The disk layout generation code in Relax-and-Recover is responsible for the faithful recreation of the disk layout of the original system. It gathers information about any component in the system layout. Components supported in Relax-and-Recover include:
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Partitions
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Logical volume management (LVM)
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Software RAID (MD)
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Encrypted volumes (LUKS)
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Multipath disks
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Swap
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Filesystems
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Btrfs Volumes
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DRBD
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HP SmartArray controllers
Relax-and-Recover detects dependencies between these components.
During the rescue media creation phase, Relax-and-Recover centralizes all information in one file. During recovery, that file is used to generate the actual commands to recreate the components. Relax-and-Recover allows customizations and manual editing in all these phases.
Layout information is stored in /var/lib/rear/layout/disklayout.conf. The term 'layout file' in this document refers to this particular file.
Consider the information from the following system as an example:
disk /dev/sda 160041885696 msdos # disk /dev/sdb 320072933376 msdos # disk /dev/sdc 1999696297984 msdos part /dev/sda 209682432 32768 primary boot /dev/sda1 part /dev/sda 128639303680 209719296 primary lvm /dev/sda2 part /dev/sda 31192862720 128849022976 primary none /dev/sda3 # part /dev/sdb 162144912384 32256 primary none /dev/sdb1 # part /dev/sdb 152556666880 162144944640 primary none /dev/sdb2 # part /dev/sdb 5371321856 314701611520 primary boot /dev/sdb3 # part /dev/sdc 1073741824000 1048576 primary boot /dev/sdc1 # part /dev/sdc 925953425408 1073742872576 primary lvm /dev/sdc2 # lvmdev /dev/backup /dev/sdc2 cJp4Mt-Vkgv-hVlr-wTMb-0qeA-FX7j-3C60p5 1808502784 lvmdev /dev/system /dev/mapper/disk N4Hpdc-DkBP-Hdm6-Z6FH-VixZ-7tTb-LiRt0w 251244544 # lvmgrp /dev/backup 4096 220764 904249344 lvmgrp /dev/system 4096 30669 125620224 # lvmvol /dev/backup backup 12800 104857600 # lvmvol /dev/backup externaltemp 38400 314572800 lvmvol /dev/system root 2560 20971520 lvmvol /dev/system home 5120 41943040 lvmvol /dev/system var 2560 20971520 lvmvol /dev/system swap 512 4194304 lvmvol /dev/system vmxfs 7680 62914560 lvmvol /dev/system kvm 5000 40960000 fs /dev/mapper/system-root / ext4 uuid=dbb0c0d4-7b9a-40e2-be83-daafa14eff6b label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=131072 max_mounts=21 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-home /home ext4 uuid=e9310015-6043-48cd-a37d-78dbfdba1e3b label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=262144 max_mounts=38 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-var /var ext4 uuid=a12bb95f-99f2-42c6-854f-1cb3f144d662 label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=131072 max_mounts=23 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-vmxfs /vmware xfs uuid=7457d2ab-8252-4f41-bab6-607316259975 label= options=rw,noatime fs /dev/mapper/system-kvm /kvm ext4 uuid=173ab1f7-8450-4176-8cf7-c09b47f5e3cc label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=256000 max_mounts=21 check_interval=180d options=rw,noatime,commit=0 fs /dev/sda1 /boot ext3 uuid=f6b08566-ea5e-46f9-8f73-5e8ffdaa7be6 label= blocksize=1024 reserved_blocks=10238 max_mounts=35 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 swap /dev/mapper/system-swap uuid=9f347fc7-1605-4788-98fd-fca828beedf1 label= crypt /dev/mapper/disk /dev/sda2 cipher=aes-xts-plain hash=sha1 uuid=beafe67c-d9a4-4992-80f1-e87791a543bb
This document will continue to use this example to explore the various options available in Relax-and-Recover. The exact syntax of the layout file is described in a later section. It is already clear that this file is human readable and thus human editable. It is also machine readable and all information necessary to restore a system is listed.
It’s easy to see that there are 3 disks attached to the system. /dev/sda is the internal disk of the system. Its filesystems are normally mounted. The other devices are external disks. One of them has just normal partitions. The other one has a physical volume on one of the partitions.
