Manage Logical Volume in Linux - One STOP Solution


Written by - Deepak Prasad

Overview on Logical Volume Manager

The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) provides tools to create virtual block devices from physical devices. LVM is a collection of one or more physical devices called Volume Group (VG), each physical device on the VG called a Physical Volume (PV). A Logical Volume (LV) is a virtual block device that can be used by the system or applications. Each block of data in an LV is stored on one or more PV in the VG, according to algorithms implemented by Device Mapper (DM) in the kernel.

LVM helps us to create flexible disk space management includes allocating disks, striping, mirroring, and resizing logical volumes.  We are going to learn these in this tutorial.

For more information about LVM, please refer: Beginners guide to how LVM works in Linux

 

Lab Environment and Prerequisites

LVM tools are available on all the major Linux Distributions. You can refer this article for Any Linux system.

 

Install LVM on Linux servers:

If LVM is not installed on your system, use the below appropriate command to install lvm2 packages with your system’s package manager.

To install LVM on Rocky Linux, CentOS, Fedora, RHEL:

[root@testserver ~]# dnf -y install lvm2

To install LVM on Ubuntu, Debian, and Linux Mint:

[root@testserver ~]# apt install lvm2

In this tutorial, I have used an additional 2x10GB of drives as shown in the below snippet.  You can use one or more drives of any size. I would suggest using USB Flash Drives on your local system for testing purposes.

Here I have 2x10GB additional disks sdb and sdc

Manage Logical Volume in Linux - One STOP Solution

 

1. Managing LVM Physical Volumes

Physical volumes are devices that are initialized using LVM, i.e., hard disk drives, solid-state drives, partitions, etc.

 

1.1 Why should I partition the disk?

We can create Physical volumes without partitioning like pvcreate /dev/sdb . However, it is not recommended to do so because of the management issues it can create. Any other OS that looks at the disk will not recognize the LVM metadata and display the disk as being free, so it is likely it will be overwritten. It is generally recommended that you create a single partition that covers the whole disk to label as an LVM physical volume for Administrative convenience.

1.2 Create Disk partitions:

We have made GPT Partition Table and created a partition using the full available space. Also, Set the LVM flag on the partition with set 1 lvm on. Replace the device name sdX with your device name. In my case, it was sdb and sdc.

[root@testserver ~]# parted --script /dev/sdb "mklabel gpt"
[root@testserver ~]# parted --script /dev/sdb "mkpart 'LVM2' 0% 100%"
[root@testserver ~]# parted --script /dev/sdb "set 1 lvm on"


[root@testserver ~]# parted --script /dev/sdc "mklabel gpt"
[root@testserver ~]# parted --script /dev/sdc "mkpart 'LVM2' 0% 100%"
[root@testserver ~]# parted --script /dev/sdc "set 1 lvm on"

Run the following command to print the created partitions. You can also confirm the partitions with commands lsblk (list block devices) and blkid (locate /print block device attributes)

## Print /dev/sdb partition details

[root@testserver ~]# parted /dev/sdb print
Model: QEMU QEMU HARDDISK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 10.7GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  10.7GB  10.7GB               LVM2  lvm

## Print /dev/sdc partition details

[root@testserver ~]# parted /dev/sdc print
Model: QEMU QEMU HARDDISK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 10.7GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  10.7GB  10.7GB               LVM2  lvm

## List partitions using lsblk

[root@testserver ~]# lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0  50G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   8M  0 part 
└─sda2   8:2    0  50G  0 part /
sdb      8:16   0  10G  0 disk 
└─sdb1   8:17   0  10G  0 part 
sdc      8:32   0  10G  0 disk 
└─sdc1   8:33   0  10G  0 part 
[root@testserver ~]# 

