76M 386M 17% /opt
> /dev/hdb8 1.9G 35M 1.8G 2% /spare
> /dev/hdb11 487M 217M 245M 47% /tmp
> /dev/hdb2 9.5G 4.0G 5.0G 45% /usr
> /dev/hdb3 965M 38M 878M 5% /usr/local
> /dev/hdb6 1.9G 368M 1.5G 21% /var
> /dev/hda2 2.0G 1.5G 538M 74% /mnt/share
>
> "system-config-lvm" says that all my Linux partitions are of a
> "Uninitialized Disk Entity" class. This is due to the fact that I was
> not courageous enough to create anything with LVM back then. Suffice
> to say that nothing has been done to enjoy the benefits of LVM since.
>
> Question: Since my RHEL5.1 Tikanga is used as a running & viable
> system, and as long as I have recent partition backups, would I be
> able to "Initialize all the Disk Entities" and probably not loose
> anything? My Red Hat software is up-to the-minute current.
>
> Thank you in advance,
> Onepeanutwhistle

Hey,

Redhat has some really good LVM documentation that could probably
answer all your questions and then some. They will tell you what you
can and can not do - I have used them many times. Initializing disks
for LVM if you are not using LVM is not a good idea, especially if you
are using them. LVM is powerful, but can really bite you quick if you
make a mistake.

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/csgfs/index-master.html

JR.


--

Bill will have to take Linux from my cold, dead flippers.

-Tux.
From: Mark Anderson on
In article rebelATT(a)magmaDOTT.ca says...
> LVM is powerful, but can really bite you quick if you
> make a mistake.

Many years ago during an install of FC4 I had lvm installed by default.
Since my servers are only used by me I don't really need much
sophistication with regards to disk partitioning. Since then I have had
nothing but trouble with lvm and it adds a level of complexity I don't
need. I would never config a disk with lvm ever. YMMV


From: Johnny Rebel on
Mark Anderson wrote:
> In article rebelATT(a)magmaDOTT.ca says
>> LVM is powerful, but can really bite you quick if you
>> make a mistake.
>
> Many years ago during an install of FC4 I had lvm installed by default.
> Since my servers are only used by me I don't really need much
> sophistication with regards to disk partitioning. Since then I have had
> nothing but trouble with lvm and it adds a level of complexity I don't
> need. I would never config a disk with lvm ever. YMMV
>
>

Really? I actually find it quite mature now versus the FC4 days. I
like the flexibility it provides on all my systems. Granted, it is (or
can be) fairly complex, but if you have a really good understanding of
it, I would think you would not go back. I don't typically add slices
of disks, I only add entire disks so that helps quite a bit with the
complexities you mention. I have never really had a problem that was
not self inflicted! I have recently been working quite a bit with AIX's
LVM, and *much* prefer the LVM in Linux as it provides bounds more of
everything, especially stability!

JR.


--

Bill will have to take Linux from my cold, dead flippers.

-Tux.