Relax-and-Recover has reasonable defaults when creating the recovery information. It has commented out the two external disks and any component that’s part of it. The reason is that no mounted filesystem uses these two disks. After all, you don’t want to recreate your backup disk when you’re recovering your system.
If we mount the filesystem on /dev/mapper/backup-backup on /media/backup, Relax-and-Recover will think that it’s necessary to recreate the filesystem:
disk /dev/sda 160041885696 msdos # disk /dev/sdb 320072933376 msdos disk /dev/sdc 1999696297984 msdos part /dev/sda 209682432 32768 primary boot /dev/sda1 part /dev/sda 128639303680 209719296 primary lvm /dev/sda2 part /dev/sda 31192862720 128849022976 primary none /dev/sda3 # part /dev/sdb 162144912384 32256 primary none /dev/sdb1 # part /dev/sdb 152556666880 162144944640 primary none /dev/sdb2 # part /dev/sdb 5371321856 314701611520 primary boot /dev/sdb3 part /dev/sdc 1073741824000 1048576 primary boot /dev/sdc1 part /dev/sdc 925953425408 1073742872576 primary lvm /dev/sdc2 lvmdev /dev/backup /dev/sdc2 cJp4Mt-Vkgv-hVlr-wTMb-0qeA-FX7j-3C60p5 1808502784 lvmdev /dev/system /dev/mapper/disk N4Hpdc-DkBP-Hdm6-Z6FH-VixZ-7tTb-LiRt0w 251244544 lvmgrp /dev/backup 4096 220764 904249344 lvmgrp /dev/system 4096 30669 125620224 lvmvol /dev/backup backup 12800 104857600 lvmvol /dev/backup externaltemp 38400 314572800 lvmvol /dev/system root 2560 20971520 lvmvol /dev/system home 5120 41943040 lvmvol /dev/system var 2560 20971520 lvmvol /dev/system swap 512 4194304 lvmvol /dev/system vmxfs 7680 62914560 lvmvol /dev/system kvm 5000 40960000 fs /dev/mapper/system-root / ext4 uuid=dbb0c0d4-7b9a-40e2-be83-daafa14eff6b label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=131072 max_mounts=21 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-home /home ext4 uuid=e9310015-6043-48cd-a37d-78dbfdba1e3b label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=262144 max_mounts=38 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-var /var ext4 uuid=a12bb95f-99f2-42c6-854f-1cb3f144d662 label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=131072 max_mounts=23 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-vmxfs /vmware xfs uuid=7457d2ab-8252-4f41-bab6-607316259975 label= options=rw,noatime fs /dev/mapper/system-kvm /kvm ext4 uuid=173ab1f7-8450-4176-8cf7-c09b47f5e3cc label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=256000 max_mounts=21 check_interval=180d options=rw,noatime,commit=0 fs /dev/sda1 /boot ext3 uuid=f6b08566-ea5e-46f9-8f73-5e8ffdaa7be6 label= blocksize=1024 reserved_blocks=10238 max_mounts=35 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/backup-backup /media/backup ext4 uuid=da20354a-dc4c-4bef-817c-1c92894bb002 label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=655360 max_mounts=24 check_interval=180d options=rw swap /dev/mapper/system-swap uuid=9f347fc7-1605-4788-98fd-fca828beedf1 label= crypt /dev/mapper/disk /dev/sda2 cipher=aes-xts-plain hash=sha1 uuid=beafe67c-d9a4-4992-80f1-e87791a543bb
This behavior is controlled by the AUTOEXCLUDE_DISKS=y parameter in default.conf. If we unset it in the local configuration, Relax-and-Recover will no longer exclude it automatically.
A similar mechanism exists for multipath disks. The AUTOEXCLUDE_MULTIPATH=y variable in default.conf prevents Relax-and-Recover from overwriting multipath disks. Typically, they are part of the SAN disaster recovery strategy. However, there can be cases where you want to recover them. The information is retained in disklayout.conf.
It seems prudent to prevent the external drives from ever being backed-up or overwritten. The default configuration contains these lines:
# Exclude components from being backed up, recreation information is active EXCLUDE_BACKUP=() # Exclude components during component recreation # will be added to EXCLUDE_BACKUP (it is not backed up) # recreation information gathered, but commented out EXCLUDE_RECREATE=() # Exclude components during the backup restore phase # only used to exclude files from the restore. EXCLUDE_RESTORE=()
To prevent an inadvertently mounted backup filesystem being added to the restore list, the easiest way is to add the filesystem to the EXCLUDE_RECREATE array.
