Manage logical volumes

Linux #redhat #filesystem #storage #LVM

Logical Volume Management

LVM allows disks to be combined
It is a software-based utility

Instead of taking one disk and assign it to one partition or one mount point, you take all three disks combined together and
make it a volume group, call it whatever you want it to call, if there were 3 disks of 100G each in this group, this group
becomes a 300G volume. Then you create data1, data2, data3, data4 in different partitions.
The main advantage of LVM is what if you run out 300G that you have created below, then you could add a fourth disk and
without breaking your partitions or your filesystem, you could add that disk to your group, your volume group, which at this
point is datavg , and extend the group size, so it becomes 400G if the disk added is 100G. Then you could associate that
size to data1, if data1 disk space is run out of space.
LVM is very useful in the corporate environment because you have to extend the disk space or partitions of your mount
points all the time.
If the server runs out of space, if you have a physical server the only option you have is to pop the tray out and add
another disk, but what if there is no capacity to add another disk? You are out of luck.
In a virtual environment you could add another disk or extend a disk in virtual machine. Once it's extended, you could
extend your group, and then you could partition that or extend your data1, data2, etc. petitions.

Add Disk and create LVM Partition

 At the bottom of this picture you will see we have hard disks, sda, sdb, and sdc.
For every hard disk we created a partition on top of it.
If you are doing LVM on top of it, then you will have to create Physical Volume for each partition, then we create a volume
group. That group will represent the entire physical volumes that will be coming out of those disks.
Then you will create Logical Volume.
Once we have the logical volume, which will be exactly the same as a standard volume, but of course this will be under
LVM, then we are going to mount those logical volumes to our filesystem.

Steps to add and create LVM Partition

1. Add disk physically or add a disk to your VM environment. (More on Manage basic storage)
2. Once the disk was physically added, boot your Linux machine and become root
3. Run the fdisk -l command to list the disks in your system, here you will see the new inserted disk

Output from fdisk -l :

...
Disk /dev/sdc: 1 GiB, 1073741824 bytes, 2097152 sectors
Disk model: VBOX HARDDISK
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
...

Note the dame /dev/sdc was assigned automatically as we already have an sda, and sdb disk.

4. Create the partition:

Run fdisk /dev/sdc to enter the disk with the fdisk utility
Enter n for "new" to create a new partition on the disk
Enter p for "primary partition"
Then leave the next prompted questions as defualt and hit Enter
In this case we want it to give the partition the entire size of the disk so we will also leave it default

Example using fdisk command:

 [root@localhost ~]# fdisk /dev/sdc

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.37.4).

Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Device does not contain a recognized partition table.

Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x2c41cb50.

Command (m for help): n

Partition type
p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
e extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1):
First sector (2048-2097151, default 2048):
Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-2097151, default 2097151):

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 1023 MiB.

5. To verify that you created your partition on this disk, while on the fdisk utility, you can Enter p for "partitions" to list
the partitions of the current fdisk disk.
Enter p

Example using p command:

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdc: 1 GiB, 1073741824 bytes, 2097152 sectors
Disk model: VBOX HARDDISK
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x2c41cb50

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type

/dev/sdc1 2048 2097151 2095104 1023M 83 Linux

The partition has been created, but it has not been written to the table yet until we do w to "write", but at this time since we
are doing LVM, we will need to type t

6. Change the type of this partition by entering t for "type" while on the selected disk on fdisk utility. Finally hit w to
write changes to the table.
Enter t for "type"
Enter L to list Hex code or alias
Enter 8e for Linux LVM
Enter w to "write" changes

Example using t command:

