On that system I run Arch Linux, like do for all of my systems except for my daughters which runs Edubuntu 8.04. I had all of my internal hard drives setup on LVM2 (Logical Volume Manager) partitions. When that system went down I was a shocked. To this day my beloved system still isn’t up and working correctly. So, in the mean time I was able to gather some old PC parts I had sitting in boxes and build out my “official” storage solution.

My storage solution is built up using a dual Pentium III 700 Mhz system with 256MB of RAM, a 4 port SATA PCI card, four 1 Terabyte hard drive & a 20Gig system drive. Over all it is a clunker besides the 4TB of hard drive space. But you are hear to read about my storage system & to know how to re-access your stranded LVM2 partitions.

Step 1: Move the functional hard drive(s) into a system that can read the LVM mappings (This means you have all the proper kernel modules installed & corresponding LVM software). Now if you have multiple drives that make up your LVM mappings, then you need to be able to have all drives accessible in one system. For me I only had one large drive mapped out to different volumes. I was able to add my drive to my storage server by using an external USB case.

Step 2: Once that the drive(s) is physically accessible in new system, you need to know what are the Physical Volume(s) (PV), Volume Groups (VG) & Logical Volume(s) (LV). To obtain this information run the following commands with root privileges & take note of the VG & LV names.

Step 2a: Show the list of available physical volumes by running su -c ‘pvdisplay’ .

[testuser ~]$ su -c 'pvdisplay'
--- Physical volume ---
 PV Name               /dev/sdf3
 VG Name               VolGroup00
 PV Size               150.56 GiB / not usable 2.66 MiB
 Allocatable           yes
 PE Size               4.00 MiB
 Total PE              38542
 Free PE               14222
 Allocated PE          24320
 PV UUID               YSFO73-x3IY-wNTg-CUND-e3wT-7Whb-yLk4iO

 ...

Step 2b: Show the list of available volume groups by running su -c ‘vgdisplay’ .

[testuser ~]$ su -c 'vgdisplay'
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               VolGroup00
  System ID
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  25
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                2
  Open LV               0
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               150.55 GiB
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              38542
  Alloc PE / Size       24320 / 95.00 GiB
  Free  PE / Size       14222 / 55.55 GiB
  VG UUID               oGX7wj-BLCd-6M8Q-3hPc-8wVN-r7jR-3Z6dgU

  ...

Step 2c: Show the list of available logical volume by running su -c ‘lvdisplay’ .

[testuser ~]$ su -c 'lvdisplay'
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/VolGroup00/Root
  VG Name                VolGroup00
  LV UUID                lnKn4G-BH0d-tn38-KJuz-o1ci-afVD-ncm5Zn
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 0
  LV Size                15.00 GiB
  Current LE             3840
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           253:2

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/VolGroup00/Home
  VG Name                VolGroup00
  LV UUID                l7oeK7-YKNV-KS2c-fXvO-hXpe-hIQP-LsqFxR
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 0
  LV Size                80.00 GiB
  Current LE             20480
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           253:3

  ...

Step 3: Now that you have the volume group name you need to make the volume(s) accessible on the new system. That is done by exporting (aka removing) the historical volume mappings, importing the volume group into the new system & activating the volume group.

Step 3a: Export the volume group with su -c ‘vgexport <replace with volume group>’

[testuser ~]$ vgimport VolGroup00
 Volume group "VolGroup00" is not exported

Step 3b: Importing the Volume Group using pvscan & then su -c ‘vgimport <replace with volume group’

[testuser ~]$ su -c 'pvscan'
 PV /dev/sdf3    is in exported VG VolGroup00 [150.55 GiB / 55.55 GiB free]
 PV /dev/md0    VG RaidArray    lvm2 [2.73 TiB / 1.17 TiB free]
 Total: 2 [897.09 GiB] / in use: 2 [897.09 GiB] / in no VG: 0 [0   ]

[testuser ~]$ su -c 'vgimport VolGroup00'
  Volume group "VolGroup00" successfully imported

Step 3c: Activating the Volume Group by using su -c ‘vgchange -ay ‘

[testuser ~]$ su -c 'vgchange -ay VolGroup00'
  2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active

Now that you have imported & activated the volume group,  you should be able to list the available logical volume drive mappings under /dev/mapper/.

ls -l /dev/mapper/

Step 4: The next step is to mount the logical volumes to check the integrity of the data. I would also suggest doing an file system check (fsck) of the partitions on logical volume before mounting them.

