|
HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
|
|
NAME | DESCRIPTION | DEFINITIONS | USAGE | EXAMPLES | SPECIAL TOPICS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
|
|
|
LVMTHIN(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual LVMTHIN(7)
lvmthin — LVM thin provisioning
Blocks in a standard lvm(8) Logical Volume (LV) are allocated when
the LV is created, but blocks in a thin provisioned LV are
allocated as they are written. Because of this, a thin
provisioned LV has a virtual size that can be much larger than the
available physical storage. The amount of physical storage
provided for thin provisioned LVs can be increased later as the
need arises.
Blocks in a standard LV are allocated (during creation) from the
Volume Group (VG), but blocks in a thin LV are allocated (during
use) from a "thin pool". The thin pool contains blocks of
physical storage, and thin LV blocks reference blocks in the thin
pool.
A special "thin pool LV" must be created before thin LVs can be
created within it. A thin pool LV is created by combining two
standard LVs: a data LV that will hold blocks for thin LVs, and a
metadata LV that will hold metadata. Thin pool metadata is
created and used by the "dm_thin_pool" kernel module to track the
data blocks used by thin LVs.
Snapshots of thin LVs are efficient because the data blocks common
to a thin LV and any of its snapshots are shared. Snapshots may
be taken of thin LVs or of other thin snapshots. Blocks common to
recursive snapshots are also shared in the thin pool. There is no
limit to or degradation from sequences of snapshots.
As thin LVs or snapshot LVs are written to, they consume data
blocks in the thin pool. As free data blocks in the pool
decrease, more physical space may need to be added to the pool.
This is done by extending the thin pool with additional physical
space from the VG. Removing thin LVs or snapshots from the thin
pool can also make more space available. However, removing thin
LVs is not always an effective way of freeing space in a thin pool
because blocks may be shared by snapshots, and free blocks may be
too fragmented to make available.
On-demand block allocation can cause thin LV blocks to be
fragmented in the thin pool, which can cause reduced performance
compared to standard fully provisioned LV.
Thin LV
A thin LV is an LVM logical volume for which storage is
allocated on demand. As a thin LV is written, blocks are
allocated from a thin pool to hold the data. A thin LV has
a virtual size that can be larger than the physical space
in the thin pool.
Thin Pool
A thin pool is a special LV containing physical extents
from which thin LVs are allocated. The thin pool LV is not
used as a block device, but the thin pool name is
referenced when creating thin LVs. The thin pool LV must
be extended with additional physical extents before it runs
out of space. A thin pool has two hidden component LVs:
one for holding thin data and another for holding thin
metadata.
Thin Pool Data LV
A component of a thin pool that holds thin LV data. The
data LV is a hidden LV with a _tdata suffix, and is not
used directly. The physical size of the data LV is
displayed as the thin pool size.
Thin Pool Metadata LV
A component of a thin pool that holds metadata for the
"dm_thin_pool" kernel module. "dm_thin_pool" generates and
uses this metadata to track data blocks used by thin LVs.
The metadata LV is a hidden LV with a _tmeta suffix, and is
not used directly.
Thin Snapshot
A thin snapshot is a thin LV that is created in reference
to an existing thin LV or other thin snapshot. The thin
snapshot initially refers to the same blocks as the
existing thin LV. It acts as a point in time copy of the
thin LV it referenced.
External Origin
A read-only LV that is used as a snapshot origin for thin
LVs. Unwritten portions of the thin LVs are read from the
external origin.
Thin Pool Creation
A thin pool can be created with the lvcreate command. The data
and metadata component LVs are each allocated from the VG, and
combined into a thin pool. The lvcreate -L|--size will be the
size of the thin pool data LV, and the size of the metadata LV
will be calculated automatically (or, can be optionally specified
with --poolmetadatasize.)
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n ThinPool -L Size VG
Thin Pool Conversion
For a customized thin pool layout, data and metadata LVs can be
created separately, and then combined into a thin pool with
lvconvert. This allows specific LV types, or specific devices, to
be used for data/metadata LVs. Combining the data and metadata
LVs into a thin pool erases the content of both LVs. The
resulting thin pool takes the name and size of the data LV. (If a
metadata LV is not specified, lvconvert will automatically create
one to use in the thin pool.)
# lvcreate -n DataLV -L Size VG DataDevices
# lvcreate -n MetadataLV -L MetadataSize VG MetadataDevices
# lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata MetadataLV VG/DataLV
(DataLV would now be referred to as ThinPool, and can be used for
creating thin LVs.)
Thin LV Creation
Thin LVs are created in a thin pool, and are created with a
virtual size using the option -V|--virtualsize. The virtual size
may be larger than the physical space available in the thin pool.
