Thank you for the reply Nico.

I am willing to pull this 2T drive out of the USB case it is in and
mount it as a hot swap drive in the Dell T-410 system that I have.
Can you tell me, other than modifying /etc/fstab to mount an ext3
drive at a minimum rw, is there anything I need to know? Can I mount
it "outside" of a Vol/Grp...or do I have to work within that
framework?

Can you tell me explicitly what the /etc/fstab entry would be for
either scenario, using the Vol/Grp and mounting outside Vol/Grp?

[root at (no spam) localhost ~]# pvscan
PV /dev/sda2 VG VolGroup00 lvm2 [698.53 GB / 0 free]
PV /dev/sdb1 VG VolGroup00 lvm2 [698.62 GB / 0 free]
Total: 2 [1.36 TB] / in use: 2 [1.36 TB] / in no VG: 0 [0 ]

[root at (no spam) localhost ~]# vgscan
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
[root at (no spam) localhost ~]# lvscan
ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00' [1.36 TB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01' [7.78 GB] inherit

[root at (no spam) localhost ~]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14 91201 732467610 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdb: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 91201 732572001 8e Linux LVM

[root at (no spam) localhost ~]# mount -l
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 on / type ext3 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw) [/boot]
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)

[root at (no spam) localhost ~]# free
total used free shared buffers
cached
Mem: 5837916 2197088 3640828 0 378800
1362640
-/+ buffers/cache: 455648 5382268
Swap: 8159224 0 8159224

[root at (no spam) localhost ~]# df -al
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
1411242632 37151872 1301247496 3% /
proc 0 0 0 - /proc
sysfs 0 0 0 - /sys
devpts 0 0 0 - /dev/pts
/dev/sda1 101086 15551 80316 17% /boot
tmpfs 2918956 0 2918956 0% /dev/shm
none 0 0 0 - /proc/sys/fs/
binfmt_misc
sunrpc 0 0 0 - /var/lib/nfs/
rpc_pipefs

Just to let you know, I am doing 100% of this work to learn how to be
a hard core bioinformatics sys admin with skills in FreeBSD, SE Linux,
MySQL, Apache, Bash(sed grep awk), C, PERL, PHP, and Python. I am on
a helpdesk now at a Fortune 500 Company and want to go back to what I
was doing several years ago...but get in to the technologies hard core
and "get lost in them mentally" so as to manage the resources. I like
being "there" with the technologies. If I am working 50+ hours a week
I may as well be involved in the technologies I am interested in and
get paid well for it.

I know this is an open forum/newgroup but I appreciate the help that I
get from people. If anyone here offering help is very good in the
technologies I am studying I am willing to pay you every now and then
for the help that you give me. Just obtain a PayPal account and I
will direct payments directly to it.

At this time I am running 2 paid instances of RHEL 5.3, one desktop
and one server. First, I installed RHEL 5.3 server 30 day trial to
try it out(did not have all the cash for everything all at once and
wanted to get rolling), then purchased and installed RHEL 5.3 desktop,
followed by the 5.3 Server purchase (basic support now, which I am
modifying to standard thuis week). I've yet to be asked for the
Subscription ID on the 30-day trial Server.

The 2T ext3 drive had NTFS put on it because I saw that the flash
drive mounted so easily/seamlessly and I just needed it for a quick
1-2 week use...so I gave it a shot. Hahaha! That backfired hard, and
I have not been able to remount is at a usb device since I pulled it
from the system.

To be honest with you over the past week I was dealing with setfacl/
getfacl and permissions issues...and this could be what is going on
here. Not sure just yet.

I never modified /etc/fstab but thought that I would give that to you
to cut to the chase:

[root at (no spam) localhost ~]# cat /etc/fstab
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0

"Properties for the Logical Volume, /dev/backup/wizdom" but the
location is nonexistant.

Properties for the Volume Group
Volume Group Name backup
Clustered False
System ID
Format lvm2
Attributes wz--n-
Volume Group Size 1.82T
Available Space 0
Total Number of Extents 476931
Number Free Extents 0
Extent Size 4.00M
Max Alowable Physical Volumes 256
Number of Physical Volumes 1
Max Number of Logical Volumes 256
Number of Logical Volumes 1
VG UUID kgDIF2-BFoq-Ttm2-fKTa-6kn3-8aU2-Ctc7dw

Properties for the Logical Volume
/dev/backup/wizdom

Logical Volume Name wizdom
Volume Group Name backup
Logical Volume Size 1863.01GB
Number of Segments 1
Attributes -wi---
LV UID jjzSXd-lWKt-Q64Y-Y9Zw-Cujt-J5wL-PRW11H
Mount Point Unmounted
Mount Point when Rebooted None
File System None

Wait: if this is from lvscan, why doesn't /dev/wizdom/backup exist? Or
is this historical data?

