lvm2-activation.service exit status 5 when volume_list specified

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
Logical Volume Management (LVM)

Situation

When a server has multiple LVM volumes and a subset of those volumes is listed under activation volume_list in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf, the lvm2-activation.service and lvm2-activation-early.service fail with an exit status 5.

server:~ # cat /etc/lvm/lvm.conf
<snip>
activation {
  volume_list = [ "vg02" ]
}
<snip>

server:~ # systemctl status 'lvm2-activation.service'
lvm2-activation.service - Activation of LVM2 logical volumes
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/lvm/lvm.conf)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2015-07-14 05:21:35 MDT; 6h ago
     Docs: man:lvm(8)
           man:vgchange(8)
  Process: 540 ExecStart=/sbin/lvm vgchange -aay --sysinit (code=exited, status=5)
 Main PID: 540 (code=exited, status=5)

Jul 14 05:21:35 server lvm[540]: Not activating vg01/lv01 since it does not pass activation filter.
Jul 14 05:21:35 server lvm[540]: Not activating vg03/lv03 since it does not pass activation filter.

However, the correct volumes are activated, while the other volumes are not.

server:~ # lvs
  LV    VG    Attr      LSize Pool Origin Data%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  lv01  vg01  -wi------ 4.99g                                             
  lv02  vg02  -wi-a---- 7.49g                                             
  lv02b vg02  -wi-a---- 7.50g                                             
  lv03  vg03  -wi------ 9.99g

Resolution

Add activation/auto_activation_volume_list with activation/volume_list.

Edit the /etc/lvm/lvm.conf and change

activation {
  volume_list = [ "vg02" ]
}

activation {
  volume_list = [ "vg02" ]
  auto_activation_volume_list = [ "vg02" ]
}

Save, exit and reboot.

Cause

The startup command vgchange -aay uses autoactivation. So the auto_activation_volume_list is needed. Both volume_list and auto_activation_volume_list can be set to the same list and will avoid errors whether vgchange -ay or vgchange -aay are used.

Disclaimer

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