# lvcreate --type thin -n ThinLV -V VirtualSize --thinpool ThinPool VG
Thin Snapshot Creation
Snapshots of thin LVs are thin LVs themselves, but the snapshot LV
initially refers to the same blocks as the origin thin LV. The
origin thin LV and its snapshot thin LVs will diverge as either
are written. The origin thin LV can be removed without affecting
snapshots that reference it. Snapshots can be taken of thin LVs
that were themselves created as snapshots. (A size option must
not be used when creating a thin snapshot, otherwise a COW
snapshot will be created.)
# lvcreate --snapshot -n SnapLV VG/ThinLV
Thin Pool Data Percent and Metadata Percent
For active thin pool LVs, the 'lvs' command displays "Data%" (-o
data_percent) and "Meta%" (-o metadata_percent). Data percent is
the percent of space in the data LV that is currently used by thin
LVs. Metadata percent is the percent of space in the metadata LV
that is currently used by the "dm_thin_pool" module. The thin
pool should be extended before either of these values reach 100%.
# lvs -o data_percent VG/ThinPool
# lvs -o metadata_percent VG/ThinPool
Thin Pool Extension
When lvextend is run on a thin pool, it will extend the internal
data LV by the specified amount, and the internal metadata LV will
also be extended, if needed, relative to the new data size.
# lvextend --size Size VG/ThinPool
A new metadata size can be requested when extending the thin pool
data.
# lvextend --size Size --poolmetadatasize MetadataSize VG/ThinPool
The metadata size can be extended without extending the data size.
# lvextend --poolmetadatasize MetadataSize VG/ThinPool
The internal data or metadata LV can be extended by name.
# lvextend -L Size VG/ThinPool_tdata
# lvextend -L MetadataSize VG/ThinPool_tmeta
Thin Pool Automatic Extension
It is important to extend a thin pool before it runs out of space,
otherwise it may be damaged, and difficult or impossible to
repair. LVM can be configured so that dmeventd(8) automatically
extends thin pools when they run low on space. Free extents must
be available in the VG to use for extending the thin pools.
dmeventd(8) is usually started by the lvm2-monitor service.
dmeventd receives notifications from the kernel indicating when
thin pool data or metadata are becoming full. In response,
dmeventd runs the command "lvextend --use-policies VG/ThinPool",
which compares the current usage of data and metadata with the
autoextend threshold. The data LV and/or metadata LV may be
extended in response. System messages will show when these
extensions have happened.
To enable thin pool automatic extension, set lvm.conf(5):
activation/thin_pool_autoextend_threshold
Extend the thin pool when the current usage reaches this
percentage. The chosen value should depend on the rate at
which new data may be written. If space is consumed more
quickly, then a lower threshold will provide dmeventd and
lvextend more time to react and extend the pool. The
minimum is 50. Setting to 100 disables autoextend.
activation/thin_pool_autoextend_percent
A thin pool is extended by this percent of its current
size.
The thin pool itself must be monitored by dmeventd to be
automatically extended. When activating a thin pool, lvm normally
requests monitoring by dmeventd. To verify this, run:
# lvs -o+seg_monitor VG/ThinPool
To begin monitoring a thin pool in dmeventd:
# lvchange --monitor y VG/ThinPool
Thin LV Activation
A thin LV that is created as a snapshot is given the "skip
activation" property. It is reported with lvs -o skip_activation,
or 'k' in the tenth lv_attr. This property causes vgchange -ay
and lvchange -ay commands to skip activating the thin LV unless
the -K|--ignoreactivationskip option is also set.
# lvchange -ay -K VG/SnapLV
The skip activation property on a thin LV can be cleared, so that
-K is not required to activate it (or enabled so -K is required.)
# lvchange --setactivationskip y VG/SnapLV
# lvchange --setactivationskip n VG/SnapLV
To configure the "skip activation" setting that lvcreate applies
to new snapshots, set lvm.conf(5)
activation/auto_set_activation_skip
Thick LV to Thin LV Conversion
A thick LV (e.g. linear, striped) can be converted to a thin LV in
a new thin pool. The new thin pool is created using the existing
thick LV as thin pool data. New thin pool metadata is generated
and written to a new metadata LV. The new thin LV references the
original thick data now located in the thin pool data LV. Note:
This conversion cannot be reversed; the thin volume cannot be
reverted back to the thick LV.
# lvconvert --type thin VG/ThickLV
(ThickLV would now be referred to as ThinLV, and a new thin pool
will exist named ThinLV_tpool0.)
After the conversion, the resulting thin LV and thin pool will
look somewhat different from ordinary thin LVs/pools: the new thin
LV will be fully provisioned in the thin pool, and the thin pool
data usage will be 100%. The thin pool will require extension
before new thin LVs or snapshots are used.
