1VGCREATE(8) System Manager's Manual VGCREATE(8)
2
6 vgcreate - Create a volume group
7
9 vgcreate position_args
10 [ option_args ]
11
13 vgcreate creates a new VG on block devices. If the devices were not
14 previously intialized as PVs with pvcreate(8), vgcreate will inititial‐
15 ize them, making them PVs. The pvcreate options for initializing
16 devices are also available with vgcreate.
17 When vgcreate uses an existing PV, that PV's existing values for meta‐
19 data size, PE start, etc, are used, even if different values are speci‐
20 fied in the vgcreate command. To change these values, first use pvre‐
21 move on the device.
22
25 vgcreate VG_new PV ...
26 [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
27 [ -c|--clustered y|n ]
28 [ -l|--maxlogicalvolumes Number ]
29 [ -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number ]
30 [ -M|--metadatatype lvm2 ]
31 [ -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT] ]
32 [ -f|--force ]
33 [ -Z|--zero y|n ]
34 [ --addtag Tag ]
35 [ --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
36 ]
37 [ --metadataprofile String ]
38 [ --labelsector Number ]
39 [ --metadatasize Size[m|UNIT] ]
40 [ --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2 ]
41 [ --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number ]
42 [ --reportformat basic|json ]
43 [ --dataalignment Size[k|UNIT] ]
44 [ --dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT] ]
45 [ --shared ]
46 [ --systemid String ]
47 [ --locktype sanlock|dlm|none ]
48 [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
49 Common options for lvm:
51 [ -d|--debug ]
52 [ -h|--help ]
53 [ -q|--quiet ]
54 [ -t|--test ]
55 [ -v|--verbose ]
56 [ -y|--yes ]
57 [ --commandprofile String ]
58 [ --config String ]
59 [ --driverloaded y|n ]
60 [ --lockopt String ]
61 [ --longhelp ]
62 [ --nolocking ]
63 [ --profile String ]
64 [ --version ]
65
67 --addtag Tag
68 Adds a tag to a PV, VG or LV. This option can be repeated to add
69 multiple tags at once. See lvm(8) for information about tags.
70 --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
72 Determines the allocation policy when a command needs to allo‐
73 cate Physical Extents (PEs) from the VG. Each VG and LV has an
74 allocation policy which can be changed with vgchange/lvchange,
75 or overriden on the command line. normal applies common sense
76 rules such as not placing parallel stripes on the same PV.
77 inherit applies the VG policy to an LV. contiguous requires new
78 PEs be placed adjacent to existing PEs. cling places new PEs on
79 the same PV as existing PEs in the same stripe of the LV. If
80 there are sufficient PEs for an allocation, but normal does not
81 use them, anywhere will use them even if it reduces performance,
82 e.g. by placing two stripes on the same PV. Optional positional
83 PV args on the command line can also be used to limit which PVs
84 the command will use for allocation. See lvm(8) for more infor‐
85 mation about allocation.
86 -A|--autobackup y|n
88 Specifies if metadata should be backed up automatically after a
89 change. Enabling this is strongly advised! See vgcfgbackup(8)
90 for more information.
91 -c|--clustered y|n
93 This option was specific to clvm and is now replaced by the
94 --shared option with lvmlockd(8).
95 --commandprofile String
97 The command profile to use for command configuration. See
98 lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.
99 --config String
101 Config settings for the command. These override lvm.conf set‐
102 tings. The String arg uses the same format as lvm.conf, or may
103 use section/field syntax. See lvm.conf(5) for more information
104 about config.
105 --dataalignment Size[k|UNIT]
107 Align the start of a PV data area with a multiple of this num‐
108 ber. To see the location of the first Physical Extent (PE) of
109 an existing PV, use pvs -o +pe_start. In addition, it may be
110 shifted by an alignment offset, see --dataalignmentoffset. Also
111 specify an appropriate PE size when creating a VG.
112 --dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT]
114 Shift the start of the PV data area by this additional offset.
115 -d|--debug ...
