Extending (root) Volume on LVM on Pure FlashArray
My earlier post Online resizing of Oracle volumes on Pure FlashArray was focused on resizing Pure FlashArray volumes that were mounted directly or through Oracle ASM. What if the volume is part of LVM and you wanted to extend the size of a logical volume?
In this post I will go over how simple it is to extend the Pure volume that is part of a LVM.
There are lot of sites in the web that talks about LVM in Linux and I wouldn’t get into that in this post but will focus on extending a logical volume that is part of a LVM.
The common use case is to extend the logical volume in a root volume to extend the space for /home or swap as the default installation of Linux (Red Hat or Oracle Linux) creates the root volume with 50GB, swap with 4GB and the rest for /home when the underlying volume is at least 50GB.
I recently installed Oracle Linux on a bare metal server with SAN boot. I had used a Pure FlashArray volume of 200GB to host the boot LUN. As part of the installation Oracle Linux had created 50GB of root volume, 4 GB of swap space and the remaining 145GB was allocated towards /home.
FlashArray LVM Details
[root@oranode1 ~]# pvdisplay --- Physical volume --- PV Name /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p2 VG Name ol PV Size 199.51 GiB / not usable 0 Allocatable yes PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 51073 Free PE 15 Allocated PE 51058 PV UUID GOlYxE-SBRV-fWKs-r7ri-0Y0t-0Zbk-CgDcAz [root@oranode1 ~]# vgdisplay --- Volume group --- VG Name ol System ID Format lvm2 Metadata Areas 1 Metadata Sequence No 4 VG Access read/write VG Status resizable MAX LV 0 Cur LV 3 Open LV 3 Max PV 0 Cur PV 1 Act PV 1 VG Size 199.50 GiB PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 51073 Alloc PE / Size 51058 / 199.45 GiB Free PE / Size 15 / 60.00 MiB VG UUID OC99UO-1AJZ-kgLt-cEUL-Ssdo-BW9p-gYo3Au [root@oranode1 ~]# lvdisplay --- Logical volume --- LV Path <strong>/dev/ol/swap</strong> LV Name swap VG Name ol LV UUID hRFcUs-EOlO-cLxC-CGiq-A0HZ-C4UJ-uVPW9O LV Write Access read/write LV Creation host, time oranode1, 2017-01-04 15:56:08 -0800 LV Status available # open 2 LV Size 4.00 GiB Current LE 1024 Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto - currently set to 8192 Block device 252:4 --- Logical volume --- LV Path /dev/ol/home LV Name home VG Name ol LV UUID O6xNfE-miDJ-HB3T-G15u-sdco-YdYB-2JljMs LV Write Access read/write LV Creation host, time oranode1, 2017-01-04 15:56:08 -0800 LV Status available # open 0 LV Size 145.45 GiB Current LE 37234 Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto - currently set to 8192 Block device 252:5 --- Logical volume --- LV Path /dev/ol/root LV Name root VG Name ol LV UUID eLihog-m02B-Jg74-pA6x-8Qlu-gqdY-jqCQlt LV Write Access read/write LV Creation host, time oranode1, 2017-01-04 15:56:09 -0800 LV Status available # open 1 LV Size 50.00 GiB Current LE 12800 Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto - currently set to 8192 Block device 252:3
I realized I wanted to increase the size of the swap volume to 20GB instead of 4GB. There are various ways the swap size can be increased like allocating space from different filesystem and mark it as swap or add a new volume altogether and setup swap. I chose to extend the logical volume (/dev/ol/swap) from 4GB to 20GB but as you can see, there is no space left in the physical volume to be allocated.
Here is the high level sequence to add space and extend the logical volume.
- Extend the pure volume (through GUI or CLI)
- Rescan the device on the Linux host to reflect the new size
- Add a new partition to the boot lun (in this instance as partition 3)
- Create physical volume out of the new partition
- Extend the Volume group with the new physical volume
- Extend the logical volume
Here is how the updated logical volume will look like pictorially.