Thin Pool on LVM RAID
Thin pool data or metadata component LVs can use LVM RAID by first
creating RAID LVs for data and/or metadata component LVs, and then
converting these RAID LVs into a thin pool.
# lvcreate --type raidN -n DataLV -L Size VG DataDevices
# lvcreate --type raidN -n MetadataLV -L MetadataSize VG MetadataDevices
# lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata MetadataLV VG/DataLV
(DataLV would now be referred to as ThinPool, and can be used for
creating thin LVs.)
To use MD RAID instead of LVM RAID, create linear data/metadata
LVs on MD devices, and refer to the MD devices for
DataDevices/MetadataDevices.
Thin Pool on LVM VDO
Thin pool data can be compressed and deduplicated using VDO. Data
for all thin LVs in the thin pool will be compressed and
deduplicated using the dm-vdo module.
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n ThinPool -L Size --pooldatavdo y VG
Or, convert an existing LV (e.g. linear, striped) into a thin-pool
that uses VDO compression/deduplication for thin data. Existing
content on the LV will be erased.
# lvconvert --type thin-pool --pooldatavdo y VG/LV
(LV would now be referred to as ThinPool, and can be used for
creating thin LVs.)
Thin Pool and Thin LV Combined Creation
One command can be used to create a new thin pool with a new thin
LV.
# lvcreate --type thin -n ThinLV -V VirtualSize \
--thinpool ThinPool -L ThinPoolSize VG
First, a new thin pool is created:
Thin Pool name is from --thinpool ThinPool
Thin Pool size is from -L|--size ThinPoolSize
Second, a new thin LV is created:
Thin LV name is from -n|--name ThinLV
Thin LV size is from -V|--virtualsize VirtualSize
Other thin LVs can then be created in the thin pool using standard
lvcreate commands for thin LVs.
Thin Snapshot Creation of an External Origin
Thin snapshots are typically taken of other thin LVs within the
same thin pool. But, it is also possible to create a thin
snapshot of an external LV (e.g. linear, striped, thin LV in
another thin pool.) The external LV must be read-only (lvchange
--permission r) and inactive to be used as a thin external origin.
Writes to the thin snapshot LV are stored in its thin pool, and
unwritten parts are read from the external origin. One external
origin LV can be used for multiple thin snapshots.
# lvcreate --snapshot -n SnapLV --thinpool ThinPool VG/ExternalOrigin
Thin Snapshot and External Origin Conversion
In this case, an existing, non-thin LV is converted to a read-only
external origin, and a new thin LV is created as a snapshot of
that external origin. The new thin LV is given the name of the
existing LV, and the existing LV is given a new name from
--originname.
Unwritten portions of the new thin LV are read from the external
origin. If the thin LV is removed, the external origin LV can be
used again in read/write mode. Thus, the thin LV can be seen as a
snapshot of the original volume.
# lvconvert --type thin --thinpool ThinPool --originname ExtOrigin VG/LV
The existing LV argument is renamed ExtOrigin, and the new thin LV
has the name of the existing LV.
Thin Snapshot Merge
A thin snapshot can be merged into its origin thin LV. The result
of a snapshot merge is that the origin thin LV takes the content
of the snapshot LV, and the snapshot LV is removed. Any content
that was unique to the origin thin LV is lost after the merge.
Because a merge changes the content of an LV, it cannot be done
while the LVs are open, e.g. mounted. If a merge is initiated
while the LVs are open, the effect of the merge is delayed until
the origin thin LV is next activated.
# lvconvert --merge VG/SnapLV
Thin Pool Creation
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n pool0 -L 500M vg
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 500.00m 0.00 10.84
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
Thin Pool Conversion
# lvcreate -n pool0 -L 500M vg
# lvcreate -n pool0_meta -L 100M vg
# lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata pool0_meta vg/pool0
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 100.00m
pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 500.00m 0.00 10.04
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 100.00m
Thin LV Creation
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n pool0 -L 500M vg
# lvcreate --type thin -n vol -V 1G --thinpool pool0 vg
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
pool0 vg twi-aotz-- 500.00m 0.00 10.94
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
vol vg Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00g pool0 0.00
Thin Snapshot Creation
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n pool0 -L 500M vg
# lvcreate --type thin -n vol -V 1G --thinpool pool0 vg
# lvcreate --snapshot -n snap1 vg/vol
# lvcreate --snapshot -n snap2 vg/snap1
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
pool0 vg twi-aotz-- 500.00m 0.00 10.94
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
snap1 vg Vwi---tz-k 1.00g pool0 vol
snap2 vg Vwi---tz-k 1.00g pool0 snap1
vol vg Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00g pool0 0.00
Thin Pool Extension
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n pool0 -L 500M vg
# lvextend -L+100M vg/pool0
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 600.00m 0.00 10.84
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 600.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
# lvextend -L+100M --poolmetadatasize 8M vg/pool0
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 8.00m
pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 700.00m 0.00 10.40
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 700.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 8.00m
Thick LV to Thin LV Conversion
# lvcreate -n vol -L500M vg
# lvconvert --type thin vg/vol
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
vol vg Vwi-a-tz-- 500.00m vol_tpool0 100.00
vol_tpool0 vg twi-aotz-- 500.00m 100.00 14.06
[vol_tpool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[vol_tpool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
# lvextend -L1G vg/vol
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
vol vg Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00g vol_tpool0 48.83
vol_tpool0 vg twi-aotz-- 1000.00m 50.00 14.06
[vol_tpool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 1000.00m
[vol_tpool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
(Extending the virtual size of the thin LV triggered autoextend of
the thin pool.)
