FC3 - Clone disk - LVM

[dhenchoz]

Hello,

I've recently installed a FC3 on a DELL 8100 with 2 x 20GB disk and 256 MB RAM

After the installtion, patches, and basic configuration, I've "cloned" the first disk on the second disk with a program called Dfsee. It copy block by block the first disk on the second one.

I want to have an useable second boot disk in case of problem or misconfiguration on the first one.

During the installation of FC3 LVM is started an installed and the file systems are referenced like /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 for the / filesystem for example.

During the boot after the clone, I get the following error message :

Found duplicate PV f4NFg3y6v2CkhmI489SH66vdqRoOdIRN: using /dev/hdb2 not /dev/hda2

The "commands" report the same problem after the system is booted :

# pvdisplay
Found duplicate PV f4NFg3y6v2CkhmI489SH66vdqRoOdIRN: using /dev/hdb2
not /dev/hda2
--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/hda2
VG Name VolGroup00
PV Size 18,53 GB / not usable 0
Allocatable yes
PE Size (KByte) 32768
Total PE 593
Free PE 1
Allocated PE 592
PV UUID f4NFg3-y6v2-Ckhm-I489-SH66-vdqR-oOdIRN

I suspect ther i a problem with the PV UUID on the second disk /dev/hdb2, but I dont know how to resolve this problem ?

Any idea ?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Daniel

[Jman]

Almost sounds as if the disks are switched for some odd reason.

I haven't heard of that tool. You can copy hard drives bit for bit with the dd tool. I'm not sure what added complexity LVM brings, however.

A different solution to this would be to develop a kickstart automated install file, so you could reinstall to the same state. You wouldn't even need the extra disk.

[dhenchoz]

Thanks for your proposal.

The problem isn't to copy the disk. Dfsee, dd, ... or anything else works fine.

The problem is that LVM stores somewhere the drive name /dev/hda2, and when I try to boot on /dev/hdb2 the name missmatch and it doesn't work ... :

Found duplicate PV f4NFg3y6v2CkhmI489SH66vdqRoOdIRN: using /dev/hdb2 not /dev/hda2

I would like to modifiy the "LVM" information on the second disk (/dev/hdb2) to let it work ...

Kickstart is a nice idea, but it's quiet borring to write the PostInstall script to keep all the modifications done on the system ...

My primary goal was to have a standby backup disk cloned on a regular basis. I could so prevent a disk failure and also be able to recover one specific file ont the "cloned" disk in case of human error.

Thanks

Daniel