Extending vm-pool into /dev/sdb1 (LVM, thin provisioning & encryption)? Can I do this?

User Support
#1

I have 4.1 installed with the default options of full disk encryption (except boot) and LVM with thin provisioning installed on a 250gb SSD, I now have a 500gb second SSD which has two partitions /dev/sdb1 and sdb2 on it. I have been looking around the forum, the qubes webite and across lots of search engines, and I can’t find the correct way to do this…

I converted the empty 300gb /dev/sdb1 to a physical volume so it shows as lvm2, then I did vgextend qubes-dom0 /dev/sdb1 thinking that vm-pool was a huge cluster of lvs, and it said it was successful. It was at this point i realised I was in over my head, with multiple tabs open and none really giving me the answer as to what to do next (or if I should have done that at all)

What I am trying to do is have the the original qubes install boot up and decrypt both physical disks and be able to use both for AppVms.

Could anyone please tell me - is this a good idea (to extend the vm-pool) or should sdb1 be a seperate volume group, and in either case, what do I do to extend the cryptsetup through both physical drives? Any help greatly appreciated.

#2

It seems that you’re looking for this:

1 Like
#3

That is where I started.

“These steps assume you have already created a separate volume group and thin pool (not thin volume) for your HDD. See also this example if you would like to create an encrypted LVM pool”

I hadn’t created a seperate vg (i still haven’t as I’ve extended qubes-dom0 vg which i don’t know if i should have done or notl) , and the example didn’t seem to help me understand what to do here at all really.

#4

After getting no-where with extending original volume group, thin-provisioning, encryption etc, I undid the changes i have made and did end up going back to that Secondary storage document!! Using the example at the bottom of the page and with a good few hours, and some trial and error, I now have the first partition of the second drive fully encrypted, being decrypted at boot time with the first drive using the same password, on a seperate volume group, with thin provisioning in and a new vm-pool in that. Cheers!