Category: Hard Disk

Most of the linux administrator facing run out of disk space to store data and sometimes there is another request for them to create additional logical volume manager(LVM) for new system or to store data. It is possible to perform this task if that system administrator has the right skill on linux. Otherwise, they will put themselves and the organization in the disaster or risk as working with the system’s data is on of the most critical job that must be perform with the right steps and skills. In this post, i will show how to create additional LVM on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL 6) system. This step may apply to CentOS 6.0. CentOS 6.1 and CentOS 6.2.

1. By typing the mount command with no arguments shows us all currently mounted filesystems

[root@rhel6 ~]# mount
/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root on / type ext4 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext4 (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)

2. Print the current partition table of the hard disk :

[root@rhel6 ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 12.9 GB, 12884901888 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1566 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000690f

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          64      512000   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2              64        1567    12069888   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/dm-0: 10.2 GB, 10242490368 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1245 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 2113 MB, 2113929216 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 257 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdb: 12.9 GB, 12884901888 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1566 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

3. Create new partition for /dev/sdb using below command :

[root@rhel6 ~]# fdisk /dev/sdb
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x1adc0629.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.

Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to
         switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to
         sectors (command 'u').

Command (m for help): m
Command action
   a   toggle a bootable flag
   b   edit bsd disklabel
   c   toggle the dos compatibility flag
   d   delete a partition
   l   list known partition types
   m   print this menu
   n   add a new partition
   o   create a new empty DOS partition table
   p   print the partition table
   q   quit without saving changes
   s   create a new empty Sun disklabel
   t   change a partition's system id
   u   change display/entry units
   v   verify the partition table
   w   write table to disk and exit
   x   extra functionality (experts only)

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-1566, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-1566, default 1566):
Using default value 1566

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

4. Convert this disk into a physical volume :

[root@rhel6 ~]# pvcreate /dev/sdb1
  Physical volume "/dev/sdb1" successfully created

Display the physical volume :

[root@rhel6 ~]# pvdisplay
  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/sda2
  VG Name               VolGroup
  PV Size               11.51 GiB / not usable 3.00 MiB
  Allocatable           yes (but full)
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              2946
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          2946
  PV UUID               tzxpC7-70n1-OuUQ-kMfT-H627-VHAA-kroHvm

  "/dev/sdb1" is a new physical volume of "12.00 GiB"
  --- NEW Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/sdb1
  VG Name
  PV Size               12.00 GiB
  Allocatable           NO
  PE Size               0
  Total PE              0
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          0
  PV UUID               SoWQ5U-CmmA-tjIY-KDh0-H3gU-qVpa-tx4n6n

5. With the physical volume created we now need to create new volume group for it. In this case i will give the volume group name VolGroup_rhel6 :

[root@rhel6 ~]# vgcreate VolGroup_rhel6 /dev/sdb1
  Volume group "VolGroup_rhel6" successfully created

Display the volume group

[root@rhel6 ~]# vgdisplay
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               VolGroup_rhel6
  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               11.99 GiB
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              3070
  Alloc PE / Size       0 / 0
  Free  PE / Size       3070 / 11.99 GiB
  VG UUID               mg2I2s-8u5l-Mjm7-oKrQ-yYJ3-yzaO-mq2u9v

  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               VolGroup
  System ID
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  3
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                2
  Open LV               2
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               11.51 GiB
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              2946
  Alloc PE / Size       2946 / 11.51 GiB
  Free  PE / Size       0 / 0
  VG UUID               uROlLN-3aef-Cb7G-rJ8W-EyY0-aDaf-TyeE5T

6. Create logical volumes with the name of rhelvol into VolGroup_rhel6 volume group :

[root@rhel6 ~]# lvcreate --name rhelvol -l 100%FREE VolGroup_rhel6
  Logical volume "rhelvol" created

Display logical volume :

[root@rhel6 ~]# lvdisplay
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/VolGroup_rhel6/rhelvol
  VG Name                VolGroup_rhel6
  LV UUID                o3RQMB-O3Lu-TB2h-7pSm-A2kI-sh1W-rXb1Ce
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 0
  LV Size                11.99 GiB
  Current LE             3070
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           253:2

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/VolGroup/lv_root
  VG Name                VolGroup
  LV UUID                1f4tl8-rCgZ-yI9J-xCsI-Hrh2-5DUS-DJF5N2
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                9.54 GiB
  Current LE             2442
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           253:0

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/VolGroup/lv_swap
  VG Name                VolGroup
  LV UUID                Kpw601-Wcvj-EM8b-FJnh-v2f6-5CqT-rV2JdT
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                1.97 GiB
  Current LE             504
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           253:1

7. Creating a file with the mke2fs command :

[root@rhel6 ~]# mke2fs -j /dev/VolGroup_rhel6/rhelvol

[root@rhel6 ~]# mke2fs -j /dev/VolGroup_rhel6/rhelvol
mke2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
786432 inodes, 3143680 blocks
157184 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=3221225472
96 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

Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 37 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

[root@rhel6 ~]# e2label /dev/VolGroup_rhel6/rhelvol /opt

[root@rhel6 ~]# vi /etc/fstab

#
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Wed Jan  4 03:41:29 2012
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
#
/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root /                       ext4    defaults        1 1
/dev/VolGroup_rhel6/rhelvol /opt                       ext4    defaults        1 1
UUID=0e03e7c9-6971-4783-8fb9-fc251febf486 /boot                   ext4    defaults        1 2
/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_swap swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
devpts                  /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
proc                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0

[root@rhel6 /]# mount /opt

[root@rhel6 /]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root
                      9.4G  2.1G  6.9G  23% /
tmpfs                 504M     0  504M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1             485M   29M  432M   7% /boot
/dev/mapper/VolGroup_rhel6-rhelvol
                       12G  159M   12G   2% /opt

Type the mount command with no arguments to shows the updated mounted filesystems. /dev/mapper/VolGroup_rhel6-rhelvol now exist at the bottom :

[root@rhel6 ~]# mount
/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root on / type ext4 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext4 (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
/dev/mapper/VolGroup_rhel6-rhelvol on /opt type ext4 (rw)