Import duplicate VG from a read-only device

Gionatan Danti <[email protected]> Fri, 15 Nov 2024 21:07:10 +0100
Newsgroups dev.linux.lists.linux-lvm
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hi list,
is it possible to import a duplicate VG name from a read-only device?

I know about vgrename, but it needs to update metadata - which is not 
possible for read-only device.

I tried to un-manage the host native read/write VG, deleting it from 
system.devices, but lvchange -ay shown an error about not being able to 
create the /dev/VG/LV symlink (and a "device busy" issue, probably 
related to the already-existing symlink). I also tried to activate the 
specific LV via lvchange -S lv_uuid, but it shown the same error as 
above.

In this specific case I put the device in r/w mode and solved the issue 
with a plain vgrename. But what if I could not enable writes on the 
device? Is the only solution to mount it on a machine without the same 
VG name (ie: on a live USB), or can a VG/LV be enabled specifying a 
different path for the symlink?

Thanks.