vxconvert - convert JFS or JFS2 file systems and LVM volumes to VxFS file systems and VxVM volumes

vxconvert

vxconvert is a menu-driven program that allows you to convert IBM Logical Volume Manager (LVM) and Journal File System (JFS) or Enhanced Journal File System (JFS2) configuration to a Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) and Veritas File System (VxFS) configuration. Refer to the Veritas Foundation Suite Migration Guide for a detailed description of how to use the conversion procedure.

The vxconvert script is interactive and prompts you for responses, supplying defaults where appropriate. There is a Help facility at every prompt. Enter a question mark (?) at a prompt to display a context-sensitive help message.

With vxconvert, you can identify LVM volume groups, list disks, analyze volume groups and file systems for conversion, and perform the conversion of LVM volume groups and JFS or JFS2 file systems to VxVM disk groups and VxFS file systems.

All disks in a volume group are converted together. You cannot use vxconvert to convert unused LVM disks (that are not part of an LVM volume group) to VxVM disks. To convert unused LVM disks, use the reducevg command to take the disk out of LVM control, and then use the vxdiskadm command to initialize the disk for VxVM use (see the reducevg(1M) and vxdiskadm(1M) manual pages for more information).

Note: You can only convert unmounted JFS or JFS2 file systems to VxFS file systems.

vxconvert changes disks within LVM volume groups to VxVM disks by replacing the areas of the disks that are used for LVM and JFS or JFS2 configuration information with the equivalent VxVM and VxFS configuration information. Portions of the disks that are used for user data, such as file systems and databases, are not affected by the conversion.

Note: The conversion process changes the names by which your system refers to the logical storage, so it must be carried out offline. No applications must be allowed to access data in the volume groups undergoing conversion. Unmount file systems that use those volumes, and shut down any applications, such as databases, that might use the volumes directly.

This option analyzes LVM volume groups and their JFS or JFS2 file systems that are to be converted to VxVM and VxFS. The analysis checks for problems that can prevent the conversion from completing successfully. It calculates the space that is needed to convert a JFS or JFS2 file system to a VxFS file system, and also calculates the space that is required to add volume group disks to a VxVM disk group. More than one volume group may be entered at the prompt. A grep-like pattern may be used to select multiple volume groups.

See the Veritas Foundation Suite Migration Guide for more information on conversion limitations.

This option converts LVM volume groups and any JFS or JFS2 file systems to VxVM disk groups and VxFS file systems. You are prompted to enter a name for the VxVM disk group that is to replace each LVM volume group being converted. You can choose to use the suggested default name, which is based on the existing volume group name.

Caution: Before conversion, clean and unmount all JFS and JFS2 file systems in the LVM volume groups that are to be converted. Conversion cannot be performed for mounted or dirty file systems. Make a full backup of all file systems, including JFS and JFS2 file systems, in the volume groups before starting the conversion process.

See the Veritas Foundation Suite Migration Guide for more information on the conversion procedure.

After committing the conversion of the LVM volume groups and JFS and JFS2 file systems to VxVM volumes and VxFS file systems, correct the names of the volume entries in the /etc/filesystems file, and run full a fsck check on the converted VxFS file systems.

Caution: Back up the data in the file systems before performing the conversion. The only way to reverse the conversion is to recreate the LVM volume and JFS and JFS2 file system configuration, and then restore the data from a backup.

See the Veritas Foundation Suite Migration Guide for more information on restoring an LVM volume group and JFS or JFS2 file system configuration.

This option sets the location for storing Volume Group Reserved Area (VGRA) records and JFS or JFS2 metadata. The default location for storing this information is the /etc/vx/reconfig.d directory.

During conversion, certain LVM, JFS and JFS2 metadata records must be saved. The largest of these records is the VGRA record for each physical volume in an LVM volume group. The default location for this record is /etc/vx/reconfig.d/disk.d, which is usually in the root file system. For small records, this is usually not a problem. However, when converting LVM volume groups with large VGDAs, the size of the VGRA for each physical volume may be more than 64 megabytes. For example, the space required to store the VGRAs for a 128-disk volume group could be over 8 gigabytes. As it is unlikely that a system has this much spare disk space in its root file system, use this option to specify a suitable alternative location.

This option displays information about the disks on a system. You can obtain detailed information about a specific disk by entering its disk device address.

This option used the lsvg command to display a list of LVM volume groups. This allows you to obtain detailed information about a LVM volume group at a specific disk device address.

/etc/filesystems
	Mount point entries.
/etc/vx/reconfig.d
	Default location for archiving VGRA records and JFS or JFS2 metadata.
/etc/vx/reconfig.d/disk.d
	Default location for archiving VGRA records for each physical volume in an LVM volume group.

filesystems(4), fs_vxfs(4), fsadm_vxfs(1M), fsck(1M), fsck_vxfs(1M), lsfs(1M), lsvg(1M), mkfs_vxfs(1M), reducevg(1M), vxassist(1M), vxdisk(1M), vxdiskadd(1M), vxdiskadm(1M), vxintro(1M), vxresize(1M), vxupgrade(1M)

Veritas Foundation Suite Migration Guide