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Linux - Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Cheat Sheet by

Linux Logical Volume Manager commands for managing storage on a Linux system.

LVM - schema

Example of an LVM layout.

LVM - termin­ology

PE - physical extents
The smallest unit of disk space that can be managed by LVM. It's set when you create a volume group. It determines the "­gra­nul­ari­ty" of of disk space alloca­tio­n.All physical volumes in a volume group will use the same extent size.
LE - logical extents
The same as PE but for Logical Volumes
PV - physical volume
Disks, partit­ions, RAID volumes
VG - volume group
Group of one or more physical volumes
LV - logical volume
Entity that contains inform­ation, store on physical volumes, grouped within a volume group

LVM - commands and components

lvm
pseudo shell for LVM
lvmconfig
prints LVM config­uration from /etc/l­vm/­lvm.conf
lvmdis­kscan
prints devices that could be used as physical volumes
lvmdump
dumps LVM config­uration to tar file
lvmetad
caching service for LVM metadata

LVM - important files

/etc/lvm/
LVM config­uration directory
/etc/l­vm/­lvm.conf
LVM config­uration file
/etc/l­vm/­{ar­chi­ve|­backup}
Backup and archive of LVM config­uration
/etc/l­vm/­profile
Aa set of selected custom­izable config­uration settings that can be used to achieve certain charac­ter­istics in various enviro­nments or uses. Normally, the name of the profile should reflect that enviro­nment or use. An LVM profile overrides existing config­ura­tion.
 

LVM - Physical Volume

pvcreate
create PV
pvchange
change attributes of PV
pvs|pv­display
display inform­ation about PV
pvmove
moves extents from one PV to another
pvremove
removes a PV
pvresize
resizes a PV
pvscan
scans for changes in PV config­uration and size

LVM - Volume Group

vgs|vg­display
displays VG inform­ation
vgmknodes
create the special files for VG devices in /dev
vgck
check VG consis­tency
vgcfgb­ackup
make a backup of VG metadata
vgcfgr­estore
restore VG metadata from backup
vgrename
rename a VG
vgsplit
move PVs to a new or existing VG
vgconvert
change VG metadata format
vgimport
register exported VG in the system
vgexport
unregister VG from the system
vgimpo­rtclone
import a VG from cloned PVs
vgcreate
create VG from one or more PVs
vgremove
remove VG
vgreduce
remove PVs from VG
vgchange
change VG attributes
vgextend
extend VG with one or more PVs
vgmerge
merge VGs
vgscan
scan VGs for changes in metadata and size

LVM - Logical Volume

lvs|lv­display
print LV metadata
lvchange
change attributes of LV
lvcreate
create a new LV
lvextend
extend size of LV
lvreduce
reduce size of LV (offline!)
lvresize
change size of LV
lvrename
rename a LV
lvconvert
change layout of LVM
lvscan
scan LVs for metadata changes and size
lvremove
remove LV
 

LVM - create PV

pvcreate /dev/<­dis­k_d­evi­ce>
create a new PV from device
pvcreate /dev/sdb
To create a PV you need a usable storage device.
Try lvmdis­kscan command.

LVM - create VG

vgcreate <VG> <PV> <PV>
create a volume groups that consists of one or more PVs
vgcreate data_vg /dev/sdb /dev/sdc
To create a VG you need one or more PVs.

LVM - create LV

lvcreate -n <LV­_NA­ME> -L <SI­ZE> <VG>
create a LV of a given size in a VG
lvcreate -n data_lv -L 100G data_vg
lvcreate -n <LV­_NA­ME> -l 100%FREE <VG>
create a LV that fills 100% of free space in VG
lvcreate -n data_lv -l 100%FREE data_vg
To create an LV you need a volume group.

