New installer for Redhat and LVM control
Hi All,
Is it just me that has an issue with the new RHEL7 installer? I have a major issues with the LVM setup under the new installer. I cannot allocate the disks to their full potential and when I get into the OS the LVM tool has been removed and replaced with a terrible GUI tool. The old LVM manager was awesome and since I work primarily with virtual disk when we increase the size of often, it was great to be able to easily see what disk is attached where so that I could expand the correct disk. I am going to guess most people out there are command line users and this post is probably irrelevant, but I have to say that I am disappoint that redhat has taken away these tools and a lack of control over the installation disks with the new system.
Responses
Red Hat
Active Contributor
200 points
Hello,
You said that you're having major issues with LVM setup in the new installer, and that you also miss the old GUI tool for LVM setup on an installed system (not during installation) - I'm guessing the system-config-lvm application from RHEL 6, is that correct?
What's the issue during the installation? If the problem is that you have multiple local disks, but the installer only uses one, then you should make sure that you select all disks you want to use in the Installation Destination screen. Selected disks have a small "check mark" icon on them, it may be a bit hard to see if you don't know what you're looking for.
If you're certain you have selected all disks you want to use, then try going into the Manual Partitioning screen; here, click + at the bottom of the left pane and create a mount point as an LVM volume. This will also create physical volumes for each disk selected in Installation Destination, and a volume group containing all of these disks. Then, click the newly created volume (it'll appear in the list on the left), and you'll see the newly created Volume Group on the right side. Click Modify under the volgroup name, and in the new dialog window that opens, make sure that all disks are selected. Then, proceed with creating additional LVM volumes as needed by pressing + again; all newly created LVs will be automatically assigned to the default volume group, unless you create additional ones and assign some volumes to them.
That should cover you during the install. Now, when you add additional drives, or expand existing ones, you'll need to appropriately adjust the existing LVM setup. Unfortunately system-config-lvm isn't available in RHEL 7, but it's easy to do on a command line; this comment is already pretty long, but if this is what you need (you're adding or expanding disks after you finish installing), I can provide you with the steps you need to take. You're also welcome to take a look at the RHEL7 Logical Volume Manager Administration Guide.
Guru
6827 points
Hello,
If you have a means to do a kickstart, you can also bypass using the installation gui and define a kickstart for rhel 7.x and use one of the various methods of kickstarting. make sure no SAN attached storage or RAID arrays are installed, and verify you systems file sizes and have an idea of your system's hardware, disks in mind. If it is a dell server, you will likely have to present virtual disks after building them under the RAID bios controller. (Dell is not the only manufacturer where you may have to do this first).
You can use this Red Hat Lab kickstart generator to also include LVM (I've used it to make some sample kickstarts) to get started.
You can create a kickstart for your system without that lab using a Red Hat Satellite server if you happen to have one,
You can also install the rpm named "system-config-kickstart" (different versions for rhel 6 and 7) and create a kickstart that way as well.
I have however created on occasion a manual load with the RHEL 7.x installation disk on the few occasions where I had no means to do a kickstart due to compelling reasons.
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