Yes, I think the OS retained it when the drive was unmounted. I am
going to provide you with more info:

[root at (no spam) localhost ~]# chkconfig --list
NetworkManager 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
acpid 0:off 1:off 2n 3n 4n 5n 6:off
anacron 0:off 1:off 2n 3n 4n 5n 6:off
atd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3n 4n 5n 6:off
auditd 0:off 1:off 2n 3n 4n 5n 6:off
autofs 0:off 1:off 2:off 3n 4n

The USB 2.0 device is a Sabrent, 3.5 SATA/IDE Hard Drive enclosure
with a 2T WD Caviar, Green, RHEL 5.3 ext3 formatted drive.

Editorial_Response wrote:

 > The USB 2.0 device is a Sabrent, 3.5 SATA/IDE Hard Drive enclosure
 > with a 2T WD Caviar, Green, RHEL 5.3 ext3 formatted drive.

     A mess of generic stuff herehttp://www.giwersworld.org/computers/linux/usb-drives.phtml

     You do have to format it with

/sbin/mke2fs -j -L 320 /dev/sdX1

I admit to being singularly unenthused with LVM. I have tried adding a drive
and the OS was so kind as to reformat it for me without asking permission,
needless to say MBR first.

OK. You should be able to do this:

/dev/backup/wizdom                /[your-mount-point]    ext3
noauto          0 0

That will prevent it from auto-mounting and whining if it's not
connected, but allow you to say "mount /[your-mount-pount]" and have
it do the right things if it's available.

On Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:45:35 -0400, Matt Giwer <jul... at (no spam) tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
   I admit to being singularly unenthused with LVM. I have tried adding a drive
and the OS was so kind as to reformat it for me without asking permission,
needless to say MBR first.

Linux/LVM will not format a drive unless you tell it to.  Sounds like you
need to learn the basics of partitioning, file system creation, and lvm.

Ignoring things like GUID systems, you're most likely only going to see
partitions using the MBR format, or devices that only contain a filesystem
or physical volume.

If a drive is only going to contain one filesystem, or physical volume, you
have the choice of whether or not to have an mbr.

Running "mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda" will overwrite out the mbr and create a filesystem
that takes up the entire drive.

If you use a program such as fdisk to allocate a partition on sda, and then
run "mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1", then you'll have a filesystem within the one partition.

Similarly, running pvcreate on /dev/sda will overwrite the mbr, while pvcreate on
/dev/sda1, will create the physical volume within the partition.

The filesystems within lvm logical volumes can only be accessed if the lvm
"database" (stored in /etc/lvm) has the correct information.  This information
can be updated/corrected using the command vgscan.

Normally, when you want to access logical volumes on a system where /etc/lvm
does not currently know about them (such as when you're booting from a live
cd), you run "vgscan" to get the information, followed by "vgchange -a y",
to mark the volume group as available.  The logical volumes within the vg
will then show up in /dev/mapper, and those device names can then be used
for formatting the filesystems, or mounting them.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--
Change nomail.afraid.org to ody.ca to reply by email.
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
use in usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)

On Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:45:35 -0400, Matt Giwer <jull43 at (no spam) tampabay.rr.com
wrote:

I admit to being singularly unenthused with LVM. I have tried adding
a drive and the OS was so kind as to reformat it for me without asking
permission, needless to say MBR first.

Linux/LVM will not format a drive unless you tell it to. Sounds like you
need to learn the basics of partitioning, file system creation, and lvm.

On Wed, 14 Oct 2009, David W. Hodgins wrote:

On Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:45:35 -0400, Matt Giwer <jull43 at (no spam) tampabay.rr.com
wrote:

I admit to being singularly unenthused with LVM. I have tried adding
a drive and the OS was so kind as to reformat it for me without asking
permission, needless to say MBR first.

Linux/LVM will not format a drive unless you tell it to. Sounds like you
need to learn the basics of partitioning, file system creation, and lvm.

I can only report what occurred. I have not done it since. In
retrospect it does not appear to be a good idea to add a USB drive to the
mix but perhaps there is a way to make that a good idea. I have no tried
it since.

--
God gave Israel the Ten Commandments because they
were in such desperate need of them.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 4177
http://www.giwersworld.org/environment/aehb.phtml a2
Fri Oct 16 05:48:49 EDT 2009

Note also that Nothing will "format the mbr"