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Posted on December 7, 2020 by — Leave a comment

Add storage to your Fedora system with LVM

Sometimes there is a need to add another disk to your system. This is where Logical Volume Management (LVM) comes in handy. The cool thing about LVM is that it’s fairly flexible. There are several ways to add a disk. This article describes one way to do it.

Heads up!

This article does not cover the process of physically installing a new disk drive into your system. Consult your system and disk documentation on how to do that properly.

Important: Always make sure you have backups of important data. The steps described in this article will destroy data if it already exists on the new disk.

Good to know

This article doesn’t cover every LVM feature deeply; the focus is on adding a disk. But basically, LVM has volume groups, made up of one or more partitions and/or disks. You add the partitions or disks as physical volumes. A volume group can be broken down into many logical volumes. Logical volumes can be used as any other storage for filesystems, ramdisks, etc. More information can be found here.

Think of the physical volumes as forming a pool of storage (a volume group) from which you then carve out logical volumes for your system to use directly.

Preparation

Make sure you can see the disk you want to add. Use lsblk prior to adding the disk to see what storage is already available or in use.

$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
zram0 251:0 0 989M 0 disk [SWAP]
vda 252:0 0 20G 0 disk
├─vda1 252:1 0 1G 0 part /boot
└─vda2 252:2 0 19G 0 part
└─fedora_fedora-root 253:0 0 19G 0 lvm /

This article uses a virtual machine with virtual storage. Therefore the device names start with vda for the first disk, vdb for the second, and so on. The name of your device may be different. Many systems will see physical disks as sda for the first disk, sdb for the second, and so on.

Once the new disk has been connected and your system is back up and running, use lsblk again to see the new block device.

$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
zram0 251:0 0 989M 0 disk [SWAP]
vda 252:0 0 20G 0 disk
├─vda1 252:1 0 1G 0 part /boot
└─vda2 252:2 0 19G 0 part
└─fedora_fedora-root 253:0 0 19G 0 lvm /
vdb 252:16 0 10G 0 disk

There is now a new device named vdb. The location for the device is /dev/vdb.

$ ls -l /dev/vdb
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 252, 16 Nov 24 12:56 /dev/vdb

We can see the disk, but we cannot use it with LVM yet. If you run blkid you should not see it listed. For this and following commands, you’ll need to ensure your system is configured so you can use sudo:

$ sudo blkid
/dev/vda1: UUID="4847cb4d-6666-47e3-9e3b-12d83b2d2448" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="830679b8-01"
/dev/vda2: UUID="k5eWpP-6MXw-foh5-Vbgg-JMZ1-VEf9-ARaGNd" TYPE="LVM2_member" PARTUUID="830679b8-02"
/dev/mapper/fedora_fedora-root: UUID="f8ab802f-8c5f-4766-af33-90e78573f3cc" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/zram0: UUID="fc6d7a48-2bd5-4066-9bcf-f062b61f6a60" TYPE="swap"

Add the disk to LVM

Initialize the disk using pvcreate. You need to pass the full path to the device. In this example it is /dev/vdb; on your system it may be /dev/sdb or another device name.

$ sudo pvcreate /dev/vdb
Physical volume "/dev/vdb" successfully created.

You should see the disk has been initialized as an LVM2_member when you run blkid:

$ sudo blkid
/dev/vda1: UUID="4847cb4d-6666-47e3-9e3b-12d83b2d2448" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="830679b8-01"
/dev/vda2: UUID="k5eWpP-6MXw-foh5-Vbgg-JMZ1-VEf9-ARaGNd" TYPE="LVM2_member" PARTUUID="830679b8-02"
/dev/mapper/fedora_fedora-root: UUID="f8ab802f-8c5f-4766-af33-90e78573f3cc" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/zram0: UUID="fc6d7a48-2bd5-4066-9bcf-f062b61f6a60" TYPE="swap"
/dev/vdb: UUID="4uUUuI-lMQY-WyS5-lo0W-lqjW-Qvqw-RqeroE" TYPE="LVM2_member"

You can list all physical volumes currently available using pvs:

$ sudo pvs
PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree
/dev/vda2 fedora_fedora lvm2 a-- <19.00g 0
/dev/vdb lvm2 --- 10.00g 10.00g

/dev/vdb is listed as a PV (phsyical volume), but it isn’t assigned to a VG (Volume Group) yet.