EXCLUDE_RECREATE=( "${EXCLUDE_RECREATE[@]}" "fs:/media/backup" )
The layout file is as expected:
disk /dev/sda 160041885696 msdos # disk /dev/sdb 320072933376 msdos # disk /dev/sdc 1999696297984 msdos part /dev/sda 209682432 32768 primary boot /dev/sda1 part /dev/sda 128639303680 209719296 primary lvm /dev/sda2 part /dev/sda 31192862720 128849022976 primary none /dev/sda3 # part /dev/sdb 162144912384 32256 primary none /dev/sdb1 # part /dev/sdb 152556666880 162144944640 primary none /dev/sdb2 # part /dev/sdb 5371321856 314701611520 primary boot /dev/sdb3 # part /dev/sdc 1073741824000 1048576 primary boot /dev/sdc1 # part /dev/sdc 925953425408 1073742872576 primary lvm /dev/sdc2 # lvmdev /dev/backup /dev/sdc2 cJp4Mt-Vkgv-hVlr-wTMb-0qeA-FX7j-3C60p5 1808502784 lvmdev /dev/system /dev/mapper/disk N4Hpdc-DkBP-Hdm6-Z6FH-VixZ-7tTb-LiRt0w 251244544 # lvmgrp /dev/backup 4096 220764 904249344 lvmgrp /dev/system 4096 30669 125620224 # lvmvol /dev/backup backup 12800 104857600 # lvmvol /dev/backup externaltemp 38400 314572800 lvmvol /dev/system root 2560 20971520 lvmvol /dev/system home 5120 41943040 lvmvol /dev/system var 2560 20971520 lvmvol /dev/system swap 512 4194304 lvmvol /dev/system vmxfs 7680 62914560 lvmvol /dev/system kvm 5000 40960000 fs /dev/mapper/system-root / ext4 uuid=dbb0c0d4-7b9a-40e2-be83-daafa14eff6b label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=131072 max_mounts=21 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-home /home ext4 uuid=e9310015-6043-48cd-a37d-78dbfdba1e3b label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=262144 max_mounts=38 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-var /var ext4 uuid=a12bb95f-99f2-42c6-854f-1cb3f144d662 label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=131072 max_mounts=23 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-vmxfs /vmware xfs uuid=7457d2ab-8252-4f41-bab6-607316259975 label= options=rw,noatime fs /dev/mapper/system-kvm /kvm ext4 uuid=173ab1f7-8450-4176-8cf7-c09b47f5e3cc label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=256000 max_mounts=21 check_interval=180d options=rw,noatime,commit=0 fs /dev/sda1 /boot ext3 uuid=f6b08566-ea5e-46f9-8f73-5e8ffdaa7be6 label= blocksize=1024 reserved_blocks=10238 max_mounts=35 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 # fs /dev/mapper/backup-backup /media/backup ext4 uuid=da20354a-dc4c-4bef-817c-1c92894bb002 label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=655360 max_mounts=24 check_interval=180d options=rw swap /dev/mapper/system-swap uuid=9f347fc7-1605-4788-98fd-fca828beedf1 label= crypt /dev/mapper/disk /dev/sda2 cipher=aes-xts-plain hash=sha1 uuid=beafe67c-d9a4-4992-80f1-e87791a543bb
Another approach would be to exclude the backup volume group. This is achieved by adding this line to the local configuration:
EXCLUDE_RECREATE=( "${EXCLUDE_RECREATE[@]}" "/dev/backup" )
Restoring the system to the same hardware is simple. Type rear recover in the rescue system prompt. Relax-and-Recover will detect that it’s restoring to the same system and will make sure things like UUIDs match. It also asks for your LUKS encryption password.
Once the restore of the backup has completed, Relax-and-Recover will install the bootloader and the system is back in working order.
RESCUE firefly:~ # rear recover
Relax-and-Recover 0.0.0 / $Date$
NOTICE: Will do driver migration
Comparing disks.
Disk configuration is identical, proceeding with restore.
Start system layout restoration.
