How to Preserve /home and VDO During OS Reinstallation

Objective

Perform a fresh OS installation using Anaconda while preserving:

  1. The existing os-home LVM partition (mounted at /home).

  2. The VDO volume on the nvme disk (mounted at /path/to/vdo).

  3. All other partitions (/boot/efi, /boot, os-root, os-swap) may be overwritten.

Steps

  1. Boot into Anaconda Installer

    • Boot from installation media (USB/DVD).

    • Start the Anaconda installer.

  2. Select Manual Partitioning

    • Choose Manual or Custom partitioning mode.

  3. Configure Partitions

    • EFI System Partition (sdx1):

      • Reformat as fat32.

      • Set mount point to /boot/efi.

    • /boot Partition (sdx2):

      • Reformat as ext4 or xfs.

      • Set mount point to /boot.

    • LVM Volume Group (sdx3):

      • os-root: Reformat (ext4/xfs) and assign to /.

      • os-swap: Set as swap.

      • os-home: Do not reformat. Assign to /home and check “Preserve data”.

    • VDO Volume (nvme):

      • If detected: Assign to /path/to/vdo without reformatting.

      • If not detected: Ignore (will configure post-install).

  4. Complete Installation

    • Verify partition changes before proceeding.

    • Confirm that only os-home and VDO are preserved.

  5. Post-Installation Steps

    • If VDO was not configured during install:

      • Manually mount the VDO volume:

        sudo vdo start --name=vdo-name
sudo mount /dev/mapper/vdo-name /path/to/vdo

      • Add to /etc/fstab:

        /dev/mapper/vdo-name /path/to/vdo xfs defaults,_netdev 0 0

      • Enable the VDO service:

        sudo systemctl enable --now vdo

Important Notes

  • Backup data before proceeding, even when preserving /home.

  • Anaconda may not fully support VDO configuration. Manual setup might be required.

  • Ensure LVM volume group names (e.g., os) do not conflict with the new OS.