LVM Snapshot auto-backup warning or autogrow.sh failure with vCenter Server

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This issue can present with multple symptoms

 

• During upgrade prechecks the "Pre-Update Check Results" show a warning like:
  Warning: LVM Snapshot based auto-backup of vCenter Server will not be taken during vCenter patching
  Resolution: Please ensure a valid LVM snapsot disk and altroot disk is present on the vCenter Server and LVM snapshot disk has sufficient space available on it to take the backup

• On vCenter Server Appliance, autogrow.sh fails to increase partition size due to LVM logical volumes snapshot, then the autogrow script is unable to extend the partitions and return similar following lines:
  

  Wed Jun 26 11:24:52 CEST 2024 Disk Util: INFO: LV Resizing /dev/vtsdblog_vg/vtsdblog
  Snapshot origin volumes can be resized only while inactive: try lvchange -an.
Wed Jun 26 11:24:52 CEST 2024 Disk Util: INFO: LV Resizing /dev/vtsdblog_vg/vtsdblog_vg_vtsdblog_snap
fsck from util-linux 2.37.4
/dev/mapper/vtsdblog_vg-vtsdblog_vg_vtsdblog_snap: clean, 15/565248 files, 65189/2246656 blocks
  Size of logical volume vtsdblog_vg/vtsdblog_vg_vtsdblog_snap unchanged from 8.57 GiB (1097 extents).
  Logical volume vtsdblog_vg/vtsdblog_vg_vtsdblog_snap successfully resized.
resize2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
The filesystem is already 2246656 (4k) blocks long.  Nothing to do!

  
  Wed Jun 26 11:24:52 CEST 2024 Disk Util: INFO: LV Resizing /dev/updatemgr_vg/updatemgr
  Snapshot origin volumes can be resized only while inactive: try lvchange -an.
Wed Jun 26 11:24:52 CEST 2024 Disk Util: INFO: LV Resizing /dev/updatemgr_vg/updatemgr_vg_updatemgr_snap
fsck from util-linux 2.37.4
/dev/mapper/updatemgr_vg-updatemgr_vg_updatemgr_snap: clean, 4704/1564672 files, 4480727/6248448 blocks
  Size of logical volume updatemgr_vg/updatemgr_vg_updatemgr_snap unchanged from <23.84 GiB (3051 extents).
  Logical volume updatemgr_vg/updatemgr_vg_updatemgr_snap successfully resized.
resize2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
The filesystem is already 6248448 (4k) blocks long.  Nothing to do!

  
  
  

.

Environment

When run the command "lsblk -o NAME,HCTL,MOUNTPOINT,SIZE", following the instructions of KB Increasing the disk space for the vCenter Server Appliance in vSphere 6.5, 6.7, 7.0 and 8.0 it returns logical volumes snapshots for each volume.

NAME                                                      HCTL       MOUNTPOINT             SIZE
sda                                                       2:0:0:0                          48.6G
|-sda1                                                                                        4M
|-sda2                                                               /boot/efi               10M
|-sda3                                                               /boot                  512M
|-sda4                                                                                       48G
  |-vg_root_0-lv_root_0-real                                                                 48G
    |-vg_root_0-lv_root_0                                            /                       48G
    |-vg_root_0-vg_root_0_lv_root_0_snap                                                     48G
sdb                                                       2:0:1:0                           6.8G
sdc                                                       2:0:2:0                            25G
|-swap_vg-swap1                                                      [SWAP]                  25G
sdd                                                       2:0:3:0                            50G
|-core_vg-core-real                                                                          50G
  |-core_vg-core                                                     /storage/core           50G
  |-core_vg-core_vg_core_snap                                                                50G
sde                                                       2:0:4:0                            10G
|-log_vg-log                                                         /storage/log            10G
sdf                                                       2:0:5:0                            10G
|-db_vg-db-real                                                                              10G
  |-db_vg-db                                                         /storage/db             10G
  |-db_vg-db_vg_db_snap                                                                      10G
sdg                                                       2:0:6:0                            50G
|-dblog_vg-dblog-real                                                                        15G
  |-dblog_vg-dblog                                                   /storage/dblog          15G
  |-dblog_vg-dblog_vg_dblog_snap                                                             15G
sdh                                                       2:0:8:0                            25G
|-seat_vg-seat-real                                                                          25G
  |-seat_vg-seat                                                     /storage/seat           25G
  |-seat_vg-seat_vg_seat_snap                                                                25G

 

Cause

Issue can happen when LVM snapshot clean-up workflow is not automatically executed after upgrade from 7.0U3 to 8.0U1b, then when attempting to patch to 8.0U2a pre-update check failed to find lvm_snapshot logical volume.

LVM snapshot clean-up workflow: clears all the created snapshot volumes and re-creates the lvm_snapshot logical volume

Resolution

Run the script performLVMCleanup.py attached to this article to remove the logical volumes snapshots

• python performLVMCleanup.py