Creating partitions for disk /dev/sda (msdos)
Please enter the password for disk(/dev/sda2):
Enter LUKS passphrase:
Please re-enter the password for disk(/dev/sda2):
Enter passphrase for /dev/sda2:
Creating LVM PV /dev/mapper/disk
Restoring LVM VG system
Creating ext4-filesystem / on /dev/mapper/system-root
Mounting filesystem /
Creating ext4-filesystem /home on /dev/mapper/system-home
Mounting filesystem /home
Creating ext4-filesystem /var on /dev/mapper/system-var
Mounting filesystem /var
Creating xfs-filesystem /vmware on /dev/mapper/system-vmxfs
meta-data=/dev/mapper/system-vmxfs isize=256 agcount=4, agsize=1966080 blks
= sectsz=512 attr=2, projid32bit=0
data = bsize=4096 blocks=7864320, imaxpct=25
= sunit=0 swidth=0 blks
naming =version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0
log =internal log bsize=4096 blocks=3840, version=2
= sectsz=512 sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1
realtime =none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0
Mounting filesystem /vmware
Creating ext4-filesystem /kvm on /dev/mapper/system-kvm
Mounting filesystem /kvm
Creating ext3-filesystem /boot on /dev/sda1
Mounting filesystem /boot
Creating swap on /dev/mapper/system-swap
Disk layout created.
Please start the restore process on your backup host.
Make sure that you restore the data into '/mnt/local' instead of '/' because the
hard disks of the recovered system are mounted there.
Please restore your backup in the provided shell and, when finished, type exit
in the shell to continue recovery.
Welcome to Relax-and-Recover. Run "rear recover" to restore your system !
rear>
There are two ways to deal with different hardware. One is being lazy and dealing with problems when you encounter them. The second option is to plan in advance. Both are valid approaches. The lazy approach works fine when you are in control of the restore and you have good knowledge of the components in your system. The second approach is preferable in disaster recovery situations or migrations where you know the target hardware in advance and the actual restore can be carried out by less knowledgeable people.
Relax-and-Recover will assist you somewhat in case it notices different disk sizes. It will ask you to map each differently sized disk to a disk in the target system. Partitions will be resized. Relax-and-Recover is careful not to resize your boot partition, since this is often the one with the most stringent sizing constraints. In fact, it only resizes LVM and RAID partitions.
Let’s try to restore our system to a different system. Instead of one 160G disk, there is now one 5G and one 10G disk. That’s not enough space to restore the complete system, but for purposes of this demonstration, we do not care about that. We’re also not going to use the first disk, but we just want to show that Relax-and-Recover handles the renaming automatically.
RESCUE firefly:~ # rear recover
Relax-and-Recover 0.0.0 / $Date$
NOTICE: Will do driver migration
Comparing disks.
Device sda has size 5242880000, 160041885696 expected
Switching to manual disk layout configuration.
Disk sda does not exist in the target system. Please choose the appropriate replacement.
1) sda
2) sdb
3) Do not map disk.
#? 2
2011-09-10 16:17:10 Disk sdb chosen as replacement for sda.
Disk sdb chosen as replacement for sda.
This is the disk mapping table:
/dev/sda /dev/sdb
Please confirm that '/var/lib/rear/layout/disklayout.conf' is as you expect.
1) View disk layout (disklayout.conf) 4) Go to Relax-and-Recover shell
2) Edit disk layout (disklayout.conf) 5) Continue recovery
3) View original disk space usage 6) Abort Relax-and-Recover
Ok, mapping the disks was not that hard. If Relax-and-Recover insists on us checking the disklayout file, we’d better do that.
