2009/5/15 <fos...@tpg.com.au> > Quoting Daniel Bush <dlb.id...@gmail.com>: > > > 2009/5/15 <fos...@tpg.com.au> > > > > - LVM is really cool and well worth the time to rad up on it. I > > > am now going to LVM my home system. > > > > > > > > I'm planning to do this as well. > > I was thinking back to Mary's backup post last year and thinking if I > > could do lvm snapshots with an external harddrive. Still a bit new to > lvm > > though. > > I think you have to install the alternate ubuntu cd to get lvm > > right? > > (unless you are using the server install instead of the desktop). >
> > The distinction between desktop and server in ubuntu is an install > option not anything else. To add lvm to your existing system just > 'apt-get install lvm2'. Aware of this. Just weighing up whether to do a clean install so that is why I think I have to use alternate instead of desktop. > > > To convert an existing setup to lvm you have to have some free space > (partitions or whole harddisks to use). > > First create a volume group (chunk of hardisk spread across one or more > harddrives) > > sudo lvm > pvdiskscan > pvcreate /dev/yourpartions > vgcreate vg1 /dev/part1 /dev/part2 > > > create a logical volume somewhere in that volume group (say 300 gig > named yourname in vg1) > > lvcreate -L300G -n yourname vg1 > > You can then mksfs.ext3 /dev/vg1/yourname (replace ext3 with whatever > is appropriate) and then mount it. > Since I've got you on this subject and maybe others reading this: I was working with a test server using vmware esx. It runs on a virtual disk which is just a file. I decided to resize the file to a larger size which created a whole bunch of extra space at the end of the disk. I made this an lvm partition (/dev/sda4) using fdisk and then I did something stupid which was to run mke2fs directly on /dev/sda4. I then tried to add this as a physical volume to my existing volume group and then extend one of the existing logical volumes. So far so dumb, right. So now lvm tells me I've got X gigs and df -h tells me I've got Y gigs (the old number). I think all I have to do is resize the existing fs on the logical volume (/dev/vg1/lv1) . I'm thinking there won't be any trouble because even though /dev/sda4 had some sort of file system added to it (even though it was an lvm partition), it never got used. But not sure if running mke2fs on /dev/sda4 has/will bork something. (This is just a test system) On a separate issue: Is it safe to grow a root/bootable ext3 partition or do I have to unmount it - the resize2fs man page doesn't say anything but I read somewhere that I had to unmount and use a rescue disk (maybe this was just for ext2)? And I also assumed I had to remove the journal, resize, check and then add the journal. Is XFS a better solution for server lvm stuff and for growing? - or maybe even JFS ?? -- Daniel Bush http://blog.web17.com.au -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