Thin Pool on LVM RAID
# lvcreate --type raid1 -n pool0 -m1 -L500M vg
# lvcreate --type raid1 -n pool0_meta -m1 -L8M vg
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Cpy%Sync
pool0 vg rwi-a-r--- 500.00m 100.00
pool0_meta vg rwi-a-r--- 8.00m 100.00
[pool0_meta_rimage_0] vg iwi-aor--- 8.00m
[pool0_meta_rimage_1] vg iwi-aor--- 8.00m
[pool0_meta_rmeta_0] vg ewi-aor--- 4.00m
[pool0_meta_rmeta_1] vg ewi-aor--- 4.00m
[pool0_rimage_0] vg iwi-aor--- 500.00m
[pool0_rimage_1] vg iwi-aor--- 500.00m
[pool0_rmeta_0] vg ewi-aor--- 4.00m
[pool0_rmeta_1] vg ewi-aor--- 4.00m
# lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata pool0_meta vg/pool0
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Data% Meta% Cpy%Sync
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 8.00m
pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 500.00m 0.00 10.40
[pool0_tdata] vg rwi-aor--- 500.00m 100.00
[pool0_tdata_rimage_0] vg iwi-aor--- 500.00m
[pool0_tdata_rimage_1] vg iwi-aor--- 500.00m
[pool0_tdata_rmeta_0] vg ewi-aor--- 4.00m
[pool0_tdata_rmeta_1] vg ewi-aor--- 4.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-aor--- 8.00m 100.00
[pool0_tmeta_rimage_0] vg iwi-aor--- 8.00m
[pool0_tmeta_rimage_1] vg iwi-aor--- 8.00m
[pool0_tmeta_rmeta_0] vg ewi-aor--- 4.00m
[pool0_tmeta_rmeta_1] vg ewi-aor--- 4.00m
Thin Pool on LVM VDO Creation
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n pool0 -L5G --pooldatavdo y vg
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 8.00m
pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 5.00g 0.00 10.64
[pool0_tdata] vg vwi-aov--- 5.00g pool0_vpool0 0.00
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 8.00m
pool0_vpool0 vg dwi------- 5.00g 60.03
[pool0_vpool0_vdata] vg Dwi-ao---- 5.00g
Thin Pool on LVM VDO Conversion
# lvcreate -n pool0 -L5G vg
# lvconvert --type thin-pool --pooldatavdo y vg/pool0
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 8.00m
pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 5.00g 0.00 10.64
[pool0_tdata] vg vwi-aov--- 5.00g pool0_vpool0 0.00
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 8.00m
pool0_vpool0 vg dwi------- 5.00g 60.03
[pool0_vpool0_vdata] vg Dwi-ao---- 5.00g
Thin Snapshot Creation of an External Origin
# lvcreate -n vol -L 500M vg
# lvchange --permission r vg/vol
# lvchange -an vg/vol
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n pool0 -L 500M vg
# lvcreate --snapshot -n snap --thinpool pool0 vg/vol
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
pool0 vg twi-aotz-- 500.00m 0.00 10.94
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
snap vg Vwi-a-tz-- 500.00m pool0 vol 0.00
vol vg ori------- 500.00m
Thin Pool and Thin LV Combined Creation
# lvcreate --type thin -n vol -V 1G --thinpool pool0 -L500M vg
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
pool0 vg twi-aotz-- 500.00m 0.00 10.94
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
vol vg Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00g pool0 0.00
Thin Snapshot Merge
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n pool0 -L500M vg
# lvcreate --type thin -n vol -V 1G --thinpool pool0 vg
# lvcreate --snapshot -n snap vg/vol
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
pool0 vg twi-aotz-- 500.00m 0.00 10.94
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
snap vg Vwi---tz-k 1.00g pool0 vol
vol vg Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00g pool0 0.00
# lvconvert --merge vg/snap
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
pool0 vg twi-aotz-- 500.00m 0.00 10.94
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
vol vg Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00g pool0 0.00
Thin Snapshot Merge Delayed
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n pool0 -L500M vg
# lvcreate --type thin -n vol -V 1G --thinpool pool0 vg
# mkfs.xfs /dev/vg/vol
# mount /dev/vg/vol /mnt
# touch /mnt/file1 /mnt/file2 /mnt/file3
# lvcreate --snapshot -n snap vg/vol
# mount /dev/vg/snap /snap -o nouuid
# touch /snap/file4 /snap/file5 /snap/file6
# ls /snap
file1 file2 file3 file4 file5 file6
# ls /mnt
file1 file2 file3
# lvconvert --merge vg/snap
Logical volume vg/snap contains a filesystem in use.
