---
title: LVM cheat sheet
---

[[_TOC_]]

# Caching

Create the VG consisting of 2 block devices (a slow and a fast)

    apt install lvm2 &&
    vg="vg_$(hostname)" &&
    cat /proc/partitions &&
    echo -n 'slow disk: ' && read slow &&
    echo -n 'fast disk: ' && read fast &&
    vgcreate "$vg" "$slow" "$fast"

Create the srv LV, but leave a few (like 50?) extents empty on the slow disk.
(lvconvert needs this extra free space later.  That's probably a bug.)

    pvdisplay &&
    echo -n "#extents: " && read extents &&
    lvcreate -l "$extents" -n srv "$vg" "$slow"

The -cache-meta disk should be 1/1000 the size of the -cache LV.  (if it is slightly more that also shouldn't hurt.)

    lvcreate -L 100MB -n srv-cache-meta "$vg" "$fast" &&
    lvcreate -l '100%FREE' -n srv-cache "$vg" "$fast"

setup caching

    lvconvert --type cache-pool --cachemode writethrough --poolmetadata "$vg"/srv-cache-meta "$vg"/srv-cache

    lvconvert --type cache --cachepool "$vg"/srv-cache "$vg"/srv

# Resizing

Assume we want to grow this partition to take the available free space
in the PV:

    root@vineale:/srv# lvs
      LV   VG         Attr       LSize  Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
      srv  vg_vineale -wi-ao---- 35,00g                                                    
    root@vineale:/srv# pvs
      PV         VG         Fmt  Attr PSize  PFree
      /dev/sdb   vg_vineale lvm2 a--  40,00g 5,00g
    root@vineale:~# pvdisplay 
      --- Physical volume ---
      PV Name               /dev/sdb
      VG Name               vg_vineale
      PV Size               40,00 GiB / not usable 4,00 MiB
      Allocatable           yes 
      PE Size               4,00 MiB
      Total PE              10239
      Free PE               1279
      Allocated PE          8960
      PV UUID               CXKO15-Wze1-xY6y-rOO6-Tfzj-cDSs-V41mwe

## extend the volume group

The procedures below assume there is free space on the volume group
for the operation. If there isn't you will need to add disks to the
volume group, and grow the physical volume. For example:

    pvcreate /dev/md123
    vgextend vg_vineale /dev/md123

If the underlying disk was grown magically without your intervention,
which happens in virtual hosting environments, you can also just
extend the physical volume:

    pvresize /dev/sdb

Note that if there's an underlying crypto layer, it needs to be
resized as well:

    cryptsetup resize $DEVICE_LABEL

In this case, the `$DEVICE_LABEL` is the device's name in
`/etc/crypttab`, *not* the device name. For example, it would be
`/dev/mapper/crypt_sdb`, not `/dev/sdb`.

See also the [upstream documentation][].

[upstream documentation]: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/extendlv.html

## online procedure (ext3 and later)

Online resize has been possible ever since ext3 came out and it
considered reliable enough for use. If you are unsure that you can
trust that procedure, or if you have an ext2 filesystem, do *not* use
this procedure and see the ext2 procdure below instead.

To resize the partition to take up all available free space, you
should do the following:

 1. extend the partition, in case of a logical volume:

        lvextend vg_vineale/srv -L +5G

    This might miss some extents, however. You can use the extent
    notation to take up all free space instead:

        lvextend vg_vineale/srv -l +1279

    If the partition sits directly on disk, use `parted`'s
    `resizepart` command or `fdisk` to resize that first.
    
    To resize to take all available free space:
    
        lvextend vg_vineale/srv -l '+%100FREE' 

 2. resize the filesystem:

        resize2fs /dev/mapper/vg_vineale-srv

That's it! The `resize2fs` program automatically determines the size
of the underlying "partition" (the logical volume, in most cases) and
fixes the filesystem to fill the space.

Note that the resize process can take a while. Growing an active 20TB
partition to 30TB took about 5 minutes, for example. The `-p` flag
that could show progress only works in the "offline" procedure (below).

## offline procedure (ext2)

To resize the partition to take up all available free space, you
should do the following:

 1. stop services and processes using the partition (will obviously vary):
 
        service apache2 stop

 2. unmount the filesystem:
 
        umount /srv

 3. check the filesystem:
 
        fsck -y -f /dev/mapper/vg_vineale-srv

 4. extend the filesystem using the extent notation to take up all
    available space:
    
        lvextend vg_vineale/srv -l +1279

 5. grow the filesystem (`-p` is for "show progress"):
 
        resize2fs -p /dev/mapper/vg_vineale-srv

 6. recheck the filesystem:
 
        fsck  -f -y /dev/mapper/vg_vineale-srv

 7. remount the filesystem and start processes:
 
        mount /srv
        service apache2 start

# Shrinking

Shrinking the filesystem is also possible, but is more risky. It is
very important to reduce the size of the filesystem *before* resizing
the size of the logical volume, so the order of the steps below is
critical.

 1. unmount the filesystem:
 
        umount /mnt
      
    If that's not possible because the filesystem is in use, you'll
    need to stop processes using it. If that's possible (for example
    when resizing `/`), you'll need to reboot in a separate operating
    system first.

 2. forcibly check the filesystem:
 
        e2fsck -fy /dev/sdX

 3. shrink the filesystem:
 
        resize2fs /dev/sdX 5G

 4. shrink the logical volume, to reduce *to* 5G:
 
        lvreduce -L 5G vg/mnt

    to reduce *by* 5G:

        lvreduce -L -5G vg/mnt

    WARNING: make sure the resulting size matches exactly the one
    specified in the `resize2fs` command above. For more precision,
    `resize2fs` and `lvreduce` can both accept an argument (`s`) in
    "sectors" (512 bytes).

 5. tell ext to resize the filesystem *again*:

        resize2fs /dev/sdX

    NOTE: no size argument here!

 6. check the filesystem again:

        e2fsck -fy /dev/sdX

 7. if you want to resize the underlying device (for example, if this
    is a LVM inside a virtual machine on top of another LVM), you can
    also shrink the parent logical volume, physical volume, and crypto
    device (if relevant) at this point.

        lvreduce -L 5G vg/hostname
        pvresize /dev/sdY
        cryptsetup resize DEVICE_LABEL

    WARNING: this last step has not been tested.
