B.2. Sample lvm.conf File The following is a sample lvm.conf configuration file, the default file for RHEL 4.8. Your configuration file may differ for different releases.

Commands:
cat lvm.conf This is an example configuration file for the LVM2 system. It contains the default settings that would be used if there was no /etc/lvm/lvm.conf file. # Refer to 'man lvm.conf' for further information including the file layout. # To put this file in a different directory and override /etc/lvm set the environment variable LVM_SYSTEM_DIR before running the tools. This section allows you to configure which block devices should be used by the LVM system. devices { # Where do you want your volume groups to appear ? dir = "/dev" # An array of directories that contain the device nodes you wish # to use with LVM2. scan = [ "/dev" ] # A filter that tells LVM2 to only use a restricted set of devices. # The filter consists of an array of regular expressions. These # expressions can be delimited by a character of your choice, and # prefixed with either an 'a' (for accept) or 'r' (for reject). # The first expression found to match a device name determines if # the device will be accepted or rejected (ignored). Devices that # don't match any patterns are accepted. # Be careful if there there are symbolic links or multiple filesystem # entries for the same device as each name is checked separately against # the list of patterns. The effect is that if any name matches any 'a' # pattern, the device is accepted; otherwise if any name matches any 'r' # pattern it is rejected; otherwise it is accepted. # Don't have more than one filter line active at once: only one gets used. # Run vgscan after you change this parameter to ensure that # the cache file gets regenerated (see below). # If it doesn't do what you expect, check the output of 'vgscan -vvvv'. # By default we accept every block device: #filter = [ "a/.*/" ] # Exclude the cdrom drive # filter = [ "r|/dev/cdrom|" ] # When testing I like to work with just loopback devices: # filter = [ "a/loop/", "r/.*/" ] # Or maybe all loops and ide drives except hdc: # filter =[ "a|loop|", "r|/dev/hdc|", "a|/dev/ide|", "r|.*|" ] # Use anchors if you want to be really specific # filter = [ "a|^/dev/hda8USD|", "r/.*/" ] # The results of the filtering are cached on disk to avoid # rescanning dud devices (which can take a very long time). By # default this cache file is hidden in the /etc/lvm directory. # in a file called '.cache'. # It is safe to delete this file: the tools regenerate it. # (The old setting 'cache' is still respected if neither of # these new ones is present.) cache_dir = "/etc/lvm/cache" cache_file_prefix = "" # You can turn off writing this cache file by setting this to 0. write_cache_state = 1 # Advanced settings. # List of pairs of additional acceptable block device types found # in /proc/devices with maximum (non-zero) number of partitions. # types = [ "fd", 16 ] # If sysfs is mounted (2.6 kernels) restrict device scanning to # the block devices it believes are valid. # 1 enables; 0 disables. sysfs_scan = 1 # By default, LVM2 will ignore devices used as components of # software RAID (md) devices by looking for md superblocks. # 1 enables; 0 disables. md_component_detection = 1 # By default, if a PV is placed directly upon an md device, LVM2 # will align its data blocks with the the chunk_size exposed in sysfs. # 1 enables; 0 disables. md_chunk_alignment = 1 # If, while scanning the system for PVs, LVM2 encounters a device-mapper # device that has its I/O suspended, it waits for it to become accessible. # Set this to 1 to skip such devices. This should only be needed # in recovery situations. ignore_suspended_devices = 0 } This section that allows you to configure the nature of the information that LVM2 reports. log { # Controls the messages sent to stdout or stderr. # There are three levels of verbosity, 3 being the most verbose. verbose = 0 # Should we send log messages through syslog? # 1 is yes; 0 is no. syslog = 1 # Should we log error and debug messages to a file? # By default there is no log file. #file = "/var/log/lvm2.log" # Should we overwrite the log file each time the program is run? # By default we append. overwrite = 0 # What level of log messages should we send to the log file and/or syslog? # There are 6 syslog-like log levels currently in use - 2 to 7 inclusive. # 7 is the most verbose (LOG_DEBUG). level = 0 # Format of output messages # Whether or not (1 or 0) to indent messages according to their severity indent = 1 # Whether or not (1 or 0) to display the command name on each line output command_names = 0 # A prefix to use before the message text (but after the command name, # if selected). Default is two spaces, so you can see/grep the severity # of each message. prefix = " " # To make the messages