Provided by: lvm2_2.03.16-1ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

       lvmthin — LVM thin provisioning

DESCRIPTION

       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 is given a virtual size, and can then be much larger than physically
       available 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 special "thin pool  LV".   The  thin
       pool  LV contains blocks of physical storage, and blocks in thin LVs just reference blocks
       in the thin pool LV.

       A 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 large data LV that will hold blocks for thin
       LVs, and a metadata LV that will hold metadata.  The metadata  tracks  which  data  blocks
       belong to each thin LV.

       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 free blocks may need to be supplied.  This is
       done by extending the thin pool data LV  with  additional  physical  space  from  the  VG.
       Removing  thin  LVs or snapshots from the thin pool can also free blocks in the thin pool.
       However, removing LVs is not always an effective way of  freeing  space  in  a  thin  pool
       because  the  amount  is  limited to the number of blocks not shared with other LVs in the
       pool.

       Incremental block allocation from thin pools can cause  thin  LVs  to  become  fragmented.
       Standard  LVs  generally  avoid  this  problem by allocating all the blocks at once during
       creation.

THIN TERMS

       ThinDataLV
              thin data LV
              large LV created in a VG
              used by thin pool to store ThinLV blocks

       ThinMetaLV
              thin metadata LV
              small LV created in a VG
              used by thin pool to track data block usage

       ThinPoolLV
              thin pool LV
              combination of ThinDataLV and ThinMetaLV
              contains ThinLVs and SnapLVs

       ThinLV
              thin LV
              created from ThinPoolLV
              appears blank after creation

       SnapLV
              snapshot LV
              created from ThinPoolLV
              appears as a snapshot of another LV after creation

THIN USAGE

       The primary method for using lvm thin provisioning:

   1. Create ThinDataLV
       Create an LV that will hold thin pool data.

       lvcreate -n ThinDataLV -L LargeSize VG

       Example
       # lvcreate -n pool0 -L 10G vg

   2. Create ThinMetaLV
       Create an LV that will hold thin pool metadata.

       lvcreate -n ThinMetaLV -L SmallSize VG

       Example
       # lvcreate -n pool0meta -L 1G vg

       # lvs
         LV        VG Attr       LSize
         pool0     vg -wi-a----- 10.00g
         pool0meta vg -wi-a----- 1.00g

   3. Create ThinPoolLV
       Combine the data and metadata LVs into a thin pool LV.
       ThinDataLV is renamed to hidden ThinPoolLV_tdata.
       ThinMetaLV is renamed to hidden ThinPoolLV_tmeta.
       The new ThinPoolLV takes the previous name of ThinDataLV.

       lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata VG/ThinMetaLV VG/ThinDataLV

       Example
       # lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata vg/pool0meta vg/pool0

       # lvs vg/pool0
         LV    VG Attr       LSize  Pool Origin Data% Meta%
         pool0 vg twi-a-tz-- 10.00g      0.00   0.00

       # lvs -a
         LV            VG Attr       LSize
         pool0         vg twi-a-tz-- 10.00g
         [pool0_tdata] vg Twi-ao---- 10.00g
         [pool0_tmeta] vg ewi-ao---- 1.00g

   4. Create ThinLV
       Create a new thin LV from the thin pool LV.
       The thin LV is created with a virtual size.
       Multiple new thin LVs may be created in the thin pool.
       Thin LV names must be unique in the VG.
       The '--type thin' option is inferred from the virtual size option.
       The --thinpool argument specifies which thin pool will
       contain the ThinLV.

       lvcreate -n ThinLV -V VirtualSize --thinpool ThinPoolLV VG

       Example
       Create a thin LV in a thin pool:
       # lvcreate -n thin1 -V 1T --thinpool pool0 vg

       Create another thin LV in the same thin pool:
       # lvcreate -n thin2 -V 1T --thinpool pool0 vg

       # lvs vg/thin1 vg/thin2
         LV    VG Attr       LSize Pool  Origin Data%
         thin1 vg Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00t pool0        0.00
         thin2 vg Vwi-a-tz-- 1.00t pool0        0.00

   5. Create SnapLV
       Create snapshots of an existing ThinLV or SnapLV.
       Do not specify -L, --size when creating a thin snapshot.
       A size argument will cause an old COW snapshot to be created.

