Sometimes, to delete a physical volume, we may have to find out first if any LVs are residing in it. The post describes few of the most commonly used methods to determine the LVs that are part of a particular PV.
Using lsblk command
lsblk command gives a nice tree layout representation of disks/partitions and volumes residing on them.
# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
sda 8:0 0 250G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 500M 0 part /boot
├─sda2 8:2 0 187G 0 part
│ └─vg_os-lv_os (dm-0) 253:0 0 187G 0 lvm /
└─sda3 8:3 0 62.5G 0 part [SWAP]
Using lvs command
Another easy to use command is lvs. lvs with “-o +devices” arguments, we can find out the LV, VG and corresponding device used.
# lvs -a -o +devices LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta% Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert Devices lv_os vg_os -wi-ao---- 187.01g /dev/sda2(0)
Using pvdisplay command
Another handy command is pvdisplay with -m option. With the -m option we can display the logical volume(s) on the PV.
# pvs PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree /dev/sda2 vg_os lvm2 a--u 187.01g 0
# pvdisplay /dev/sda2 -m
--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sda2
VG Name vg_os
PV Size 187.01 GiB / not usable 3.00 MiB
Allocatable yes (but full)
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 47874
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 47874
PV UUID I57oVs-dxyE-ofLR-AuTO-WdqU-F8lU-2fD7wS
--- Physical Segments ---
Physical extent 0 to 47873:
Logical volume /dev/vg_os/lv_os
Logical extents 0 to 47873
Using vgdisplay command
Here we will have all physical devices used per Volume Group, not per Logical Volume. So first we have the VG info, below we will find all LVs which corresponds to its VG, and after we will see all PVs attached in our VG.
# vgdisplay -v
Using volume group(s) on command line.
--- Volume group ---
VG Name vg_os
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 1
Metadata Sequence No 2
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 187.01 GiB
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 47874
Alloc PE / Size 47874 / 187.01 GiB
Free PE / Size 0 / 0
VG UUID R6fvJR-Ev2s-VAFZ-Vdg0-2IhR-cY42-Bunqnx
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/vg_os/lv_os
LV Name lv_os
VG Name vg_os
LV UUID Ifl0gt-DYCP-JVMW-yUJh-K79e-hh1t-D63Djv
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time VOM-VCS-MONITOR, 2014-08-15 21:58:01 +0530
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 187.01 GiB
Current LE 47874
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 253:0
--- Physical volumes ---
PV Name /dev/sda2
PV UUID I57oVs-dxyE-ofLR-AuTO-WdqU-F8lU-2fD7wS
PV Status allocatable
Total PE / Free PE 47874 / 0
Using lvdisplay command
With the –maps argument, lvdisplay command will list out all the logical volumes in the system along with their physical volumes.
# lvdisplay --maps --- Logical volume --- LV Path /dev/vg_os/lv_os LV Name lv_os VG Name vg_os LV UUID Ifl0gt-DYCP-JVMW-yUJh-K79e-hh1t-D63Djv LV Write Access read/write LV Creation host, time VOM-VCS-MONITOR, 2014-08-15 21:58:01 +0530 LV Status available # open 1 LV Size 187.01 GiB Current LE 47874 Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto - currently set to 256 Block device 253:0 --- Segments --- Logical extents 0 to 47873: Type linear Physical volume /dev/sda2 Physical extents 0 to 47873