What is the benefit with this approach?
One could argue that they can create a new Pure volume altogether, attach to the host, create a physical volume out of it and add it to the volume group, which would work perfectly fine but it means a new change to the operating environment with a new volume. If you had lot of scripts to manage your operations (be it backup or cloning ) and your existing volume was not part of a protection group, now you have to modify multiple places to reflect the new volume which makes up a logical grouping. Rather this would make it easier to perform the change without impacting any of these scripts.
FlashArray Detailed steps
- Edit the Pure volume in Pure GUI and increase it from 200GB to 250GB. You can also do the same through CLI.
purevol setattr --size 250G fs_bootvol
- Rescan the scsi devices with -s option on the Linux host to reflect the new size.
[root@oranode1 ~]# rescan-scsi-bus.sh -s
Scanning SCSI subsystem for new devices
Searching for resized LUNs
RESIZED: Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 04 Lun: 01
Vendor: PURE Model: FlashArray Rev: 483
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 06
RESIZED: Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 05 Lun: 01
Vendor: PURE Model: FlashArray Rev: 483
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 06
RESIZED: Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 04 Lun: 01
Vendor: PURE Model: FlashArray Rev: 483
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 06
RESIZED: Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 05 Lun: 01
Vendor: PURE Model: FlashArray Rev: 483
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 06
0 new or changed device(s) found.
4 remapped or resized device(s) found.
[0:0:4:1]
[0:0:5:1]
[1:0:4:1]
[1:0:5:1]
0 device(s) removed.
[root@oranode1 ~]# multipath -ll
boot_lun_node1 (3624a93704b53f8cc7922442b000110a6) dm-0 PURE ,FlashArray
size=200G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=rw-+- policy='queue-length 0' prio=1 status=active- 1:0:5:1 sdd 8:48 active ready running
|- 0:0:4:1 sda 8:0 active ready running
|- 0:0:5:1 sdb 8:16 active ready running
|- 1:0:4:1 sdc 8:32 active ready running - Multipath command still shows 200G as the size. To reflect the updated size, run the following command. As you can see the new size is now reflected at the OS level.Note: boot_lun_nod1 is the alias for the boot lun that is on Pure.
[root@oranode1 ~]# multipathd -k'resize map boot_lun_node1'
ok
[root@oranode1 ~]# multipath -ll
Jan 04 17:52:16 | zram0: No fc_remote_port device for 'rport--1:-1-0'
boot_lun_node1 (3624a93704b53f8cc7922442b000110a6) dm-0 PURE ,FlashArray
size=250G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=rw-+- policy='queue-length 0' prio=1 status=active- 1:0:5:1 sdd 8:48 active ready running
|- 0:0:4:1 sda 8:0 active ready running
|- 0:0:5:1 sdb 8:16 active ready running
|- 1:0:4:1 sdc 8:32 active ready running - Create a new partition, in this instance the 3rd partition on the boot lun as type 8e (Linux LVM) using fdisk.
[root@oranode1 ~]# fdisk /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1
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.
Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
p primary (2 primary, 0 extended, 2 free)
e extended
Select (default p): p
Partition number (3,4, default 3):
First sector (419430400-524287999, default 419430400):
Using default value 419430400
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (419430400-524287999, default 524287999):