       lvcreate -n SnapLV --snapshot VG/ThinLV
       lvcreate -n SnapLV --snapshot VG/PrevSnapLV

       Example
       Create first snapshot of an existing ThinLV:
       # lvcreate -n thin1s1 -s vg/thin1

       Create second snapshot of the same ThinLV:
       # lvcreate -n thin1s2 -s vg/thin1

       Create a snapshot of the first snapshot:
       # lvcreate -n thin1s1s1 -s vg/thin1s1

       # lvs vg/thin1s1 vg/thin1s2 vg/thin1s1s1
         LV        VG Attr       LSize Pool  Origin
         thin1s1   vg Vwi---tz-k 1.00t pool0 thin1
         thin1s2   vg Vwi---tz-k 1.00t pool0 thin1
         thin1s1s1 vg Vwi---tz-k 1.00t pool0 thin1s1

   6. Activate SnapLV
       Thin snapshots are created with the persistent "activation skip" flag,  indicated  by  the
       "k"  attribute.   Use -K with lvchange or vgchange to activate thin snapshots with the "k"
       attribute.

       lvchange -ay -K VG/SnapLV

       Example
       # lvchange -ay -K vg/thin1s1

       # lvs vg/thin1s1
         LV      VG Attr       LSize Pool  Origin
         thin1s1 vg Vwi-a-tz-k 1.00t pool0 thin1

THIN TOPICS

       Automatic pool metadata LV
       Specify devices for data and metadata LVs
       Tolerate device failures using raid
       Spare metadata LV
       Metadata check and repair
       Activation of thin snapshots
       Removing thin pool LVs, thin LVs and snapshots
       Manually manage free data space of thin pool LV
       Manually manage free metadata space of a thin pool LV
       Using fstrim to increase free space in a thin pool LV
       Automatically extend thin pool LV
       Data space exhaustion
       Metadata space exhaustion
       Automatic extend settings
       Zeroing
       Discard
       Chunk size
       Size of pool metadata LV
       Create a thin snapshot of an external, read only LV
       Convert a standard LV to a thin LV with an external origin
       Single step thin pool LV creation
       Single step thin pool LV and thin LV creation
       Merge thin snapshots
       XFS on snapshots

   Automatic pool metadata LV
       A thin data LV can be converted to a thin pool LV without specifying a thin pool  metadata
       LV.  LVM automatically creates a metadata LV from the same VG.

       lvcreate -n ThinDataLV -L LargeSize VG
       lvconvert --type thin-pool VG/ThinDataLV

       Example
       # lvcreate -n pool0 -L 10G vg
       # lvconvert --type thin-pool vg/pool0

       # lvs -a
         pool0           vg          twi-a-tz--  10.00g
         [pool0_tdata]   vg          Twi-ao----  10.00g
         [pool0_tmeta]   vg          ewi-ao----  16.00m

   Specify devices for data and metadata LVs
       The  data  and  metadata LVs in a thin pool are best created on separate physical devices.
       To do that, specify the device name(s) at the  end  of  the  lvcreate  line.   It  can  be
       especially helpful to use fast devices for the metadata LV.

       lvcreate -n ThinDataLV -L LargeSize VG LargePV
       lvcreate -n ThinMetaLV -L SmallSize VG SmallPV
       lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata VG/ThinMetaLV VG/ThinDataLV

       Example
       # lvcreate -n pool0 -L 10G vg /dev/sdA
       # lvcreate -n pool0meta -L 1G vg /dev/sdB
       # lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata vg/pool0meta vg/pool0

       lvm.conf(5) thin_pool_metadata_require_separate_pvs
       controls the default PV usage for thin pool creation.

   Tolerate device failures using raid
       To  tolerate device failures, use raid for the pool data LV and pool metadata LV.  This is
       especially recommended for pool metadata LVs.

       lvcreate --type raid1 -m 1 -n ThinMetaLV -L SmallSize VG PVA PVB
       lvcreate --type raid1 -m 1 -n ThinDataLV -L LargeSize VG PVC PVD
       lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata VG/ThinMetaLV VG/ThinDataLV

       Example
       # lvcreate --type raid1 -m 1 -n pool0 -L 10G vg /dev/sdA /dev/sdB
       # lvcreate --type raid1 -m 1 -n pool0meta -L 1G vg /dev/sdC /dev/sdD
       # lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata vg/pool0meta vg/pool0

   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.  (Future thin
       pool creations will also attempt to create the pmspare LV if none exists.)