That it. You are ready to resume using your LVM partitions on your new system.

- Ken

LVM resource used for this post:

• HOW-To http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/LVM-HOWTO/#recipemovevgtonewsys
• Helpful link: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/remounting-a-lvm-partitioned-disk-on-new-box-136693/

You can get full details about the exploit on Darknet.org.uk. Here is a link to the post.

Have a look & listen . . .

You can follow daleochase on twitter & get the lyrics to his this song here.

Visit his web site @ http://syntaxbeats.squarespace.com/

- Ken

On my work laptop I run 64bit Arch Linux and the virtual machine software I run is VirtualBox version 3.0.2. VirtualBox has server me well over the past few year, but the one issue I have always run into with running VMs is disk space constraints. I typically give a VM the least amount of space it will need to run the operating system and the essential applications that I will need for testing and/or development. For Windows XP that is usually 8GB and for Windows Vista it is about 10 to 12 gigs.

So as I mentioned, I was running out of space on my main VM. I bitched about it on identica/twitter and received a great response to my complaining. Excid3 mentioned that I should create a new larger virtual disk and then use dd to clone the original virtual disk over to the new virtual disk. Once I read that it was like getting slapped in the face. I was shocked and ashamed that I never thought of doing that in the past.

The last time I looked into cloning a virtual disk, I did a google search and most of the suggestions mention creating a second virtual disk, but then using something like Symantec’s Ghost, PartImage or Clonezilla to perform the task of duplicating the disk data structure. I tried this solution once before and it ended in disaster and a waste of time.

Now with new insight and a fresh idea [something I should have thought of before] I set up to add a bit of extra space to my main dev/test VM. First I created a new 10GB virtual disk using the VirtualBox Virtual Media Manager. While creating the virtual disk I was downloading the ISO image of SystemResuceCD. Once the virtual disk was created, I went into the settings of my VM and added the new virtual disk as a secondary IDE drive. I then set the VM to point to the SystemRescueCD ISO and boot from that ISO image. Once I was booted into the SystemRescueCD environment I executed the following command:

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=64

I let the duplication process run it’s course, which took about 15 to 20 minutes. Plus, since I am a bit paranoid, I was running the following bash script from a terminal on the physical system from inside the folder that holds my virtual disk to make sure the virtual disk was being created:

while x=0
  do
  ls -lh *.vdi
  df -h | grep home
  sleep 2
done

Once the dd process was complete I shut down the VM, released the SystemRescueCD ISO image, then I changed the order of the primary virtual disk to the new disk and booted the VM to make sure the all was good. Once I was certain the new virtual disk  was good, I shut down the VM, re-mounted the SystemRescueCD ISO to the VM and booted the VM to re-enter the SystemRescueCD environment. Once inside, I ran a startx to bring of a graphical interface for running gparted (Gnome Partition Editor). I then used gparted to expand the unused portion of the virtual disk from 8GB to 10 GB. Once that was completed, I rebooted the VM & unmounted the ISO. Windows run a CHKD on the expanded virtual disk and my VM came to life with an addition 2 gigs of space.

Thanks to Excid3 I now have a new & quicker process for expanding the virtual disk size constrains I set upon myself.

-Ken

Here is the link to his post: [one-liner]: Special Variables in Bash

I was able to find his blog by subscribing to the Linux Plant blog RSS feed.

- Ken

When I say that you have to be on pace with the moving technology arena, I am not just talking about ponying up the cash for the hottest tech toy. I am talk about actually knowing what that tech toy can & can’t do. It is about educating yourself so you can become a smart consumer and a smarted user of technology.

