VGCFGBACKUP

Section: Maintenance Commands (8)
Updated: LVM TOOLS 2.03.11(2) (2021-01-08)
Page Index

NAME

vgcfgbackup - Backup volume group configuration(s)

SYNOPSIS

vgcfgbackup

[ option_args ]

[ position_args ]

DESCRIPTION

vgcfgbackup creates back up files containing metadata of VGs. If no VGs are named, back up files are created for all VGs. See vgcfgrestore for information on using the back up files.

In a default installation, each VG is backed up into a separate file bearing the name of the VG in the directory /etc/lvm/backup.

To use an alternative back up file, use -f. In this case, when backing up multiple VGs, the file name is treated as a template, with %s replaced by the VG name.

NB. This DOES NOT back up the data content of LVs.

It may also be useful to regularly back up the files in /etc/lvm.

USAGE

vgcfgbackup

: [ -f|--file String ]
[ --foreign ]
[ --ignorelockingfailure ]
[ --readonly ]
[ --reportformat basic|json ]
[ COMMON_OPTIONS ]

: [ VG ... ]

Common options for lvm:

: [ -d|--debug ]
[ -h|--help ]
[ -q|--quiet ]
[ -t|--test ]
[ -v|--verbose ]
[ -y|--yes ]
[ --commandprofile String ]
[ --config String ]
[ --driverloaded y|n ]
[ --lockopt String ]
[ --longhelp ]
[ --nolocking ]
[ --profile String ]
[ --version ]

OPTIONS

--commandprofile String: The command profile to use for command configuration. See lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.
--config String: Config settings for the command. These override lvm.conf settings. The String arg uses the same format as lvm.conf, or may use section/field syntax. See lvm.conf(5) for more information about config.
-d|--debug ...: Set debug level. Repeat from 1 to 6 times to increase the detail of messages sent to the log file and/or syslog (if configured).
--driverloaded y|n: If set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-mapper. For testing and debugging.
-f|--file String: Write the backup to the named file. When backing up more than one VG, the file name is treated as a template, and %s is replaced by the VG name.
--foreign: Report/display foreign VGs that would otherwise be skipped. See lvmsystemid(7) for more information about foreign VGs.
-h|--help: Display help text.
--ignorelockingfailure: Allows a command to continue with read-only metadata operations after locking failures.
--lockopt String: Used to pass options for special cases to lvmlockd. See lvmlockd(8) for more information.
--longhelp: Display long help text.
--nolocking: Disable locking.
--profile String: An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, depending on the command.
-q|--quiet ...: Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and --verbose. Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with answer 'no'.
--readonly: Run the command in a special read-only mode which will read on-disk metadata without needing to take any locks. This can be used to peek inside metadata used by a virtual machine image while the virtual machine is running. No attempt will be made to communicate with the device-mapper kernel driver, so this option is unable to report whether or not LVs are actually in use.
--reportformat basic|json: Overrides current output format for reports which is defined globally by the report/output_format setting in lvm.conf. basic is the original format with columns and rows. If there is more than one report per command, each report is prefixed with the report name for identification. json produces report output in JSON format. See lvmreport(7) for more information.
-t|--test: Run in test mode. Commands will not update metadata. This is implemented by disabling all metadata writing but nevertheless returning success to the calling function. This may lead to unusual error messages in multi-stage operations if a tool relies on reading back metadata it believes has changed but hasn't.
-v|--verbose ...: Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase the detail of messages sent to stdout and stderr.
--version: Display version information.
-y|--yes: Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always assume the answer yes. Use with extreme caution. (For automatic no, see -qq.)

VARIABLES

VG: Volume Group name. See lvm(8) for valid names.
String: See the option description for information about the string content.
Size[UNIT]: Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit. Input units are always treated as base two values, regardless of capitalization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024. The default input unit is specified by letter, followed by |UNIT. UNIT represents other possible input units: bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE. b|B is bytes, s|S is sectors of 512 bytes, k|K is KiB, m|M is MiB, g|G is GiB, t|T is TiB, p|P is PiB, e|E is EiB. (This should not be confused with the output control --units, where capital letters mean multiple of 1000.)

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

See lvm(8) for information about environment variables used by lvm. For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a required VG parameter.