       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.

       Example
       # lvcreate -n pool0 -L 10G vg
       # lvcreate -n pool0meta -L 1G vg
       # lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadata vg/pool0meta vg/pool0

       # lvs -a
         [lvol0_pmspare] vg          ewi-------
         pool0           vg          twi---tz--
         [pool0_tdata]   vg          Twi-------

         [pool0_tmeta]   vg          ewi-------
       The "Metadata check and repair" section describes the use of the pmspare LV.

   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.

       When a thin pool LV is activated, lvm runs the thin_check command to check the correctness
       of the metadata on the pool metadata LV.

       lvm.conf(5) thin_check_executable
       can be set to an  empty  string  ("")  to  disable  the  thin_check  step.   This  is  not
       recommended.

       lvm.conf(5) thin_check_options
       controls the command options used for the thin_check command.

       If  the  thin_check  command  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/ThinPoolLV

       Repair performs the following steps:

       1  Creates a new, repaired copy of the metadata.
          lvconvert  runs the thin_repair 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  ThinPoolLV_metaN  (where  N  is
          0,1,...).

       If  the  repair  works,  the  thin pool LV and its thin LVs can be activated.  User should
       manually check if repaired thin pool kernel metadata has all data for all lvm2  known  LVs
       by  individual activation of every thin LV. When all works, user should continue with fsck
       of all filesystems present on these volumes.  Once  the  thin  pool  is  considered  fully
       functional  user  may  remove  ThinPoolLV_metaN  (the  LV containing the damaged thin pool
       metadata) for possible space reuse.  For a better performance it may be useful  to  pvmove
       the  new  repaired  metadata  LV (written to previous pmspare volume) to a faster PV, e.g.
       SSD.

       If the repair operation fails, the thin pool LV and its thin LVs are not accessible and it
       may  be  necessary  to  restore  their content from a backup.  In such case the content of
       unmodified original damaged ThinPoolLV_metaN volume can be used by your support  for  more
       advanced recovery methods.

       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/ThinPoolLV --poolmetadata VG/NewThinMetaLV

       Note: Thin pool metadata is compact so even  small  corruptions  in  them  may  result  in
       significant  portions  of  mappings  to  be lost.  It is recommended to use fast resilient
       storage for them.

   Activation of thin snapshots
       When a thin snapshot LV is created, it is by default given  the  "activation  skip"  flag.
       This flag is indicated by the "k" attribute displayed by lvs:

       # lvs vg/thin1s1
         LV         VG  Attr       LSize Pool  Origin
         thin1s1    vg  Vwi---tz-k 1.00t pool0 thin1

       This  flag  causes the snapshot LV to be skipped, i.e. not activated, by normal activation
       commands.  The skipping behavior does not apply to deactivation commands.

       A  snapshot  LV  with  the  "k"  attribute   can   be   activated   using   the   -K   (or
       --ignoreactivationskip) option in addition to the standard -ay (or --activate y) option.

       Command to activate a thin snapshot LV:
       lvchange -ay -K VG/SnapLV

       The  persistent  "activation  skip"  flag can be turned off during lvcreate, or later with
       lvchange using the -kn (or --setactivationskip n) option.  It can be turned on again  with
       -ky (or --setactivationskip y).

       When  the  "activation skip" flag is removed, normal activation commands will activate the
       LV, and the -K activation option is not needed.

       Command to create snapshot LV without the activation skip flag:
       lvcreate -kn -n SnapLV -s VG/ThinLV

       Command to remove the activation skip flag from a snapshot LV:
       lvchange -kn VG/SnapLV

       lvm.conf(5) auto_set_activation_skip
       controls the default activation skip setting used by lvcreate.

   Removing thin pool LVs, thin LVs and snapshots
       Removing a thin LV and its related snapshots returns the blocks it used to the  thin  pool
       LV.  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.

   Manually manage free data space of thin pool LV
       The available free space in a thin pool LV can be displayed with the  lvs  command.   Free
       space can be added by extending the thin pool LV.