## List partitions using blkid

[root@testserver ~]# blkid
/dev/sda2: LABEL="cloudimg-rootfs" UUID="a973c41f-5500-4a23-ad95-b81eb77da647" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="root" PARTUUID="5d05471e-5c46-423b-bf95-3c9c619bb75c"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="G1hRZO-Bnlc-TOuj-RPyD-8MR4-VyqV-WoShqe" TYPE="LVM2_member" PARTLABEL="LVM2" PARTUUID="9ce4c46c-035b-4d84-ae75-b8557fc73baf"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="WiQV7D-G6dE-7XWz-AMgE-lUNE-Be5s-SVbDky" TYPE="LVM2_member" PARTLABEL="LVM2" PARTUUID="f66bc0a6-89f2-452c-ae88-70486597f824"
/dev/sda1: PARTLABEL="BSP" PARTUUID="5f89cd1d-6475-4206-8336-b9a6f82ff4c1"
[root@testserver ~]#
NOTE:
Although LVM allows you to create physical volumes using multiple partitions, it is recommended that you use a single partition for a PV. This is for a couple of reasons, such as single partitions are easier to track for sysadmins, and you will experience better Striping performance.

 

1.3 Create Physical Volumes

Now, let us create the physical volumes using one or more disks. We are using both disks.

[root@testserver ~]# pvcreate /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1
  Physical volume "/dev/sdb1" successfully created.
  Physical volume "/dev/sdc1" successfully created.

To display the details of the physical volumes, use any following commands pvscan, pvs , pvdisplay

# pvscan command result

[root@testserver ~]# pvscan
  PV /dev/sdb1                      lvm2 [<10.00 GiB]
  PV /dev/sdc1                      lvm2 [<10.00 GiB]
  Total: 2 [<20.00 GiB] / in use: 0 [0   ] / in no VG: 2 [<20.00 GiB]

# pvs command result

[root@testserver ~]# pvs
  PV         VG Fmt  Attr PSize   PFree  
  /dev/sdb1     lvm2 ---  <10.00g <10.00g
  /dev/sdc1     lvm2 ---  <10.00g <10.00g

# pvdisplay command result

[root@testserver ~]# pvdisplay
  "/dev/sdb1" is a new physical volume of "<10.00 GiB"
  --- NEW Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/sdb1
  VG Name               
  PV Size               <10.00 GiB
  Allocatable           NO
  PE Size               0   
  Total PE              0
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          0
  PV UUID               HvnkiZ-Nvbx-YdTp-We7Z-c1Ke-JT4K-dSrjWW
   
  "/dev/sdc1" is a new physical volume of "<10.00 GiB"
  --- NEW Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/sdc1
  VG Name               
  PV Size               <10.00 GiB
  Allocatable           NO
  PE Size               0   
  Total PE              0
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          0
  PV UUID               ZldeOt-fi2e-guEL-2VNm-ACAj-X1HH-1pHA5K

 

1.4 Resize Physical Volume

We can resize physical volume(s) using pvresize. It works when PV may already be in a VG and may have active LVs allocated on it. We have resized the  PV /dev/sdb1 to 8 GB in the below example.

[root@testserver ~]# pvresize --setphysicalvolumesize 8G /dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb1: Requested size 8.00 GiB is less than real size <10.00 GiB. Proceed?  [y/n]: y
  WARNING: /dev/sdb1: Pretending size is 16777216 not 20967424 sectors.
  Physical volume "/dev/sdb1" changed
  1 physical volume(s) resized or updated / 0 physical volume(s) not resized

# After resizing the PV sdb1

[root@testserver ~]# pvs
  PV         VG Fmt  Attr PSize   PFree  
  /dev/sdb1     lvm2 ---    8.00g   8.00g
  /dev/sdc1     lvm2 ---  <10.00g <10.00g

 

1.5 Delete Physical Volume

Using pvremove, we can delete the physical volume(s). In the below command, we are deleting the PV /dev/sdb1

[root@testserver ~]# pvremove /dev/sdb1
  Labels on physical volume "/dev/sdb1" successfully wiped.

# After the delete check for PV

[root@testserver ~]# pvdisplay /dev/sdb1
  Failed to find physical volume "/dev/sdb1".

