Configure Storage Devices

The following sections are meant to describe the steps necessary to install and configure Storage Devices.

Add a new hard drive -- This section will cover the steps necessary to take a new hard drive and prepare it for use in an already-in-use Linux system. It refers back to several of the other topics on this page.

Partition a hard drive -- During most install processes, partitioning is handled somewhat automatically using tools that are often specific to a particular distribution. This section details how to do it manually from the command line using tools that will exist in almost any Linux distribution.

Create a file system ("format" a partition) -- This section will describe how to create a file system on a partition. For Windows users, this step is equivalent to "formatting a drive".

Use software RAID -- RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) allows two or more storage devices to be treated as a single logical device to provide increased performance, increased redundancy, or both. This section describes how to configure Linux software RAID.

Use LVM -- Normal partitions are of a fixed size and cannot be "grown". When a partition is filled, it can be cumbersome to migrate the data to a larger partition. LVM (Logical Volume Management) allows space to be added to "logical volumes" (equivalent to partitions) on the fly. This section will describe how to configure LVM.

Linux Filesystems -- List and explanations