Command (m for help): t

Selected partition 1
Hex code or alias (type L to list all): L
 00 Empty 24 NEC DOS 81 Minix / old Lin bf Solaris
01 FAT12 27 Hidden NTFS Win 82 Linux swap / So c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
02 XENIX root 39 Plan 9 83 Linux c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
03 XENIX usr 3c PartitionMagic 84 OS/2 hidden or c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
04 FAT16 <32M 40 Venix 80286 85 Linux extended c7 Syrinx
05 Extended 41 PPC PReP Boot 86 NTFS volume set da Non-FS data
06 FAT16 42 SFS 87 NTFS volume set db CP/M / CTOS / .
07 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT 4d QNX4.x 88 Linux plaintext de Dell Utility
08 AIX 4e QNX4.x 2nd part 8e Linux LVM df BootIt
09 AIX bootable 4f QNX4.x 3rd part 93 Amoeba e1 DOS access
0a OS/2 Boot Manag 50 OnTrack DM 94 Amoeba BBT e3 DOS R/O
0b W95 FAT32 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux 9f BSD/OS e4 SpeedStor
0c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 52 CP/M a0 IBM Thinkpad hi ea Linux extended
0e W95 FAT16 (LBA) 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux a5 FreeBSD eb BeOS fs
0f W95 Ext'd (LBA) 54 OnTrackDM6 a6 OpenBSD ee GPT
10 OPUS 55 EZ-Drive a7 NeXTSTEP ef EFI (FAT-12/16/
11 Hidden FAT12 56 Golden Bow a8 Darwin UFS f0 Linux/PA-RISC b
12 Compaq diagnost 5c Priam Edisk a9 NetBSD f1 SpeedStor
14 Hidden FAT16 <3 61 SpeedStor ab Darwin boot f4 SpeedStor
16 Hidden FAT16 63 GNU HURD or Sys af HFS / HFS+ f2 DOS secondary
17 Hidden HPFS/NTF 64 Novell Netware b7 BSDI fs fb VMware VMFS
18 AST SmartSleep 65 Novell Netware b8 BSDI swap fc VMware VMKCORE
1b Hidden W95 FAT3 70 DiskSecure Mult bb Boot Wizard hid fd Linux raid auto
1c Hidden W95 FAT3 75 PC/IX bc Acronis FAT32 L fe LANstep
1e Hidden W95 FAT1 80 Old Minix be Solaris boot ff BBT

Aliases:
linux - 83
swap - 82
extended - 05
uefi - EF
raid - FD
lvm - 8E
linuxex - 85
Hex code or alias (type L to list all): 8e
Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux LVM'.

Command (m for help): w

The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

The t command is to change a partition's system id

After entering t we then enter L to list all Hex code or alias and look for the one that is associated with Linux LVM ( 8e )
Now if we run p again to list the partitions of the disk, the partition /dev/sdc1 that we just created will appear as Type
Linux LVM
Now our partition table is created.
You now can enter w to write partition table changes.

7. Create physical volume:

Run pvcreate followed by the name of the volume and the partition number
pvcreate /dev/sdc1
This will output: Physical volume "/dev/sdc1" successfully created.
To verify this, you can always run pvdisplay , which is to partition volume display

Example using pvdisplay command:

 [root@localhost ~]# pvdisplay

Output:

--- Physical volume ---

PV Name /dev/sda2
VG Name rhel
PV Size <19.00 GiB / not usable 3.00 MiB
Allocatable yes (but full)
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 4863
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 4863
PV UUID wrHyR0-8Pz0-34Lw-4xpp-Ztqn-Fv5m-f3TGWD

"/dev/sdc1" is a new physical volume of "1023.00 MiB"

--- NEW Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sdc1
VG Name
PV Size 1023.00 MiB
Allocatable NO
PE Size 0
Total PE 0
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 0
PV UUID BVN9hO-jckx-Sq7j-ewf6-De64-U29a-R5WShj

It will tell you that it created the volume, with more information.

8. Create volume group:

Run vgcreate and the name of the volume group that you wanted to assign, finally add the name of the physical
volume we previously created.
vgcreate oracle_vg /dev/sdc1
You could pick any name for this, in this case we picked 'oracle_vg' in order to identify this is a "volume
group"
This will output: Volume group "oracle_vg" successfully created
You can verify this by running vgdisplay to list the volume groups with more information.

