LVM Basic Configuration

Primary checks

Log onto your server and check if the disk is really empty 

# fdisk -l

 

# pvdisplay

  --- Physical volume ---

  PV Name               /dev/sda2

  VG Name               rootvg

  PV Size               14.51 GB / not usable 1011.00 KB

  Allocatable           yes

  PE Size (KByte)       4096

  Total PE              3714

  Free PE               2

  Allocated PE          3712

  PV UUID               BW0x8y-tZhN-X75D-khKB-4IF3-klRt-1W6jJu

 

lvm.conf filter

to ensure correct devices are selected with EMC powerpath setup lvm.conf filter like this :

filter = [ "a|/dev/emcpower*|", "r|/dev/dm*|", "r|/dev/sd*|", "r|/dev/mapper/*|", "r|/dev/mpath/*|", "r|/dev/.*/by-path/.*|", "r|/dev/.*/by-id/.*|", "a/.*/"]

otherwise , the system might pick up the native mpath rather than the emcpower device (which kinda defeats the purpose of using Powerpath)

With both checks you shouldn’t see any partitions on your new disk! Otherwise stop here and ask!

Creation of the Partition

# pvcreate /dev/sdb

No physical volume label read from /dev/sdb

Physical volume "/dev/sdb" successfully created

 

“pvs” and “pvdisplay” offer you possibilities to check the status

 

# pvs

  PV         VG     Fmt  Attr PSize  PFree

  /dev/sda2  rootvg lvm2 a-   14.51G  8.00M

  /dev/sdb          lvm2 --   10.00G 10.00G

Creation of a VG

 Your created PVs get bundled into one VG.

# vgcreate datavg /dev/sdb

  Volume group "datavg" successfully created

Use now "pvdisplay" to show that your VG has been created

# pvdisplay

  --- Physical volume ---

  PV Name               /dev/sdb

  VG Name               datavg

  PV Size               10.00 GB / not usable 4.00 MB

  Allocatable           yes

  PE Size (KByte)       4096

  Total PE              2559

  Free PE               2559

  Allocated PE          0

  PV UUID               Cmlxtp-A1Xt-Qizh-NPds-ofxj-riu0-NgbVbl

 

  --- Physical volume ---

  PV Name               /dev/sda2

  VG Name               rootvg

  PV Size               14.51 GB / not usable 1011.00 KB

  Allocatable           yes

  PE Size (KByte)       4096

  Total PE              3714

  Free PE               2

  Allocated PE          3712

  PV UUID               AW0x8y-tZhN-X75D-khKB-4IF3-klRt-1W6jJu

 

Creation of LVs

Now for the creation of LVs there are several possibilites.

• Size in Gigabyte:

lvcreate -n datalv -L1G datavg

• Percentage of the available storage in the VG:

lvcreate -n datalv -l100%VG datavg

• Percentage of the free storage in the VG:

lvcreate -n datalv -l100%FREE datavg

We separate our volumegroup into two different logical volumes with the same size

# lvcreate -n datalv -l50%VG datavg

  Logical volume "datalv" created

# lvcreate -n appslv -l50%VG datavg

  Logical volume "appslv" created

Check now with lvdisplay what you did!

 # lvdisplay /dev/datavg

  --- Logical volume ---

  LV Name                /dev/datavg/datalv

  VG Name                datavg

  LV UUID                IPUBp2-NfPA-vQkM-U9xD-2GW4-NuI7-E7TbX1

  LV Write Access        read/write

  LV Status              available

  # open                 0

  LV Size                5.00 GB

  Current LE             1279

  Segments               1

  Allocation             inherit

  Read ahead sectors     auto

  - currently set to     1024

  Block device           253:5

 

  --- Logical volume ---

  LV Name                /dev/datavg/appslv

  VG Name                datavg

  LV UUID                OPffwS-ZNrc-tU2G-ASqp-Ygj4-Yk7Q-ujrDM4

  LV Write Access        read/write

  LV Status              available

  # open                 0

  LV Size                5.00 GB

  Current LE             1279

  Segments               1

  Allocation             inherit

  Read ahead sectors     auto

  - currently set to     1024

  Block device           253:6

 

Creation of a filesystem

You can now format you filesystem and mount it

# mkfs.ext3 /dev/datavg/datalv
mkdir /data
mount dev/datavg/datalv /data

umount /data

add to /etc/fstab

dev/datavg/datalv        /data    ext3     defaults           1 2

mount -a