How To Create Lvm Partition In Linux

Storage technology plays a important role in improving the availability, performance, and ability to manage Linux servers.

One of the most useful and helpful technology to linux system administrator is Linux Logical Volume Manager(LVM), version 2 (or LVM 2).

LVM is a widely-used technique and extremely flexible disk management scheme for deploying logical rather than physical storage. With LVM, system administrator can easily resize and extend the logical drive when it is required.

Create Lvm

The following steps will describe how to create LVM in Linux CentOS 7 or RHEL 7 or Oracle Linux 7.

How to Create Lvm in Linux Step by Step

1. Add the new 20GB vdisk from the ESXi or vCenter :

Create Lvm

2. create a new Partiton using fdisk tool and select partition type LVM :

[root@centos7 ~]# fdisk /dev/sdb Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.23.2).  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 Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xfd3bf27d.  Command (m for help): n Partition type:    p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)    e   extended Select (default p): p Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1 First sector (2048-41943039, default 2048): Using default value 2048 Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-41943039, default 41943039): Using default value 41943039 Partition 1 of type Linux and of size 20 GiB is set  Command (m for help): p  Disk /dev/sdb: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes, 41943040 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk label type: dos Disk identifier: 0xfd3bf27d     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System /dev/sdb1            2048    41943039    20970496   83  Linux  Command (m for help): t Selected partition 1 Hex code (type L to list all codes): L   0  Empty           24  NEC DOS         81  Minix / old Lin bf  Solaris  1  FAT12           27  Hidden NTFS Win 82  Linux swap / So c1  DRDOS/sec (FAT-  2  XENIX root      39  Plan 9          83  Linux           c4  DRDOS/sec (FAT-  3  XENIX usr       3c  PartitionMagic  84  OS/2 hidden C:  c6  DRDOS/sec (FAT-  4  FAT16 <32M      40  Venix 80286     85  Linux extended  c7  Syrinx  5  Extended        41  PPC PReP Boot   86  NTFS volume set da  Non-FS data  6  FAT16           42  SFS             87  NTFS volume set db  CP/M / CTOS / .  7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT 4d  QNX4.x          88  Linux plaintext de  Dell Utility  8  AIX             4e  QNX4.x 2nd part 8e  Linux LVM       df  BootIt  9  AIX bootable    4f  QNX4.x 3rd part 93  Amoeba          e1  DOS access  a  OS/2 Boot Manag 50  OnTrack DM      94  Amoeba BBT      e3  DOS R/O  b  W95 FAT32       51  OnTrack DM6 Aux 9f  BSD/OS          e4  SpeedStor  c  W95 FAT32 (LBA) 52  CP/M            a0  IBM Thinkpad hi eb  BeOS fs  e  W95 FAT16 (LBA) 53  OnTrack DM6 Aux a5  FreeBSD         ee  GPT  f  W95 Ext'd (LBA) 54  OnTrackDM6      a6  OpenBSD         ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/ 10  OPUS            55  EZ-Drive        a7  NeXTSTEP        f0  Linux/PA-RISC b 11  Hidden FAT12    56  Golden Bow      a8  Darwin UFS      f1  SpeedStor 12  Compaq diagnost 5c  Priam Edisk     a9  NetBSD          f4  SpeedStor 14  Hidden FAT16 <3 61  SpeedStor       ab  Darwin boot     f2  DOS secondary 16  Hidden FAT16    63  GNU HURD or Sys af  HFS / HFS+      fb  VMware VMFS 17  Hidden HPFS/NTF 64  Novell Netware  b7  BSDI fs         fc  VMware VMKCORE 18  AST SmartSleep  65  Novell Netware  b8  BSDI swap       fd  Linux raid auto 1b  Hidden W95 FAT3 70  DiskSecure Mult bb  Boot Wizard hid fe  LANstep 1c  Hidden W95 FAT3 75  PC/IX           be  Solaris boot    ff  BBT 1e  Hidden W95 FAT1 80  Old Minix Hex code (type L to list all codes): 8e Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux LVM'  Command (m for help): p  Disk /dev/sdb: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes, 41943040 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk label type: dos Disk identifier: 0xfd3bf27d     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System /dev/sdb1            2048    41943039    20970496   8e  Linux LVM

3. Initializes the partition /dev/sdb1 as an LVM physical volume :

[root@centos7 ~]# pvcreate /dev/sdb1   Physical volume "/dev/sdb1" successfully created

4. Scanning for Block Devices

[root@centos7 ~]# lvmdiskscan   /dev/centos/swap [       2.00 GiB]   /dev/sda1        [     500.00 MiB]   /dev/centos/root [      27.51 GiB]   /dev/sda2        [      29.51 GiB] LVM physical volume   /dev/sdb1        [      20.00 GiB] LVM physical volume   2 disks   1 partition   0 LVM physical volume whole disks   2 LVM physical volumes

5. Displaying Physical Volumes :

There are three commands you can use to display properties of LVM physical volumes: pvs,
pvdisplay, and pvscan.

