.TH LVCONVERT 8 "LVM TOOLS #VERSION#" "Red Hat, Inc" \" -*- nroff -*-
.SH NAME
lvconvert \- convert a logical volume from linear to mirror or snapshot
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B lvconvert
\-m|\-\-mirrors Mirrors [\-\-mirrorlog {disk|core}] [\-\-corelog] [\-R|\-\-regionsize MirrorLogRegionSize]
[\-A|\-\-alloc AllocationPolicy]
[\-b|\-\-background] [\-f|\-\-force] [\-i|\-\-interval Seconds]
[\-h|\-?|\-\-help]
[\-\-noudevsync]
[\-v|\-\-verbose] [\-y|\-\-yes]
[\-\-version]
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LogicalVolume[Path] [PhysicalVolume[Path][:PE[-PE]]...]
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.B lvconvert
\-\-splitmirrors Images \-\-name SplitLogicalVolumeName
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MirrorLogicalVolume[Path] [SplittablePhysicalVolume[Path][:PE[-PE]]...]
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.B lvconvert
\-s|\-\-snapshot [\-c|\-\-chunksize ChunkSize]
[\-h|\-?|\-\-help]
[\-\-noudevsync]
[\-v|\-\-verbose]
[\-Z|\-\-zero y|n]
[\-\-version]
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OriginalLogicalVolume[Path] SnapshotLogicalVolume[Path]

.B lvconvert
\-\-repair
[\-h|\-?|\-\-help]
[\-v|\-\-verbose]
[\-\-version]
LogicalVolume[Path] [PhysicalVolume[Path]...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
lvconvert will change a linear logical volume to a mirror
logical volume or to a snapshot of linear volume and vice versa.
It is also used to add and remove disk logs from mirror devices.
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If the conversion requires allocation of physical extents (for
example, when converting from linear to mirror) and you specify
one or more PhysicalVolumes (optionally with ranges of physical
extents), allocation of physical extents will be restricted to
these physical extents.  If the conversion frees physical extents
(for example, when converting from a mirror to a linear, or reducing
mirror legs) and you specify one or more PhysicalVolumes,
the freed extents come first from the specified PhysicalVolumes.
.SH OPTIONS
See \fBlvm\fP for common options.
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Exactly one of \-\-splitmirrors, \-\-mirrors, \-\-repair or \-\-snapshot arguments required.
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.TP
.I \-m, \-\-mirrors Mirrors
Specifies the degree of the mirror you wish to create.
For example, "-m 1" would convert the original logical
volume to a mirror volume with 2-sides; that is, a
linear volume plus one copy.
.TP
.I \-\-mirrorlog {disk|core}
Specifies the type of log to use.
The default is disk, which is persistent and requires
a small amount of storage space, usually on a separate device
from the data being mirrored. 
Core may be useful for short-lived mirrors: It means the mirror is
regenerated by copying the data from the first device again every
time the device is activated - perhaps, for example, after every reboot.
.TP
.I \-\-corelog
The optional argument "--corelog" is the same as specifying "--mirrorlog core".
.TP
.I \-R, \-\-regionsize MirrorLogRegionSize
A mirror is divided into regions of this size (in MB), and the mirror log
uses this granularity to track which regions are in sync.
.TP
.I \-b, \-\-background
Run the daemon in the background.
.TP
.I \-i, \-\-interval Seconds
Report progress as a percentage at regular intervals.
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.TP
.I \-\-noudevsync
Disable udev synchronisation. The
process will not wait for notification from udev.
It will continue irrespective of any possible udev processing
in the background.  You should only use this if udev is not running
or has rules that ignore the devices LVM2 creates.
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.TP
.I \-\-splitmirrors Images
The number of redundant Images of a mirror to be split off and used
to form a new logical volume.  A name must be supplied for the
newly-split-off logical volume using the \-\-name argument.

.TP
.I \-n Name
The name to apply to a logical volume which has been split off from
a mirror logical volume.
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.TP
.I \-s, \-\-snapshot
Create a snapshot from existing logical volume using another
existing logical volume as its origin.
.TP
.I \-c, \-\-chunksize ChunkSize
Power of 2 chunk size for the snapshot logical volume between 4k and 512k.
.TP
.I \-Z, \-\-zero y|n
Controls zeroing of the first KB of data in the snapshot.
If the volume is read-only the snapshot will not be zeroed.
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.TP
.I \-\-repair
Repair a mirror after suffering a disk failure. The mirror will be brought back
into a consistent state.  By default, the original number of mirrors will be
restored if possible.  Specify \-y on the command line to skip the prompts.
Use \-f if you do not want any replacement.  Additionally, you may use
\-\-use-policies to use the device replacement policy specified in lvm.conf,
viz. activation/mirror_log_fault_policy or
activation/mirror_device_fault_policy.
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.SH Examples
"lvconvert -m1 vg00/lvol1"
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converts the linear logical volume "vg00/lvol1" to
a two-way mirror logical volume.

"lvconvert --mirrorlog core vg00/lvol1"
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converts a mirror with a disk log to a
mirror with an in-memory log.

"lvconvert --mirrorlog disk vg00/lvol1"
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converts a mirror with an in-memory log
to a mirror with a disk log.

"lvconvert -m0 vg00/lvol1"
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converts a mirror logical volume to a linear logical
volume.
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"lvconvert -s vg00/lvol1 vg00/lvol2"
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converts logical volume "vg00/lvol2" to snapshot of original volume "vg00/lvol1"

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"lvconvert -m1 vg00/lvol1 /dev/sda:0-15 /dev/sdb:0-15"
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converts linear logical volume "vg00/lvol1" to a two-way mirror, using physical
extents /dev/sda:0-15 and /dev/sdb:0-15 for allocation of new extents.

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"lvconvert -m0 vg00/lvmirror1 /dev/sda
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converts mirror logical volume "vg00/lvmirror1" to linear, freeing physical
extents from /dev/sda.

.SH SEE ALSO
.BR lvm (8),
.BR vgcreate (8),
.BR lvremove (8),
.BR lvrename (8),
.BR lvextend (8),
.BR lvreduce (8),
.BR lvdisplay (8),
.BR lvscan (8)