 

2. Managing LVM Volume Groups

Physical volumes are combined into volume groups (VG) or A VG is a collection of physical volumes of varying sizes and types. I have re-added the deleted PV using the command  pvcreate /dev/sdb1.

 

2.1 Create Volume Group

We can create a volume group from one or more physical volumes. In the below example, I have created a VG named new_vg using our physical volumes. vgcreate is the utility used to create VG.

[root@testserver ~]# vgcreate new_vg /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1
  Volume group "new_vg" successfully created

The VG new_vg has been created with 2 PVs. The following commands are used to search and Display volume group information.

[root@testserver ~]# vgscan
  Found volume group "new_vg" using metadata type lvm2

[root@testserver ~]# vgs
  VG     #PV #LV #SN Attr   VSize  VFree 
  new_vg   2   0   0 wz--n- 19.99g 19.99g

Sample Output:
Manage Logical Volume in Linux - One STOP Solution

 

2.2 Rename Volume Group

All VGs visible to a system need to have different names. Otherwise, many LVM commands will refuse to run or give warning messages. vgrename command is used to rename the existing VG.

[root@testserver ~]# vgrename new_vg new1_vg
  Volume group "new_vg" successfully renamed to "new1_vg"

[root@testserver ~]# vgscan
  Found volume group "new1_vg" using metadata type lvm2

The above command will rename the VG named new_vg to a new name new1_vg. vgscan has found the new volume group "new1_vg"

 

2.3 Remove Physical Volume from a Volume Group

vgreduce command is used to remove unwanted/unused PVs from a Volume Group. The removed physical volumes can be used in different VG.

Before removing a physical volume from a volume group, you need to  make sure that the physical volume is not used by any logical volumes by displaying the information in pvdisplay command.

In the below example, I have removed the PV /dev/sdc1

[root@testserver ~]# vgreduce new1_vg /dev/sdc1
  Removed "/dev/sdc1" from volume group "new1_vg"

# Run pvs to confirm
[root@testserver ~]# pvs
  PV         VG      Fmt  Attr PSize   PFree  
  /dev/sdb1  new1_vg lvm2 a--  <10.00g <10.00g
  /dev/sdc1          lvm2 ---  <10.00g <10.00g

 

2.4 Add Physical Volumes to a Volume Group

vgextend command is used to add one or more initialized physical volumes to an existing volume group to extend it in size. In other words, vgextend allows us to re-add the physical volumes missing for any reason.

In the example, I have re-added the physical volume /dev/sdc1 to our volume group that we had removed in the previous section

[root@testserver ~]# vgextend new1_vg /dev/sdc1
  Volume group "new1_vg" successfully extended

# Run vgs or pvs to confirm

[root@testserver ~]# vgs
  VG      #PV #LV #SN Attr   VSize  VFree 
  new1_vg   2   0   0 wz--n- 19.99g 19.99g

[root@testserver ~]# pvs
  PV         VG      Fmt  Attr PSize   PFree  
  /dev/sdb1  new1_vg lvm2 a--  <10.00g <10.00g
  /dev/sdc1  new1_vg lvm2 a--  <10.00g <10.00g

 

2.5 Remove Volume Group

vgremovecommand allows us to delete the volume group that contains no logical volumes. In this example, I am going to delete the volume group new1_vg where we have not created any logical volumes.

[root@testserver ~]# vgremove new1_vg
  Volume group "new1_vg" successfully removed

# Confirm the VG has been removed

[root@testserver ~]# vgdisplay new1_vg
  Volume group "new1_vg" not found
  Cannot process volume group new1_vg

 

2.6 Activating and Deactivating Volume Group

The volume group will be activated by default when it's created. We can deactivate or activate a volume group using vgchange We can deactivate individual logical volumes with the lvchange command.  We can discuss this in the next section.

