Before you go through this article, let me inform you that this is completely experimental.So read it, enjoy it,but use it in real environment at your own risk.I use to do so many experimental things in my Lab and this is just one of them.We have studied and know so much about Partitions,RAID and LVM.This time i am going to write something on the fact which comes out after relating all these things together. As you all know that once we have created LVM on top of RAID, it become so easy to add any other volume to RAID. Now instead of using a real device or real partition here we are going to use loop devices.Then after creating loop devices we will create RAID on loop devices.And after that we will create LVM over top of RAID.

Step by step explanation:-

• First you need to create Loop Devices:
• Then you create new Arrays using these Loop Devices or you can say create RAID Device.
• After that you need to initialize the physical Volume(PV).
• Then you can create Volume Groups(VG).
• After that you create Logical Volumes(LVM).
• Now you can resize the RAID Array.
• You can also resize LVM and RAID and can easily test or verify their sizes after every changes you have made.
• After you complete this experimental Lab, you can delete all these by given process, which i have mentioned in this article at last.

Create three 200mb Files First using dd command.

using dd(Disk Dump command we will create three files each of size 200MB)

[root@satish ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=raid-0 bs=1M count=200
200+0 records in
200+0 records out
209715200 bytes (210 MB) copied, 0.554498 seconds, 378 MB/s

[root@satish ~]# cp raid-0 raid-1
[root@satish ~]# cp raid-0 raid-2

Create initial array using above three 200mb files by converting them to loop device using losetup command.

losetup command is used to create loop device in linux.

[root@satish ~]# losetup /dev/loop0 raid-0
[root@satish ~]# losetup /dev/loop1 raid-1
[root@satish ~]# losetup /dev/loop2 raid-2

Create the new array using these three loop devices.

[root@satish ~]# mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md5 --level=5  --raid-devices=3 /dev/loop0 /dev/loop1 /dev/loop2
mdadm: layout defaults to left-symmetric
mdadm: chunk size defaults to 64K
mdadm: size set to 204736K
mdadm: array /dev/md5 started.

Using madam command we have created software raid5 using three loop devices named /dev/loop0  /dev/loop1 and /dev/loop2. Now after creating raid we need to confirm whether raid is properly configured or not.So we need to test it and we can do examine that in a very simple way using mdadm command with option --detail as mentioned below.

Now Examine the created raid Devices in Detail.

[root@satish ~]# mdadm --detail /dev/md5
/dev/md5:
        Version : 0.90
  Creation Time : Wed Jul 31 16:21:01 2013
     Raid Level : raid5
     Array Size : 409472 (399.94 MiB 419.30 MB)
  Used Dev Size : 204736 (199.97 MiB 209.65 MB)
   Raid Devices : 3
  Total Devices : 3
Preferred Minor : 5
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Wed Jul 31 16:22:36 2013
          State : clean
 Active Devices : 3
Working Devices : 3
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0

         Layout : left-symmetric
     Chunk Size : 64K

           UUID : 592f15a1:dba02592:c3b644ca:412e7cf4
         Events : 0.2

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0       7        0        0      active sync   /dev/loop0
       1       7        1        1      active sync   /dev/loop1
       2       7        2        2      active sync   /dev/loop2

Above output clearly show us that the three devices /dev/loop0 /dev/loop1 and /dev/loop2 is active in raid array.

Now initialize the Physical Volumes (PVs) and Create Volume Groups(VGs)

[root@satish ~]# pvcreate /dev/md5
  Physical volume "/dev/md5" successfully created


[root@satish ~]# pvdisplay
  "/dev/md5" is a new physical volume of "399.88 MB"
  --- NEW Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/md5
  VG Name               
  PV Size               399.88 MB
  Allocatable           NO
  PE Size (KByte)       0
  Total PE              0
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          0
  PV UUID               ytsDuk-Z1BG-S3tO-3mMy-wAQv-kuTZ-3a5TbM
   

[root@satish ~]# vgcreate lvm-satish /dev/md5
  Volume group "lvm-satish" successfully created

[root@satish ~]# vgdisplay
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               lvm-satish
  System ID             
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  1
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                0
  Open LV               0
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               396.00 MB
  PE Size               4.00 MB
  Total PE              99
  Alloc PE / Size       0 / 0   
  Free  PE / Size       99 / 396.00 MB
  VG UUID               N0d0YK-9sGO-v8jY-9kSL-rFfx-lLCA-VnCqYP

Create and Examine lvm Volume.

[root@satish ~]# lvcreate -l 60 lvm-satish -n lvm0
  Logical volume "lvm0" created

[root@satish ~]# lvdisplay
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/lvm-satish/lvm0
  VG Name                lvm-satish
  LV UUID                yMOTeD-1X3S-W5G7-arSn-s6tf-PKD1-y6Bv54
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 0
  LV Size                240.00 MB
  Current LE             60
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     512
  Block device           253:0

Now Format and mount it on a directory.

here i am going to mount it on slashroot directory.
 