If you are a parent, this is doubly important. As a parent myself, I know that I am going to be the first teacher of the world to my kids. I don’t want to rely on someone else or have my kids rely on themselves to learn about technology. Granted I am a skilled user of technology, but I don’t see this as any different then a person who is a mechanic, a carpenter or any other skilled trade. Most skilled trades man/women are going to tech their kids how to do that job or at least understand it. The is all I am doing.

So that this why I have started my kids out early in their technology education courses. With my first daughter, PJ, we had to get her a computer for herself so my wife and I could do our computing in piece. I put together a simple system when she was 18 months and we bought her a good amount of software that was fun and entertaining for her age [Reader Rabbit, Sesame Street, etc]. Many of our friends couldn’t believe that our 18 month old child was able to play computer games by herself and truly understood what was going on. All we had to do was ask her what game she wanted and load the CD. She was able to do the rest.

Now 7 years later, PJ has been the computer assistant in kindergarten & 1st grade. She is the kid all the other kids [& sometimes the teacher] turn to when they don’t understand what is happening on the computer. It’s actually funny & scary to hear that she has become a mini IT person for her classes.

With our second child, MJ, she is chomping at the bit to be able to use a computer. She just turned 1, but has had a computer keyboard in her face since she was born. It is hard to keep her away from our laptops and other other computer in the house. Cause she loves to play the, “I’m going to touch your Backspace button while you are typing or surfing the net” game.

But we already have the plan in place for MJ. We kept PJ’s old computer and when MJ is about 18 months old I will set it up for her. We still have all of games PJ used and have learned about many web sites over the years of educating PJ.

It is going to be a lot of fun to have MJ on a computer also. I know PJ will have a blast teaching her lil sister the ins & outs of the games and web sits. It will be hard to keep PJ out of MJ’s way, but I know they will work it all out.

I can’t wait to see where PJ & MJ will be in the next 6 years. PJ will be 14 & MJ 7. I bet we will all be sitting around the house on our computers mirco-blogging to each other about how good dinner was that night.

Thanks to ThinkGeek for helping me show the world that my littlest one will be a geek when she goes up. Here is a link to the Onesie

-Ken

So, I’ve tossed back & forth the idea of getting one of the off the shelf NAS devices by Thecus, Netgear, LaCie or Buffalo. I am mostly considering one of the Thecus devices. I believe they are running Linux, which I really like. Plus they provide a long laundry list of features amoung their devices. I have been looking at one of the N4100 serious or the N5200. The N4100s supports 4 SATA drives and the N5200 holds 5. Either would work. They all support RAID 0, 1, 5 and JBOD. The networking options are pretty nice to.

The other option I have kicked around was using an existing machine, loading it with SATA disks and then using FreeNAS or rolling my own solution with Linux to manage the data store. Doing it this way adds some limitation. One limit is the bus speed. In my existing system I only have standard PCI slots. Then in my box of extra motherboards, processors & parts I am still limited by only having PCI slots. It would be nice to have a system with PCI-X for PCI-Express slots, but to go out and upgrade a full system to gain that level of bus speed is not economical.

The next limit I have is cold hard cash!

OK, I am not truly limited on the financial side, but I do prefer to be on the cheap side. I don’t like to spend too much on items that I know I can get similar functionality from a less expensive items. The cost of a “true” hardware RAID card is way out of my mental budget. I can’t see paying over $200 for a damn expansion card. That means I am looking at RAID enabled cards that are providing software RAID, a.k.a. Fake RAID. The software RAID provided on the expansion cards can be a step above the “fake” RAID provided on most modern motherboards. That doesn’t sit all that well in the pit of my stomach. Not after recently talking with a co-worker that lost a lot of personal data because the RAID on his motherboard failed & corrupted his hard drives. He was running a 1+0 RAID across 4 drives. He should have been pretty safe against failure, but he wasn’t. I am looking at running RAID for the reliability factor. After that story I am over all worried. Myself, I would not run anything but RAID 5.