       Command to extend thin pool data space:
       lvextend -L Size VG/ThinPoolLV

       Example
       1. A thin pool LV is using 26.96% of its data blocks.
       # lvs
         LV    VG           Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin Data%
         pool0 vg           twi-a-tz--  10.00g               26.96

       2. Double the amount of physical space in the thin pool LV.
       # lvextend -L+10G vg/pool0

       3. The percentage of used data blocks is half the previous value.
       # lvs
         LV    VG           Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin Data%
         pool0 vg           twi-a-tz--  20.00g               13.48

       Other  methods  of increasing free data space in a thin pool LV include removing a thin LV
       and its related snapshots, or running fstrim on the file system using a thin LV.

   Manually manage free metadata space of a thin pool LV
       The  available  metadata  space  in  a  thin  pool  LV  can  be  displayed  with  the  lvs
       -o+metadata_percent command.

       Command to extend thin pool metadata space:
       lvextend --poolmetadatasize Size VG/ThinPoolLV

       Example
       1. A thin pool LV is using 12.40% of its metadata blocks.
       # lvs -oname,size,data_percent,metadata_percent vg/pool0
         LV    LSize   Data%  Meta%
         pool0  20.00g  13.48  12.40

       2. Display a thin pool LV with its component thin data LV and thin metadata LV.
       # lvs -a -oname,attr,size vg
         LV              Attr       LSize
         pool0           twi-a-tz--  20.00g
         [pool0_tdata]   Twi-ao----  20.00g
         [pool0_tmeta]   ewi-ao----  12.00m

       3. Double the amount of physical space in the thin metadata LV.
       # lvextend --poolmetadatasize +12M vg/pool0

       4. The percentage of used metadata blocks is half the previous value.
       # lvs -a -oname,size,data_percent,metadata_percent vg
         LV              LSize   Data%  Meta%
         pool0            20.00g  13.48   6.20
         [pool0_tdata]    20.00g
         [pool0_tmeta]    24.00m

   Using fstrim to increase free space in a thin pool LV
       Removing files in a file system on top of a thin LV does not generally add free space back
       to the thin pool.  Manually running the fstrim command can return space back to  the  thin
       pool  that  had been used by removed files.  fstrim uses discards and will not work if the
       thin pool LV has discards mode set to ignore.

       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

       The "Discard" section covers an option for automatically freeing  data  space  in  a  thin
       pool.

   Automatically extend thin pool LV
       The  lvm  daemon  dmeventd  (lvm2-monitor)  monitors  the  data usage of thin pool LVs and
       extends them when the usage reaches a certain level.  The necessary free space must  exist
       in  the  VG  to  extend  thin  pool  LVs.   Monitoring  and extension of thin pool LVs are
       controlled independently.

       — Monitoring —

       When a thin pool LV is activated, dmeventd will begin monitoring it by default.

       Command to start or stop dmeventd monitoring a thin pool LV:
       lvchange --monitor y|n VG/ThinPoolLV

       The current dmeventd monitoring status of a thin pool LV can be displayed with the command
       lvs -o+seg_monitor.

       — Autoextending —

       dmeventd  should  be  configured  to  extend  thin pool LVs before all data space is used.
       Warnings are emitted through syslog when the use of a thin pool reaches 80%, 85%, 90%  and
       95%.   (See  the  section  "Data space exhaustion" for the effects of not extending a thin
       pool LV.)  The point at  which  dmeventd  extends  thin  pool  LVs,  and  the  amount  are
       controlled with two configuration settings:

       lvm.conf(5) thin_pool_autoextend_threshold
       is a percentage full value that defines when the thin pool LV should be extended.  Setting
       this to 100 disables automatic extension.  The minimum value is 50.

       lvm.conf(5) thin_pool_autoextend_percent
       defines how much extra data space should be added to the thin pool  LV  from  the  VG,  in
       percent of its current size.

       — Disabling —

       There are multiple ways that extension of thin pools could be prevented:

       • If the dmeventd daemon is not running, no monitoring or automatic extension will occur.

       • Even  when  dmeventd  is  running,  all  monitoring  can  be  disabled with the lvm.conf
         monitoring setting.

       • To  activate  or  create  a  thin  pool  LV  without  interacting  with  dmeventd,   the
         --ignoremonitoring  option  can  be  used.   With  this option, the command will not ask
         dmeventd to monitor the thin pool LV.

       • Setting thin_pool_autoextend_threshold to 100 disables automatic extension of thin  pool
         LVs, even if they are being monitored by dmeventd.

