LVM Configuration in Ubuntu 8.10
There are two desktop editions of Ubuntu, the popular Linux distribution. The one most people are used to is the Live CD version, the edition that allows you to take it for a spin without installing it on your PC. The problem with the Live CD edition is that the installer is a watered-down, graphical, 7-step installer that does not have support for Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM).
The other edition (of Ubuntu) is the “alternate installer” edition. This version has a text-based installer, and supports LVM and more of the advanced features that you’ll find in other Linux distros like Mandriva, Fedora, Foresight, and Debian. This tutorial gives a step-by-step guide on how to configure LVM in Ubuntu, using Ubuntu 8.10 “alternate installer” edition, the latest stable release of Ubuntu, which is available for download here.
This tutorial assumes a clean install, and in order to reduce the number of screenshots, begins at the point in the installation when the hard drive is detected and ends after the partitions have been formated, The steps before and after this pretty easy for anyone to complete. Keep in mind that the only difference between Ubuntu with the graphical installer and the alternate installer is, well, the installer.
Configuring LVM in Ubuntu (“alternate-text” installer) takes place in five stages listed in sequence below:
- Create a non-LVM boot partition
- Create Physical Volume (PV)
- Create a Volume Group (VG), and assign the PV created in stage 2 to the VG
- Create the Logical Volumes
- Assign filesystems and mounts points to the logical volumes created in step 4
Each of the stages is on a separate page of this tutorial.
Ok, let’s start the tutorial.
The default partitioning method is “Guided – use entire disk”, but for this tutorial, we want to create a custom setup. So use the down arrow key on your keyboard to select “Manual”. Note that if you select any one of the “Guided” options for LVM configuration, all the available disk space will be used up, leaving you no free space to grow any logical volume if or when the need arises. Ultimately, our goal is to use just enough space to get the system up and running, and leave the rest for when we need to grow logical volumes
With “Manual” selected, hit enter on the keyboard to continue.
Our test disk drive is just 44 GB. The first step is to create a non-LVM, primary partition for the boot file system directory. With the drive selected as shown, Enter.
The choice here is to create a new partition, Enter.
Here we set the size of the new partition we are about to create. Since we intend to use this partition for /boot, 100 MB to 200 MB should be sufficient. For this tutorial, I’ve chosen 150 MB. Enter.
The default is to create a primary partition, which is exactly what we need. Enter
Since this is the first partition, the default is good enough for us. Enter
The default mount point assigned to the new partition is / (root), but w want this to be /boot. So with mount point selected as shown, enter.
Use the down arrow key to select /boot. enter
.
Now, we are done creating /boot. You’ll notice that the default filesystem is Ext3, which is just fine. No need to change that. Scroll down to “Done setting up the partition”. enter
The next step is to use the unallocated space to create a physical volume.
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Juan Ortuno
This guide is INCREDIBLY helpful!
Thank you SO very much for such a detailed set of step-by-step instructions. The screen shots along with the text instructions gave me the “visual” confirmation that I needed along the way, without making any mistakes.
I had NO clue how to do my partitioning, LVs, etc., but your guide definitely helped me to get this completed.
Thank you!
Duane
Thank you for the definitive guide to setting up LVM. A well-reviewed book published in 2008 was completely inadequate in its LVM setup guide.
Only when I came across this post was I able to correctly set up the HDD. Next time I experiment I may set up ‘swap’ as non-LVM to see if there is any advantage to that. Thanks again, great work!
izzeldin
thanks for this guide . please give us ability to print this guide in this page to benefit from this knowledge . it is difficult print this guide use 1,2,3,4,5 link
finid
You can now print any post on this site. Simply click on the share button below each post/excerpt, and click on “Printer”. While you are printing, feel free to bookmark or share it on your favorite social networking site
Peter
finid
where is this share button
why do posters have to be so unhelpful
finid
It is not about being “unhelpful”, it’s just that the Share plugin was clashing with some other stuff. That’s why it was removed. That said, you can now print using the Printblog button below each post. It you are printing this post and other multi-page posts, be sure to first view the post on a single page, before printing. By default the post will print in a double column, saving you paper.
izzeldin
thanks for this guide . please give us ability to print this guide in this page to benefit fro this knowledge . this difficult print use 1,2,3,4,5 link