Example using vgdisplay command:

[root@localhost ~]# vgdisplay oracle_vg

Note we only want to list information from the volume group that we just created 'oracle_vg'

Output:

--- Volume group ---

VG Name oracle_vg
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 1
Metadata Sequence No 1
VG Access read/write
 VG Status resizable
MAX LV 0
Cur LV 0
Open LV 0
Max PV 0
Cur PV 1
Act PV 1
VG Size 1020.00 MiB
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 255
Alloc PE / Size 0 / 0
Free PE / Size 255 / 1020.00 MiB
VG UUID uhqflf-4isP-H3Y8-hodl-Nss2-AMLQ-7kOffY

9. Create a logical volume:

Run the command lvcreate , then -n for "new", then the name you want to give to the logical volume ( oracle_lv ),
then the size you want to give it ( --size 1G ), and finally the name of the volume group that it will be associated to
( oracle_vg )
lvcreate -n oracle_lv --size 1G oracle_vg
Verify the action was completed by running lvdisplay

Example using lvcreate command:

[root@localhost ~]# lvcreate -n oracle_lv --size 1G oracle_vg

Volume group "oracle_vg" has insufficient free space (255 extents): 256 required.

Instead of doing 1G, we could do 1023 MB, which is one less Megabyte than a Gigabyte. (1G = 1024MB)

Example using lvcreate command:

[root@localhost ~]# lvcreate -n oracle_lv --size 1023M oracle_vg

Rounding up size to full physical extent 1.00 GiB
Volume group "oracle_vg" has insufficient free space (255 extents): 256 required.

Note we got the same result so we will need to lower down the size of the logical volume

Example using lvcreate command:

[root@localhost ~]# lvcreate -n oracle_lv --size 1000M oracle_vg

Logical volume "oracle_lv" created.

Now we are just picking 1000MB because it does need some of the space to hold its LVM information.
Now we created the logical volume

Example using lvdisplay command:

[root@localhost ~]# lvdisplay

Note we cannot just check for one single logical volume, we need to list all of them.
Output:

--- Logical volume ---

LV Path /dev/oracle_vg/oracle_lv
LV Name oracle_lv
VG Name oracle_vg
LV UUID 9TTmCW-InfK-wqRy-ZTV4-ac4l-XQkQ-cVs41C
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time linuxtest, 2024-07-03 13:16:04 -0600
LV Status available
# open 0
LV Size 1000.00 MiB
Current LE 250
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 253:2
...

10. Format the disk and assign a filesystem to it:

Run mkfs.xfs /dev/oracle_vg/oracle_lv
In the volume group, and then we have the logical volume that we just created
Note we are assigning xfs filesystem to this partition

Example using mkfs.xfs command:

[root@localhost ~]# mkfs.xfs /dev/oracle_vg/oracle_lv

Output:

meta-data=/dev/oracle_vg/oracle_lv isize=512 agcount=4, agsize=64000 blks

= sectsz=512 attr=2, projid32bit=1
= crc=1 finobt=1, sparse=1, rmapbt=0
= reflink=1 bigtime=1 inobtcount=1 nrext64=0
data = bsize=4096 blocks=256000, imaxpct=25
= sunit=0 swidth=0 blks
naming =version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0, ftype=1
log =internal log bsize=4096 blocks=16384, version=2
= sectsz=512 sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1
realtime =none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0

11. Mount the logical volume to our directory wherever that directory is:
Create a new directory with mkdir
mkdir /oracle
Mount LV to this directory
mount /dev/oracle_vg/oracle_lv /oracle
You can run df -h to verify this step.

Example using mount command:

[root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/oracle_vg/oracle_lv /oracle

 [root@localhost ~]# df -h

Output:

...
/dev/mapper/oracle_vg-oracle_lv 936M 39M 898M 5% /oracle

It now has assigned the volume to the /oracle directory.

If you want you could also unmount it with the umount command.
Remember you would have to modify /etc/fstab to let this disk mount while on boot. More on Manage basic storage
(Please be careful with this step)
Add the line /dev/mapper/oracle_vg-oracle_lv /oracle xfs defaults 0 0 to the /etc/fstab file to enable to
mount the partition on boot. (Remember separations are done by tabs)

Add and Extend Disk Using LVM

Imagine /oracle disk is completely full to 100%
/oracle = 1.0G
/oracle = Full
Few Options:
Delete older files to free up disk space
Add new physical disk and mount it to /oracle2
If you have a physical system then you could add a new physical disk in this physical system if and only if you
have the slot, an extra slot to add an extra disk to that physical system.
Create a new virtual disk and mount to /oracle2
All you have to do i go to your VM and add a new disk.
Extend /oracle through LVM
If you didn't set up /oracle to work with LVM you would be out of luck to extend this partition, but if you did,
then you are in luck and you will be able to extend this partition using LVM
All you have to do is create a partition of a new disk and then attach that disk within the same group that you
created for /oracle mount point.