       Example
       If thin_pool_autoextend_threshold is 70 and thin_pool_autoextend_percent is 20, whenever a
       pool exceeds 70% usage, it will be extended by another 20%.  For a  1G  pool,  using  700M
       will  trigger  a resize to 1.2G. When the usage exceeds 840M, the pool will be extended to
       1.44G, and so on.

   Data space exhaustion
       When properly managed, thin pool data space should be extended before it is all used  (see
       the  section  "Automatically  extend  thin  pool LV").  If thin pool data space is already
       exhausted, it can still be extended (see the section "Manually manage free data  space  of
       thin pool LV".)

       The  behavior  of  a full thin pool is configurable with the --errorwhenfull y|n option to
       lvcreate or lvchange.  The errorwhenfull setting applies only to writes; reading thin  LVs
       can continue even when data space is exhausted.

       Command to change the handling of a full thin pool:
       lvchange --errorwhenfull y|n VG/ThinPoolLV

       lvm.conf(5) error_when_full
       controls the default error when full behavior.

       The  current  setting  of  a  thin  pool  LV  can  be  displayed  with  the  command:  lvs
       -o+lv_when_full.

       The errorwhenfull setting does not effect the monitoring and autoextend settings, and  the
       monitoring/autoextend  settings  do not effect the errorwhenfull setting.  It is only when
       monitoring/autoextend  are  not  effective  that  the  thin  pool  becomes  full  and  the
       errorwhenfull setting is applied.

       — errorwhenfull n —

       This  is  the  default.   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
       corruption for non-journaled file systems that may  require  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.)

       — errorwhenfull y —

       Writes to thin LVs immediately return an error, and no writes are queued.  In the case  of
       a  file  system,  this  can  result in corruption that may require fs repair (the specific
       consequences depend on the thin LV user.)

       — data percent —

       When data space is exhausted, the lvs command displays 100 under Data% for the  thin  pool
       LV:

       # lvs vg/pool0
         LV     VG           Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin Data%
         pool0  vg           twi-a-tz-- 512.00m              100.00

       — 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 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  thin_pool_autoextend_threshold  and
         thin_pool_autoextend_percent.  See "Automatic extend settings".)

       • The VG does not have enough free blocks to extend the thin pool.

   Metadata space 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 lv_name,size,data_percent,metadata_percent vg/pool0
         LV    LSize Data%  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 "Metadata check and repair".

       3.  Extend pool metadata space with lvextend --poolmetadatasize.
           See "Manually manage free metadata space of a thin pool LV".

       4.  Check and repair file system.

   Automatic extend settings
       Thin pool LVs can be extended according to preset values.  The presets determine if the LV
       should be extended based on how full it is, and if so by how much.  When dmeventd monitors
       thin pool LVs, it uses lvextend with these presets.  (See "Automatically extend thin  pool
       LV".)

       Command to extend a thin pool data LV using presets:
       lvextend --use-policies VG/ThinPoolLV

       The command uses these settings:

       lvm.conf(5) thin_pool_autoextend_threshold
       autoextend the LV when its usage exceeds this percent.

       lvm.conf(5) thin_pool_autoextend_percent
       autoextend the LV by this much additional space.

       To see the default values of these settings, run:

       lvmconfig --type default --withcomment
              activation/thin_pool_autoextend_threshold

       lvmconfig --type default --withcomment
              activation/thin_pool_autoextend_percent

       To change these values globally, edit lvm.conf(5).

       To change these 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
       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/ThinPoolLV

       • Extend the LV using the profile settings:
         lvextend --use-policies VG/ThinPoolLV

       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/ThinPoolLV.

       • 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
       When  a  thin  pool  provisions  a  new  data  block for a thin LV, the new block is first
       overwritten with zeros.  The zeroing mode is indicated by the "z" attribute  displayed  by
       lvs.  The option -Z (or --zero) can be added to commands to specify the zeroing mode.

       Command to set the zeroing mode when creating a thin pool LV:

       lvconvert --type thin-pool -Z y|n
              --poolmetadata VG/ThinMetaLV VG/ThinDataLV

       Command to change the zeroing mode of an existing thin pool LV:

       lvchange -Z y|n VG/ThinPoolLV

       If zeroing mode is changed from "n" to "y", previously provisioned blocks are not zeroed.

       Provisioning of large zeroed chunks impacts performance.

       lvm.conf(5) thin_pool_zero
       controls the default zeroing mode used when creating a thin pool.

