Setup guide

Partitions created with the parted command for arrays with 450 GB disks are marked “EFI GPT”.
Partitions created in fdisk for arrays with smaller capacity disks are marked “Linux LVM”. Other devices
of different types may be listed before and after the GPT or LVM devices.
2 Create a physical volume on each of the devices: pvcreate <list of devices> where <list of
devices> is a list of all the devices in the storage array. For example, if you have four devices, ranging
from /dev/sdb1 to /dev/sde1, you would type: pvcreate /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1.
The physical volumes are created.
TIP You can use the command pvremove to delete any erroneously entered devices.
3 Verify that the physical volumes were initialized correctly: pvscan -v. A list of all of the physical
volumes you created appears. The following sample output is for the previous example of 4 physical
volumes created on devices /dev/sdb1 through /dev/sde1:
Walking through all physical volumes
PV /dev/sdb1 lvm2 [2.03 TB / 2.03 TB free]
PV /dev/sdc1 lvm2 [2.03 TB / 2.03 TB free]
PV /dev/sdd1 lvm2 [2.03 TB / 2.03 TB free]
PV /dev/sde1 lvm2 [2.03 TB / 2.03 TB free]
Total: 4 [8.10 TB] / in use: 0 [0 ] / in no VG: 4 [8.10 TB]
4 Create the volume group “vg00” from the physical volumes you created in the preceding step: vgcreate
vg00 <list of volumes> where <list of volumes> is the list of physical volumes you created in the
preceding step.
TIP You can use the command vgremove to delete any erroneously entered volume.
5 Verify the volume was created and obtain the value of the “Free PE / Size” field: vgdisplay -v. In the
output, find the line that contains the “Free PE / Size” field and write down the value of the “Free PE”.
For example, in the following example output the “Free PE” value is 2124556. Free PE / Size 2124556
/ 8.10 TB
6 Create a new logical volume on “vg00”: lvcreate -l <Free_PE_value> -i <#_of_physical_volumes>
-I 32 -n lvol1 vg00 where <Free_PE_value> is the “Free PE” value you noted in the preceding step
and <#_of_physical_volumes> is the number of physical volumes. If we continue with the example
used in the previous steps, you would type: lvcreate -l 2124556 -i 4 -I 32 -n lvol1 vg00. The
output confirms the creation of the logical volume: Logical volume “lvol1” created
NOTE If the command outputs several lines about a file descriptor leaked on lvdisplay invocation, ignore
them.
7 Check if the adsk_lvm startup script has been installed by the DKU to enable automatic logical volume
reassembly upon reboot: chkconfig --list | grep adsk_lvm. If the script is properly configured, the
command output is: adsk_lvm 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off. If the command output is
different, enable the script with:
chkconfig --add adsk_lvm
chkconfig adsk_lvm on
Creating the XFS Filesystem on the Logical Volume
After having created the logical volume, you are now ready to create and mount the XFS filesystem.
To create and mount an XFS filesystem:
1 Identify the optimal agsize value for your array by running the mkfs.xfs command: mkfs.xfs -d
agcount=128 -f /dev/vg00/lvol1. This command displays diagnostics information similar to the
following (your values may differ):
36 | Chapter 4 Install Linux