#? 1 disk /dev/sdb 160041885696 msdos # disk _REAR1_ 320072933376 msdos # disk /dev/sdc 1999696297984 msdos part /dev/sdb 209682432 32768 primary boot /dev/sdb1 part /dev/sdb -20916822016 209719296 primary lvm /dev/sdb2 part /dev/sdb 31192862720 128849022976 primary none /dev/sdb3 # part _REAR1_ 162144912384 32256 primary none _REAR1_1 # part _REAR1_ 152556666880 162144944640 primary none _REAR1_2 # part _REAR1_ 5371321856 314701611520 primary boot _REAR1_3 # part /dev/sdc 1073741824000 1048576 primary boot /dev/sdc1 # part /dev/sdc 925953425408 1073742872576 primary lvm /dev/sdc2 # lvmdev /dev/backup /dev/sdc2 cJp4Mt-Vkgv-hVlr-wTMb-0qeA-FX7j-3C60p5 1808502784 lvmdev /dev/system /dev/mapper/disk N4Hpdc-DkBP-Hdm6-Z6FH-VixZ-7tTb-LiRt0w 251244544 # lvmgrp /dev/backup 4096 220764 904249344 lvmgrp /dev/system 4096 30669 125620224 # lvmvol /dev/backup backup 12800 104857600 # lvmvol /dev/backup externaltemp 38400 314572800 lvmvol /dev/system root 2560 20971520 lvmvol /dev/system home 5120 41943040 lvmvol /dev/system var 2560 20971520 lvmvol /dev/system swap 512 4194304 lvmvol /dev/system vmxfs 7680 62914560 lvmvol /dev/system kvm 5000 40960000 fs /dev/mapper/system-root / ext4 uuid=dbb0c0d4-7b9a-40e2-be83-daafa14eff6b label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=131072 max_mounts=21 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-home /home ext4 uuid=e9310015-6043-48cd-a37d-78dbfdba1e3b label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=262144 max_mounts=38 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-var /var ext4 uuid=a12bb95f-99f2-42c6-854f-1cb3f144d662 label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=131072 max_mounts=23 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-vmxfs /vmware xfs uuid=7457d2ab-8252-4f41-bab6-607316259975 label= options=rw,noatime fs /dev/mapper/system-kvm /kvm ext4 uuid=173ab1f7-8450-4176-8cf7-c09b47f5e3cc label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=256000 max_mounts=21 check_interval=180d options=rw,noatime,commit=0 fs /dev/sdb1 /boot ext3 uuid=f6b08566-ea5e-46f9-8f73-5e8ffdaa7be6 label= blocksize=1024 reserved_blocks=10238 max_mounts=35 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 # fs /dev/mapper/backup-backup /media/backup ext4 uuid=da20354a-dc4c-4bef-817c-1c92894bb002 label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=655360 max_mounts=24 check_interval=180d options=rw swap /dev/mapper/system-swap uuid=9f347fc7-1605-4788-98fd-fca828beedf1 label= crypt /dev/mapper/disk /dev/sdb2 cipher=aes-xts-plain hash=sha1 uuid=beafe67c-d9a4-4992-80f1-e87791a543bb 1) View disk layout (disklayout.conf) 2) Edit disk layout (disklayout.conf) 3) View original disk space usage 4) Go to Relax-and-Recover shell 5) Continue recovery 6) Abort Relax-and-Recover #?
The renaming operation was successful.
On the other hand, we can already see quite a few problems. A partition with negative sizes. I do not think any tool would like to create that. Still, we don’t care at this moment. Do you like entering partition sizes in bytes? Neither do I. There has to be a better way to handle it. We will show it during the next step.
The /kvm and /vmware filesystems are quite big. We don’t care about them, so just put some nice comments on them and their logical volumes.
