23.5. Logical Volume Manager

LVM provides userspace tools that are used to manage the kernel's DM devices. LVM will shift the start of the data area (that a given DM device will use) to account for a non-zero alignment_offset associated with any device managed by LVM. This means logical volumes will be properly aligned (alignment_offset=0).

By default, LVM will adjust for any alignment_offset, but this behavior can be disabled by setting data_alignment_offset_detection to 0 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf. Disabling this is not recommended.

LVM will also detect the I/O hints for a device. The start of a device's data area will be a multiple of the minimum_io_size or optimal_io_size exposed in sysfs. LVM will use the minimum_io_size if optimal_io_size is undefined (i.e. 0).

By default, LVM will automatically determine these I/O hints, but this behavior can be disabled by setting data_alignment_detection to 0 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf. Disabling this is not recommended.