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Several folks wrote in with news that IBM has announced via mailing list its intention to release a Logical Volume Management (LVM) architecture for Linux. Here is the LVM white paper referred to below. Neither the note below nor the IBM Web site seem to declare what sort of license it will be released under, but the expressed hope "that the release of this technology will lead to a world class logical volume management system for Linux" would fit logically with the GPL, wouldn't it? ;) (More)

An Anonymous Coward writes: "I found the following message posted to several Linux mailing lists:

************************* Begin Message **************

Hello! Since IBM has begun to publicly support Linux, many of our customers have started showing an interest in Linux. We have received many requests from our customers asking us to enhance certain areas of Linux (logical volume management in particular) in order to make Linux a more acceptable platform for their IT operations. Furthermore, we have been asked to provide a migration path from existing platforms (both IBM and non-IBM) to Linux. IBM has been moving to satisfy these requests by contributing developers and technology to the Linux Community. This is what drove IBM's decision to release JFS to the Linux Community, and it is driving the decision to release logical volume management technology to the Linux Community.

IBM is releasing one of its most advanced architectures for a Logical Volume Management System. This architecture is quite interesting as it completely integrates all disk and volume management into a single, highly extensible, easy to use entity. We hope that the release of this technology will lead to a world class logical volume management system for Linux, one which satisfies the requirements of our customers as well as those of the Linux Community.

The first of several white papers describing the LVMS architecture can be found at the IBM Linux Technology Center website:

link

Since we would like to have an honest, open discussion about this, I would suggest that all interested parties post their comments to the LVM mailing list (unless someone has a better suggestion!). All comments are welcome!

Thanks!

Ben Rafanello

IBM Linux Technology Center

PS - Information about the LVM mailing list can be found at:

link

***************** End Message *************************

Well, the message sounded interesting so I checked out their website. I found the specified white paper in the "Documents / White Papers" section. After giving it a quick read, I must say that this isn't like any other LVM I've ever heard of! The use of "plug-in modules" to control what devices the LVM sees, how it partitions those devices, and how it uses those partitions to create a volume is incredibly flexible. I also like the part about the LVM working with the filesystem on a volume so that a volume can be resized without any data loss (and without all of the manual steps that must currently be done on Linux). The paper discusses this LVM as an architecture, and it avoids discussing user interfaces and implementation issues. I wonder if this is some pie in the sky vision or if they have any code to back this up?"