# LVM share driver

The Shared File Systems service can be configured to use LVM share driver. LVM share driver relies solely on LVM running on the same host with manila-share service. It does not require any services not related to the Shared File Systems service to be present to work.

## Prerequisites

The following packages must be installed on the same host with manila-share service:

- NFS server

- Samba server >= 3.2.0

- LVM2 >= 2.02.66

Services must be up and running, ports used by the services must not be blocked. A node with manila-share service should be accessible to share service users.

LVM should be preconfigured. By default, LVM driver expects to find a volume group named `lvm-shares`. This volume group will be used by the driver for share provisioning. It should be managed by node administrator separately.

## Shared File Systems service driver configuration setting

To use the driver, one should set up a corresponding back end. A driver must be explicitly specified as well as export IP address. A minimal back-end specification that will enable LVM share driver is presented below:

    [LVM_sample_backend]
    driver_handles_share_servers = False
    share_driver = manila.share.drivers.lvm.LVMShareDriver
    lvm_share_export_ips = 1.2.3.4

In the example above, `lvm_share_export_ips` is the address to be used by clients for accessing shares. In the simplest case, it should be the same as host’s address. The option allows configuring more than one IP address as a comma separated string.

## Supported shared file systems and operations

The driver supports CIFS and NFS shares.

The following operations are supported:

- Create a share.

- Delete a share.

- Allow share access.

  Note the following limitations:

  - Only IP access type is supported for NFS.

- Deny share access.

- Create a snapshot.

- Delete a snapshot.

- Create a share from a snapshot.

- Extend a share.

## Known restrictions

- LVM driver should not be used on a host running Neutron agents, simultaneous usage might cause issues with share deletion (shares will not get deleted from volume groups).

## Driver options

The following table contains the configuration options specific to this driver.

Description of LVM share driver configuration options
Configuration option = Default value | Description
--- | ---
[DEFAULT] |
`lvm_share_export_ips` = `None` | (String) List of IPs to export shares belonging to the LVM storage driver.
`lvm_share_export_root` = `$state_path/mnt` | (String) Base folder where exported shares are located.
`lvm_share_helpers` = `CIFS=manila.share.drivers.helpers.CIFSHelperUserAccess, NFS=manila.share.drivers.helpers.NFSHelper` | (List) Specify list of share export helpers.
`lvm_share_mirrors` = `0` | (Integer) If set, create LVMs with multiple mirrors. Note that this requires lvm_mirrors + 2 PVs with available space.
`lvm_share_volume_group` = `lvm-shares` | (String) Name for the VG that will contain exported shares.

this page last updated: 2026-04-22 07:00:00

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