Just for clarity: Second sector = sector 1 (counting from 0). For the sake of completeness: --labelsector sector By default the PV is labelled with an LVM2 identifier in its second sector (sector 1). This lets you use a differ‐ ent sector near the start of the disk (between 0 and 3 inclusive - see LABEL_SCAN_SECTORS in the source). Use with care. Hope you can revocer you metadata - btw, did you loose your /etc dir as well (Was it on one of the PVs?)? Regards -Sven On Fri, December 30, 2011 09:20, peter.bieshaar@gmail.com wrote: > Sven, > > thanks for this information. I will investigate the MetaData, on the > second > sector, as you mentioned. Now I also can more easily search the code > (using > the LVM2 and LABELONE strings). I tried but, it's a lot > > Peter > > 2011/12/29 Sven Eschenberg <sven@whgl.uni-frankfurt.de> > >> Assuming you used standard config when creating the LVM, you'll find PV >> metadata at the very beginning of the disk (an probably nowhere else). >> >> There is no such thing like per PE markers, all information is stored in >> the LVM header. Usually though there should be files in /etc holding the >> information of the PVs/VGs/LVs as backup - assuming the rest of the disk >> layout is still valid (i.e. PV on partition -> partition still exists) >> >> The LVM Metadata is in the second sector (usually) and you should see >> something like the string LVM2 and LABELONE (for LVM 2 metadata) >> >> I don't know of any detailed on disk format description (except the >> source >> probably). >> >> Regards >> >> -Sven >> >> >> On Wed, December 28, 2011 11:03, peter.bieshaar@gmail.com wrote: >> > Due to a hardware mistake (dvd and hdu as IDE-master ??) I lost >> complete >> > disk- and therefor lvm administration on SATA disks. >> > - In other words I cannot see the partition- or PV/VG and LV >> > administration. >> > - So, fdisk or (pv|vg|lv)display can't give information. >> > >> > lvm was initiated under ubuntu 11.04 or 10.10, a recent lvm2 version >> was >> > installed. >> > >> > On one disk I tried to create a partition (without creating a >> filesystem >> > of-course :) ) but no pv-information was shown, using pvdisplay. I >> didn't >> > dare to do this on my RAID1 (md) disks. >> > I can read the disks with strings and dd, and saw content of scripts >> and >> > documents. So the content/data is still on the disks. >> > >> > My chosen strategy to recover the LV's, is finding the PE's, pickthem >> > up and place them in a blob on another filesystem. So I can mount -o >> loop >> > that blob and restructure the disks. >> > >> > My problem now is how to find these information. The web gives a lot >> of >> > information how to setup, but almost none on technical issues like >> this. >> > >> > Can someone give me a hint on how this (the PE's) technically is being >> > organized (pointer -> pointer structures??) and where and how to >> search >> > these on the disk. So I can write a C-thingy to accomplish my >> strategy. >> If >> > someone already has something like this, or examples, >> > >> > -- >> > Regards, >> > >> > Peter Bieshaar >> > _______________________________________________ >> > linux-lvm mailing list >> > linux-lvm@redhat.com >> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm >> > read the LVM HOW-TO at http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/ >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> linux-lvm mailing list >> linux-lvm@redhat.com >> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm >> read the LVM HOW-TO at http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/ >> > > > > -- > Regards/Met vriendelijke groet, > > Peter Bieshaar > ------------------------------------------ > "FATAL ERROR" in large friendly letters > _______________________________________________ > linux-lvm mailing list > linux-lvm@redhat.com > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm > read the LVM HOW-TO at http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/ _______________________________________________ linux-lvm mailing list linux-lvm@redhat.com https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm read the LVM HOW-TO at http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/