convert currently used disk and new disk to lvm

Question

Currently I have my home on an 1TB disk, which is an WD Green, thus not the most quick one. I have an 2TB WD Green disk I want to use as well, and in a LVM fashion (Have heard that striped LVM could increase the perfomance).

Sadly the current /home partition isn't an handled by lvm, but a plain partition. I wonder if there are some optimal ways to convert the whole system without having to resort to an third disk as temporary storage.

i.e. I want to do 1x1TB plain partition → 1TB+2TB LVM striped while retaining all data.

Answer 1

I would not play with it without backup.

You will need to make the 1TB disk into PV first. AFAIK there is no tool to make it (not talking about data safety.)

First: You will need to divide the 2TB drive to at least two partitions/LVs as you can not make striped volume from 1TB+2TB. So you will end up with at least 1TB free there which I would use as temporary space for conversion.

How to divide the big disk?

Any chance you will want to add another striped LV? Do you want 2TB home partition?

If you answered "No" to any of previous 2 questions, make the LV of desired size which will use 1/2 on each drive.

Steps:

1. Make the big drive (Disk2) into PV and VG
2. Make a temporary LV to hold data from Disk1
3. Make Disk1 into PV and add to VG
4. Add striped LV of desired size
5. Move the data from temp LV and remove it