The resulting layout file looks like this:
disk /dev/sdb 160041885696 msdos # disk _REAR1_ 320072933376 msdos # disk /dev/sdc 1999696297984 msdos part /dev/sdb 209682432 32768 primary boot /dev/sdb1 part /dev/sdb -20916822016 209719296 primary lvm /dev/sdb2 part /dev/sdb 31192862720 128849022976 primary none /dev/sdb3 # part _REAR1_ 162144912384 32256 primary none _REAR1_1 # part _REAR1_ 152556666880 162144944640 primary none _REAR1_2 # part _REAR1_ 5371321856 314701611520 primary boot _REAR1_3 # part /dev/sdc 1073741824000 1048576 primary boot /dev/sdc1 # part /dev/sdc 925953425408 1073742872576 primary lvm /dev/sdc2 # lvmdev /dev/backup /dev/sdc2 cJp4Mt-Vkgv-hVlr-wTMb-0qeA-FX7j-3C60p5 1808502784 lvmdev /dev/system /dev/mapper/disk N4Hpdc-DkBP-Hdm6-Z6FH-VixZ-7tTb-LiRt0w 251244544 # lvmgrp /dev/backup 4096 220764 904249344 lvmgrp /dev/system 4096 30669 125620224 # lvmvol /dev/backup backup 12800 104857600 # lvmvol /dev/backup externaltemp 38400 314572800 lvmvol /dev/system root 2560 20971520 lvmvol /dev/system home 5120 41943040 lvmvol /dev/system var 2560 20971520 lvmvol /dev/system swap 512 4194304 #lvmvol /dev/system vmxfs 7680 62914560 #lvmvol /dev/system kvm 5000 40960000 fs /dev/mapper/system-root / ext4 uuid=dbb0c0d4-7b9a-40e2-be83-daafa14eff6b label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=131072 max_mounts=21 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-home /home ext4 uuid=e9310015-6043-48cd-a37d-78dbfdba1e3b label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=262144 max_mounts=38 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 fs /dev/mapper/system-var /var ext4 uuid=a12bb95f-99f2-42c6-854f-1cb3f144d662 label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=131072 max_mounts=23 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 #fs /dev/mapper/system-vmxfs /vmware xfs uuid=7457d2ab-8252-4f41-bab6-607316259975 label= options=rw,noatime #fs /dev/mapper/system-kvm /kvm ext4 uuid=173ab1f7-8450-4176-8cf7-c09b47f5e3cc label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=256000 max_mounts=21 check_interval=180d options=rw,noatime,commit=0 fs /dev/sdb1 /boot ext3 uuid=f6b08566-ea5e-46f9-8f73-5e8ffdaa7be6 label= blocksize=1024 reserved_blocks=10238 max_mounts=35 check_interval=180d options=rw,commit=0 # fs /dev/mapper/backup-backup /media/backup ext4 uuid=da20354a-dc4c-4bef-817c-1c92894bb002 label= blocksize=4096 reserved_blocks=655360 max_mounts=24 check_interval=180d options=rw swap /dev/mapper/system-swap uuid=9f347fc7-1605-4788-98fd-fca828beedf1 label= crypt /dev/mapper/disk /dev/sdb2 cipher=aes-xts-plain hash=sha1 uuid=beafe67c-d9a4-4992-80f1-e87791a543bb
Let’s continue recovery.
1) View disk layout (disklayout.conf) 2) Edit disk layout (disklayout.conf) 3) View original disk space usage 4) Go to Relax-and-Recover shell 5) Continue recovery 6) Abort Relax-and-Recover #? 5 Partition /dev/sdb3 size reduced to fit on disk. Please confirm that '/var/lib/rear/layout/diskrestore.sh' is as you expect. 1) View restore script (diskrestore.sh) 2) Edit restore script (diskrestore.sh) 3) View original disk space usage 4) Go to Relax-and-Recover shell 5) Continue recovery 6) Abort Relax-and-Recover #?
Now, this is where human friendly resizes are possible. Edit the file. Find the partition creation code.
if create_component "/dev/sdb" "disk" ; then # Create /dev/sdb (disk) LogPrint "Creating partitions for disk /dev/sdb (msdos)" parted -s /dev/sdb mklabel msdos >&2 parted -s /dev/sdb mkpart primary 32768B 209715199B >&2 parted -s /dev/sdb set 1 boot on >&2 parted -s /dev/sdb mkpart primary 209719296B -20707102721B >&2 parted -s /dev/sdb set 2 lvm on >&2 parted -s /dev/sdb mkpart primary 18446744053002452992B 10485759999B >&2 # Wait some time before advancing sleep 10
It’s simple bash code. Change it to use better values. Parted is happy to accept partitions in Megabytes.
if create_component "/dev/sdb" "disk" ; then # Create /dev/sdb (disk) LogPrint "Creating partitions for disk /dev/sdb (msdos)" parted -s /dev/sdb mklabel msdos >&2 parted -s /dev/sdb mkpart primary 1M 200M >&2 parted -s /dev/sdb set 1 boot on >&2 parted -s /dev/sdb mkpart primary 200M 10485759999B >&2 parted -s /dev/sdb set 2 lvm on >&2 # Wait some time before advancing sleep 10
The same action should be done for the remaining logical volumes. We would like them to fit on the disk.
