Moving volume group to another Server in Linux

Moving a VG to another server:

To do this we use the vgexport and vgimport commands.

vgexport and vgimport is not necessary to move disk drives from one server to another. It is an administrative policy tool to prevent access to volumes in the time it takes to move them.

1. Unmount the file system
First, make sure that no users are accessing files on the active volume, then unmount it

# unmount /appdata

2.Mark the volume group inactive
Marking the volume group inactive removes it from the kernel and prevents any further activity on it.

# vgchange -an appvg
vgchange -- volume group "appvg" successfully deactivate



3. Export the volume group

It is now must to export the volume group. This prevents it from being accessed on the old server and prepares it to be removed.

# vgexport appvg
vgexport -- volume group "appvg" successfully exported

Now, When the machine is next shut down, the disk can be unplugged and then connected to it's new machine

4. Import the volume group

When it plugged into the new server, it becomes /dev/sdc (depends).

so an initial pvscan shows:

# pvscan
pvscan -- reading all physical volumes (this may take a while...)
pvscan -- inactive PV "/dev/sdc1" is in EXPORTED VG "appvg" [996 MB / 996 MB free]
pvscan -- inactive PV "/dev/sdc2" is in EXPORTED VG "appvg" [996 MB / 244 MB free]
pvscan -- total: 2 [1.95 GB] / in use: 2 [1.95 GB] / in no VG: 0 [0]

We can now import the volume group (which also activates it) and mount the file system.

If you are importing on an LVM 2 system, run:

# vgimport appvg
Volume group "vg" successfully imported

5. Activate the volume group

You must activate the volume group before you can access it.

# vgchange -ay appvg

Mount the file system

# mkdir -p /appdata
# mount /dev/appvg/appdata /appdata

The file system is now available for use.