117 Set debug level. Repeat from 1 to 6 times to increase the detail
118 of messages sent to the log file and/or syslog (if configured).
119 --driverloaded y|n
121 If set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-mapper.
122 For testing and debugging.
123 -f|--force ...
125 Override various checks, confirmations and protections. Use
126 with extreme caution.
127 -h|--help
129 Display help text.
130 --labelsector Number
132 By default the PV is labelled with an LVM2 identifier in its
133 second sector (sector 1). This lets you use a different sector
134 near the start of the disk (between 0 and 3 inclusive - see
135 LABEL_SCAN_SECTORS in the source). Use with care.
136 --lockopt String
138 Used to pass options for special cases to lvmlockd. See lvm‐
139 lockd(8) for more information.
140 --locktype sanlock|dlm|none
142 Specify the VG lock type directly in place of using --shared.
143 See lvmlockd(8) for more information.
144 --longhelp
146 Display long help text.
147 -l|--maxlogicalvolumes Number
149 Sets the maximum number of LVs allowed in a VG.
150 -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number
152 Sets the maximum number of PVs that can belong to the VG. The
153 value 0 removes any limitation. For large numbers of PVs, also
154 see options --pvmetadatacopies, and --vgmetadatacopies for
155 improving performance.
156 --metadataprofile String
158 The metadata profile to use for command configuration. See
159 lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.
160 --metadatasize Size[m|UNIT]
162 The approximate amount of space used for each VG metadata area.
163 The size may be rounded.
164 -M|--metadatatype lvm2
166 Specifies the type of on-disk metadata to use. lvm2 (or just 2)
167 is the current, standard format. lvm1 (or just 1) is no longer
168 used.
169 --nolocking
171 Disable locking.
172 -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT]
174 Sets the physical extent size of PVs in the VG. The value must
175 be either a power of 2 of at least 1 sector (where the sector
176 size is the largest sector size of the PVs currently used in the
177 VG), or at least 128KiB. Once this value has been set, it is
178 difficult to change without recreating the VG, unless no extents
179 need moving.
180 --profile String
182 An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, depending on
183 the command.
184 --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2
186 The number of metadata areas to set aside on a PV for storing VG
187 metadata. When 2, one copy of the VG metadata is stored at the
188 front of the PV and a second copy is stored at the end. When 1,
189 one copy of the VG metadata is stored at the front of the PV.
190 When 0, no copies of the VG metadata are stored on the given PV.
191 This may be useful in VGs containing many PVs (this places limi‐
192 tations on the ability to use vgsplit later.)
193 -q|--quiet ...
195 Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and --ver‐
196 bose. Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with answer
197 'no'.
198 --reportformat basic|json
200 Overrides current output format for reports which is defined
201 globally by the report/output_format setting in lvm.conf. basic
202 is the original format with columns and rows. If there is more
203 than one report per command, each report is prefixed with the
204 report name for identification. json produces report output in
205 JSON format. See lvmreport(7) for more information.
206 --shared
208 Create a shared VG using lvmlockd if LVM is compiled with lockd
209 support. lvmlockd will select lock type sanlock or dlm depend‐
210 ing on which lock manager is running. This allows multiple hosts
211 to share a VG on shared devices. lvmlockd and a lock manager
212 must be configured and running. See lvmlockd(8) for more infor‐
213 mation about shared VGs.
214 --systemid String
216 Specifies the system ID that will be given to the new VG, over‐
217 riding the system ID of the host running the command. A VG is
218 normally created without this option, in which case the new VG
219 is given the system ID of the host creating it. Using this
220 option requires caution because the system ID of the new VG may
221 not match the system ID of the host running the command, leaving
222 the VG inaccessible to the host. See lvmsystemid(7) for more
223 information.
224 -t|--test
226 Run in test mode. Commands will not update metadata. This is
227 implemented by disabling all metadata writing but nevertheless
228 returning success to the calling function. This may lead to
229 unusual error messages in multi-stage operations if a tool
230 relies on reading back metadata it believes has changed but
231 hasn't.