LVM - Snapshots

lvcreate -L <SI­ZE> -s -n <NA­ME_­OF_­SNA­PSH­OT> <PA­TH_­TO_­LV>
Create a snapshot of an LV
lvcreate -L 4G -s -n data_l­v-s­napshot /dev/m­­­a­p­p­­e­­r/­­­da­t­­­a-­­-­v­­g_­­­d­at­­­a--lv
lvremove <PA­TH_­TO_­SNA­PSH­OT>
Remove snapshot
lvremove /dev/m­­­a­p­p­­e­­r/­­­da­t­­­a-­­-­v­­g_­­­d­at­­­a--lv
lvextend -L <SI­ZE> <PA­TH_­TO_­LV>
Extend snapshot
lvextend -L +10G /dev/m­­­a­p­p­­e­­r/­­­da­t­­­a-­­-­v­­g_­­­d­at­­­a--lv
lvconvert --merge <PA­TH_­TO_­SNA­PSH­OT>
Restore data from snapshot
lvconvert --merge /dev/m­­­a­p­p­­e­­r/­­­da­t­­­a-­­-­v­­g_­­­d­at­­­a--lv
modify snapsh­ot_­aut­oex­ten­d_t­reshold and snapsh­ot_­aut­oex­ten­d_p­ercent in lvm.conf
Enable automatic extension of snapshots by adjusting the values
Snapshots contain differ­ences from the point a given LV has been created - not the real data.
If the size of a snapshot is exceeded it becomes useless and there is no way to restore data from it.
Old state of an LV can be restored from a snapshot, but please remember to unmount the filesystem first.

Useful storage commands (Bonus)

lsblk -o name,m­oun­tpo­int­,la­bel­,si­ze,uuid
List block devices with useful inform­ation
multipathd show maps status
Print path status of multipath devices
lvs -o +devices
Print LVs, VGs and device paths
vgs -o +lv_si­ze,­lv_name
Print inform­ation about LVs, VGs, sizes and attributes
mkfs.ext4 <FS>
Format a filesystem for EXT4
mkfs.xfs <FS>
Format a filesystem for XFS
mount <PA­TH_­TO_­LV> <MO­UNT­POI­NT>
Mount a filesystem in a given location
mount -a
Mount all filesy­stems listed in /etc/fstab
Useful in many situations when you need to manipulate storage devices and layout.
  

LVM - extend PV

rescan­-sc­si-­bus.sh­|echo 1 > /sys/b­loc­k/<­DEV­ICE­>/d­evi­ce/­rescan
Rescan underlying storage to detect change in disk size
rescan­-sc­si-­bus.sh­|echo 1 > /sys/b­loc­k/s­db/­dev­ice­/rescan
partprobe
Detect changes in partition size (if necessary)
pvresize <PV>
Resize PV to the maximum possible size of partition or disk/LUN
pvresize /dev/sdb
To resize a PV you'll need to know the underlying storage and know how to rescan its size.
All steps can be performed online.

LVM - Extend VG

vgextend <VG> <PV> <PV>
Extend existing VG with one or more PVs
vgextend data_vg /dev/sdb /dev/sdc
To extend a VG you need a VG and one or more PVs that are not assigned to any PVs yet.

LVM - extend LV

lvextend -L <SI­ZE> /dev/m­app­er<­PAT­H_T­O_L­V>
extend logical volume by given size (add 10GB to existing size)
lvextend -L +10G /dev/m­app­er/­dat­a--­vg_­dat­a--lv
lvextend -r -L <SI­ZE> /dev/m­app­er<­PAT­H_T­O_L­V>
extend logical volume and its filesystem by given size (add 10GB to existing size)
lvextend -r -L +10G /dev/m­app­er/­dat­a--­vg_­dat­a--lv
To extend an LV you need its path. Use df command.
In most cases you'll also want to extend the underlying filesy­stem, so use -r option to do it.

Extend filesystem (bonus)

umount <FS>
Unmount filesystem
umount /data
e2fsck -f <PA­TH_­TO_­LV>
Check and fix potential errors
e2fsck -f /dev/m­­ap­p­e­r/­­dat­­a-­-­v­g_­­dat­­a--lv
resize2fs <PA­TH_­TO_­LV> <SI­ZE>
Reduce size of filesystem
resize2fs /dev/m­­ap­p­e­r/­­dat­­a-­-­v­g_­­dat­­a--lv 10G
lvreduce -L <SI­ZE> <PA­TH_­TO_­LV>
Reduce size of LV
lvreduce -L 10G /dev/m­­ap­p­e­r/­­dat­­a-­-­v­g_­­dat­­a--lv
e2fsck -f <PA­TH_­TO_­LV>
Check for errors once more
e2fsck -f /dev/m­­ap­p­e­r/­­dat­­a-­-­v­g_­­dat­­a--lv
mount <FS>
Mount filesystem
mount /data
Remember to make sure the size of both: FS (files­ystem) and LV (logical volume) are the same and there are no errors. Reducing the size can ONLY be done OFFLINE. The filesystem must be unmounted. Not all filesy­stems can be reduced at all.
       
 

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  • Published: 1st December, 2022

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