Add the pysical volume to a volume group

You can find a list of available volume groups using vgs:

$ sudo vgs
VG #PV #LV #SN Attr VSize VFree
fedora_fedora 1 1 0 wz--n- 19.00g 0

In this example, there is only one volume group available. Next, add the physical volume to fedora_fedora:

$ sudo vgextend fedora_fedora /dev/vdb
Volume group "fedora_fedora" successfully extended

You should now see the physical volume is added to the volume group:

$ sudo pvs PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree
/dev/vda2 fedora_fedora lvm2 a– <19.00g 0
/dev/vdb fedora_fedora lvm2 a– <10.00g <10.00g

Look at the volume groups:

$ sudo vgs
VG #PV #LV #SN Attr VSize VFree
fedora_fedora 2 1 0 wz–n- 28.99g <10.00g

You can get a detailed list of the specific volume group and physical volumes as well:

$ sudo vgdisplay fedora_fedora
--- Volume group ---
VG Name fedora_fedora
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 2
Metadata Sequence No 3
VG Access read/write
VG Status resizable
MAX LV 0
Cur LV 1
Open LV 1
Max PV 0
Cur PV 2
Act PV 2
VG Size 28.99 GiB
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 7422
Alloc PE / Size 4863 / 19.00 GiB
Free PE / Size 2559 / 10.00 GiB
VG UUID C5dL2s-dirA-SQ15-TfQU-T3yt-l83E-oI6pkp

Look at the PV:

$ sudo pvdisplay /dev/vdb --- Physical volume --- PV Name /dev/vdb VG Name fedora_fedora PV Size 10.00 GiB / not usable 4.00 MiB Allocatable yes PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 2559 Free PE 2559 Allocated PE 0 PV UUID 4uUUuI-lMQY-WyS5-lo0W-lqjW-Qvqw-RqeroE

Now that we have added the disk, we can allocate space to logical volumes (LVs):

$ sudo lvs
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta% Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
root fedora_fedora -wi-ao---- 19.00g

Look at the logical volumes. Here’s a detailed look at the root LV:

$ sudo lvdisplay fedora_fedora/root
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/fedora_fedora/root
LV Name root
VG Name fedora_fedora
LV UUID yqc9cw-AvOw-G1Ni-bCT3-3HAa-qnw3-qUSHGM
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time fedora, 2020-11-24 11:44:36 -0500
LV Status available
LV Size 19.00 GiB
Current LE 4863
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 253:0

Look at the size of the root filesystem and compare it to the logical volume size.

$ df -h /
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/fedora_fedora-root 19G 1.4G 17G 8% /

The logical volume and the filesystem both agree the size is 19G. Let’s add 5G to the root logical volume:

$ sudo lvresize -L +5G fedora_fedora/root
Size of logical volume fedora_fedora/root changed from 19.00 GiB (4863 extents) to 24.00 GiB (6143 extents).
Logical volume fedora_fedora/root successfully resized.

We now have 24G available to the logical volume. Look at the / filesystem.

$ df -h /
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/fedora_fedora-root 19G 1.4G 17G 8% /

We are still showing only 19G free. This is because the logical volume is not the same as the filesytem. To use the new space added to the logical volume, resize the filesystem.

$ sudo resize2fs /dev/fedora_fedora/root
resize2fs 1.45.6 (20-Mar-2020)
Filesystem at /dev/fedora_fedora/root is mounted on /; on-line resizing required
old_desc_blocks = 3, new_desc_blocks = 3
The filesystem on /dev/fedora_fedora/root is now 6290432 (4k) blocks long.

Look at the size of the filesystem.

$ df -h /
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/fedora_fedora-root 24G 1.4G 21G 7% /

As you can see, the root file system (/) has taken all of the space available on the logical volume and no reboot was needed.

You have now initialized a disk as a physical volume, and extended the volume group with the new physical volume. After that you increased the size of the logical volume, and resized the filesystem to use the new space from the logical volume.

Posted on July 29, 2019 by — Leave a comment

Command line quick tips: More about permissions

A previous article covered some basics about file permissions on your Fedora system. This installment shows you additional ways to use permissions to manage file access and sharing. It also builds on the knowledge and examples in the previous article, so if you haven’t read that one, do check it out.

Symbolic and octal

In the previous article you saw how there are three distinct permission sets for a file. The user that owns the file has a set, members of the group that owns the file has a set, and then a final set is for everyone else. These permissions are expressed on screen in a long listing (ls -l) using symbolic mode.

Each set has r, w, and x entries for whether a particular user (owner, group member, or other) can read, write, or execute that file. But there’s another way to express these permissions: in octal mode.

You’re used to the decimal numbering system, which has ten distinct values (0 through 9). The octal system, on the other hand, has eight distinct values (0 through 7). In the case of permissions, octal is used as a shorthand to show the value of the r, w, and x fields. Think of each field as having a value:

r = 4
w = 2
x = 1

Now you can express any combination with a single octal value. For instance, read and write permission, but no execute permission, would have a value of 6. Read and execute permission only would have a value of 5. A file’s rwxr-xr-x symbolic permission has an octal value of 755.

You can use octal values to set file permissions with the chmod command similarly to symbolic values. The following two commands set the same permissions on a file:

chmod u=rw,g=r,o=r myfile1
chmod 644 myfile1

Special permission bits

There are several special permission bits also available on a file. These are called setuid (or suid), setgid (or sgid), and the sticky bit (or delete inhibit). Think of this as yet another set of octal values:

setuid = 4
setgid = 2
sticky = 1

The setuid bit is ignored unless the file is executable. If that’s the case, the file (presumably an app or a script) runs as if it were launched by the user who owns the file. A good example of setuid is the /bin/passwd utility, which allows a user to set or change passwords. This utility must be able to write to files no user should be allowed to change. Therefore it is carefully written, owned by the root user, and has a setuid bit so it can alter the password related files.

