Solaris / Resizing LVM PVs (was: Debian experiences)

[Ben Scott]

[replying on-list to an off-list reply, with the author's permission]

On 11/3/06, Tom Buskey <tom at buskey.name> wrote:
> If you're going to be trying things, try one of the BSD systems.
> Solaris 10 (update 10 or OpenSolaris so you get ZFS)

  Hmmm.  I've used OpenBSD and FreeBSD before -- never set them up
myself, but spent time using them.  They certainly seemed solid
enough.  But I'm not overly interested in installing them right now.
The firewalling stuff has some attraction for me -- OpenBSD's pf is
supposed to be the best around -- but not quite enough.  Nothing
against the BSD's.  I have lots of respect for them.  But I've already
got a T-shirt like that.  ;-)

  Now, Solaris I haven't really used in just about forever, and the
new "free" Solaris sounds interesting.  Hmmm.  That has some appeal to
me.

  One problem.  When I set-up the disks on my current PC, I used Linux
LVM for everything except the Wintendo partition.  That lets me do
things like try out three different distros at once, without needing
to do much of anything to make room or reclaim it afterwards.  I have
to say, it's works really well.

  Except, of course, that I don't expect Solaris supports Linux LVM.

  Does anyone know if there is a way to non-destructively resize a
Linux LVM PV (Physical Volume)?

  While I imagine this is technically possible, I expect this isn't
something that exists.  That's why you have LVM in the first place, to
avoid the need to resize partitions.

  Here's my thinking:

  One of my disks consists of a single giant primary partition, which
is a Linux LVM PV.  I could easily free up a few dozen gigs for
Solaris to play in on that disk.  But I don't have enough spare disk
space to move everything off that disk.  I'd like to be able to just
reduce the size of the PV, and then reduce the size of the partition,
and let Solaris have the rest of the disk.

  (I think I might be able to make room in other ways, by moving
things back and forth between the two disks in my system in creative
ways, but it would be a hassle.)

  Comments?

-- Ben