Using default value 524287999
Partition 3 of type Linux and of size 50 GiB is set
Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-3, default 3): 3
Hex code (type L to list all codes): L
0 Empty 24 NEC DOS 81 Minix / old Lin bf Solaris
1 FAT12 27 Hidden NTFS Win 82 Linux swap / So c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
2 XENIX root 39 Plan 9 83 Linux c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
3 XENIX usr 3c PartitionMagic 84 OS/2 hidden C: c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
4 FAT16 <32M 40 Venix 80286 85 Linux extended c7 Syrinx
5 Extended 41 PPC PReP Boot 86 NTFS volume set da Non-FS data
6 FAT16 42 SFS 87 NTFS volume set db CP/M / CTOS / .
7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT 4d QNX4.x 88 Linux plaintext de Dell Utility
8 AIX 4e QNX4.x 2nd part 8e Linux LVM df BootIt
9 AIX bootable 4f QNX4.x 3rd part 93 Amoeba e1 DOS access
a OS/2 Boot Manag 50 OnTrack DM 94 Amoeba BBT e3 DOS R/O
b W95 FAT32 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux 9f BSD/OS e4 SpeedStor
c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 52 CP/M a0 IBM Thinkpad hi eb BeOS fs
e W95 FAT16 (LBA) 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux a5 FreeBSD ee GPT
f W95 Ext'd (LBA) 54 OnTrackDM6 a6 OpenBSD ef EFI (FAT-12/16/
10 OPUS 55 EZ-Drive a7 NeXTSTEP f0 Linux/PA-RISC b
11 Hidden FAT12 56 Golden Bow a8 Darwin UFS f1 SpeedStor
12 Compaq diagnost 5c Priam Edisk a9 NetBSD f4 SpeedStor
14 Hidden FAT16 <3 61 SpeedStor ab Darwin boot f2 DOS secondary
16 Hidden FAT16 63 GNU HURD or Sys af HFS / HFS+ fb VMware VMFS
17 Hidden HPFS/NTF 64 Novell Netware b7 BSDI fs fc VMware VMKCORE
18 AST SmartSleep 65 Novell Netware b8 BSDI swap fd Linux raid auto
1b Hidden W95 FAT3 70 DiskSecure Mult bb Boot Wizard hid fe LANstep
1c Hidden W95 FAT3 75 PC/IX be Solaris boot ff BBT
1e Hidden W95 FAT1 80 Old Minix
Hex code (type L to list all codes): 8e
Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux LVM'
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 22: Invalid argument.
The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at
the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)
Syncing disks.
[root@oranode1 ~]# ls -ltr /dev/mapper/boot*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Jan 4 17:52 /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p2 -> ../dm-2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Jan 4 17:52 /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p1 -> ../dm-1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Jan 4 17:54 /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1 -> ../dm-0 - As reported by fdisk, the partition table doesn’t reflect the 3rd partition. Run kpartx command to re-read the partition table.
[root@oranode1 ~]# kpartx -a /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1
[root@oranode1 ~]# ls -ltr /dev/mapper/boot*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Jan 4 17:54 /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1 -> ../dm-0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Jan 4 17:56 /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p2 -> ../dm-2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Jan 4 17:56 /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p1 -> ../dm-1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Jan 4 17:56 /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p3 -> ../dm-6 - Now create the physical volume using the 3rd partition that we created.
[root@oranode1 ~]# pvcreate /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p3
Physical volume "/dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p3" successfully created
[root@oranode1 ~]# pvdisplay
--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p2
VG Name ol
PV Size 199.51 GiB / not usable 0
Allocatable yes
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 51073
Free PE 15
Allocated PE 51058
PV UUID GOlYxE-SBRV-fWKs-r7ri-0Y0t-0Zbk-CgDcAz
--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p3
VG Name ol
PV Size 50.00 GiB / not usable 0
Allocatable yes
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 12799
Free PE 12799
Allocated PE 0
PV UUID 5u4WNT-bljS-cUq3-18xP-yMzT-fxVD-9kV58d - Extend the volume group with the physical volume that we just created. As you can see vgdisplay shows the free space available as 50GB.
[root@oranode1 ~]# vgextend ol /dev/mapper/boot_lun_node1p3
Volume group "ol" successfully extended
[root@oranode1 ~]# vgdisplay
--- Volume group ---
VG Name ol
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 2
Metadata Sequence No 5
VG Access read/write
VG Status resizable
MAX LV 0
Cur LV 3
Open LV 3
Max PV 0
Cur PV 2
Act PV 2
VG Size 249.50 GiB
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 63872
Alloc PE / Size 51058 / 199.45 GiB
<strong>Free PE / Size 12814 / 50.05 GiB</strong>
VG UUID OC99UO-1AJZ-kgLt-cEUL-Ssdo-BW9p-gYo3Au - Now we can extend the logical volume by 16G (to get to the total of 20GB) as the underlying volume group has free space available.
