YaST LVM module loses LVM metadata on device mapper devices

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 4
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 3

Situation

A storage device managed by the device mapper, without partitions on it, is added to an LVM volume group using the YaST LVM module. The next time the YaST LVM module is started, the storage device does not appear to be a member of a volume group

Resolution

Use partitioned devices, where the partition type is set to "Linux LVM" (type 8e)

If this is not possible, use the LVM command line tools instead of YaST to manage volume groups which contain unpartitioned device mapper devices

Additional Information

This problem has been reported to development.

The metadata has not been lost, as may be verified from the command line, with

pvdisplay /dev/mapper/<device name>

The problem is strictly within YaST. On unpartitioned device mapper devices, it fails to detect the LVM information

It is important to not attempt to add the device again to the volume group in YaST, as this will cause corruption and dataloss on the volume group

Disclaimer

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