1VGCHANGE(8) System Manager's Manual VGCHANGE(8)
2
6 vgchange — Change volume group attributes
7
9 vgchange option_args position_args
10 [ option_args ]
11 [ position_args ]
12 -a|--activate y|n|ay
14 --activationmode partial|degraded|complete
15 --addtag Tag
16 --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
17 --autoactivation String
18 -A|--autobackup y|n
19 --commandprofile String
20 --config String
21 -d|--debug
22 --deltag Tag
23 --detachprofile
24 --devices PV
25 --devicesfile String
26 --driverloaded y|n
27 -f|--force
28 -h|--help
29 -K|--ignoreactivationskip
30 --ignorelockingfailure
31 --ignoremonitoring
32 --journal String
33 --lockopt String
34 --lockstart
35 --lockstop
36 --locktype sanlock|dlm|none
37 -l|--logicalvolume Number
38 --longhelp
39 -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number
40 --metadataprofile String
41 --monitor y|n
42 --nohints
43 --nolocking
44 --noudevsync
45 -P|--partial
46 -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT]
47 --poll y|n
48 --profile String
49 --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2
50 -q|--quiet
51 --readonly
52 --refresh
53 --reportformat basic|json|json_std
54 -x|--resizeable y|n
55 -S|--select String
56 --setautoactivation y|n
57 --sysinit
58 --systemid String
59 -t|--test
60 -u|--uuid
61 -v|--verbose
62 --version
63 --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number
64 -y|--yes
65
67 vgchange changes VG attributes, changes LV activation in the kernel,
68 and includes other utilities for VG maintenance.
69
71 Change a general VG attribute.
72 For options listed in parentheses, any one is
73 required, after which the others are optional.
74 vgchange
76 ( -l|--logicalvolume Number
77 -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number
78 -u|--uuid
79 -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT]
80 -x|--resizeable y|n
81 --addtag Tag
82 --deltag Tag
83 --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
84 --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2
85 --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number
86 --profile String
87 --detachprofile
88 --metadataprofile String
89 --setautoactivation y|n )
90 [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
91 [ -S|--select String ]
92 [ -f|--force ]
93 [ --poll y|n ]
94 [ --ignoremonitoring ]
95 [ --noudevsync ]
96 [ --reportformat basic|json|json_std ]
97 [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
98 [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]
99 —
101 Start or stop monitoring LVs from dmeventd.
103 vgchange --monitor y|n
105 [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
106 [ -S|--select String ]
107 [ -f|--force ]
108 [ --sysinit ]
109 [ --ignorelockingfailure ]
110 [ --poll y|n ]
111 [ --ignoremonitoring ]
112 [ --noudevsync ]
113 [ --reportformat basic|json|json_std ]
114 [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
115 [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]
116 —
118 Start or stop processing LV conversions.
120 vgchange --poll y|n
122 [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
123 [ -S|--select String ]
124 [ -f|--force ]
125 [ --ignorelockingfailure ]
126 [ --ignoremonitoring ]
127 [ --noudevsync ]
128 [ --reportformat basic|json|json_std ]
129 [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
130 [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]
131 —
133 Activate or deactivate LVs.
135 vgchange -a|--activate y|n|ay
137 [ -K|--ignoreactivationskip ]
138 [ -P|--partial ]
139 [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
140 [ -S|--select String ]
141 [ -f|--force ]
142 [ --activationmode partial|degraded|complete ]
143 [ --sysinit ]
144 [ --readonly ]
145 [ --ignorelockingfailure ]
146 [ --monitor y|n ]
147 [ --poll y|n ]
148 [ --autoactivation String ]
149 [ --ignoremonitoring ]
150 [ --noudevsync ]
151 [ --reportformat basic|json|json_std ]
152 [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
153 [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]
154 —
156 Reactivate LVs using the latest metadata.
158 vgchange --refresh
160 [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
161 [ -S|--select String ]
162 [ -f|--force ]
163 [ --sysinit ]
164 [ --ignorelockingfailure ]
165 [ --poll y|n ]
166 [ --ignoremonitoring ]
167 [ --noudevsync ]
168 [ --reportformat basic|json|json_std ]
169 [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
170 [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]
171 —
173 Change the system ID of a VG.
175 vgchange --systemid String VG|Tag|Select
177 [ -S|--select String ]
178 [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
179 —
181 Start the lockspace of a shared VG in lvmlockd.
183 vgchange --lockstart
185 [ -S|--select String ]
186 [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
187 [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]
188 —
190 Stop the lockspace of a shared VG in lvmlockd.
192 vgchange --lockstop
194 [ -S|--select String ]
195 [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
196 [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]
197 —
199 Change the lock type for a shared VG.
201 vgchange --locktype sanlock|dlm|none VG
203 [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
204 —
206 Common options for lvm:
208 [ -d|--debug ]
209 [ -h|--help ]
210 [ -q|--quiet ]
211 [ -t|--test ]
212 [ -v|--verbose ]
213 [ -y|--yes ]
214 [ --commandprofile String ]
215 [ --config String ]
216 [ --devices PV ]
217 [ --devicesfile String ]
218 [ --driverloaded y|n ]
219 [ --journal String ]
220 [ --lockopt String ]
221 [ --longhelp ]
222 [ --nohints ]
223 [ --nolocking ]
224 [ --profile String ]
225 [ --version ]
226
228 -a|--activate y|n|ay
229 Change the active state of LVs. An active LV can be used
230 through a block device, allowing data on the LV to be accessed.
