Operation Manual
3
Advanced Disk Setup
Sophisticated system congurations require specic disk setups. All common partitioning
tasks can be done with YaST. To get persistent device naming with block devices, use
the block devices below /dev/disk/by-id or /dev/disk/by-uuid. Logical
Volume Management (LVM) is a disk partitioning scheme that is designed to be much
more exible than the physical partitioning used in standard setups. Its snapshot func-
tionality enables easy creation of data backups. Redundant Array of Independent Disks
(RAID) offers increased data integrity, performance, and fault tolerance. openSUSE
also supports multipath I/O (see the chapter about multipath I/O in Storage Administra-
tion Guide), and there is also the option to use iSCSI as a networked disk.
3.1 Using the YaST Partitioner
With the expert partitioner, shown in Figure 3.1, “The YaST Partitioner” (page 74),
manually modify the partitioning of one or several hard disks. Partitions can be added,
deleted, resized, and edited. Also access the soft RAID and LVM conguration from
this YaST module.
WARNING: Repartitioning the Running System
Although it is possible to repartition your system while it is running, the risk
of making a mistake that causes data loss is very high. Try to avoid repartitioning
your installed system and always do a complete backup of your data before
attempting to do so.
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