# To Deactivate VG
[root@testserver ~]# vgchange -a n new1_vg

# To Activate VG
[root@testserver ~]# vgchange -a y new1_vg

 

3. Managing LVM Logical Volumes

3.1 Linear Volumes

A linear volume aggregates multiple physical volumes into one logical volume. In other words, linear means arranged in or extending along a straight. For example; We have 2 physical volumes of 10 GB each. When we create an LV of 2GB in size, it will create the volume in the first disk. If we create a logical volume above 15 GB, the logical volume will use both the disk. Creating a linear volume assigns a range of physical extents to an area of a logical volume in order.

 

3.2 Create Logical Volumes

lvcreate is used to create logical volumes. Created the VG new_vg again. In the example, I have created 2 LVs test1_lv and test2_lv under the volume group new_vg

[root@testserver ~]# lvcreate -L 2G -n test1_lv new_vg
  Logical volume "test1_lv" created.

[root@testserver ~]# lvcreate -L 2G -n test2_lv new_vg
  Logical volume "test2_lv" created.

We can make use of the following commands to list all logical volumes in volume groups and to get information about the created LVs.

[root@testserver ~]# lvscan
  ACTIVE            '/dev/new_vg/test1_lv' [2.00 GiB] inherit
  ACTIVE            '/dev/new_vg/test2_lv' [2.00 GiB] inherit

[root@testserver ~]# lvs
  LV       VG     Attr       LSize Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  test1_lv new_vg -wi-a----- 2.00g                                                    
  test2_lv new_vg -wi-a----- 2.00g                

 

3.3 Rename Logical Volumes

Use lvrename command to rename an existing logical volume. The following command renames logical volume test1_lv to test_lv

[root@testserver ~]# lvrename new_vg test1_lv test_lv
  Renamed "test1_lv" to "test_lv" in volume group "new_vg"

# Confirm the LV is renamed

[root@testserver ~]# lvscan
  ACTIVE            '/dev/new_vg/test_lv' [2.00 GiB] inherit
  ACTIVE            '/dev/new_vg/test2_lv' [2.00 GiB] inherit

 

3.4 Snapshot Volumes

LVM snapshot is the state of a logical volume at a particular point in time. Snapshots of volumes are often used to enhance data protection. If we have accidentally deleted any files from the active logical volume, we can recover them from the snapshot if it has it. Snapshot is not a mirroring volume. A snapshot is only a logical copy of volume content, captured at a particular point in time. Using lvcreate we can create a snapshot test_lv-snaphost of logical volume /dev/new_vg/test_lv as below.

[root@testserver ~]# lvcreate -s -L 2G -n test_lv-snaphost /dev/new_vg/test_lv
  Logical volume "test_lv-snaphost" created.


[root@testserver ~]# lvscan 
  ACTIVE   Original '/dev/new_vg/test_lv' [2.00 GiB] inherit
  ACTIVE            '/dev/new_vg/test2_lv' [2.00 GiB] inherit
  ACTIVE   Snapshot '/dev/new_vg/test_lv-snaphost' [2.00 GiB] inherit


[root@testserver ~]# lvdisplay -m /dev/new_vg/test_lv
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Path                /dev/new_vg/test_lv
  LV Name                test_lv
  VG Name                new_vg
  LV UUID                LNVUj4-eSyT-5VBu-ifua-bxPw-BbC1-ZSCpEA
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Creation host, time testserver.testserver.com, 2021-08-10 06:54:40 +0000
  LV snapshot status     source of
                         test_lv-snaphost [active]
  LV Status              available
  # open                 0
  LV Size                2.00 GiB
  Current LE             512
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     8192
  Block device           253:0
   
  --- Segments ---
  Logical extents 0 to 511:
    Type		linear
    Physical volume	/dev/sdb1
    Physical extents	0 to 511

We can use lvscan lvs andlvdispaly commands to display the snapshot details.  We can also resize the snapshot volumes using lvextend or lvreduce.

