1. 物理卷Physical volume (PV)：可以在上面建立卷组的媒介，可以是硬盘分区，也可以是硬盘本身或者回环文件（loopback file）。物理卷包括一个特殊的header，其余部分被切割为一块块物理区域（physical extents）。 Think of physical volumes as big building blocks which can be used to build your hard drive.
2. 卷组Volume group (VG)：将一组物理卷收集为一个管理单元。Group of physical volumes that are used as storage volume (as one disk). They contain logical volumes. Think of volume groups as hard drives.
3. 逻辑卷Logical volume (LV)：虚拟分区，由物理区域（physical extents）组成。A "virtual/logical partition" that resides in a volume group and is composed of physical extents. Think of logical volumes as normal partitions.
4. 物理区域Physical extent (PE)：硬盘可供指派给逻辑卷的最小单位（通常为4MB）。A small part of a disk (usually 4MB) that can be assigned to a logical Volume. Think of physical extents as parts of disks that can be allocated to any partition.