[root@satish ~]# mkfs.ext3  /dev/lvm-satish/lvm0

[root@satish ~]# mount /dev/lvm-satish/lvm0 slashroot/

[root@satish ~]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3              24G   12G   11G  54% /
tmpfs                 502M     0  502M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/mapper/lvm--satish-lvm0
                      233M  6.1M  215M   3% /root/slashroot

Now add a File to it.

[root@satish ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=slashroot/ironman3.avi bs=10240 count=10240
10240+0 records in
10240+0 records out
104857600 bytes (105 MB) copied, 0.714737 seconds, 147 MB/s


[root@satish ~]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/lvm--satish-lvm0
                      233M  107M  114M  49% /root/slashroot

Now Create a new 200mb loopback device and using this loop device,Expand the raid array.

[root@satish ~]# mdadm --grow /dev/md5 -n4 --backup-file=raid5backup
mdadm: Need to backup 384K of critical section..
mdadm: ... critical section passed.


[root@satish ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=raid-3 bs=1M count=200
[root@satish ~]# losetup /dev/loop3 raid-3
[root@satish ~]# mdadm --add /dev/md5 /dev/loop3
mdadm: added /dev/loop3

[root@satish ~]# mdadm --detail /dev/md5
/dev/md5:
        Version : 0.90
  Creation Time : Wed Jul 31 16:21:01 2013
     Raid Level : raid5
     Array Size : 614208 (599.91 MiB 628.95 MB)
  Used Dev Size : 204736 (199.97 MiB 209.65 MB)
   Raid Devices : 4
  Total Devices : 4
Preferred Minor : 5
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Wed Jul 31 17:14:20 2013
          State : clean, degraded, recovering
 Active Devices : 3
Working Devices : 4
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 1

         Layout : left-symmetric
     Chunk Size : 64K

 Rebuild Status : 14% complete

           UUID : 592f15a1:dba02592:c3b644ca:412e7cf4
         Events : 0.168

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0       7        0        0      active sync   /dev/loop0
       1       7        1        1      active sync   /dev/loop1
       2       7        2        2      active sync   /dev/loop2
       4       7        3        3      spare rebuilding   /dev/loop3

Resize RAID and LVM and then examine their size.

[root@satish ~]# pvresize /dev/md5
  Physical volume "/dev/md5" changed
  1 physical volume(s) resized / 0 physical volume(s) not resized


[root@satish ~]# vgdisplay lvm-satish
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               lvm-satish
  System ID             
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  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                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               596.00 MB
  PE Size               4.00 MB
  Total PE              149
  Alloc PE / Size       60 / 240.00 MB
  Free  PE / Size       89 / 356.00 MB
  VG UUID               N0d0YK-9sGO-v8jY-9kSL-rFfx-lLCA-VnCqYP

[root@satish ~]# lvresize -l 50 /dev/lvm-satish/lvm0
  WARNING: Reducing active and open logical volume to 200.00 MB
  THIS MAY DESTROY YOUR DATA (filesystem etc.)
Do you really want to reduce lvm0? [y/n]: y
  Reducing logical volume lvm0 to 200.00 MB
  Logical volume lvm0 successfully resized

[root@satish ~]# lvdisplay
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/lvm-satish/lvm0
  VG Name                lvm-satish
  LV UUID                yMOTeD-1X3S-W5G7-arSn-s6tf-PKD1-y6Bv54
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                200.00 MB
  Current LE             50
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     512
  Block device           253:0

Now learn how to Delete All these things

To Delete Everything we have done in this Lab we follow reverse process.

First we need to unmount all filesystem before we stop the array.

If you want to remove devices from array,First you need to failed them.We can failed any healthy device manually.

[root@satish ~]#umount slashroot

[root@satish ~]#lvremove -f /dev/lvm-satish/lvm0

[root@satish ~]#vgremove lvm-satish

Stopping and Removing raid array.

[root@satish ~]#mdadm --stop /dev/md5

[root@satish ~]#mdadm --remove /dev/md5

Now Delete all loop device.

[root@satish ~]#losetup -d /dev/loop0

[root@satish ~]#losetup -d /dev/loop1

[root@satish ~]#losetup -d /dev/loop2

[root@satish ~]#losetup -d /dev/loop3

Now Delete the all those files which are used as loop device.

[root@satish ~]#rm -rf raid-3 raid-2 raid-1 raid-0

Finally Delete the Directory in which raid has been mounted.

[root@satish ~]rmdir slashroot

If you are more intrested in storage management, you can read our articles on raid and lvm.Very soon we will write on how to create and configure encrypted raid device and how to create encrypted loop device.

List of our articles related to raid and lvm are:

Advance Guide to LVM part-1

Theoritical Guide on RAID .

How to configure software RAID0.

How to configure software RAID1.

How to configure software RAID5.

Configuring LVM on top of RAID : An alternative way to partitioning RAID Devices.