if create_component "/dev/mapper/system-root" "lvmvol" ; then
# Create /dev/mapper/system-root (lvmvol)
LogPrint "Creating LVM volume system/root"
lvm lvcreate -l 2560 -n root system >&2
component_created "/dev/mapper/system-root" "lvmvol"
else
LogPrint "Skipping /dev/mapper/system-root (lvmvol) as it has already been created."
fi
No-one but a computer likes to think in extents, so we size it a comfortable 5G.
if create_component "/dev/mapper/system-root" "lvmvol" ; then
# Create /dev/mapper/system-root (lvmvol)
LogPrint "Creating LVM volume system/root"
lvm lvcreate -L 5G -n root system >&2
component_created "/dev/mapper/system-root" "lvmvol"
else
LogPrint "Skipping /dev/mapper/system-root (lvmvol) as it has already been created."
fi
Do the same thing for the other logical volumes and choose number 5, continue.
1) View restore script (diskrestore.sh) 2) Edit restore script (diskrestore.sh) 3) View original disk space usage 4) Go to Relax-and-Recover shell 5) Continue recovery 6) Abort Relax-and-Recover #? 5 Start system layout restoration. Creating partitions for disk /dev/sdb (msdos) Please enter the password for disk(/dev/sdb2): Enter LUKS passphrase: Please re-enter the password for disk(/dev/sdb2): Enter passphrase for /dev/sdb2: Creating LVM PV /dev/mapper/disk Creating LVM VG system Creating LVM volume system/root Creating LVM volume system/home Creating LVM volume system/var Creating LVM volume system/swap Creating ext4-filesystem / on /dev/mapper/system-root Mounting filesystem / Creating ext4-filesystem /home on /dev/mapper/system-home An error occurred during layout recreation. 1) View Relax-and-Recover log 2) View original disk space usage 3) Go to Relax-and-Recover shell 4) Edit restore script (diskrestore.sh) 5) Continue restore script 6) Abort Relax-and-Recover #?
An error… Did you expect it? I didn’t.
Relax-and-Recover produces exceptionally good logs. Let’s check them.
+++ tune2fs -r 262144 -c 38 -i 180d /dev/mapper/system-home tune2fs: reserved blocks count is too big (262144) tune2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010) Setting maximal mount count to 38 Setting interval between checks to 15552000 seconds 2011-09-10 16:27:35 An error occurred during layout recreation.
Yes, we resized the home partition from 20GB to 2G in the previous step. The root user wants more reserved blocks than the total number of available blocks.
Fixing it is simple. Edit the restore script, option 4. Find the code responsible for filesystem creation.
if create_component "fs:/home" "fs" ; then
# Create fs:/home (fs)
LogPrint "Creating ext4-filesystem /home on /dev/mapper/system-home"
mkfs -t ext4 -b 4096 /dev/mapper/system-home >&2
tune2fs -U e9310015-6043-48cd-a37d-78dbfdba1e3b /dev/mapper/system-home >&2
tune2fs -r 262144 -c 38 -i 180d /dev/mapper/system-home >&2
LogPrint "Mounting filesystem /home"
mkdir -p /mnt/local/home
mount /dev/mapper/system-home /mnt/local/home
component_created "fs:/home" "fs"
else
LogPrint "Skipping fs:/home (fs) as it has already been created."
fi
The -r parameter is causing the error. We just remove it and do the same for the other filesystems.
if create_component "fs:/home" "fs" ; then
# Create fs:/home (fs)
LogPrint "Creating ext4-filesystem /home on /dev/mapper/system-home"
mkfs -t ext4 -b 4096 /dev/mapper/system-home >&2
tune2fs -U e9310015-6043-48cd-a37d-78dbfdba1e3b /dev/mapper/system-home >&2
tune2fs -c 38 -i 180d /dev/mapper/system-home >&2
LogPrint "Mounting filesystem /home"
mkdir -p /mnt/local/home
mount /dev/mapper/system-home /mnt/local/home
component_created "fs:/home" "fs"
else
LogPrint "Skipping fs:/home (fs) as it has already been created."
fi
Continue the restore script.
