Purpose: This tutorial gives some basic commands to work with Logical Volume Manager in Linux to create a new logical disk. Logical Volume Manage allows you to manage disks group logically separating the logical volume from the physical disk set. This make extending logical drives easy.
Video Demo:
Steps to create a new logical volume:
1. Partition the disk device
fdisk –l
fdisk -u /dev/<device>
n = new
p = primary partition
1 for first partition
default = beginning of disk
default = end of disk
w = write
fdisk –l
2. Create the physical disk drive
pvcreate /dev/<partition_name>
3. Verify the new physical name
pvdisplay
4. Create a volume group with the new physical disk name
vgcreate <volume_group_name> /dev/<partition_name>
5. Verify the volume group
vgdisplay
6. Divide volume group into logical volume groups
lvcreate -L <logical_volume_size>G --name <logical_volume_name> <volume_group_name>
7. Verify Logical Volume groups
lvdisplay
8. Format Disk
mkfs.ext4 /dev/<partition_name>/<logical_volume_name>
9. Make disk mountable for boot
# if this is disk will always be attached add it to fstab
#vi /etc/fstab
#/dev/<partition_name>/<logical_volume_name> /<directory_name> ext3 defaults 0 0
# if this disk will only be used this session just mount the disk directly
# mount /dev/<partition_name>/<logical_volume_name> /<directory_name>
# if this disk will be moved from system to system mount it using /etc/rc.d/rc.local
# This method will error the drive on the machine on boot if the disk
# is not attached but will not require a linux boot repair.
# vi /etc/rc.d/rc.local
# mount /dev/<partition_name>/<logical_volume_name> /<directory_name>
10. mount disk
mkdir /<directory_name> –p
mount /<directory_name>
cd <directory_name>
df -h
Example:
1. Partition the disk device
fdisk –l
fdisk -u /dev/sdb
n = new
p = primary partition
1 for first partition
default = beginning of disk
default = end of disk
w = write
fdisk –l
2. Create the physical disk drive
pvcreate /dev/sdb1
3. Verify the new physical name
pvdisplay
4. Create a volume group with the new physical disk name
vgcreate softwarevg /dev/sdb1
5. Verify the volume group
vgdisplay
6. Divide volume group into logical volume groups
lvcreate -L 79G –-name softwarelv softwarevg
7. Verify Logical Volume groups
lvdisplay
8. Format Disk
mkfs.ext4 /dev/softwarevg/softwarelv
9. Make disk mountable for boot
# if this is disk will always be attached add it to fstab
#vi /etc/fstab
#/dev/softwarevg/softwarelv /software ext3 defaults 0 0
# if this disk will only be used this session just mount the disk directly
# mount /dev/softwarevg/softwarelv /software
# if this disk will be moved from system to system mount it using /etc/rc.d/rc.local
# This method will error the drive on the machine on boot if the disk
# is not attached but will not require a linux boot repair.
# vi /etc/rc.d/rc.local
# mount /dev/softwarevg/softwarelv /software
10. mount disk
mkdir /software –p
mount /software
cd /software
df –h