Delaying merge since snapshot is open.
Merging of thin snapshot vg/snap will occur on next activation of vg/vol.
# umount /snap
# umount /mnt
# lvchange -an vg/vol
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
pool0 vg twi-aotz-- 500.00m 13.36 11.62
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
[snap] vg Swi---tz-k 1.00g pool0 vol
vol vg Owi---tz-- 1.00g pool0
# lvchange -ay vg/vol
# lvs -a vg
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Data% Meta%
[lvol0_pmspare] vg ewi------- 4.00m
pool0 vg twi-aotz-- 500.00m 12.94 11.43
[pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 500.00m
[pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 4.00m
vol vg Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00g pool0 6.32
# mount /dev/vg/vol /mnt
# ls /mnt
file1 file2 file3 file4 file5 file6
Physical Devices for Thin Pool Data and Metadata
Placing the thin pool data LV and metadata LV on separate physical
devices will improve performance. Faster, redundant devices for
metadata is also recommended. To best customize the data and
metadata LVs, create them separately and then combine them into a
thin pool with lvconvert.
To configure lvcreate behavior to place thin pool data and
metadata on separate devices, set lvm.conf(5)
allocation/thin_pool_metadata_require_separate_pvs.
Spare Metadata LV
The first time a thin pool LV is created, lvm will create a spare
metadata LV in the VG. This behavior can be controlled with the
option --poolmetadataspare y|n. To create the pmspare ("pool
metadata spare") LV, lvm first creates an LV with a default name,
e.g. lvol0, and then converts this LV to a hidden LV with the
_pmspare suffix, e.g. lvol0_pmspare.
One pmspare LV is kept in a VG to be used for any thin pool.
The pmspare LV cannot be created explicitly, but may be removed
explicitly.
The "Thin Pool Metadata check and repair" section describes the
use of the pmspare LV.
Thin Pool Metadata check and repair
If thin pool metadata is damaged, it may be repairable. Checking
and repairing thin pool metadata is analogous to running
fsck/repair on a file system. Thin pool metadata is compact, so
even small areas of damage or corruption can result in significant
data loss. Resilient storage for thin pool metadata can have
extra value.
When a thin pool LV is activated, lvm runs the thin_check(8)
command to check the correctness of the metadata on the pool
metadata LV. To configure thin_check use, location or options
used by lvm, set lvm.conf(5) global/thin_check_executable
The location of the program. Setting to an empty string ("")
disables running thin_check by lvm. This is not recommended.
lvm.conf(5) global/thin_check_options
Controls the command options that lvm will use when running
thin_check.
If thin_check finds a problem with the metadata, the thin pool LV
is not activated, and the thin pool metadata needs to be repaired.
Simple repair commands are not always successful. Advanced repair
may require editing thin pool metadata and lvm metadata. Newer
versions of the kernel and lvm tools may be more successful at
repair. Report the details of damaged thin metadata to get the
best advice on recovery.
Command to repair a thin pool:
# lvconvert --repair VG/ThinPool
Repair performs the following steps:
1.
Creates a new, repaired copy of the metadata.
lvconvert runs the thin_repair(8) command to read damaged
metadata from the existing pool metadata LV, and writes a new
repaired copy to the VG's pmspare LV.
2.
Replaces the thin pool metadata LV.
If step 1 is successful, the thin pool metadata LV is replaced
with the pmspare LV containing the corrected metadata. The
previous thin pool metadata LV, containing the damaged metadata,
becomes visible with the new name ThinPool_metaN (where N is
0,1,...).
If the repair works, the thin pool LV and its thin LVs can be
activated. The user should verify that each thin LV in the thin
pool can be successfully activated, and then verify the integrity
of the file system on each thin LV (e.g. using fsck or other
tools.) Once the thin pool is considered fully recovered, the
ThinPool_metaN LV containing the original, damaged metadata can be
manually removed to recovery the space.
If the repair fails, the original, unmodified ThinPool_metaN LV
should be preserved for support, or more advanced recovery
methods. Data from thin LVs may ultimately be unrecoverable.