   Discard
       The  discard  behavior  of  a  thin  pool  LV determines how discard requests are handled.
       Enabling discard under a file system may adversely affect the file system performance (see
       the section on fstrim for an alternative.)  Possible discard behaviors:

       ignore: Ignore any discards that are received.

       nopassdown:  Process  any  discards in the thin pool itself and allow the no longer needed
       extents to be overwritten by new data.

       passdown: Process discards in the thin pool (as with nopassdown), and  pass  the  discards
       down the the underlying device.  This is the default mode.

       Command to display the current discard mode of a thin pool LV:
       lvs -o+discards VG/ThinPoolLV

       Command to set the discard mode when creating a thin pool LV:
       lvconvert --discards ignore|nopassdown|passdown
              --type thin-pool --poolmetadata VG/ThinMetaLV VG/ThinDataLV

       Command to change the discard mode of an existing thin pool LV:
       lvchange --discards ignore|nopassdown|passdown VG/ThinPoolLV

       Example
       # lvs -o name,discards vg/pool0
         pool0 passdown

       # lvchange --discards ignore vg/pool0

       lvm.conf(5) thin_pool_discards
       controls the default discards mode used when creating a thin pool.

   Chunk size
       The  size  of  data  blocks  managed  by a thin pool can be specified with the --chunksize
       option when the thin pool LV is created.  The default unit is KiB. The  value  must  be  a
       multiple of 64KiB between 64KiB and 1GiB.

       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.

       Command to display the thin pool LV chunk size:

       lvs -o+chunksize VG/ThinPoolLV

       Example
       # lvs -o name,chunksize
         pool0 64.00k

       lvm.conf(5) thin_pool_chunk_size
       controls the default chunk size used when creating a thin pool.

       The default value is shown by:
       lvmconfig --type default allocation/thin_pool_chunk_size

   Size of pool metadata LV
       The  amount  of thin 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 2MiB to approximately 16GiB.

       When  using  lvcreate to create what will become a thin metadata LV, the size is specified
       with the -L|--size option.

       When an LVM command automatically creates a thin 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  1GiB  which  should be enough for all practical
       purposes.  A thin pool metadata LV can later be  manually  or  automatically  extended  if
       needed.

       Configurable  setting  lvm.conf(5)  allocation/thin_pool_crop_metadata  gives control over
       cropping to 15.81GiB to stay backward compatible with older versions of lvm2. With enabled
       cropping  there can be observed some problems when using volumes above this size with thin
       tools (i.e. thin_repair).  Cropping should be enabled only when compatibility is required.

   Create a thin snapshot of an external, read only LV
       Thin snapshots are typically taken of other thin LVs or other thin snapshot LVs within the
       same  thin  pool.   It is also possible to take thin snapshots of external, read only LVs.
       Writes to the snapshot are stored in the thin pool, and the external LV is  used  to  read
       unwritten parts of the thin snapshot.

       lvcreate -n SnapLV -s VG/ExternalOriginLV --thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV

       Example
       # lvchange -an vg/lve
       # lvchange --permission r vg/lve
       # lvcreate -n snaplve -s vg/lve --thinpool vg/pool0

       # lvs vg/lve vg/snaplve
         LV      VG  Attr       LSize  Pool  Origin Data%
         lve     vg  ori------- 10.00g
         snaplve vg  Vwi-a-tz-- 10.00g pool0 lve      0.00

   Convert a standard LV to a thin LV with an external origin
       A  new  thin LV can be created and given the name of an existing standard LV.  At the same
       time, the existing LV is converted to a read only external LV with a new name.   Unwritten
       portions of the thin LV are read from the external LV.  The new name given to the existing
       LV can be specified with --originname, otherwise the existing LV will be given  a  default
       name, e.g. lvol#.