look similar to the original LVM tools use: # indent = 0 # command_names = 1 # prefix = " -- " # Set this if you want log messages during activation. # Don't use this in low memory situations (can deadlock). # activation = 0 } Configuration of metadata backups and archiving. In LVM2 when we talk about a 'backup' we mean making a copy of the metadata for the *current* system. The 'archive' contains old metadata configurations. Backups are stored in a human readable text format. backup { # Should we maintain a backup of the current metadata configuration ? # Use 1 for Yes; 0 for No. # Think very hard before turning this off! backup = 1 # Where shall we keep it ? # Remember to back up this directory regularly! backup_dir = "/etc/lvm/backup" # Should we maintain an archive of old metadata configurations. # Use 1 for Yes; 0 for No. # On by default. Think very hard before turning this off. archive = 1 # Where should archived files go ? # Remember to back up this directory regularly! archive_dir = "/etc/lvm/archive" # What is the minimum number of archive files you wish to keep ? retain_min = 10 # What is the minimum time you wish to keep an archive file for ? retain_days = 30 } Settings for the running LVM2 in shell (readline) mode. shell { # Number of lines of history to store in ~/.lvm_history history_size = 100 } Miscellaneous global LVM2 settings global { library_dir = "/usr/lib64" # The file creation mask for any files and directories created. # Interpreted as octal if the first digit is zero. umask = 077 # Allow other users to read the files #umask = 022 # Enabling test mode means that no changes to the on disk metadata # will be made. Equivalent to having the -t option on every # command. Defaults to off. test = 0 # Default value for --units argument units = "h" # Whether or not to communicate with the kernel device-mapper. # Set to 0 if you want to use the tools to manipulate LVM metadata # without activating any logical volumes. # If the device-mapper kernel driver is not present in your kernel # setting this to 0 should suppress the error messages. activation = 1 # If we can't communicate with device-mapper, should we try running # the LVM1 tools? # This option only applies to 2.4 kernels and is provided to help you # switch between device-mapper kernels and LVM1 kernels. # The LVM1 tools need to be installed with .lvm1 suffices # e.g. vgscan.lvm1 and they will stop working after you start using # the new lvm2 on-disk metadata format. # The default value is set when the tools are built. # fallback_to_lvm1 = 0 # The default metadata format that commands should use - "lvm1" or "lvm2". # The command line override is -M1 or -M2. # Defaults to "lvm1" if compiled in, else "lvm2". # format = "lvm1" # Location of proc filesystem proc = "/proc" # Type of locking to use. Defaults to local file-based locking (1). # Turn locking off by setting to 0 (dangerous: risks metadata corruption # if LVM2 commands get run concurrently). # Type 2 uses the external shared library locking_library. # Type 3 uses built-in clustered locking. locking_type = 1 # If using external locking (type 2) and initialisation fails, # with this set to 1 an attempt will be made to use the built-in # clustered locking. # If you are using a customised locking_library you should set this to 0. fallback_to_clustered_locking = 1 # If an attempt to initialise type 2 or type 3 locking failed, perhaps # because cluster components such as clvmd are not running, with this set # to 1 an attempt will be made to use local file-based locking (type 1). # If this succeeds, only commands against local volume groups will proceed. # Volume Groups marked as clustered will be ignored. fallback_to_local_locking = 1 # Local non-LV directory that holds file-based locks while commands are # in progress. A directory like /tmp that may get wiped on reboot is OK. locking_dir = "/var/lock/lvm" # Other entries can go here to allow you to load shared libraries # e.g. if support for LVM1 metadata was compiled as a shared library use # format_libraries = "liblvm2format1.so" # Full pathnames can be given. # Search this directory first for shared libraries. # library_dir = "/lib" # The external locking library to load if locking_type is set to 2. # locking_library = "liblvm2clusterlock.so" } activation { # How to fill in missing stripes if activating an incomplete volume. # Using "error" will make inaccessible parts of the device return # I/O errors on access. You can instead use a device path, in which # case, that device will be used to in place of missing stripes. # But note that using anything other than "error" with mirrored # or snapshotted volumes is likely to result in data corruption. missing_stripe_filler = "error" # How much stack (in KB) to reserve for use while devices suspended reserved_stack = 256 # How much memory (in KB) to reserve for use while devices suspended reserved_memory = 8192 # Nice value used while devices suspended process_priority = -18 # If volume_list is defined, each LV is only activated if there is a # match against the list. # "vgname" and "vgname/lvname" are matched exactly. # "@tag" matches any tag set in the LV or VG. # "@*" matches if any tag defined on the host is also set in the LV or VG # # volume_list = [ "vg1", "vg2/lvol1", "@tag1", "@*" ] # Size (in KB) of each copy operation when mirroring mirror_region_size = 512 # Setting to use when there is no readahead value stored in the metadata. # # "none" - Disable readahead. # "auto" - Use default value chosen by kernel. readahead = "auto" # 'mirror_image_fault_policy' and 'mirror_log_fault_policy' define # how a device failure affecting a mirror is handled. # A mirror is composed of mirror images (copies) and a log. # A disk log ensures that a mirror does not need to be re-synced # (all copies made the same) every time a machine reboots or crashes. # # In the event of a failure, the specified policy will be used to # determine what happens: # # "remove" - Simply remove the faulty device and run without it. If # the log device fails, the mirror would convert to using # an in-memory log. This means the mirror will not # remember its sync status across crashes/reboots and # the entire mirror will be re-synced. If a # mirror image fails, the mirror will convert to a # non-mirrored device if there is only one remaining good # copy. # # "allocate" - Remove the faulty device and try to allocate space on # a new device to be a replacement for the failed device. # Using this policy for the log is fast and maintains the # ability to remember sync state through crashes/reboots. # Using this policy for a mirror device is slow, as it # requires the mirror to resynchronize the devices, but it # will preserve the mirror characteristic of the device. # This policy acts like "remove" if no suitable device and # space can be allocated for the replacement. # Currently this is not implemented properly and behaves # similarly to: # # "allocate_anywhere" - Operates like "allocate", but it does not # require that the new space being allocated be on a # device is not part of the mirror. For a log device # failure, this could mean that the log is allocated on # the same device as a mirror device. For a mirror # device, this could mean that the mirror device is # allocated on the same device as another mirror device. # This policy would not be wise for mirror devices # because it would break the redundant nature of the # mirror. This policy acts like "remove" if no suitable # device and space can be allocated for the replacement. mirror_log_fault_policy = "allocate" mirror_device_fault_policy = "remove" } #################### Advanced section # #################### Metadata settings # metadata { # Default number of copies of metadata to hold on each PV. 0, 1 or 2. # You might want to override it from the command line with 0 # when running pvcreate on new PVs which are to be added to large VGs. # pvmetadatacopies = 1 # Approximate default size of on-disk metadata areas in sectors. # You should increase this if you have large volume groups or # you want to retain a large on-disk history of your metadata changes. # pvmetadatasize = 255 # List of directories holding live copies of text format metadata. # These directories must not be on logical volumes! # It's possible to use LVM2 with a couple of directories here, # preferably on different (non-LV) filesystems, and with no other # on-disk metadata (pvmetadatacopies = 0). Or this can be in # addition to on-disk metadata areas. # The feature was originally added to simplify testing and is not # supported under low memory situations - the machine could lock up. # # Never edit any files in these directories by hand unless you # you are absolutely sure you know what you are doing! Use # the supplied toolset to make changes (e.g. vgcfgrestore). # dirs = [ "/etc/lvm/metadata", "/mnt/disk2/lvm/metadata2" ] #} Event daemon # dmeventd { # mirror_library is the library used when monitoring a mirror device. # # "libdevmapper-event-lvm2mirror.so" attempts to recover from # failures. It removes failed devices from a volume group and # reconfigures a mirror as necessary. If no mirror library is # provided, mirrors are not monitored through dmeventd. # mirror_library = "libdevmapper-event-lvm2mirror.so" # snapshot_library is the library used when monitoring a snapshot device. # # "libdevmapper-event-lvm2snapshot.so" monitors the filling of # snapshots and emits a warning through syslog, when the use of # snapshot exceedes 80%. The warning is repeated when 85%, 90% and # 95% of the snapshot are filled. # snapshot_library = "libdevmapper-event-lvm2snapshot.so" #}