[CentOS] partitions vs. LVs [was: Re: How to upgrade from 5.8 to 6.2]

On 06/24/2012 12:42 PM Keith Roberts wrote:
> ....
>
> OK. But what about a drive that is already partitioned with
> live data on it. Is it easy to make that work with LVM, or
> does it mean I have to do a fresh installation to use LVM?

Keith,

AFAIK, you'd need to have spare disk space (which might mean, e.g., 
adding a disk, plugging in a thumb drive), temporarily copying the 
partition there, then creating the physical volume, volume group, and 
logical volume, then copying the data back into the LV.  To ensure data 
integrity, you'd most likely want to bring the system down to 
single-user mode when doing all of this.  If the partition you're 
working on is read-only, and given you do the unmounting and mounting at 
the right times, it would be possible to do this live.

hth,
ken