Basic LVM Health Check

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10

Situation

How can I check to see if LVM is basically healthy and ready for operation?

Resolution

First you should only have one LVM package installed, either LVM or LVM2. If you have LVM (which is LVM version 1) installed, seriously consider updating to LVM version 2.

LVM needs to scan the disks for LVM meta data. It uses vgscan to do so. Once it finds disks with meta data, it runs the vgchange -ay command to activate any volumes that may be defined on the disks with LVM meta data. The boot.lvm script performs this action.

So boot.lvm must be turned on. The boot.device-mapper script should be on, and generally boot.evms is turned off. The boot.md script should only if you are running software raid.

When the lvm2 RPM package is checked, there should be no binaries or library files that have been changed. If they have consider reinstalling the package.

Disclaimer

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