How to manage storage on Linux with LVM

Logical Volume Manager (LVM) is a software-based RAID-like system that lets you create “pools” of storage and add hard drive space to those pools as needed. There are lots of reasons to use it, especially in a data center or any place where storage requirements change over time. Many Linux distributions use it by default for desktop installations, though, because users find the flexibility convenient and there are some built-in encryption features that the LVM structure simplifies.