Creating volume group on fresh installation

SUSE Product Topics SLES Install-Boot
1

I am standing up a new 11 sp2 server. I have a single hardware mirrored disk. I want to use volume management for my partitioning, but I ran into an issue.

The boot FS HAS to be in a stand along file system, it cannot be part of a volume group. Other distributions allow me to carve off a chunk, usually 500 MB, for the boot FS. The rest I can then use to create a volume group with.

Basically, I would have 500MB on sda1 and the volume group on sda2.

Suse requires me to use all or none of the disk in the volume group. I carve out a 500 MB slice for the boot file system, but when I try to create the volume group, I get an error telling me there are no available unused disks. If I use the entire drive for the volume group, I can’t have a boot FS in the volume group. I tried setting up the volume without even using a boot FS, but then I get an error telling me that I’ll have problems booting the system.

So, in order for me to use volume management, I have to waist an entire drive just for the boot slice.

How can I setup volume management in a new installation of Suse?

Thanks.

Daryl

2

Never mind. I figured it out.

I’m used to how I do things in another distribution. This is the first time that I did this in Suse. Just a bit of a learning curve.

Daryl

3

On 03/04/2014 09:14 AM, rosede wrote:[color=blue]

I am standing up a new 11 sp2 server. I have a single hardware mirrored
disk. I want to use volume management for my partitioning, but I ran
into an issue.

The boot FS HAS to be in a stand along file system, it cannot be part
of a volume group. Other distributions allow me to carve off a chunk,
usually 500 MB, for the boot FS. The rest I can then use to create a
volume group with.[/color]

Yes, this is how I have always done it on SLES. I think it’s just a
matter of doing it the right way in Yast. Let’s see if we can get there.
[color=blue]

Basically, I would have 500MB on sda1 and the volume group on sda2.[/color]

Exactly. I usually use 500 MB on SLE and 1 GB on openSUSE (openSUSE like
storing more kernels for fun, so I’m cautious).
[color=blue]

Suse requires me to use all or none of the disk in the volume group. I[/color]

Nope, thankfully not the case. Whew!
[color=blue]

carve out a 500 MB slice for the boot file system, but when I try to
create the volume group, I get an error telling me there are no
available unused disks. If I use the entire drive for the volume group,
I can’t have a boot FS in the volume group. I tried setting up the
volume without even using a boot FS, but then I get an error telling me
that I’ll have problems booting the system.

So, in order for me to use volume management, I have to waist an entire
drive just for the boot slice.

How can I setup volume management in a new installation of Suse?[/color]

The way I am in the habit of doing this (so maybe not the easiest way, but
the way I know that works) is to always, always go into Expert
partitioning. I do not accept the default helpful super-easy partitioning
setup (because I want to use LVM, and btrfs or XFS, and full disk
encryption, and have /boot separate for all of the previous reasons) and
instead go in and customize. From there:

  1. Create new sda1, use ext2, mount as /boot, disable noatime in the
    mountpoint options.
  2. Create an LVM type of partition.
  3. Go into the Volume Management section and create the volume group from
    the new LVM partition.
  4. While still in Volume Management, create the required volumes (perhaps
    swap if you need it, but certainly /, probably /home, /var, etc.).
    Next/Next/Finish.

The GUI is PRETTY intuitive, and if you already know LVM it’ll probably be
a cakewalk. If you do not go this route, though, I’m not sure if the
automatic super-easy-and-quick setup will get where you (and I) need to be
with slightly-advanced partitioning.

–
Good luck.

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