<!> Note: EVMS was RFA'd and removed from Debian (490787) and Etch was the last release packages appear in. Additionally, the version of EVMS in Etch cannot take snapshots (418636) with newer kernels. If you need the features of EVMS, please consider one of the alternatives that is more fully supported in Debian. See Linux volume management for a comparison.

Enterprise Volume Management System

Short: An cluster-friendly alternative to LVM + SoftwareRAID + filesystem management all-in-one userspace system solution, with a number of enterprise features.

Long: EVMS provides a single, unified system for handling all of your storage management tasks. EVMS recognizes all of the disks on your system and allows for a variety of partitioning schemes. Software-RAID and logical volume groups can be managed in EVMS. Filesystems can be created and checked, and are automatically updated when changes are made to the underlying volumes. With EVMS, there is no longer a need for several individual utilities for performing each of these tasks. A volume group (the EVMS word is container) can be shared by several nodes in a cluster (something that is not safe with LVM, providing much more flexibility for mounting logical volumes, and creating a foundation for the use of heartbeat solutions and cluster-friendly filesystems.

How to install and use EVMS on Debian Etch

Debian Way

The "Right Way" to install an EVMS Debian system is using the new evms-enabled DebianInstaller, but is not available yet.

Current Debian Way

Install etch/evms-bootdebug and read /usr/share/doc/evms-bootdebug/README.Debian, follow the instructions.

You will need to rebuild the initramfs having evms-bootdebug (and evms) already installed and reboot with "evms_debug" kernel parameter, perform your save in the ncurses interface, change fstab and boot-loader root kernel parameters (eg: from /dev/sda1 to /dev/evms/sda1) and reboot in your evms system.

You will need also to change /etc/evms.conf if you use compatibility lvm2 volumes before reconfiguring the initramfs.

Old way

- boot with a live cd with evms support or in which it could be installed like ubuntu/kubuntu/knoppix live cds.

- Launch a evms client like evmsgui, perform your save.

- bind mount /dev /sys and chroot on your debian rootfs.

- install sid evms, evms-gui and ?Yaird or initramfs-tools.

- Change fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst to evms names scheme and eventually /etc/evms.conf if you use compatibility lvm2 volumes.

- give update-grub. (grub seems easier than lilo on evms volumes, no need to reinstall it, but change /boot/grub/menu.conf and ) .

- dpkg-reconfigure your 2.6 kernel.

- reboot on your evms system.

tips

- The 2.6 kernels in Debian all supports evms, they do not need a patch anymore for normal use.

- use GRUB or LILO

FAQs


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