Please refer the article for more info: Linux lvm snapshot backup and restore tutorial RHEL/CentOS 7/8

 

3.5 Remove logical volume

lvremove command is used to remove one or more LVs. LVs cannot be deactivated or removed while they
are open (if LVs mounted). Removing an origin LV will also remove all dependent snapshots. In the below example we are removing only the snapshot volume that we had created in the previous section.

[root@testserver ~]# lvremove /dev/new_vg/test_lv-snaphost
Do you really want to remove active logical volume new_vg/test_lv-snaphost? [y/n]: y
  Logical volume "test_lv-snaphost" successfully removed


[root@testserver ~]# lvs
  LV       VG     Attr       LSize Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  test2_lv new_vg -wi-a----- 2.00g                                                    
  test_lv  new_vg -wi-a----- 2.00g                                                   

 

3.6 Create file systems and mount the Logical Volumes

In this tutorial, we have learned that Logical volumes are block devices that are created from the physical extents present in the same volume group. To use the LVs to store our data, we need to create file systems. mkfs is used to build a Linux filesystem on a device. Either xfs or ext4 is the default filesystems on all recent major Linux distributions.

In the example, we are creating both xfs and ext4 filesystems on the 2 logical volumes we have. Create ext4 on the LV /dev/new_vg/test_lv and xfs on /dev/new_vg/test2_lv.

Create ext4 filesystem on test_lv
Manage Logical Volume in Linux - One STOP Solution

Create xfs filesystem on test2_lv
Manage Logical Volume in Linux - One STOP Solution

 

We can use the Linux commands lsblk -f or blkid to list the filesystems that we have created using LVs. Once the filesystems are created, we need to mount them to some directories called mount points. So, let's temporarily create 2 directories under /mnt as shown below and mount the logical volumes using mount command.

# List the filesystems we created
[root@testserver ~]# blkid | grep _lv
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv: UUID="2d3c8cb6-d3ea-439d-9ccb-72667fe8e18e" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test2_lv: UUID="2ffd5fc3-f603-4260-910e-c7579b5beb3e" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="xfs"

# Create mount points and mount

[root@testserver ~]# mkdir /mnt/lv_volume1 /mnt/lv_volume2
[root@testserver ~]# mount -t ext4 /dev/new_vg/test_lv /mnt/lv_volume1
[root@testserver ~]# mount -t xfs /dev/mapper/new_vg-test2_lv /mnt/lv_volume2

# Check the mounts with df command
[root@testserver ~]# df -h /mnt/lv_volume*
Filesystem                   Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv   2.0G  6.0M  1.8G   1% /mnt/lv_volume1
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test2_lv  2.0G   47M  2.0G   3% /mnt/lv_volume2

We can display the mounted volumes using the df command. The df -h command reports the mounted filesystem and the file system disk space.

 

3.7 Extend Logical Volumes

lvextend is used to add space to a logical volume. Resizing the filesystems is the main task for system admins. Due to the flexible disk space management i.e Resizing capability, Logical Volume Manager is used.

In the example let us extend both the logical volumes to 3 GB.

[root@testserver ~]# lvextend -L 3G /dev/new_vg/test_lv
  Size of logical volume new_vg/test_lv changed from 2.00 GiB (512 extents) to 3.00 GiB (768 extents).
  Logical volume new_vg/test_lv successfully resized.

[root@testserver ~]# lvextend -L 3G /dev/new_vg/test2_lv
  Size of logical volume new_vg/test2_lv changed from 2.00 GiB (512 extents) to 3.00 GiB (768 extents).
  Logical volume new_vg/test2_lv successfully resized.

[root@testserver ~]# lvs
  LV       VG     Attr       LSize Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  test2_lv new_vg -wi-ao---- 3.00g                                                    
  test_lv  new_vg -wi-ao---- 3.00g                                                    

In the above example, we have successfully extended our logical volumes. However, the mounted volumes still show the old size.