If metadata is manually restored with thin_repair directly, the
pool metadata LV can be manually swapped with another LV
containing new metadata:
# lvconvert --thinpool VG/ThinPool --poolmetadata VG/NewMetadataLV
Removing thin pool LVs, thin LVs and snapshots
Removing a thin LV and its related snapshots returns the blocks
they used to the thin pool. These blocks will be reused for other
thin LVs and snapshots.
Removing a thin pool LV removes both the data LV and metadata LV
and returns the space to the VG.
lvremove of thin pool LVs, thin LVs and snapshots cannot be
reversed with vgcfgrestore.
vgcfgbackup does not back up thin pool metadata.
Using fstrim to increase free space in a thin pool
Removing files in a file system on a thin LV does not generally
return free space to the thin pool, because file systems are not
usually mounted with the discard mount option (due to the
performance penalty.)
Manually running the fstrim command can return space from a thin
LV back to the thin pool that had been used by removed files.
This is only effective for entire thin pool chunks that have
become unused (unused file system areas may not cover an entire
chunk.) Thin snapshots also keep thin pool chunks from being
freed. fstrim uses discards and will have no effect if the thin
pool is configured to ignore discards.
Example
A thin pool has 10G of physical data space, and a thin LV has a
virtual size of 100G. Writing a 1G file to the file system
reduces the free space in the thin pool by 10% and increases the
virtual usage of the file system by 1%. Removing the 1G file
restores the virtual 1% to the file system, but does not restore
the physical 10% to the thin pool. The fstrim command restores
the physical space to the thin pool.
# lvs -a -oname,attr,size,pool_lv,origin,data_percent,metadata_percent vg
LV Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta%
pool0 twi-a-tz-- 10.00g 47.01 21.03
thin1 Vwi-aotz-- 100.00g pool0 2.70
# df -h /mnt/X
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/vg-thin1 99G 1.1G 93G 2% /mnt/X
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/X/1Gfile bs=4096 count=262144; sync
# lvs
pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 10.00g 57.01 25.26
thin1 vg Vwi-aotz-- 100.00g pool0 3.70
# df -h /mnt/X
/dev/mapper/vg-thin1 99G 2.1G 92G 3% /mnt/X
# rm /mnt/X/1Gfile
# lvs
pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 10.00g 57.01 25.26
thin1 vg Vwi-aotz-- 100.00g pool0 3.70
# df -h /mnt/X
/dev/mapper/vg-thin1 99G 1.1G 93G 2% /mnt/X
# fstrim -v /mnt/X
# lvs
pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 10.00g 47.01 21.03
thin1 vg Vwi-aotz-- 100.00g pool0 2.70
Thin Pool Data Exhaustion
When properly managed, thin pool data space should be extended
before it is all used (see sections on extending a thin pool
automatically and manually.)
However, if a thin pool does run out of space, the behavior of the
full thin pool can be configured with the "when full" property,
reported with lvs -o whenfull. The "when full" property can be
set to "error" or "queue". When set to "error", a full thin pool
will immediately return errors for writes. When set to "queue",
writes are queued for a period of time.
Display the current "when full" setting:
# lvs -o whenfull VG/ThinPool
Set the "when full" property to "error":
# lvchange --errorwhenfull y VG/ThinPool
Set the "when full" property to "queue":
# lvchange --errorwhenfull n VG/ThinPool
To configure the value that will be assigned to new thin pools,
set lvm.conf(5) activation/error_when_full
The whenfull setting does not effect the monitoring and autoextend
settings, and the monitoring/autoextend settings do not effect the
whenfull setting. It is only when monitoring/autoextend are not
effective that the thin pool becomes full and the whenfull setting
is applied.
— queue when full —
The default is to queue writes for a period of time when the thin
pool becomes full. Writes to thin LVs are accepted and queued,
with the expectation that pool data space will be extended soon.
Once data space is extended, the queued writes will be processed,
and the thin pool will return to normal operation.
While waiting to be extended, the thin pool will queue writes for
up to 60 seconds (the default). If data space has not been
extended after this time, the queued writes will return an error
to the caller, e.g. the file system. This can result in file
system damage that requires repair. When a thin pool returns
errors for writes to a thin LV, any file system is subject to
losing unsynced user data.
The 60 second timeout can be changed or disabled with the
"dm_thin_pool" kernel module option no_space_timeout. This option
sets the number of seconds that thin pools will queue writes. If
set to 0, writes will not time out. Disabling timeouts can result
in the system running out of resources, memory exhaustion, hung
tasks, and deadlocks. (The timeout applies to all thin pools on
the system.)
— error when full —
Writes to thin LVs immediately return an error, and no writes are
queued. This can result in file system damage that requires
repair.
