Lvm
 

I am adding a second drive to my system (SuSE 9.2 = kernel 2.6.xyz), and I am tempted to enable LVM for seamless integration of the two drives. Is this a good idea?

I am worried about the robustness of the resulting system. For instance, what would happen if one of the drives would die? Does LVM ensure a single file always sits on a single drive in its entirely, or will it scatter files around (and, in the event of a single drive death, leave partial and broken stuff behind)?

Any advise, recommendations, warnings, alternatives, .... ?

I only use LVM in cases I need one large data partition. If I don't need such things, I usually tend to break them up into separate partitions. Another good reason to use LVM is when you have users on your system(s). You can create a partition at a particular size for the users and expand it if and when its necessary.