Extend LVM Volume Group with the new Hard Disk

Apr 9, 2016 Linux, Storage

Extend LVM Volume Group
One of the benefits of LVM (Logical Volume Manager) is the possibility to extend LVM based storage by adding new Physical Volumes which together form LVM Volume Group. Adding new Physical Volume increases the capacity of the whole Volume Group by the capacity of that particular Physical Volume and can be performed online without any outages in LVM activity.

Steps:

1. Power off the server

2. Insert new hard disk and power on the server

3. Verify, if new hard disk was detected by the system:

[root@tuxfixer ~]# fdisk -l
...
Disk /dev/sdb: 120 GiB, 128849018880 bytes, 251658240 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
...

4. Create new partition on new hard disk and set it’s type to 0x8e:

[root@tuxfixer ~]# fdisk /dev/sdb

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.27.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Device does not contain a recognized partition table.
Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xd035cd45.

Command (m for help): n
Partition type
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-251658239, default 2048): 2048
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-251658239, default 251658239): 251658239 

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 120 GiB.

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 120 GiB, 128849018880 bytes, 251658240 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xd035cd45

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1        2048 251658239 251656192  120G 83 Linux

Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Partition type (type L to list all types): 0x8e
Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux LVM'.

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 120 GiB, 128849018880 bytes, 251658240 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xd035cd45

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1        2048 251658239 251656192  120G 8e Linux LVM

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

5. Initialize new partition for use with existing Volume Group:

Verify existing Volume Group (in our case named fedora) before extension:

[root@tuxfixer ~]# vgdisplay fedora
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               fedora
  System ID             
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  3
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                2
  Open LV               2
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               49.51 GiB
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              12674
  Alloc PE / Size       12673 / 49.50 GiB
  Free  PE / Size       1 / 4.00 MiB
  VG UUID               R2Tjtr-5jk6-0CbQ-dMj7-VYVg-z9d5-DGlD9w

Note: size of the Volume Group before extension is 49,51 GiB and there is only 4 MiB of free space in the Volume Group.

Initialize new partition (/dev/sdb1) as new Physical Volume:

[root@tuxfixer ~]# pvcreate /dev/sdb1
  Physical volume "/dev/sdb1" successfully created

6. Extend existing Volume Group with the new Physical Volume (/dev/sdb1)

[root@tuxfixer ~]# vgextend fedora /dev/sdb1
  Volume group "fedora" successfully extended

7. Verify Volume Group after extension

[root@tuxfixer ~]# vgdisplay fedora
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               fedora
  System ID             
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        2
  Metadata Sequence No  4
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                2
  Open LV               2
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                2
  Act PV                2
  VG Size               169.50 GiB
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              43393
  Alloc PE / Size       12673 / 49.50 GiB
  Free  PE / Size       30720 / 120.00 GiB
  VG UUID               R2Tjtr-5jk6-0CbQ-dMj7-VYVg-z9d5-DGlD9w

Note: new size of the existing Volume Group is now 169,50 GiB and there is 120 GiB of free space in the Volume Group.

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