--- title: "How To Install A New Drive to Ubuntu LVM and Mount It" description: "Learn how to install a new drive on Ubuntu using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) and mount it for persistent use. " date: 2024-03-21 categories: ["vps"] tags: ["linux"] --- This article will guide you through the process of installing a new drive to your Ubuntu system using Logical Volume Manager (LVM) and mounting it for persistent use. LVM is a flexible and powerful tool for managing disk storage, allowing you to easily resize and manage logical volumes. ## Step 1: Check the Drives To begin, let's check the available drives on your system using the `lshw` command: ```sh sudo lshw -C disk ``` Output: ```sh *-disk:0 description: ATA Disk product: Samsung SSD 870 physical id: 0 bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0 logical name: /dev/sda version: 3B6Q serial: S758NS0W807436T size: 3726GiB (4TB) configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 *-disk:1 description: ATA Disk product: RS512GSSD310 physical id: 1 bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0 logical name: /dev/sdb version: 2A0 serial: EB091502A000561 size: 476GiB (512GB) capabilities: gpt-1.00 partitioned partitioned:gpt configuration: ansiversion=5 guid=0c679d6a-d4b6-40a1-962c-75145d093352 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 ``` This command displays detailed information about the disks connected to your system. In this example, we have two disks: `/dev/sda` (4TB) and `/dev/sdb` (512GB). ## Step 2: Display Physical Volumes (PV) To display the existing physical volumes (PV) on your system, use the `pvs` command: ```sh sudo pvs ``` Output: ```sh PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree /dev/sdb3 ubuntu-vg lvm2 a-- <473.89g 0 ``` This output shows that there is currently one physical volume (`/dev/sdb3`) associated with the volume group `ubuntu-vg`. ## Step 3: Create Physical Volumes (PV) on New Disk To create a new physical volume on the new disk (`/dev/sda`), use the `pvcreate` command: ```sh sudo pvcreate /dev/sda ``` Output: ```sh Physical volume "/dev/sda" successfully created. ``` Verify the creation of the new physical volume using `lvmdiskscan`: ```sh sudo lvmdiskscan -l ``` Output: ```sh WARNING: only considering LVM devices /dev/sda [ <3.64 TiB] LVM physical volume /dev/sdb3 [ <473.89 GiB] LVM physical volume 1 LVM physical volume whole disk 1 LVM physical volume ``` ## Step 4: Create a Volume Group (VG) Create a new volume group named `mediavg` using the new physical volume `/dev/sda`: ```sh sudo vgcreate mediavg /dev/sda ``` Output: ```sh volume group "mediavg" successfully created ``` ## Step 5: Create a Logical Volume (LV) Create a new logical volume named `medialv` within the `mediavg` volume group, using all available space: ```sh sudo lvcreate -l +100%FREE -n medialv mediavg ``` Output: ```sh Logical volume "medialv" created. ``` ## Step 6: Create a Filesystem Create an ext4 filesystem on the new logical volume: ```sh sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mediavg/medialv ``` Output: ```sh mke2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021) Discarding device blocks: done Creating filesystem with 976753664 4k blocks and 244195328 inodes Filesystem UUID: 2d665675-4b2e-4a1f-9af6-4652e387d76e Superblock backups stored on blocks: 32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968, 102400000, 214990848, 512000000, 550731776, 644972544 Allocating group tables: done Writing inode tables: done Creating journal (262144 blocks): done Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done ``` ## Step 7: Mount the Filesystem Create a mount point directory and mount the new filesystem: ```sh sudo mkdir -p /media/storage sudo mount /dev/mediavg/medialv /media/storage ``` Verify the mount using the `df` command: ```sh df -h ``` Output: ```sh Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on tmpfs 1.6G 2.4M 1.6G 1% /run /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv 466G 23G 424G 6% / tmpfs 7.8G 0 7.8G 0% /dev/shm tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock /dev/sdb2 2.0G 252M 1.6G 14% /boot /dev/sdb1 1.1G 6.1M 1.1G 1% /boot/efi tmpfs 1.6G 4.0K 1.6G 1% /run/user/1000 /dev/mapper/mediavg-medialv 3.6T 28K 3.4T 1% /media/storage ``` ## Step 8: Make the Mount Persistent To ensure the filesystem is mounted automatically on system boot, add an entry to the `/etc/fstab` file. Obtain the UUID of the new filesystem using `blkid`: ```sh sudo blkid /dev/mediavg/medialv ``` Output: ```sh /dev/mediavg/medialv: UUID="2d665675-4b2e-4a1f-9af6-4652e387d76e" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" ``` Edit `/etc/fstab` and add a line like the following, replacing `UUID` with the actual UUID: ```sh UUID=2d665675-4b2e-4a1f-9af6-4652e387d76e /media/storage ext4 defaults 0 2 ``` ## Step 9: Reboot and Verify Reboot the server to ensure the new filesystem is mounted automatically: ```sh sudo reboot ``` After the reboot, check the mounted filesystems using `df`: ```sh df -h ``` Output: ```sh Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on tmpfs 1.6G 2.4M 1.6G 1% /run /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv 466G 23G 424G 6% / tmpfs 7.8G 0 7.8G 0% /dev/shm tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock /dev/sdb2 2.0G 252M 1.6G 14% /boot /dev/sdb1 1.1G 6.1M 1.1G 1% /boot/efi /dev/mapper/mediavg-medialv 3.6T 28K 3.4T 1% /media/storage tmpfs 1.6G 4.0K 1.6G 1% /run/user/1000 ``` The output should show that `/dev/mapper/mediavg-medialv` is mounted on `/media/storage`. ## Conclusion Congratulations! You have successfully installed a new drive to your Ubuntu system using LVM, created a logical volume, formatted it with the ext4 filesystem, and mounted it persistently. You can now use the `/media/storage` directory to store your data on the new drive.