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I would like to know what is the best practice regarding the partitioning policy, especially when it comes to Logical Volume Manager.

Is it better to put the entire partitioning into LVM or use it for all other partitions except / for instance.

Some colleagues told me for instance that it is better not to put rootfs into an LVM because if we have an issue with lvm, it could be easier to recover.

I understand that LVM has it pros(flexibility...) and cons, but is it a good practice to put everything into LVM or not? Is there some exceptions?

Thank you in advance,

Virtuose
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    This is a typical example why "best practices" questions suck, because the answer will be "it depends" most of the time. Best practice is always: Analyze *your* situation and come up with a valid solution for it. – Sven Jan 27 '14 at 12:08

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I tend not to use LVM when I can avoid it... but if you must use it, try limiting it to data partitions. This is my preference, so you'll definitely hear arguments to the contrary.

I've seen far too many cases of system repair/recovery hampered by LVM issues on the / volume. And that alone is worth avoiding it for me. Also, hardware RAID controllers that can present multiple logical drives and other flexible storage solutions make LVM redundant in some situations.

Community
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ewwhite
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  • The linked post seems to contain a lot of FUD with no hard evidence. – JamesRyan Jan 27 '14 at 13:03
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    I've seen alignment issues, LVM signature problems, performance issues, lost volumes... That said, more people probably use LVM. I don't. – ewwhite Jan 27 '14 at 13:51
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    Yes, LVM had issues... on RHEL 5! Which is the timeframe of that answer. – Michael Hampton Jan 27 '14 at 14:35
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    *(and there's a whole lotta EL5 out there...)* Just because things may have improved in EL6, doesn't mean LVM is the right go-to solution for all environments. – ewwhite Jan 27 '14 at 14:36
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    @JamesRyan There's *plenty* of evidence if you read the numerous sources. The real answer is "it depends" because some environments need LVM while others don't want the risks. – Nathan C Jan 27 '14 at 15:08