       Convert  ExampleLV into a read only external LV with the new name NewExternalOriginLV, and
       create a new thin LV that is given the previous name of ExampleLV.

       lvconvert --type thin --thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV
              --originname NewExternalOriginLV VG/ExampleLV

       Example
       # lvcreate -n lv_example -L 10G vg

       # lvs
         lv_example      vg          -wi-a-----  10.00g

       # lvconvert --type thin --thinpool vg/pool0
                 --originname lv_external --thin vg/lv_example

       # lvs
         LV              VG          Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin
         lv_example      vg          Vwi-a-tz--  10.00g pool0 lv_external
         lv_external     vg          ori-------  10.00g

   Single step thin pool LV creation
       A thin pool LV can be created with a single lvcreate command, rather than using  lvconvert
       on  existing  LVs.   This  one  command  creates  a  thin data LV, a thin metadata LV, and
       combines the two into a thin pool LV.

       lvcreate --type thin-pool -L LargeSize -n ThinPoolLV VG

       Example
       # lvcreate --type thin-pool -L8M -n pool0 vg

       # lvs vg/pool0
         LV    VG  Attr       LSize Pool Origin Data%
         pool0 vg  twi-a-tz-- 8.00m               0.00

       # lvs -a
         pool0           vg          twi-a-tz--   8.00m
         [pool0_tdata]   vg          Twi-ao----   8.00m
         [pool0_tmeta]   vg          ewi-ao----   8.00m

   Single step thin pool LV and thin LV creation
       A thin pool LV and a thin LV can be created with a  single  lvcreate  command.   This  one
       command  creates a thin data LV, a thin metadata LV, combines the two into a thin pool LV,
       and creates a thin LV in the new pool.
       -L LargeSize specifies the physical size of the thin pool LV.
       -V VirtualSize specifies the virtual size of the thin LV.

       lvcreate --type thin -V VirtualSize -L LargeSize
              -n ThinLV --thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV

       Equivalent to:
       lvcreate --type thin-pool -L LargeSize VG/ThinPoolLV
       lvcreate -n ThinLV -V VirtualSize --thinpool VG/ThinPoolLV

       Example
       # lvcreate -L8M -V2G -n thin1 --thinpool vg/pool0

       # lvs -a
         pool0           vg          twi-a-tz--   8.00m
         [pool0_tdata]   vg          Twi-ao----   8.00m
         [pool0_tmeta]   vg          ewi-ao----   8.00m
         thin1           vg          Vwi-a-tz--   2.00g pool0

   Merge thin snapshots
       A thin snapshot can be merged into its origin thin LV using the lvconvert --merge command.
       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

       Example
       # lvs vg
         LV      VG Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin
         pool0   vg twi-a-tz--  10.00g
         thin1   vg Vwi-a-tz-- 100.00g pool0
         thin1s1 vg Vwi-a-tz-k 100.00g pool0 thin1

       # lvconvert --merge vg/thin1s1

       # lvs vg
         LV      VG Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin
         pool0   vg twi-a-tz--  10.00g
         thin1   vg Vwi-a-tz-- 100.00g pool0

       Example
       Delayed merging of open LVs.

       # lvs vg
         LV      VG Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin
         pool0   vg twi-a-tz--  10.00g
         thin1   vg Vwi-aotz-- 100.00g pool0
         thin1s1 vg Vwi-aotz-k 100.00g pool0 thin1

       # df
       /dev/mapper/vg-thin1            100G   33M  100G   1% /mnt/X
       /dev/mapper/vg-thin1s1          100G   33M  100G   1% /mnt/Xs

       # ls /mnt/X
       file1 file2 file3
       # ls /mnt/Xs
       file3 file4 file5

       # lvconvert --merge vg/thin1s1
       Logical volume vg/thin1s1 contains a filesystem in use.
       Delaying merge since snapshot is open.
       Merging of thin snapshot thin1s1 will occur on next activation.

       # umount /mnt/X
       # umount /mnt/Xs

       # lvs -a vg
         LV              VG   Attr       LSize   Pool  Origin
         pool0           vg   twi-a-tz--  10.00g
         [pool0_tdata]   vg   Twi-ao----  10.00g
         [pool0_tmeta]   vg   ewi-ao----   1.00g
         thin1           vg   Owi-a-tz-- 100.00g pool0
         [thin1s1]       vg   Swi-a-tz-k 100.00g pool0 thin1

       # lvchange -an vg/thin1
       # lvchange -ay vg/thin1

       # mount /dev/vg/thin1 /mnt/X

       # ls /mnt/X
       file3 file4 file5

   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

SEE ALSO

       lvm(8), lvm.conf(5), lvmconfig(8), lvcreate(8), lvconvert(8), lvchange(8), lvextend(8),
       lvremove(8), lvs(8),

       thin_dump(8), thin_repair(8), thin_restore(8)