232 -v|--verbose ...
234 Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase the
235 detail of messages sent to stdout and stderr.
236 --version
238 Display version information.
239 --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number
241 Number of copies of the VG metadata that are kept. VG metadata
242 is kept in VG metadata areas on PVs in the VG, i.e. reserved
243 space at the start and/or end of the PVs. Keeping a copy of the
244 VG metadata on every PV can reduce performance in VGs containing
245 a large number of PVs. When this number is set to a non-zero
246 value, LVM will automatically choose PVs on which to store meta‐
247 data, using the metadataignore flags on PVs to achieve the spec‐
248 ified number. The number can also be replaced with special
249 string values: unmanaged causes LVM to not automatically manage
250 the PV metadataignore flags. all causes LVM to first clear the
251 metadataignore flags on all PVs, and then to become unmanaged.
252 -y|--yes
254 Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always assume
255 the answer yes. Use with extreme caution. (For automatic no,
256 see -qq.)
257 -Z|--zero y|n
259 Controls if the first 4 sectors (2048 bytes) of the device are
260 wiped. The default is to wipe these sectors unless either or
261 both of --restorefile or --uuid are specified.
262
264 VG
265 Volume Group name. See lvm(8) for valid names.
266 PV
268 Physical Volume name, a device path under /dev. For commands
269 managing physical extents, a PV positional arg generally accepts
270 a suffix indicating a range (or multiple ranges) of physical
271 extents (PEs). When the first PE is omitted, it defaults to the
272 start of the device, and when the last PE is omitted it defaults
273 to end. Start and end range (inclusive): PV[:PE-PE]... Start
274 and length range (counting from 0): PV[:PE+PE]...
275 String
277 See the option description for information about the string con‐
278 tent.
279 Size[UNIT]
281 Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit. Input
282 units are always treated as base two values, regardless of capi‐
283 talization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024. The default
284 input unit is specified by letter, followed by |UNIT. UNIT rep‐
285 resents other possible input units: bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE. b|B is
286 bytes, s|S is sectors of 512 bytes, k|K is kilobytes, m|M is
287 megabytes, g|G is gigabytes, t|T is terabytes, p|P is petabytes,
288 e|E is exabytes. (This should not be confused with the output
289 control --units, where capital letters mean multiple of 1000.)
290
292 See lvm(8) for information about environment variables used by lvm.
293 For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a required VG
294 parameter.
295
297 Create a VG with two PVs, using the default physical extent size.
298 vgcreate myvg /dev/sdk1 /dev/sdl1
299
301 lvm(8) lvm.conf(5) lvmconfig(8)
302 pvchange(8) pvck(8) pvcreate(8) pvdisplay(8) pvmove(8) pvremove(8)
304 pvresize(8) pvs(8) pvscan(8)
305 vgcfgbackup(8) vgcfgrestore(8) vgchange(8) vgck(8) vgcreate(8) vgcon‐
307 vert(8) vgdisplay(8) vgexport(8) vgextend(8) vgimport(8) vgimport‐
308 clone(8) vgmerge(8) vgmknodes(8) vgreduce(8) vgremove(8) vgrename(8)
309 vgs(8) vgscan(8) vgsplit(8)
310 lvcreate(8) lvchange(8) lvconvert(8) lvdisplay(8) lvextend(8) lvre‐
312 duce(8) lvremove(8) lvrename(8) lvresize(8) lvs(8) lvscan(8)
313 lvm-fullreport(8) lvm-lvpoll(8) lvm2-activation-generator(8) blkdeacti‐
315 vate(8) lvmdump(8)
316 dmeventd(8) lvmpolld(8) lvmlockd(8) lvmlockctl(8) cmirrord(8) lvmd‐
318 busd(8)
319 lvmsystemid(7) lvmreport(7) lvmraid(7) lvmthin(7) lvmcache(7)
321Red Hat, Inc. LVM TOOLS 2.03.09(2) (2020-03-26) VGCREATE(8)