IBM developerWorks: Learning Linux LVM, Part 1 – Storage management magic with Logical Volume Management

[ Thanks to Kellie
for this link. ]

“In this series, I’m going to show you how to install and use
the new Logical Volume Management support built-in to the Linux 2.4
kernel. If you’ve never used a form of LVM before, you’re in for a
treat; it’s a wonderful technology. Before we actually get LVM up
and running, I’m going to explain exactly what it is and how it
works. Then, we’ll be ready to test out LVM and get the most out of
it.”

“If you’re like me, then your experience with UNIX and Linux
began on a PC platform, rather than on large, commercial UNIX
servers and workstations. On the basic PC, we’ve always had to deal
with partitioning our hard drives. PC people are generally
well-acquainted with tools such as fdisk, which are used to create
and delete primary and extended partitions on hard disks. Hard disk
partitioning is an annoying but accepted part of the process of
getting an operating system up and running.”

“Hard drive partitioning can be annoying because to do a good
job you really need to accurately estimate how much space you’ll
need for each partition. If you make a poor estimation, your Linux
system could possibly be crippled — to fix the problem, it’s
possible that you might even need to perform a full system backup,
wipe your hard drives clean, and then restore all your data to a
new (and presumably better) partition layout. Ick! These are
exactly the kinds of situations that sysadmins try their best to
avoid in the first place.”

Complete Story