Arch Linux

deicist

Member

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 36

couple of questions about LVM

Not sure where to post this, but I'm still pretty new(b) so here seems appropriate.

I'm looking to repurpose my current windows file server and replace it with a machine runnning Arch.  /boot /root & /home will reside on a single drive and then I want something like /data which will be contained on an LVM volume spanning 2 (or 3) drives.

Now:

  Having never used LVM before I'm a little wary of the learning curve.  How easy is it to setup an LVM system?  I've looked at this: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LVM2#Installation and it seems pretty straightforward but any input would be appreciated.  I've setup a couple of Arch systems in the last few months (including the desktop I'm writing this on) so I'm geting reasonably confident about setting up Arch, just the whole partitioning and creating filesystems is comething I've not played around with too much.

Also, if one of the drives in the LVM group dies, is all the data lost or is it possible to recover data from the other drives?

Vintendo

Member

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 375

Website

Re: couple of questions about LVM

IMHO its pretty easy to set up a LVM system. Its just like partitioning and mounting but with a few extra commands. Keep in mind that you can't do this in the installer, you have to do this beforehand. You can do this before hand using a liveCD so you have a GUI in which you can partition. The lvm creation has to be done via the commandline.

I believe that if one drive dies all the data is lost. If you come by another answer, please let me know:P

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www.vincentkriek.nl

deicist

Member

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 36

Re: couple of questions about LVM

so I can't install Arch, get everything else setup and then create my LVM partitions?

Vintendo

Member

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 375

Website

Re: couple of questions about LVM

Off course you can, I didn't read your post very well, and its not even late yet.

You can just install everything on one drive, and later create /data. Then you don't have to follow that wiki guide. Good luck.

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www.vincentkriek.nl

fukawi2

Ex-Administratorino

From: .vic.au

Registered: 2007-09-28

Posts: 6,224

Website

Re: couple of questions about LVM

I'm looking to repurpose my current windows file server and replace it with a machine runnning Arch.

Excellent idea.

/boot /root & /home will reside on a single drive and then I want something like /data which will be contained on an LVM volume spanning 2 (or 3) drives.

Sounds reasonable.

Having never used LVM before I'm a little wary of the learning curve.  How easy is it to setup an LVM system?  I've looked at this: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LVM2#Installation and it seems pretty straightforward but any input would be appreciated.

It fairly easy. I followed this Wiki entry which is pretty much step-by-step, copy-and-paste
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … AID_or_LVM

Also, if one of the drives in the LVM group dies, is all the data lost or is it possible to recover data from the other drives?

I want to know this too...

Last edited by fukawi2 (2009-04-19 23:01:26)

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Morra

Member

Registered: 2008-05-16

Posts: 39

Re: couple of questions about LVM

Also, if one of the drives in the LVM group dies, is all the data lost or is it possible to recover data from the other drives?

Hard disk failure does not mean that the whole volume is lost. This is a good source of information: Recovering a Lost LVM Volume Disk

With LVM it is possible to attain data redundancy with mirroring. It would then keep two copies of everything (similar to RAID1). You should consider using RAID5 with LVM. Then it would be easy to recover from hard disk failures and resize your partitions.