Adding a New Disk to a Linux Server and Creating an LVM Partition

There are a number of tutorials online for adding a new disk to a machine and then extending an existing LVM partition to use the new device.

This particular tutorial covers the use case of adding a new disk to a Linux server and then creating a NEW LVM partition on it without modifying the existing devices and LVM partitions.

The first thing you will need to do is add the physical device to the server (or VM).

Then, you need to confirm that the OS can ‘see’ the device. The following command will show you the list of avaiable disk devices.

# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.5 GB, 80530636800 bytes, 157286400 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

Here, we see that the OS can ‘see’ the /dev/sdb device. For the rest of this tutorial, we will assume that your new device is /dev/sdb.

Using fdisk, create a primary partition on the new device

# fdisk /dev/sdb
Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.23.2).

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
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xc78ce5fd.

Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
e extended
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1):
First sector (2048-157286399, default 2048):
Using default value 2048
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-157286399, default 157286399):
Using default value 157286399
Partition 1 of type Linux and of size 75 GiB is set

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

After partitioning re-run fdisk to list the partitions

# fdisk -l

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2048 157286399 78642176 83 Linux

Now, create an LVM Physical Volume (PV)

# pvcreate /dev/sdb1
Physical volume “/dev/sdb1” successfully created.

Create the LVM Volume Group (VG)

# vgcreate centos_repos /dev/sdb1
Volume group “centos_repos” successfully created

Execute the vgdisplay command to list all of the Volume Groups

# vgdisplay

— Volume group —
VG Name               centos_repos
System ID
Format                lvm2
Metadata Areas        1
Metadata Sequence No 1
VG Access             read/write
VG Status             resizable
MAX LV                0
Cur LV                0
Open LV               0
Max PV                0
Cur PV                1
Act PV                1
VG Size               75.00 GiB
PE Size               4.00 MiB
Total PE              19199
Alloc PE / Size       0 / 0
Free PE / Size       19199 / 75.00 GiB
VG UUID               FDgd3y-keqV-riq6-vb46-C2F5-JJa2-Ew2DW4

Create a LVM Logical Volume (LV). In this case I am going to use the entire drive

# lvcreate -n repos –size 74.9G centos_repos
Rounding up size to full physical extent 74.90 GiB
Logical volume “repos” created.

lvdisplay will list all of the existing Logical Volumes

# lvdisplay
…
— Logical volume —
LV Path                /dev/centos_repos/repos
LV Name                repos
VG Name                centos_repos
LV UUID                pvNLX4-3wTf-2eMY-RebF-WnFU-8y9F-BRidMn
LV Write Access        read/write
LV Creation host, time nebula, 2017-10-20 17:36:38 +0000
LV Status              available
# open                 0
LV Size                74.90 GiB
Current LE             19175
Segments               1
Allocation             inherit
Read ahead sectors     auto
– currently set to     8192
Block device           253:4

Now we need to format the LV. In this case we will use ext4, you may choose another filesystem format. Be sure to use the LV Path returned by lvdisplay.

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/centos_repos/repos
mke2fs 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
4915200 inodes, 19635200 blocks
981760 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=2168455168
600 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

Now you can mount the file system as usual and/or add it to /etc/fstab.

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