LinuxQuestions.org - best way to move data from one disk to another

- Red Hat (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/red-hat-31/)

- - best way to move data from one disk to another (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/red-hat-31/best-way-to-move-data-from-one-disk-to-another-4175493124/)

best way to move data from one disk to another

Environment:
Red hat 5.9
EMC powerpath devices
This is a SERVER not a laptop or desk top.
-----------------

We have a system that has around 10T of data on it.
It has EMC attached devices from several EMC frames.

My SAN admin wants to retire one of the frames this machine has disk from. (9 disk in total)

There is one large volume group.

In AIX we have a command called migratepv that allows us to move data from one disk to another without system downtime or impact to the users.

Is there a similar command in Linux that will allow me to extend my vg to include a new disk and then move the data off the old disk to the new one without rebuilding the vg or taking the system down etc.

If downtime is needed what other options other than rebuilding a 10T filesystem is there if any?

Any help would be great. I am googling the heck out of this and all I am coming up with is commands to back up you OS disk and install another one and clone it back and similar articles. Nothing for SAN attached devices.

I am using lvm and I have found out about a command pvmove I will review the manpages on that command and see if that will do it for me or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by unix1adm (Post 5108039)

Environment:
Red hat 5.9
EMC powerpath devices
This is a SERVER not a laptop or desk top.
-----------------

We have a system that has around 10T of data on it. It has EMC attached devices from several EMC frames. My SAN admin wants to retire one of the frames this machine has disk from. (9 disk in total)

There is one large volume group. In AIX we have a command called migratepv that allows us to move data from one disk to another without system downtime or impact to the users. Is there a similar command in Linux that will allow me to extend my vg to include a new disk and then move the data off the old disk to the new one without rebuilding the vg or taking the system down etc.

If downtime is needed what other options other than rebuilding a 10T filesystem is there if any?

Any help would be great. I am googling the heck out of this and all I am coming up with is commands to back up you OS disk and install another one and clone it back and similar articles. Nothing for SAN attached devices.

Rather than Googling for it, have you contacted either your SAN vendor or Red Hat support?

You don't mention what kind of SAN you have, but I know on EMC SAN's, the SAN administrator can copy/clone disks/volume-groups in the SAN itself. The only downtime needed will be a reboot, as the old frame is pulled out, and your FC connection migrates to the new frame. Your SAN administrator should be familiar with whatever migration processes they've got available to them. In EMC land, this is either a BCV clone or snapshot.