Steps to extend disk using LVM

1. 1. Add disk physically or add a disk to your VM environment. (More on Manage basic storage)
2. Once the disk was physically added, boot your Linux machine and become root
3. Run the fdisk -l command to list the disks in your system, here you will see the new inserted disk. (replicated
previously in this note)
4. Partition that new disk: (replicated previously in this note)
fdisk /dev/sdd
n to create a partition and select defaults by hitting Enter when prompted
p to verify partition
5. Change the partition type:
t for "type"
8e for Linux LVM
p to verify partition
w to write to partition table
 fdisk -l /dev/sdd to verify the partition was created and the type was changed
6. Reboot the system to make sure it is updated to within the system.
7. Create a physical volume:
Run pvcreate /dev/sdd1
We always have to create a physical volume and then add taht physical volume to the volume group.
Run pvdisplay
This will show us which group is associated with which disk.
You could also run pvs , it will also give you the same information in a briefly way.

Example using pvs command:

[root@localhost ~]# pvs

PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree
/dev/sda2 rhel lvm2 a-- <19.00g 0
/dev/sdc1 oracle_vg lvm2 a-- 1020.00m 20.00m
/dev/sdd1 lvm2 --- 1023.00m 1023.00m

The pvs command displays information about physical volumes

Note we want to add a new disk within the oracle_vg volume group
Note the new physical volume is not part of any VG

8. Extend the volume group:

Run vgextend oracle_vg /dev/sdd1
Note we have to specify the volume group name ( oracle_vg ) and then follow that with the physical volume we
just created ( /dev/sdd1 )

Example using vgextend command:

[root@localhost ~]# vgextend oracle_vg /dev/sdd1

Volume group "oracle_vg" successfully extended

9. Extend the logical group:

Run lvextend -L+1024M /dev/mapper/oracle_vg-oracle_lv
Note that we have to specify the size, the option for this is -L
Note that we got the partition name ( dev/mapper/oracle_vg-oracle_lv ) by doing df -h (it has to be
mounted)

Example using lvextend command:

[root@localhost ~]# lvextend -L+1024M /dev/mapper/oracle_vg-oracle_lv

Size of logical volume oracle_vg/oracle_lv changed from 1000.00 MiB (250 extents) to <1.98 GiB (506
extents).
Logical volume oracle_vg/oracle_lv successfully resized.

The logical volume was successfuly extended

10. Extend the filesystem:

Run xfs_growfs /dev/mapper/oracle_vg-oracle_lv
Note that we got the partition name ( dev/mapper/oracle_vg-oracle_lv ) by doing df -h (it has to be
mounted)
 Note xfs_growfs stands for "grow filesystem"
You can verify this action by looking at the new size of dev/mapper/oracle_vg-oracle_lv in the list made by df -
h

Output from df -h :

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

devtmpfs 4.0M 0 4.0M 0% /dev
tmpfs 5.1G 0 5.1G 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 2.1G 9.2M 2.1G 1% /run
/dev/mapper/rhel-root 17G 7.2G 9.8G 43% /
/dev/sda1 960M 411M 550M 43% /boot
/dev/sdb1 2.0G 47M 1.9G 3% /data
/dev/mapper/oracle_vg-oracle_lv 936M 39M 898M 5% /oracle
tmpfs 1.1G 52K 1.1G 1% /run/user/42
tmpfs 1.1G 36K 1.1G 1% /run/user/1000

Note the new size of the dev/mapper/oracle_vg-oracle_lv partition

It is now almost 2G which is the combination of 1G + 1G from our two disks.

Extending Swap on an LVM2 Logical Volume

from Extending Swap on an LVM2 Logical Volume

To extend an LVM2 swap logical volume (assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 is the volume you want to extend):

1. Disable swapping for the associated logical volume:

swapoff -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

2. Resize the LVM2 logical volume by 256 MB:

lvm lvresize /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 -L +256M

3. Format the new swap space:

mkswap /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

4. Enable the extended logical volume:

swapon -va

5. Test that the logical volume has been extended properly:

cat /proc/swaps