Despite all the effort various HP disk divisions put into making highly reliable disk drives, occasionally a disk mechanism goes bad and needs to be replaced. After the old disk is replaced with a new one (retaining the hardware address of the original to avoid confusion), the data needs to be restored to that disk from a backup. Before LVM, in the simple world of hard sectioning, this meant checking your notes for the original sectioning scheme, then recreating file systems as necessary on those sections, and restoring the data from the backup.

With LVM, the picture is slightly more complicated. That one disk could have various pieces of several logical volumes on it. The layout of those logical volumes (LVs or lvols) must first be restored, and the data for each of those LVs restored from backup.

This document endeavours to provide a step by step guide to replacing a faulty LVM disk, outlining the general sequence of commands required to perform the task. It is divided into 4 chapters with 1 appendix as follows:

At the start of each of the chapters there is an example system configuration, which is referred to in the examples for each of the steps. Use these example systems to understand the process, but please be careful to issue the required commands relevant to the system actually being recovered.

Of particular importance is Appendix A, which outlines the steps that must be performed PRIOR to the disk failing. Please make sure that you read this section carefully, and implement the required procedures as soon as possible. Your system recovery may rely on these steps. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the procedures outlined in this document prior to the time of ever needing them so that you understand fully the steps involved.

If you have any questions about the recovery process, please contact your local Hewlett-Packard Customer Response Center for assistance.

CHAPTER 1