GO HERE What should the disk partitions look like?

[otter]

I just did my first install of PIAF 3 using the CentOS minimal install and then downloading PIAF 3 with wget. After the install of Incredible PBX 11 I decided to backup the disk with Acronis TI 2014, as I have done with previous installs. This time Acronis reported that there were two partitions, one, the boot partition and second, an LVM partition. The LVM partition reported errors in Acronis and Acronis wanted a sector by sector backup. Since my disk drive is 320 GB and 99% is the LVM partition, that would have taken some time and been a huge file. The disk itself was running just fine prior to this install and I backed up the previous install of PIAF2 that was on this disk just hours before without an issue, so I don't think the disk is bad. I have not configured the install or connected any phones yet, but it looks normal in the PBX in a Flash manager.

Why would Acronis decide this particular install has a corrupt LVM partition and do I need to re-install? Is there a difference in the partitioning scheme with the CentOS minimal install method? Does the LVM have any info on it, or can I just back up boot and have a good backup? I really would like the security of having an image of the PIAF3 install I can go back to. Can someone enlighten me as to what the partitions should look like, what they contain and what might be happening to cause my attempt to get an image of this install to have issues?

 

[atsak]

Acronis has a lot of bugs. Try again?

 

[Hyksos]

Looks more like a first approach to LVM then a corrupt LVM.

"LVM partition" is what exactly? What exactly are you asking Acronis to image? Acronis can only use sector by sector with that because it's not a filesystem, its used by LVM as a Physical Volume.
The only thing Acronis can image properly without using sector by sector are Logical Volumes since they're the only one containing filesystems.

It doesn't support imaging LVM with something other then sector by sector unless you are imaging a Logical Volume. And unless you know what you're doing, imaging LVM with sector by sector is mostly a bad idea since your recovery process can be troublesome, hardware dependant, if you do that. You would be imaging at the wrong abstraction layer and seriously compromising the flexibility of a potential restore process.

My guess.. is that you are facing the same normal situation anybody would face trying to image LVM with acronis. And since all that is documented elsewhere on the Internet, LVM and Acronis-LVM, it would not add anything to discuss this directly in here.

My suggestion is that your previous installation where you did not have problems or questions while using Acronis where not using LVM, just normal partitions, like your current /boot partition... but for all partitions instead of just /boot.
So maybe if your not familiar with LVM and the differences it adds to the setup/backup/disaster recovery procedure it could be simpler to just reinstall CentOS until you understand how to install it without using LVM and with just normal partitions.
Acronis would then support this directly at the partition/filesystem level (more options then sector by sector).

If you are doing everything like you should and you're familiar with LVM already, maybe there is indeed an error and you need to fsck the filesystem but I doubt that, the system would have done it already if it was needed.
Really look like your imaging an LVM PV... which can only be done with sector by sector, by design, not because of corruption.

 

[otter]

You are absolutely right that I am not familiar with more than I could learn about LVM in a couple of hours of Google-ing. I do understand what you have said though and that leads me to the question of how to install PIAF3 to have the same partitions that PIAF2 had so I can use my familiar tools. When installing the minimal install of CentOS 6.5 I went with all the defaults and proceeded as instructed on the Nerd Vittles site. It would seem I need to do this differently to get the PIAF2 structure. I can do a re-install of CentOS, I have few hours of downloading packages invested, but no configuration time as of yet. What should be done to get the desired result when installing CentOS?

 

[TwigsUSAN]

I think he has a valid question. Why is PIAF3 installing differently than PIAF2?

 

[wardmundy]

Previously, we could preconfigure CentOS. Under RedHat's Rules, we can't so you have to do it yourself. There's nothing wrong with LVM unless you care about easy backups and restores.

Here's How to create the PIAF2-style disk partitions:

http://pbxinaflash.com/community/index.php?resources/installing-centos.39/

 

[otter]

Thanks Ward. I'm out of time for the weekend. restored from backup. Less than 5 minutes from inserting the disk to phones up and running with my old backup tools. Will give it a go next weekend I have available.

 

[Hyksos]

PIAF2 was/is an ISO that you download, burn and use to install a customized CentOS (with the partitioning choices made by PIAF devs unless you change it) plus the software packages and files making the phone system, Asterisk, FreePBX, etc.
So this ISO is a customized CentOS install ISO that doesn't install like a normal CentOS would, one differences is that the default partitioning choices made by PIAF2 ISO install are not LVM based. This ISO is also customized to install everything necessary in an automated manner after the CentOS part is installed (the actual OS).

PIAF3 is different in that respect.
You start by installing CentOS... using the same way anyone else would install it. You use one of the official or any other documented way to install a minimal CentOS.
This usually means download the official Minimal CentOS ISO (this is just CentOS) and you install that the same way anyone would install CentOS.
You also have the same choices and default configuration as a normal CentOS installation, which differs from a PIAF2 install...(which is not an official CentOS install, its been modified and different default choices has been made.)
Once you're done installing CentOS like anyone would, you download and execute an installer script which install all the necessary stuff to transform a basic CentOS into a PBX.
Then you have a PIAF3 install. You're now at the same point you would be if you had installed from a PIAF2 ISO.... but you have slightly different CentOS under the hood since it was installed by the Official CentOS ISO and not a custom PIAF-CentOS ISO, different defaults are used.

That being said one of those alluded to differences between a PIAF2 ISO installed CentOS and an official CentOS ISO installed CentOS is the default partition layout.
PIAF2 ISO was creating 3 standard ext4/swap partitions directly on the real block device/HDD and the official CentOS ISO is creating one standard ext4 /boot partition + 2 ext4/swap Logical Volumes(LV) in an LVM Volume Group(VG) which uses the real block device (the second partition beside /boot) as an LVM Physical Volume(PV).

So that's why PIAF3 is installing differently than PIAF2... it's just not installed the same way at all...
Now if one want to install CentOS from an official CentOS ISO (which defaults to using LVM) but configure the partition layout exactly like a PIAF2 ISO would have done it, all you have to do is customize the partition layout proposed by the CentOS installer and configure it to have 3 standard partition not using LVM.

Ward resource:
http://pbxinaflash.com/community/index.php?resources/installing-centos.39/
is explaining how to achieve that.

This link, below the root password section exemplifies what Ward is talking about. (Not the most talkative how-to, but I selected it because it's the one I quickly found that happen to change the defaults from LVM to standard partitions (what the OP seems to want) and he included screenshots... woot woot.)
http://www.wingfoss.com/content/how-to-install-centos6-minimal