At Thu, 25 Jun 2015 11:03:18 -0400 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > > > On Wed, June 24, 2015 16:11, Chuck Campbell wrote: > > > > Is there an easy to follow "howto" for normal LVM administration > > tasks. I get tired of googling every-time I have to do something > > I don't remember how to do regarding LVM, so I usually just > > don't bother with it at all. > > > > I believe it has some benefit for my use cases, but I've been > > reticent to use it, since the last time I got LVM problems, I > > lost everything on the volume, and had to restore from backups > > anyway. I suspect I shot myself in the foot, but I > > still don't know for sure. > > > > At the risk of some ridicule I suggest that you look at installing > Webmin. It is a web based system administration tool that I find > invaluable. The two most common complaints I encounter when I discuss > its merits are 'security' and 'transparency'. > > The security issue is trivially dealt with. Install Webmin and > configure it to listen on 127.0.0.1 using its standard port TCP10000. > Install Firefox on the same host and then run firefox from an 'ssh -Y' > session using the --noremote option. If you are totally paranoid then > firewall TCP10000 as well, configure Webmin to use https only, and > then only start the webmin service when you are performing > maintenance. > > There are less draconian measures that are in my opinion equally > secure from a practical standpoint but I am sure that you can figure > those out on your own. > > The transparency issue is really unanswerable. There exists a school > of thought that if you are going to administer a Linux system (or OS > of the proponent's choice) then you should learn the command syntax of > every command that you are called upon to use. This is the > one-and-only path to enlightenment. Like upholding motherhood and > promoting the wholesomeness of apple-pie this sort of moralizing > really brooks no answer. You can guess my opinion on that line of > puritanism. HA! You only really need to learn *one* command: the man command. The man provides 'enlightenment' for all other commands: man vgdisplay man lvdisplay man lvcreate man lvextend man lvresize man lvreduce man lvremove man e2fsck man resize2fs These are the only LVM commands I use regularly (yes there a a pile more, but most are rarely used and a handful only used in startup/shutdown scripts or when rescuing) and I often end up use the man command to refresh my memory of the command options. > > As you have painfully discovered, infrequently used utilities and > commands are difficult to deal with. The process of learning, or > relearning, the correct arcana is particularly noisome given the > notorious inconsistency of syntaxes across different utilities and the > spotty coverage of up-to-date documentation. Google can be a > dangerous guide given the wide variation of practice across differing > flavours of *nix and the widespread aversion to providing dates on > writings. In consequence I consign transparency arguments and their > proponents to the religious fanatic file. Nothing personal but there > is no point in arguing belief systems. Right, expecting a *web search* to give *correct* command documentation is problematical. Using the local system man pages often works better, since the man pages installed with the installed utilities will cover the *installed* version and not the version that might be installed on a *different* distro, etc. > > If you want to get infrequently performed sysadmin tasks done reliably > and with a minimum of fuss use something like Webmin and get on with > the rest of your life. > > -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services heller at deepsoft.com -- Webhosting Services