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Re: lvm on a single big partition or just a single big partition?



On Thu, Jun 04, 2009 at 09:39:42AM -0400, Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 10:04:36PM -0500, Zhengquan Zhang wrote:
> > On Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 06:48:03PM -0400, Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
> > > On Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 11:44:00AM -0500, Zhengquan Zhang wrote:
> > > With one big partition, you lose the ability to:
> > > 
> > > 	-	have a separate /var (or /var/log) to keep logs from
> > > 		filling up /
> > > 	
> > > 	-	have different mount options (e.g. noexec, nodev) on
> > > 		/home
> > > 
> > > 	-	have a separate /home
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Without LVM, you lose the ability to :
> > > 
> > > 	-	resize partitions as needed
> > > 
> > > 	-	migrate data from one disk to another, e.g. if a drive
> > > 		starts misbehaving but you need to keep the system live
> > > 		rather than reinstalling/restoring.
> > 
> > Could you elaborate more on this? As far as migration is concerned, what
> > is the advantage of LVM?
> 
> Your system is operating.  You start to get either SMART indications
> that the drive is dying or errors (e.g. retries, times-out, etc) in
> syslog.  You add a drive to the system at least as big as the failing
> drive.  You make it a physical volume for LVM, and add it to the VG of
> the failing drive.  You then tell LVM to remove the failing drive from
> the LV.  LVM will migrate the data, extent by extent, from the old drive
> to the new drive, all while the system is still active.  Its all in the
> LVM-HOWTO (tldp, in the doc-linux-html package). 

This is fantastic, I have read the howto but obviously did not notice
this part.

> 
> > > Instead of a separate /boot, I often use a separate / (which contains
> > > /boot).  In this way, the / partition isn't part of LVM (I make it 500
> > > MB and usually only have under 200 MB used) and can be booted into if
> > > the need arises, with more tools available than within the initrd.  Most
> > > of my boxes won't boot a live CD.
> > 
> > So I guess for /tmp /var /usr etc you have separate LVs? or else a 500M
> > / should be too small?
> 
> I put /tmp on tmpfs, with encrypted swap (so that /tmp ends up encrypted
> also).  Yes, /usr (4G) , /var (4-6G, depending ), and /home (encrypted)
> are on separate LVs.  Sizes depend on what I'm doing.  /usr mostly holds
> instaled packages so 4G is fine for my desktop system.  
> 
> I also have /var/tmp and /var/local as separate LVs, encrypted.  I keep
> my backups in /var/local.  KDE keeps lots of otherwise private stuff in
> /var/tmp.

Great setup, Thanks, Doug, so do you how much space(PE) do you leave
unassigned for later use?

> 
> 
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-- 
Zhengquan


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