The setgid bit works similarly for executable files. The file will run with the permissions of the group that owns it. However, setgid also has an additional use for directories. If a file is created in a directory with setgid permission, the group owner for the file will be set to the group owner of the directory.

Finally, the sticky bit, while ignored for files, is useful for directories. The sticky bit set on a directory will prevent a user from deleting files in that directory owned by other users.

The way to set these bits with chmod in octal mode is to add a value prefix, such as 4755 to add setuid to an executable file. In symbolic mode, the u and g can be used to set or remove setuid and setgid, such as u+s,g+s. The sticky bit is set using o+t. (Other combinations, like o+s or u+t, are meaningless and ignored.)

Sharing and special permissions

Recall the example from the previous article concerning a finance team that needs to share files. As you can imagine, the special permission bits help to solve their problem even more effectively. The original solution simply made a directory the whole group could write to:

drwxrwx---. 2 root finance 4096 Jul 6 15:35 finance

One problem with this directory is that users dwayne and jill, who are both members of the finance group, can delete each other’s files. That’s not optimal for a shared space. It might be useful in some situations, but probably not when dealing with financial records!

Another problem is that files in this directory may not be truly shared, because they will be owned by the default groups of dwayne and jill — most likely the user private groups also named dwayne and jill.

A better way to solve this is to set both setgid and the sticky bit on the folder. This will do two things — cause files created in the folder to be owned by the finance group automatically, and prevent dwayne and jill from deleting each other’s files. Either of these commands will work:

sudo chmod 3770 finance
sudo chmod u+rwx,g+rwxs,o+t finance

The long listing for the file now shows the new special permissions applied. The sticky bit appears as T and not t because the folder is not searchable for users outside the finance group.

drwxrws--T. 2 root finance 4096 Jul 6 15:35 finance

Posted on April 10, 2019 by — Leave a comment

Managing Partitions with sgdisk

Roderick W. Smith‘s sgdisk command can be used to manage the partitioning of your hard disk drive from the command line. The basics that you need to get started with it are demonstrated below.

The following six parameters are all that you need to know to make use of sgdisk’s most basic features:

-p
Print the partition table:

# sgdisk -p /dev/sda
-d x
Delete partition x:

# sgdisk -d 1 /dev/sda
-n x:y:z
Create a new partition numbered x, starting at y and ending at z:

# sgdisk -n 1:1MiB:2MiB /dev/sda
-c x:y
Change the name of partition x to y:

# sgdisk -c 1:grub /dev/sda
-t x:y
Change the type of partition x to y:

# sgdisk -t 1:ef02 /dev/sda
–list-types
List the partition type codes:

# sgdisk –list-types

As you can see in the above examples, most of the commands require that the device file name of the hard disk drive to operate on be specified as the last parameter.

The parameters shown above can be combined so that you can completely define a partition with a single run of the sgdisk command:

# sgdisk -n 1:1MiB:2MiB -t 1:ef02 -c 1:grub /dev/sda

Relative values can be specified for some fields by prefixing the value with a + or – symbol. If you use a relative value, sgdisk will do the math for you. For example, the above example could be written as:

# sgdisk -n 1:1MiB:+1MiB -t 1:ef02 -c 1:grub /dev/sda

The value 0 has a special-case meaning for several of the fields:

In the partition number field, 0 indicates that the next available number should be used (numbering starts at 1).
In the starting address field, 0 indicates that the start of the largest available block of free space should be used. Some space at the start of the hard drive is always reserved for the partition table itself.
In the ending address field, 0 indicates that the end of the largest available block of free space should be used.

By using 0 and relative values in the appropriate fields, you can create a series of partitions without having to pre-calculate any absolute values. For example, the following sequence of sgdisk commands would create all the basic partitions that are needed for a typical Linux installation if in run sequence against a blank hard drive:

# sgdisk -n 0:0:+1MiB -t 0:ef02 -c 0:grub /dev/sda
# sgdisk -n 0:0:+1GiB -t 0:ea00 -c 0:boot /dev/sda
# sgdisk -n 0:0:+4GiB -t 0:8200 -c 0:swap /dev/sda
# sgdisk -n 0:0:0 -t 0:8300 -c 0:root /dev/sda

The above example shows how to partition a hard disk for a BIOS-based computer. The grub partition is not needed on a UEFI-based computer. Because sgdisk is calculating all the absolute values for you in the above example, you can just skip running the first command on a UEFI-based computer and the remaining commands can be run without modification. Likewise, you could skip creating the swap partition and the remaining commands would not need to be modified.

There is also a short-cut for deleting all the partitions from a hard disk with a single command:

# sgdisk –zap-all /dev/sda

For the most up-to-date and detailed information, check the man page:

$ man sgdisk