EVMS consists of two main components: the Runtime, which resides in the kernel and handles discovery and I/O functions, and the Engine, which resides in userspace and handles setup and configuration. Packaged with the Engine are three user interfaces: a GTK-based GUI, a command line interpreter, and an ncurses-based interface.

EVMS borrows from existing Linux volume management technologies, combining them into a single easy-to-use package. Imagine being able partition your disk, create mirrors and raid devices, define volume groups and logical volumes, all from one integrated, user-friendly interface. With EVMS you can do all this and more.

EVMS provides immediate benefits to system administrators who wish to get a handle on their storage configurations, as well as to less technical users who have not memorized all of the various commands and config files. No more scanning through raidtab files or issuing multiple LVM commands just to find out how a system is configured. Just bring up the EVMS GUI and have all of this information at your fingertips. Not only can you see which disks or partitions make up which volumes, but you can also see whether these volumes are formatted or mounted.