The pvdisplay command provides a verbose multi-line output for each physical volume. It displays
physical properties (size, extents, volume group, etc.) in a fixed format.

[root@centos7 ~]# pvdisplay   --- Physical volume ---   PV Name               /dev/sda2   VG Name               centos   PV Size               29.51 GiB / not usable 3.00 MiB   Allocatable           yes (but full)   PE Size               4.00 MiB   Total PE              7554   Free PE               0   Allocated PE          7554   PV UUID               JvDOto-KDiF-gtca-TveX-ne9M-frsB-qsP1aJ    "/dev/sdb1" is a new physical volume of "20.00 GiB"   --- NEW Physical volume ---   PV Name               /dev/sdb1   VG Name   PV Size               20.00 GiB   Allocatable           NO   PE Size               0   Total PE              0   Free PE               0   Allocated PE          0   PV UUID               rJ8wl7-xzIN-2qqV-ov7Z-lHKe-ELge-aAV29V

The pvscan command scans all supported LVM block devices in the system for physical volumes

[root@centos7 ~]# pvscan   PV /dev/sda2   VG centos          lvm2 [29.51 GiB / 0    free]   PV /dev/sdb1                      lvm2 [20.00 GiB]   Total: 2 [49.51 GiB] / in use: 1 [29.51 GiB] / in no VG: 1 [20.00 GiB]

6. Create volume group name vg_newlvm and add /dev/sdb1 partition into the group.

[root@centos7 ~]# vgcreate vg_newlvm /dev/sdb1   Volume group "vg_newlvm" successfully created

If you have more than one partition, you can add multiple partition in single command. This command creates a local volume named vg_newlvm that contains physical volumes /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdc1 :

[root@centos7 ~]# vgcreate vg_newlvm /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1

7. Creates a logical volume called centos7_newvol that uses all of the unallocated space in the volume group vg_newlvm :

[root@centos7 ~]# lvcreate --name centos7_newvol -l 100%FREE vg_newlvm   Logical volume "centos7_newvol" created

You can see more example of lvcreate command in article "4 lvcreate Command Examples on Linux"

8. Display the created logical volumes :

[root@centos7 ~]# lvdisplay

.. ..   --- Logical volume ---   LV Path                /dev/vg_newlvm/centos7_newvol   LV Name                centos7_newvol   VG Name                vg_newlvm   LV UUID                szlkNP-0lwe-f59Z-PJVU-X7pG-unBL-qN10D4   LV Write Access        read/write   LV Creation host, time centos7.ehowstuff.local, 2015-01-25 15:15:48 +0800   LV Status              available   # open                 0   LV Size                20.00 GiB   Current LE             5119   Segments               1   Allocation             inherit   Read ahead sectors     auto   - currently set to     8192   Block device           253:2

9. Use the mkfs command to format a newly created LVM :

[root@centos7 ~]# mkfs.ext4 /dev/vg_newlvm/centos7_newvol mke2fs 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013) Filesystem label= OS type: Linux Block size=4096 (log=2) Fragment size=4096 (log=2) Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks 1310720 inodes, 5241856 blocks 262092 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user First data block=0 Maximum filesystem blocks=2153775104 160 block groups 32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group 8192 inodes per group Superblock backups stored on blocks:         32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,         4096000  Allocating group tables: done Writing inode tables: done Creating journal (32768 blocks): done Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

10. Create the mount point and mount the new LVM :

[root@centos7 ~]# mkdir -p /data [root@centos7 ~]# mount /dev/vg_newlvm/centos7_newvol /data

11. Verify thew new disk layout :

[root@centos7 ~]# df Filesystem                           1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/centos-root               28260132 9191032  17610516  35% / devtmpfs                               1935888       0   1935888   0% /dev tmpfs                                  1941892       0   1941892   0% /dev/shm tmpfs                                  1941892    8728   1933164   1% /run tmpfs                                  1941892       0   1941892   0% /sys/fs/cgroup /dev/sda1                               487634   73191    384747  16% /boot tmpfs                                  1941892    8728   1933164   1% /var/named/chroot/run/named /dev/mapper/vg_newlvm-centos7_newvol  20507216   45080  19397384   1% /data