[root@oranode1 ~]# lvextend -L +16G /dev/ol/swap
Size of logical volume ol/swap changed from 4.00 GiB (1024 extents) to 20.00 GiB (5120 extents).
Logical volume swap successfully resized.
[root@oranode1 ~]# lvdisplay
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/ol/swap
LV Name swap
VG Name ol
LV UUID hRFcUs-EOlO-cLxC-CGiq-A0HZ-C4UJ-uVPW9O
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time oranode1, 2017-01-04 15:56:08 -0800
LV Status available
# open 2
LV Size 20.00 GiB
Current LE 5120
Segments 3
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 8192
Block device 252:4
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/ol/home
LV Name home
VG Name ol
LV UUID O6xNfE-miDJ-HB3T-G15u-sdco-YdYB-2JljMs
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time oranode1, 2017-01-04 15:56:08 -0800
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 145.45 GiB
Current LE 37234
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 8192
Block device 252:5
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/ol/root
LV Name root
VG Name ol
LV UUID eLihog-m02B-Jg74-pA6x-8Qlu-gqdY-jqCQlt
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time oranode1, 2017-01-04 15:56:09 -0800
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 50.00 GiB
Current LE 12800
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 8192
Block device 252:3 - In this example, we extended the swap space and to reflect the swap space on the system, perform the following. If this is on any other logical volume that is mounted, use the appropriate command (like xfs_growfs or resize2fs) to extend the filesystem.
[root@oranode1 ~]# swapoff -v /dev/ol/swap
swapoff /dev/ol/swap
[root@oranode1 ~]# mkswap /dev/ol/swap
mkswap: /dev/ol/swap: warning: wiping old swap signature.
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 20971516 KiB
no label, UUID=92439b82-9660-4d05-b7e7-77c74b53a1e8
[root@oranode1 ~]# swapon -va
swapon /dev/mapper/ol-swap
swapon: /dev/mapper/ol-swap: found swap signature: version 1, page-size 4, same byte order
swapon: /dev/mapper/ol-swap: pagesize=4096, swapsize=21474836480, devsize=21474836480
[root@oranode1 ~]# cat /proc/swaps
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/dm-4 partition 20971516 0 -1
[root@oranode1 ~]# grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo
SwapTotal: 20971516 kB
As you can see, Pure Storage has simplified the step 1 (resizing) significantly. It is not about just resizing but in general Pure Storage has simplified various aspects of storage that Storage Administrators have lot more time in their hand to do other activities including keeping up with the trend.
Conclusion
Pure Storage FlashArray significantly simplifies the process of managing and resizing storage volumes, even in complex configurations like Logical Volume Management (LVM). This blog highlights the ease of extending a Pure volume, seamlessly integrating it into LVM, and resizing logical volumes without disrupting existing workflows or introducing operational complexities.
By leveraging the FlashArray’s advanced features, administrators can quickly resize volumes, add capacity, and adapt to changing requirements with minimal effort. Pure’s intuitive GUI and powerful CLI tools make these tasks straightforward, allowing storage administrators to focus on strategic activities rather than time-consuming manual operations.
Whether extending swap space or other logical volumes, Pure FlashArray ensures flexibility, efficiency, and reliability, enabling organizations to stay agile while maintaining optimal storage performance. With Pure Storage, storage management becomes simpler, faster, and more efficient, allowing teams to keep pace with modern IT demands.
Disclaimer: Even though the following sequence of steps were validated in our environment, please perform your own due diligence by testing this in a test environment. Improper use or wrong sequence of steps can cause irreversible effects and possible data loss which neither I nor the storage vendor can support.