1. Log in to the Docker host you want to configure and stop the Docker daemon.

2. Install the LVM2 package.

   The LVM2 package includes the userspace toolset that provides logical volume management facilities on linux.

3. Create a physical volume replacing /dev/xvdf with your block device.

   $ pvcreate /dev/xvdf
   

4. Create a ‘docker’ volume group.

   $ vgcreate docker /dev/xvdf
   

5. Create a thin pool named thinpool.

   In this example, the data logical is 95% of the ‘docker’ volume group size. Leaving this free space allows for auto expanding of either the data or metadata if space runs low as a temporary stopgap.

   $ lvcreate --wipesignatures y -n thinpool docker -l 95%VG
   $ lvcreate --wipesignatures y -n thinpoolmeta docker -l 1%VG
   

6. Convert the pool to a thin pool.

   $ lvconvert -y --zero n -c 512K --thinpool docker/thinpool --poolmetadata docker/thinpoolmeta

7. Configure autoextension of thin pools via an lvm profile.

   $ vi /etc/lvm/profile/docker-thinpool.profile
   

8. Specify thin_pool_autoextend_threshold value.

   The value should be the percentage of space used before lvm attempts to autoextend the available space (100 = disabled).

   thin_pool_autoextend_threshold = 80

9. Modify the thin_pool_autoextend_percent for when thin pool autoextension occurs.

   The value’s setting is the percentage of space to increase the thin pool (100 = disabled)

   thin_pool_autoextend_percent = 20

10. Check your work, your docker-thinpool.profile file should appear similar to the following:

    An example /etc/lvm/profile/docker-thinpool.profile file:

    activation {
        thin_pool_autoextend_threshold=80
        thin_pool_autoextend_percent=20
    }
    

11. Apply your new lvm profile

    $ lvchange --metadataprofile docker-thinpool docker/thinpool

12. Verify the lv is monitored.

    $ lvs -o+seg_monitor
    

13. If the Docker daemon was previously started, move your existing graph driver directory out of the way.

    Moving the graph driver removes any images, containers, and volumes in your Docker installation. These commands move the contents of the /var/lib/docker directory to a new directory named /var/lib/docker.bk. If any of the following steps fail and you need to restore, you can remove /var/lib/docker and replace it with /var/lib/docker.bk.

    $ mkdir /var/lib/docker.bk
    $ mv /var/lib/docker/* /var/lib/docker.bk
    

14. Configure the Docker daemon with specific devicemapper options.

    Now that your storage is configured, configure the Docker daemon to use it. There are two ways to do this. You can set options on the command line if you start the daemon there:

    --storage-driver=devicemapper --storage-opt=dm.thinpooldev=/dev/mapper/docker-thinpool --storage-opt=dm.use_deferred_removal=true --storage-opt=dm.use_deferred_deletion=true

    You can also set them for startup in the daemon.json configuration, for example:

    {"storage-driver": "devicemapper","storage-opts": ["dm.thinpooldev=/dev/mapper/docker-thinpool","dm.use_deferred_removal=true","dm.use_deferred_deletion=true"]}

    Note: Always set both dm.use_deferred_removal=true and dm.use_deferred_deletion=true to prevent unintentionally leaking mount points.

15. If using systemd and modifying the daemon configuration via unit or drop-in file, reload systemd to scan for changes.

    $ systemctl daemon-reload

16. Start the Docker daemon.

    $ systemctl start docker
    

After you start the Docker daemon, ensure you monitor your thin pool and volume group free space. While the volume group will auto-extend, it can still fill up. To monitor logical volumes, use lvs without options or lvs -a to see tha data and metadata sizes. To monitor volume group free space, use the vgs command.