Re: Questions about LVM compatibility

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Am 27.02.2013 00:21, schrieb Adam Hamsik:
> Hi,
>
> On Feb,Tuesday 26 2013, at 4:07 PM, tech mailinglists 
> <mailinglists.tech%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I hope this is the right place to ask this question but I think here I will get 
> > the most reliable answer.
> >
> > Is the NetBSD implementation of LVM compatible with the Linux implementation of 
> > LVM?
> yes it is. Both are fully compatible.
> > I read a little bit about the NetBSD LVM implementation and found out that the 
> > implementation in the kernel is written completly new and that the  userland 
> > tools are ported from the Linux code. But I found no information whether the 
> > NetBSD LVM implementation is compatible to the Linux one.
> See above.
>
> > The situation is as follows: I have a few servers where I am using Xen. The 
> > disks I have are actually LVM based and I wan't to switch to NetBSD. This would 
> > be no problem but there are two things which would be intereseting: Can I still 
> > use my already created LVMs so the PVs, VGs and LVs in NetBSD? The second thing 
> > would be they only have a Linux and FreeBSD livesystem for rescue reasons. So 
> > would I be able to access the LVM volumes from within the Linux livesystem when 
> > it is needed?
> You should be able to manipulate with LVM structures without any problems. But 
> you will not be able to mount filesystem on them (at least on linux LVs). but 
> you will be able to access them from Linux VM.
>
> > Hope that someone can give me an answer to these questions.
> >
> > Best Regards
> >
> > P.S. Sorry for my bad english and the wrong post mode.
> Thanks
> Adam

Hello Adam,

first I want to thank you for your reply. That all sounds very good to 
me. With the mount problem you mean that I can not use every linux 
filesystem on NetBSD? So I could use ext2 on NetBSD but other 
filesystems like ext3 or ext4 I can just use within the VM and from the 
livesystem am I right?

A second thing I thought about was the problem of an encryption system 
which works on NetBSD an Linux. I found a more or less official (I can't 
say whether its official) pkgsrc package of Truecrypt on pkgsrc.se. And 
I read that tcplay is compatible to Truecrypt but I don't know if there 
is a tcplay version for NetBSD.

Is there a crypto system which can be used from Linux and NetBSD? So 
that I can encrypt the physical device in the LVM structure? The other 
way I think would to be to use the functionallity of the guest operating 
system within the Xen DomU.

Best Regards