[root@testserver ~]# df -h /mnt/lv_volume*
Filesystem                   Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv   2.0G  6.0M  1.8G   1% /mnt/lv_volume1
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test2_lv  2.0G   47M  2.0G   3% /mnt/lv_volume2

To expand the filesystem to its actual size we need to use the commands resize2fs in the case of ext filesystems and xfs_growfs in the case of xfs filesystems. We can expand the filesystems when it's mounted. The existing contents of the filesystem are undisturbed, and the added space becomes available for additional file storage.

# Resize ext filesystems
[root@testserver ~]# resize2fs /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv
resize2fs 1.45.6 (20-Mar-2020)
Filesystem at /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv is mounted on /mnt/lv_volume1; on-line resizing required
old_desc_blocks = 1, new_desc_blocks = 1
The filesystem on /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv is now 786432 (4k) blocks long.

# Resize ext filesystems
[root@testserver ~]# xfs_growfs /dev/mapper/new_vg-test2_lv
meta-data=/dev/mapper/new_vg-test2_lv isize=512    agcount=4, agsize=131072 blks
         =                       sectsz=512   attr=2, projid32bit=1
         =                       crc=1        finobt=1, sparse=1, rmapbt=0
         =                       reflink=1
data     =                       bsize=4096   blocks=524288, imaxpct=25
         =                       sunit=0      swidth=0 blks
naming   =version 2              bsize=4096   ascii-ci=0, ftype=1
log      =internal log           bsize=4096   blocks=2560, version=2
         =                       sectsz=512   sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1
realtime =none                   extsz=4096   blocks=0, rtextents=0
data blocks changed from 524288 to 786432

# Confirm the filesystems are extended using df command
[root@testserver ~]# df -h /mnt/lv_volume*
Filesystem                   Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv   2.9G  6.0M  2.8G   1% /mnt/lv_volume1
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test2_lv  3.0G   54M  3.0G   2% /mnt/lv_volume2

The above example that the filesystems are extended to 3GB each. (We can ignore small differences in size as we had used 2 different types of filesystems here for the example)

 

3.8 Shrink Logical Volumes

We can reduce the size of a logical volume with the lvreduce. However, we should be more careful when doing so.  make sure you  are not reducing the size below your actual data size. So, lets follow the below steps to shrink the logical volumes:

 

Step-1. Unmount the filesystems

Let us unmount the filesystem using umount command as shown below. If any services using the mountpoints, we should stop the service first.

[root@testserver ~]# umount -v /mnt/lv_volume1
umount: /mnt/lv_volume1 unmounted

 

Step-2. Run filesystem checks

Before resizing the logical volumes, it is good practice to run fsck (Filesystem checks) on ext filesystems. So let us unmount an run the fsck as shown in below. We running fsck on volume /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv which was mounted to /mnt/lv_volume1.

[root@testserver ~]# fsck -f /dev/new_vg/test_lv
fsck from util-linux 2.32.1
e2fsck 1.45.6 (20-Mar-2020)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv: 11/196608 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 30268/786432 blocks

 

Step-3. Shrink the filesystem using resize2fs

Before running lvreduce, we need to use resize2fs to resize the filesystem. In the below example I have resized the ext4 filesystem to 2GB.

[root@testserver ~]# resize2fs /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv 2G
resize2fs 1.45.6 (20-Mar-2020)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv to 524288 (4k) blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv is now 524288 (4k) blocks long.

 

Step-4. Reduce logical volume using lvreduce

Once the filesystem is shrinked, lets run lvreduce to reduce the size to 2GB. It will ask for confirmation as to make sure you have considered all the drawbacks of the lvreduce. Use command lvs after the lvreduce activity.

[root@testserver ~]# lvreduce -L 2G /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv
  WARNING: Reducing active logical volume to 2.00 GiB.
  THIS MAY DESTROY YOUR DATA (filesystem etc.)
Do you really want to reduce new_vg/test_lv? [y/n]: y
  Size of logical volume new_vg/test_lv changed from 3.00 GiB (768 extents) to 2.00 GiB (512 extents).
  Logical volume new_vg/test_lv successfully resized.

 

Step-5. Run fsck again and mount the LV

Running fsck again is optional. However, it clears if any errors occurred during resize.

