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Consistent backup using LVM snapshot

Consistent backup using LVM snapshot

As we know LVM is an efficient way to manage logical volumes within Linux kernel.  One of the great advantages of LVM is that it can be used for taking consistent backups with the help of snapshots.  This blog helps you to understand the steps to be taken for a consistent backup using LVM snapshot.The backup consistency plays an important role i the production environment since there are chances that same file is being used by multiple users/processes.   Suppose the file is open while backup action is in place, you may end up getting an inconsistent backup.  Please keep in mind that this procedure will work only on LVM based partitions.

Step # 1:  In the example shown here,  I have a VG named vol_grp1 and a logical volume /dev/vol_grp1/lv_ora1 is mounted on /u01 from the VG.  The VG is having 14G of free space.

 

[root@vimalt-linux ~]# vgdisplay
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               vol_grp1
  System ID
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  12
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                1
  Open LV               1
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               15.00 GiB
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              3839
  Alloc PE / Size       250 / 1000.00 MiB
  Free  PE / Size       3589 / 14.02 GiB
  VG UUID               HgwGsP-eXE1-fn1I-iFld-QW2C-8p35-ASjz2B

 
[root@vimalt-linux ~]# lvdisplay
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Path                /dev/vol_grp1/lv_ora1
  LV Name                lv_ora1
  VG Name                vol_grp1
  LV UUID                O6NnvA-zCFK-Z0HU-7u2f-ceqI-BAyr-pc236J
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Creation host, time vimalt-linux, 2015-04-27 11:17:12 +0530
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                1000.00 MiB
  Current LE             250
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           253:0

 
[root@vimalt-linux ~]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3              37G  7.4G   28G  21% /
tmpfs                 499M     0  499M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1             485M   55M  405M  12% /boot
/dev/mapper/vol_grp1-lv_ora1
                      985M   18M  918M   2% /u01

Step # 2:  I wanted to take the backup of /u01 file system which is of 985M.  First create a LVM snapshot as below of LV /dev/vol_grp1/lv_ora1 .  Here u01_bkup is the name given for snapshot.  Keep in mind that if the snapshot logical volume becomes full it will be dropped (become unusable) so it is vitally important to allocate enough space.  Here I have allocated 985M since that is maximum possible snapshot size.

 
[root@vimalt-linux ~]# lvcreate -L985M -s -n u01_bkup /dev/vol_grp1/lv_ora1
  Rounding up size to full physical extent 988.00 MiB
  Logical volume "u01_bkup" created

Step # 3:  You can verify the snapshot created using lvs and lvdisplay command.

 

 [root@vimalt-linux ~]# lvs
  LV       VG       Attr      LSize    Pool Origin  Data%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  lv_ora1  vol_grp1 owi-aos-- 1000.00m
  u01_bkup vol_grp1 swi-a-s--  988.00m      lv_ora1   0.00

 
 [root@vimalt-linux ~]# lvdisplay /dev/vol_grp1/u01_bkup
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Path                /dev/vol_grp1/u01_bkup
  LV Name                u01_bkup
  VG Name                vol_grp1
  LV UUID                92v5nP-YM83-iHE8-i6rC-UHG6-SFhe-dp3T09
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Creation host, time vimalt-linux, 2015-04-30 17:55:31 +0530
  LV snapshot status     active destination for lv_ora1
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                1000.00 MiB
  Current LE             250
  COW-table size         988.00 MiB
  COW-table LE           247
  Allocated to snapshot  0.00%
  Snapshot chunk size    4.00 KiB
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           253:1

Step # 4:  Create a mount point and get the snapshot mounted.

 
[root@vimalt-linux ~]# mkdir /root/u01_backup
[root@vimalt-linux ~]# mount /dev/vol_grp1/u01_bkup /root/u01_backup/
[root@vimalt-linux ~]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3              37G  7.4G   28G  21% /
tmpfs                 499M     0  499M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1             485M   55M  405M  12% /boot
/dev/mapper/vol_grp1-lv_ora1
                      985M   18M  918M   2% /u01
/dev/mapper/vol_grp1-u01_bkup
                      985M   18M  918M   2% /root/u01_backup

Step # 5:  Now you can use your convenient way to backup the mounted snapshot.  Here I have used tar command. 

 
[root@vimalt-linux u01_backup]# cd /root/u01_backup/
[root@vimalt-linux u01_backup]# tar -pjcvf /root/u01_backup_`date +"%d-%m-%Y"`.tar.bz2 .
./
./passwd
./hosts
./lost+found/
[root@vimalt-linux u01_backup]# ls -l /root/u01_backup_*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1118 Apr 30 18:11 /root/u01_backup_30-04-2015.tar.bz2

Step # 6:  You can verify the contents of the created .tar.bz2 file as below.  You can now move the backup file to tapes or backup server as you require.

 
[root@vimalt-linux u01_backup]# tar -tvf /root/u01_backup_30-04-2015.tar.bz2
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2015-04-27 12:09 ./
-rw-r--r-- root/root      2021 2015-04-27 11:39 ./passwd
-rw-r--r-- root/root       158 2015-04-27 11:20 ./hosts
drwx------ root/root         0 2015-04-27 11:17 ./lost+found/

Step # 7:  Now unmount and remove the snapshot

 
[root@vimalt-linux ~]# umount /root/u01_backup
[root@vimalt-linux ~]# lvremove /dev/vol_grp1/u01_bkup
Do you really want to remove active logical volume u01_bkup? [y/n]: y
  Logical volume "u01_bkup" successfully removed

That’s it!

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