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Hands-on Lab·Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator

LVM, from physical volume to logical

LVM puts a layer between disks and filesystems so that neither has to match the other. This guide builds the whole stack on two loop devices - physical volume, volume group, logical volume, filesystem - and shows what each layer is actually for.

Storage Guide 33 of 38 Intermediate

LVM 2.03.31 on Ubuntu, 2.03.28 on RHEL. The commands are identical. Ubuntu's own installer put root on LVM here, which is why ubuntu-vg appears alongside the one this page creates.

Captured on the Ubuntu host. Every block device on this page is a loop device made from a file, created and destroyed inside the transcript - no disk on the host was touched.
Server NameIP AddressOSRolesCPURAMHDD
LFCS-A01192.168.0.70Ubuntu 26.04 LTSPrimary host - most guides run only here2 Core4 GB50 GB

This guide includes

Use this for the layer between disks and filesystems. This matters because LVM is what lets a filesystem grow later, without the disk and the filesystem having to match each other.

Before you start

  1. Two devices to build on

  2. Physical volumes

  3. A volume group, and the extent

  4. A logical volume, and a filesystem on it

Official sources

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