1) View Relax-and-Recover log 2) View original disk space usage 3) Go to Relax-and-Recover shell 4) Edit restore script (diskrestore.sh) 5) Continue restore script 6) Abort Relax-and-Recover #? 5 Start system layout restoration. Skipping /dev/sdb (disk) as it has already been created. Skipping /dev/sdb1 (part) as it has already been created. Skipping /dev/sdb2 (part) as it has already been created. Skipping /dev/sdb3 (part) as it has already been created. Skipping /dev/mapper/disk (crypt) as it has already been created. Skipping pv:/dev/mapper/disk (lvmdev) as it has already been created. Skipping /dev/system (lvmgrp) as it has already been created. Skipping /dev/mapper/system-root (lvmvol) as it has already been created. Skipping /dev/mapper/system-home (lvmvol) as it has already been created. Skipping /dev/mapper/system-var (lvmvol) as it has already been created. Skipping /dev/mapper/system-swap (lvmvol) as it has already been created. Skipping fs:/ (fs) as it has already been created. Creating ext4-filesystem /home on /dev/mapper/system-home Mounting filesystem /home Creating ext4-filesystem /var on /dev/mapper/system-var Mounting filesystem /var Creating ext3-filesystem /boot on /dev/sdb1 Mounting filesystem /boot Creating swap on /dev/mapper/system-swap Disk layout created.
That looks the way we want it. Notice how Relax-and-Recover detected that it had already created quite a few components and did not try to recreate them anymore.
Relax-and-Recover makes it possible to define the layout on the target system even before the backup is taken. All one has to do is to move the /var/lib/rear/layout/disklayout.conf file to /etc/rear/disklayout.conf and edit it. This won’t be overwritten on future backup runs. During recovery, Relax-and-Recover will use that file instead of the snapshot of the original system.
This section describes the syntax of all components in the Relax-and-Recover layout file at /var/lib/rear/layout/disklayout.conf. The syntax used to describe it is straightforward. Normal text has to be present verbatim in the file. Angle brackets "<" and ">" delimit a value that can be edited. Quotes " inside the angle brackets indicate a verbatim option, often used together with a / to indicate multiple options. Parenthesis "(" ")" inside explain the expected unit. No unit suffix should be present, unless specifically indicated. Square brackets "[" and "]" indicate an optional parameter. They can be excluded when hand-crafting a layout file line.
part <disk name> <size(B)> <start(B)> <partition name/type> <flags/"none"> <partition name>
raid /dev/<name> level=<RAID level> raid-devices=<nr of devices> [uuid=<uuid>] [spare-devices=<nr of spares>] [layout=<RAID layout>] [chunk=<chunk size>] devices=<device1,device2,...>
lvmvol /dev/<volume group name> <logical volume name> <number of extents> [<size(K)>]
crypt /dev/mapper/<name> <device> [cipher=<cipher>] [key_size=<key size>] [hash=<hash function>] [uuid=<uuid>] [keyfile=<keyfile>] [password=<password>]
fs <device> <mountpoint> <filesystem type> [uuid=<uuid>] [label=<label>] [blocksize=<block size(B)>] [<reserved_blocks=<nr of reserved blocks>] [max_mounts=<nr>] [check_interval=<number of days>d] [options=<filesystem options>]
btrfsdefaultsubvol <device> <mountpoint> <btrfs_subvolume_ID> <btrfs_subvolume_path>
btrfsnormalsubvol <device> <mountpoint> <btrfs_subvolume_ID> <btrfs_subvolume_path>
btrfsmountedsubvol <device> <subvolume_mountpoint> <mount_options> <btrfs_subvolume_path>
logicaldrive <device> <slot nr>|<array name>|<logical drive name> raid=<raid level> drives=<drive1,drive2> [spares=<spare1,spare2>] [sectors=<sectors>] [stripesize=<stripe size>]
The /var/lib/rear/layout/disklayout.conf file is being used as input during rear recover to create on-the-fly a script called /var/lib/rear/layout/diskrestore.sh. When something goes wrong during the recreation of partitions, volume groups you will be thrown in edit mode and you can make the modification needed. However, it is desirable to have a preview mode before doing the recovery so you can review the diskrestore.sh script before doing any recovery. It is better to find mistakes, obsolete arguments and so on before then later, right?
Gratien wrote a script to accomplish this (script is not part of ReaR) and is meant for debugging reasons only. For more details see http://www.it3.be/2016/06/08/rear-diskrestore/