Acronis True Image restores LVM volumes as non-LVM partitions. You will need to take extra steps to make the restored system bootable. You can also restore LVM volumes to prepared LVMs

This article applies to:

• Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Linux
• Acronis True Image Echo Server for Linux

Introduction

You need to back up logical volumes of LVM and ordinary (non-LVM) partitions. There is no need to back up physical volumes of LVM, as they are backed up sector-by-sector and there is no guarantee that it will work after the restore.

The listed Acronis products recognize logical LVM volumes as Dynamic or GPT volumes.

Logical LVM volumes can be restored as non-LVM (regular) partitions in Acronis Rescue Mode. Logical LVM volumes can be restored on top of existing LVM volumes. See LVM Volumes Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Linux Supports or LVM Volumes Supported by Acronis True Image Echo.

Solution

Restoring LVM volumes as non-LVMs

1. Restore partitions

   • Restore logical LVM volumes and non-LVM partitions one by one with Acronis backup software.
   • Do not forget to make the boot partition Active (/ or /boot if available).

2. Make the system bootable

   1. Boot from Linux Distribution Rescue CD.

   2. Enter rescue mode.

   3. Mount the restored root(/) partition. If the rescue CD mounted partitions automatically, skip to the next step.

      Most distributions will try to mount the system partitions as designated in /etc/fstab of the restored system. Since there are no LVMs available, this process is likely to fail. This is why you might need to mount the restored partitions manually:

      Enter the following command:

      #cat /proc/partitions

      You will get the list of recognized partitions:

      major	minor	#blocks	name
      8	0	8388608	sda
      8	1	104391	sda1
      8	2	8281507	sda2

      Mount the root(/) partition:

      #mount -t [fs_type] [device] [system_mount_point]

      In the example below /dev/sda2 is root, because it was restored as second primary partition on SATA disk

      #mount -t ext3 /dev/sda2 /mnt/sysimage

   4. Mount /boot if it was not mounted automatically:

      #mount -t [fs_type] /dev/[device] /[system_mount_point]/boot

      Example:

      #mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt/sysimage/boot

   5. chroot to the mounted / of the restored partition: 

      #chroot [mount_point] 

   6. Mount /proc in chroot 

      #mount -t proc proc /proc

   7. Create hard disk devices in /dev if it was not populated automatically.

      Check existing partitions with cat /proc/partitions and create appropriate devices for them:

      #/sbin/MAKEDEV [device]

   8. Edit /etc/fstab on the restored partition:

      Replace all entries of /dev/VolGroupXX/LogVolXX with appropriate /dev/[device]. You can find which device you need to mount in cat /proc/partitions.

   9. Edit grub.conf 

      Open /boot/grub/grub.conf and edit it to replace /dev/VolGroupXX/LogVolXX with appropriate /dev/[device]

   10. Reactivate GRUB

       Run the following command to re-activate GRUB automatically:

       #grub-install /dev/[device]

   11. Make sure the system boots fine.

Restoring LVM volumes on prepared LVMs 

1. Prepare the LVM volumes 

   • Boot from Acronis Bootable Media;

   • Press F11 after the Starting Acronis Loader... message appears and you get to the selection screen of the program; 

   • After you get the Linux Kernel Settings prompt, remove the word quiet and click OK;

   • Select the Full version menu item to boot. Wait for # prompt to appear;

   • List the partitions you have on the hard disk:

     #fdisk -l

     This will give not only the list of partitions on the hard drive, but also the name of the device associated with the hard disk.

   • Start creating partitions using fdisk:

     #fdisk [device]

     where [device] is the name of the device associated with the hard disk

   • Create physical volumes for LVMs:

     #lvm pvcreate [partition]

     for example, #lvm pvcreate /dev/sda2

   • Create LVM group

     #lvm vgcreate [name] [device]

     where [name] is a name of the Volume Group you create; and [device] is the name of the device associated with the partition you want to add to the Volume Group

     for example, #lvm vgcreate VolGroup00 /dev/sda2  

   • Create LVM volumes inside the group:

     #lvm lvcreate –L[size] -n[name] [VolumeGroup]

     where [size] is the size of the Volume being created (e.g. 4G); [name] is the name of the Volume being created; [VolumeGroup] is the name of the Volume Group where we want to place the volume

     For example, #lvm lvcreate -L6G -nLogVol00 VolGroup00

   • Activate the created LVM:

     #lvm vgchange -ay

   • Start Acronis product:

     #/bin/product

2. Restore partitions

   • Restore partitions from your backup archive to the created LVM volumes

More information

See also:

• LVM Volumes Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Linux Supports
• LVM Volumes Supported by Acronis True Image Echo

Read more about LVM at http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/