[root@testserver ~]# fsck -f /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv
fsck from util-linux 2.32.1
e2fsck 1.45.6 (20-Mar-2020)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv: 11/131072 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 26156/524288 blocks

[root@testserver ~]# mount -t ext4 /dev/new_vg/test_lv /mnt/lv_volume1

# Confirm the volume has reduced to 2GB
[root@testserver ~]# lvs /dev/new_vg/test_lv
  LV      VG     Attr       LSize Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  test_lv new_vg -wi-ao---- 2.00g                                                    

[root@testserver ~]# df -h /mnt/lv_volume1
Filesystem                  Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv  2.0G  6.0M  1.8G   1% /mnt/lv_volume1
NOTE:
Shrinking is not supported on a XFS file system, so you cannot reduce the size of a logical volume that contains a XFS file system. Default filesystems are xfs in Rocky Linux 8, RHEL, CentOS 7/8. For xfs filesystems, we can create a new logical volume with lower disk space and sync contents to it. Or using xfsdump we can back up files and their attributes and using xfsrestore we can restore it.

 

3.9 Resize a logical volume using lvresize

In the previous sections, we have learned how to extend and reduce the filesystems using  lvextend and lvreducecommands.  We have an alternative command lvresize to resize the filesystems in onliner.

In the below example I have used lvresize to extend the volume /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv to +1GB (i.e Total 3GB)

[root@testserver ~]# lvresize --resizefs --size +1GB /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv
  Size of logical volume new_vg/test_lv changed from 2.00 GiB (512 extents) to 3.00 GiB (768 extents).
  Logical volume new_vg/test_lv successfully resized.
resize2fs 1.45.6 (20-Mar-2020)
Filesystem at /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv is mounted on /mnt/lv_volume1; on-line resizing required
old_desc_blocks = 1, new_desc_blocks = 1
The filesystem on /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv is now 786432 (4k) blocks long.

# Confirm the resize

[root@testserver ~]# lvs /dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv
  LV      VG     Attr       LSize Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  test_lv new_vg -wi-ao---- 3.00g        
                                
[root@testserver ~]# df -h /mnt/lv_volume1
Filesystem                  Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/new_vg-test_lv  2.9G  6.0M  2.8G   1% /mnt/lv_volume1
NOTE:
lvresize resizes an LV in the same way as lvextend and lvreduce. However, it is not recommended to use it for shrinking the volume. To shrink the volumes, Just to be on the safe side we can follow the steps used in the section Reduce logical volume using lvreduce.

 

3.10 Activate and Deactivate the logical volumes

lvchange allows you to change the attributes of a logical volume.  The following examples explain deactivating and activating the logical volumes.

Deactivate logical volumes

# unmount the LV
[root@testserver ~]# umount /mnt/lv_volume1


# Deactivate the LV
[root@testserver ~]# lvchange -a n /dev/new_vg/test_lv

# Check LV status
[root@testserver ~]# lvscan 
  inactive          '/dev/new_vg/test_lv' [3.00 GiB] inherit
  ACTIVE            '/dev/new_vg/test2_lv' [3.00 GiB] inherit

 

3.11 Activate logical volumes

[root@testserver ~]# lvchange -a y /dev/new_vg/test_lv

[root@testserver ~]# lvscan
  ACTIVE            '/dev/new_vg/test_lv' [3.00 GiB] inherit
  ACTIVE            '/dev/new_vg/test2_lv' [3.00 GiB] inherit

 

References

Configuring and managing logical volumes
Logical Volume Manager

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Deepak Prasad

He is the founder of GoLinuxCloud and brings over a decade of expertise in Linux, Python, Go, Laravel, DevOps, Kubernetes, Git, Shell scripting, OpenShift, AWS, Networking, and Security. With extensive experience, he excels in various domains, from development to DevOps, Networking, and Security, ensuring robust and efficient solutions for diverse projects. You can reach out to him on his LinkedIn profile or join on Facebook page.

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