So knowing that I am not going to put out the cash for a full hardware RAID card & I am still not sure if I am going to do an external NAS system. I am left at looking at rolling my own solution using the software RAID provided by a sub 200 dollar SATA RAID card or buying any cheap SATA card that provides 4 to 8 ports and using the RAID capabilities built into the Linux kernel. This final solution doesn’t scare me too much. I am pretty damn sure that the reliability of the Linux kernel’s RAID is good. I would bet most of the software RAID cards are running embedded Linux anyways and using the RAID stack within the card.

So now the research and testing starts. I have purchased 4 1 terabyte SATA II hard drives. I still need a SATA controller to drive the hard drives and a raid cage to hold the hard drives. I am currently scowering newegg.com, Tiger Direct and other sites for highly rated SATA controllers that work well with Linux. Once I buy the controller and start my testing I will post the next piece of RAID to the AID.

-Ken

The projects that have taken all my time are related to other web sites that I am launching with my wife. I have been working on a theme for this site that needs some fine tuning. And now I have to do a web site for my next family reunion in 2010.

If you are subscribed to my RSS feed, I want to thank you for following. I will try to keep this blog active.

ks

Twitter has become cool because, they were purchased by Control Yourself, Inc.. Control Yourself, Inc. is the creating body behind the Leconica open source microblogging software that powers Identi.ca. Yup, that wonderful open microblogging, protocol pimping, federated communication entity  stepped up and saved the tweeting day by buying the most crashy ass Web 2.0 site out there. Now there is a chance for everyone to not get the Twitter Fail Whale when trying to post their most important tweets.

“We consider this an excellent merger of resources,” says Control Yourself CEO Evan Prodromou, who will remain in charge of the combined operations. “Identi.ca brings a superior feature set, a distributed architecture and Open Source development model, and impressive reliability, while Twitter brings little smiley robot images and the timely, fascinating personalities like Britney Spears and Shaquille O’Neal, as well as a celebrity concierge.”

So, what does this mean for all the the loyal open mircoblogging software users and followers. . . . WE WIN!!!!

As you can tell, I am pretty excited about this news. I have no idea where Evan Prodromou and Control Yourself, Inc. came up with the Franklins, Roosevelts, Benjamins, Washingtons & Canadian Bank Notes to buy Twitter. I suspect that Twitter was not truly worth all the money that was projected by the street. Or Evan just rolls in cash like P Diddy and we didn’ t know it. Either way, I am damn happy they were able to drop kick the freedom haters into the wide open arena of free software.

Good job Evan, I am looking forward to seeing what other Web 2.0 freedom haters you will be taking on in the near future. . . Facebook maybe?

Peace,

Ken

PS – Not sure I am digging the new look of Identica.

Identica's New Look

Today, March 28th 2009, will be that day that you can give back to the Earth by reducing your power consumption for one hour. The proposed plan is to turn off all your lights for 1 hour starting at 8:30 PM.

Personally I think that is too simple. I say step up and do more then what is asked of you. Turn off everything non critical! Turn off the TV, stereo, computers, cell phones, Internet gateways, media player, hand held gaming devices and more. I know that we are going to turn off everything but the refrigerator in my house tonight at 8:30 PM PST.  Ideally it would be great to see blocks of an hour on Identica, Twitter, Facebook and other social networks where there are no posts for an hour. The only way for everyone to know about Earth Hour and the VOTE EARTH movement is by spreading the word. So get to it!

Now you ask, “What the hell am I going to do for an hour with out my electronic devices!?!?!“.

Enjoy the time sitting in the dark with candles glowing entertaining yourself and loved ones with something simple. If you have kids, tell them stories of your time as a kid. Let them know of some of the crazy things you did. Let them know that you did know how to have some fun before you became a parent. How about playing a board game or some card games. If you don’t have kids, but you have a significant other. Maybe it is time to kick some romance back into your relationship. I wont provide suggestions on that topic. Just remember what you did to get into the relationship and recapture those ideas.

I was turned on to this idea from a post from Evan Prodromou on identica and wanted to make sure that I did my small part of spreading the word. If you want to learn more about VOTE EARTH and Earth Hour, visit their web site at http://www.earthhour.org.

Thanks for reading this post and make sure you turn off your unnecessary powered sucking devices tonight at 8:30 PM.

Ken