Linux mount an LVM volume / partition command nixCraft

I have some data on second SATA hard disk created by Fedora Linux installer with some data. How do I mount an LVM volume/partition in Linux to access my data? Can you tell me the command to mount LVM partition in Linux?

Introduction: LVM is an acronym for Logical Volume Manager. LVM is a device mapper that provides logical volume management for the Linux kernel. You can access LVM partitions from an external USB hard disk or second hard disk installed in your system. This page shows how to mount an LVM partition or volume on Linux using the CLI.

Linux mount an LVM volume

If lvm2 not installed on your system, install it as per your Linux distro.

Fedora Linux install lvm

Use the dnf command:
$ sudo dnf install lvm2

CentOS/RHEL/Oracle Linux install lvm

Type the yum command:
$ sudo yum install lvm2

Debian/Ubuntu Linux install lvm

Try apt command or apt-get command:
$ sudo apt install lvm2

How to mount LVM partition in Linux

The procedure to mount LVM partition in Linux as follows:

1. Run vgscan command scans all supported LVM block devices in the system for VGs
2. Execute vgchange command to activate volume
3. Type lvs command to get information about logical volumes
4. Create a mount point using the mkdir command
5. Mount an LVM volume using sudo mount /dev/mapper/DEVICE /path/to/mount

Let us see all steps in details to mount LVM volume on Ubuntu Linux.

How to mount an LVM volume

Type the following command to find info about LVM devices:
$ sudo vgscan
OR
$ sudo vgscan --mknodes

Above output indicates that I have “fedora_localhost-live” LVM group. To activate it run:
$ sudo vgchange -ay
OR
$ sudo vgchange -ay fedora_localhost-live

You can run the following command to list it:
$ sudo lvdisplay
OR
$ sudo lvs

You can get good look at using the ls command:
$ ls -l /dev/fedora_localhost-live/
Sample outputs:

total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Aug 17 15:47 home -> ../dm-1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Aug 17 15:47 root -> ../dm-2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Aug 17 15:47 swap -> ../dm-0

Mount an LVM partition

Create a mount point using the mkdir command:
$ sudo mkdir -vp /mnt/fedora/{root,home}
Sample outputs:

mkdir: created directory '/mnt/fedora/root'
mkdir: created directory '/mnt/fedora/home'

Mount both home and root logical volume from LV path using the following syntax:
$ sudo mount {LV_PATH} /path/to/mount/point/
$ sudo mount /dev/fedora_localhost-live/home /mnt/fedora/home
$ sudo mount /dev/fedora_localhost-live/root /mnt/fedora/root
Verify it with the help of df command or grep command:
$ df -T
$ df -T | grep -i fedora
$ ls /mnt/fedora/root
$ ls /mnt/fedora/home

Update /etc/fstab

Update /etc/fstab file if you want a logical volume to be mounted automatically on boot:
/dev/mapper/fedora_localhost--live-root /mnt/fedora/root ext4 defaults 0 0
/dev/mapper/fedora_localhost--live-home /mnt/fedora/home ext4 defaults 0 0

Conclusion

You just learned various steps to access an LVM from Linux based system. For more info see this page here and here.