Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed

178CHAPTER 7Managing StorageLISTING 7.6ContinuedLV Statusavailable# open 1LV Size78.12 GBCurrent LE 2500Segments 1AllocationinheritRead ahead sectors 0Block device 253:1--- Logical volume ---LV Name/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02VG NameVolGroup00LV UUIDbzr4Ag-rDKT-y8zY-F3e8-SaBI-QY51-r6lJ3TLV Write Access read/writeLV Statusavailable# open 1LV Size1.94 GBCurrent LE 62Segments 1AllocationinheritRead ahead sectors 0Block device 253:2Creating SnapshotsWith LVM, it is possible to take a snapshot of a logical volume while the LV is still inread-write mode and being accessed by the system. As the root user, issue the followingcommand:lvcreate --size -s -n The lvcreate command is used to create a new logical volume, meaning there must befree physical extents in the logical volume group to create a snapshot. The -s optionmeans that the LV is a snapshot, is the name of the new LV created, and is the name of the LV from which to create the snapshot.A snapshot is not a copy of the entire LV. Instead, it keeps track of the changes from thetime the snapshot is taken and the present time. Thus, the size of the snapshot LV doesnot need to be as large as the LV from which it is created. It just needs to be as big as allthe changes from the time the snapshot is taken until the snapshot is used. Snapshots arenot intended to be left around for long periods of time. Reasons to create snapshotsinclude performing backups (most common), creating virtual machines using theVirtualization feature (refer to Appendix B, “Creating Virtual Machines”), creating a duplicatetesting system, and transferring data from one logical volume group (and possibly adifferent hard drive) to another.