System information

Fig ure 14 .2. Lo g ical Vo lu mes

On the other hand, if a system is partitioned with the ext3 file system, the hard drive is divided into

partitions of defined sizes. If a partition becomes full, it is not easy to expand the size of the partition.

Even if the partition is moved to another hard drive, the original hard drive space has to be

reallocated as a different partition or not used.

Important

This chapter on LVM/LVM2 focuses on the use of the LVM GUI administration tool, i.e. system-

co nfi g -l vm. For comprehensive information on the creation and configuration of LVM

partitions in clustered and non-clustered storage, refer to the Logical Volume Manager

Administration guide also provided by Red Hat.

In addition, the Installation Guide for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 also documents how to create

and configure LVM logical volumes during installation. For more information, refer to the

Create LVM Logical Volume section of the Installation Guide for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

14 .1. What is LVM2?

LVM version 2, or LVM2, was the default for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, which uses the device

mapper driver contained in the 2.6 kernel. LVM2 can be upgraded from versions of Red Hat

Enterprise Linux running the 2.4 kernel.

14 .2. Using system-co nfi g -l vm

The LVM utility allows you to manage logical volumes within X windows or graphically. It does not

come pre-installed, so to install it first run:

# yum install system-config-lvm

You can then access the application by selecting from your menu panel Syst em → Ad min ist rat io n

→ Lo g ical Volu me Man ag ement . Alternatively you can start the Logical Volume Management

utility by typing system-co nfi g -l vm from a terminal.

⁠Chapt er 1 4 . LVM (Logical Volume Manager)