— data percent —
When data space is exhausted, the lvs command displays 100 under
Data% and letter D in 9th. column for the thin pool LV:
# lvs -o name,data_percent,attr vg/pool0
LV Data% Attr
pool0 100.00 twi-aot-D-
— causes —
A thin pool may run out of data space for any of the following
reasons:
• Automatic extension of the thin pool is disabled, and the thin
pool is not manually extended.
(Disabling automatic extension is not recommended.)
• The dmeventd(8) daemon is not running and the thin pool is not
manually extended.
(Disabling dmeventd is not recommended.)
• Automatic extension of the thin pool is too slow given the rate
of writes to thin LVs in the pool. (This can be addressed by
tuning the activation/thin_pool_autoextend_threshold and
activation/thin_pool_autoextend_percent.)
• The VG does not have enough free blocks to extend the thin pool.
Thin Pool Metadata Exhaustion
If thin pool metadata space is exhausted (or a thin pool metadata
operation fails), errors will be returned for IO operations on
thin LVs.
When metadata space is exhausted, the lvs command displays 100
under Meta% for the thin pool LV:
# lvs -o name,metadata_percent vg/pool0
LV Meta%
pool0 100.00
The same reasons for thin pool data space exhaustion apply to thin
pool metadata space.
Metadata space exhaustion can lead to inconsistent thin pool
metadata and inconsistent file systems, so the response requires
offline checking and repair.
1. Deactivate the thin pool LV, or reboot the system if this is
not possible.
2. Repair thin pool with lvconvert --repair.
See "Thin Pool Metadata check and repair".
3. Extend pool metadata space with lvextend --poolmetadatasize.
See "Thin Pool Extension".
4. Check and repair file system.
Custom Thin Pool Configuration
It can be useful for different thin pools to have different thin
pool settings like autoextend thresholds and percents. To change
lvm.conf(5) values on a per-VG or per-LV basis, attach a "profile"
to the VG or LV. A profile is a collection of config settings,
saved in a local text file (using the lvm.conf(5) format). lvm
looks for profiles in the profile_dir directory, e.g.
/etc/lvm/profile/. Once attached to a VG or LV, lvm will process
the VG or LV using the settings from the attached profile. A
profile is named and referenced by its file name.
To use a profile to customize the lvextend settings for an LV:
• Create a file containing settings, saved in profile_dir.
For the profile_dir location, run:
# lvmconfig config/profile_dir
• Attach the profile to an LV, using the command:
# lvchange --metadataprofile ProfileName VG/ThinPool
• Extend the LV using the profile settings:
# lvextend --use-policies VG/ThinPool
Example
# lvmconfig config/profile_dir
profile_dir="/etc/lvm/profile"
# cat /etc/lvm/profile/pool0extend.profile
activation {
thin_pool_autoextend_threshold=50
thin_pool_autoextend_percent=10
}
# lvchange --metadataprofile pool0extend vg/pool0
# lvextend --use-policies vg/pool0
Notes
• A profile is attached to a VG or LV by name, where the name
references a local file in profile_dir. If the VG is moved to
another machine, the file with the profile also needs to be
moved.
• Only certain settings can be used in a VG or LV profile, see:
# lvmconfig --type profilable-metadata
• An LV without a profile of its own will inherit the VG profile.
• Remove a profile from an LV using the command:
# lvchange --detachprofile VG/ThinPool
• Commands can also have profiles applied to them. The settings
that can be applied to a command are different than the settings
that can be applied to a VG or LV. See lvmconfig --type
profilable-command. To apply a profile to a command, write a
profile, save it in the profile directory, and run the command
using the option: --commandprofile ProfileName.
Zeroing
The "zero" property of a thin pool determines if chunks are
overwritten with zeros when they are provisioned for a thin LV.
The current setting is reported with lvs -o zero (displaying
"zero" or "1" when zeroing is enabled), or 'z' in the eighth
lv_attr. The option -Z|--zero is used to specify the zeroing
mode.
Create a thin pool with zeroing mode:
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n ThinPool -L Size -Z y VG
Disable the zeroing mode of an existing thin pool:
# lvchange -Z n VG/ThinPool
If zeroing mode is changed from "n" to "y", previously provisioned
blocks are not zeroed.
Provisioning of large zeroed chunks reduces performance.
To configure the zeroing mode used for new thin pools when not
specified on the command line, set lvm.conf(5)
allocation/thin_pool_zero
Discard
The "discards" property of a thin pool determines how discard
requests are handled. The current setting is reported with lvs -o
discards. The option --discards is used to specify the discards
mode.
Possible discard modes:
ignore Ignore any discards that are received.
nopassdown
Process any discards in the thin pool itself, and allow the
newly unused chunks to be used for new data.
passdown
Process discards in the thin pool (as with nopassdown), and
pass the discards down the underlying device. This is the
default mode.
Create a thin pool with a specific discards mode:
# lvcreate --type thin-pool -n ThinPool -L Size \
--discards nopassdown VG
Change the discards mode of an existing thin pool:
# lvchange --discards nopassdown VG/ThinPool
To configure the discards mode used for new thin pools when not
specified on the command line, set lvm.conf(5)
allocation/thin_pool_discards
Discards can have an adverse impact on performance, see the fstrim
section for more information.
Chunk size
A thin pool allocates physical storage for thin LVs in units of
"chunks". The current chunk size of a thin pool is reported with
lvs -o chunksize. The option --chunksize is used to specify the
value for a new thin pool (default units are KiB.) The value must
be a multiple of 64 KiB, between 64 KiB and 1 GiB.
When a thin pool is used primarily for the thin provisioning
feature, a larger value is optimal. To optimize for many
snapshots, a smaller value reduces copying time and consumes less
space.
To configure the chunk size used for new thin pools when not
specified on the command line, set lvm.conf(5)
allocation/thin_pool_chunk_size
The default value is shown by:
# lvmconfig --type default allocation/thin_pool_chunk_size
Thin Pool Metadata Size
The amount of thin pool metadata depends on how many blocks are
shared between thin LVs (i.e. through snapshots). A thin pool
with many snapshots may need a larger metadata LV. Thin pool
metadata LV sizes can be from 2 MiB to approximately 16 GiB.
When an LVM command automatically creates a thin pool metadata LV,
the size is specified with the --poolmetadatasize option. When
this option is not given, LVM automatically chooses a size based
on the data size and chunk size.
It can be hard to predict the amount of metadata space that will
be needed, so it is recommended to start with a size of 1 GiB
which should be enough for all practical purposes. A thin pool
metadata LV can later be manually or automatically extended if
needed.
(For purposes of backward compatibility, lvm.conf(5)
allocation/thin_pool_crop_metadata controls cropping the metadata
LV size to 15.81 GiB to be backward compatible with older versions
of lvm. With cropping, there can be problems with volumes above
this size when used with thin tools, i.e. thin_repair. Cropping
should be enabled only when compatibility is required.)
XFS on snapshots
Mounting an XFS file system on a new snapshot LV requires
attention to the file system's log state and uuid. On the
snapshot LV, the xfs log will contain a dummy transaction, and the
xfs uuid will match the uuid from the file system on the origin
LV.
If the snapshot LV is writable, mounting will recover the log to
clear the dummy transaction, but will require skipping the uuid
check:
# mount /dev/VG/SnapLV /mnt -o nouuid
After the first mount with the above approach, the UUID can
subsequently be changed using:
# xfs_admin -U generate /dev/VG/SnapLV
# mount /dev/VG/SnapLV /mnt
Once the UUID has been changed, the mount command will no longer
require the nouuid option.
If the snapshot LV is readonly, the log recovery and uuid check
need to be skipped while mounting readonly:
# mount /dev/VG/SnapLV /mnt -o ro,nouuid,norecovery
lvm(8), lvm.conf(5), lvmconfig(8), lvcreate(8), lvconvert(8),
lvchange(8), lvextend(8), lvremove(8), lvs(8), vgcfgbackup(8),
vgcfgrestore(8),
dmeventd(8), thin_check(8), thin_dump(8), thin_repair(8),
thin_restore(8),
vdoformat(8), vdostats(8),
insmod(8), modprobe(8), mount(8), systemd(1), xfs_admin(8)
This page is part of the lvm2 (Logical Volume Manager 2) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.sourceware.org/lvm2/⟩. If you have a bug report for
this manual page, see ⟨https://github.com/lvmteam/lvm2/issues⟩.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://sourceware.org/git/lvm2.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2025-08-08.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
[email protected]
Red Hat, Inc. LVM TOOLS 2.03.35(2)-git (2025-07-30) LVMTHIN(7)
Pages that refer to this page: lvmcache(7), lvmvdo(7), lvchange(8), lvconvert(8), lvcreate(8), lvdisplay(8), lvextend(8), lvm(8), lvmconfig(8), lvmdevices(8), lvmdiskscan(8), lvm-fullreport(8), lvm-lvpoll(8), lvreduce(8), lvremove(8), lvrename(8), lvresize(8), lvs(8), lvscan(8), pvchange(8), pvck(8), pvcreate(8), pvdisplay(8), pvmove(8), pvremove(8), pvresize(8), pvs(8), pvscan(8), vgcfgbackup(8), vgcfgrestore(8), vgchange(8), vgck(8), vgconvert(8), vgcreate(8), vgdisplay(8), vgexport(8), vgextend(8), vgimport(8), vgimportclone(8), vgimportdevices(8), vgmerge(8), vgmknodes(8), vgreduce(8), vgremove(8), vgrename(8), vgs(8), vgscan(8), vgsplit(8)
|
HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
|