231 y makes LVs active, or available. n makes LVs inactive, or un‐
232 available. The block device for the LV is added or removed from
233 the system using device-mapper in the kernel. A symbolic link
234 /dev/VGName/LVName pointing to the device node is also added/re‐
235 moved. All software and scripts should access the device
236 through the symbolic link and present this as the name of the
237 device. The location and name of the underlying device node may
238 depend on the distribution, configuration (e.g. udev), or re‐
239 lease version. ay specifies autoactivation, which is used by
240 system-generated activation commands. By default, LVs are au‐
241 toactivated. An autoactivation property can be set on a VG or
242 LV to disable autoactivation, see --setautoactivation y|n in
243 vgchange, lvchange, vgcreate, and lvcreate. Display the proper‐
244 ty with vgs or lvs "-o autoactivation". The lvm.conf(5) au‐
245 to_activation_volume_list includes names of VGs or LVs that
246 should be autoactivated, and anything not listed is not autoac‐
247 tivated. When auto_activation_volume_list is undefined (the de‐
248 fault), it has no effect. If auto_activation_volume_list is de‐
249 fined and empty, no LVs are autoactivated. Items included by
250 auto_activation_volume_list will not be autoactivated if the au‐
251 toactivation property has been disabled. See lvmlockd(8) for
252 more information about activation options ey and sy for shared
253 VGs.
254 --activationmode partial|degraded|complete
256 Determines if LV activation is allowed when PVs are missing,
257 e.g. because of a device failure. complete only allows LVs with
258 no missing PVs to be activated, and is the most restrictive
259 mode. degraded allows RAID LVs with missing PVs to be activat‐
260 ed. (This does not include the "mirror" type, see "raid1" in‐
261 stead.) partial allows any LV with missing PVs to be activated,
262 and should only be used for recovery or repair. For default,
263 see lvm.conf(5) activation_mode. See lvmraid(7) for more infor‐
264 mation.
265 --addtag Tag
267 Adds a tag to a PV, VG or LV. This option can be repeated to add
268 multiple tags at once. See lvm(8) for information about tags.
269 --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
271 Determines the allocation policy when a command needs to allo‐
272 cate Physical Extents (PEs) from the VG. Each VG and LV has an
273 allocation policy which can be changed with vgchange/lvchange,
274 or overridden on the command line. normal applies common sense
275 rules such as not placing parallel stripes on the same PV. in‐
276 herit applies the VG policy to an LV. contiguous requires new
277 PEs be placed adjacent to existing PEs. cling places new PEs on
278 the same PV as existing PEs in the same stripe of the LV. If
279 there are sufficient PEs for an allocation, but normal does not
280 use them, anywhere will use them even if it reduces performance,
281 e.g. by placing two stripes on the same PV. Optional positional
282 PV args on the command line can also be used to limit which PVs
283 the command will use for allocation. See lvm(8) for more infor‐
284 mation about allocation.
285 --autoactivation String
287 Specify if autoactivation is being used from an event. This al‐
288 lows the command to apply settings that are specific to event
289 activation, such as device scanning optimizations using pvs_on‐
290 line files created by event-based pvscans.
291 -A|--autobackup y|n
293 Specifies if metadata should be backed up automatically after a
294 change. Enabling this is strongly advised! See vgcfgbackup(8)
295 for more information.
296 --commandprofile String
298 The command profile to use for command configuration. See
299 lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.
300 --config String
302 Config settings for the command. These override lvm.conf(5) set‐
303 tings. The String arg uses the same format as lvm.conf(5), or
304 may use section/field syntax. See lvm.conf(5) for more informa‐
305 tion about config.
306 -d|--debug ...
308 Set debug level. Repeat from 1 to 6 times to increase the detail
309 of messages sent to the log file and/or syslog (if configured).
310 --deltag Tag
312 Deletes a tag from a PV, VG or LV. This option can be repeated
313 to delete multiple tags at once. See lvm(8) for information
314 about tags.
315 --detachprofile
317 Detaches a metadata profile from a VG or LV. See lvm.conf(5)
318 for more information about profiles.
319 --devices PV
321 Restricts the devices that are visible and accessible to the
322 command. Devices not listed will appear to be missing. This op‐
323 tion can be repeated, or accepts a comma separated list of de‐
324 vices. This overrides the devices file.
325 --devicesfile String
327 A file listing devices that LVM should use. The file must exist
328 in /etc/lvm/devices/ and is managed with the lvmdevices(8) com‐
329 mand. This overrides the lvm.conf(5) devices/devicesfile and
330 devices/use_devicesfile settings.
331 --driverloaded y|n
333 If set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-mapper.
334 For testing and debugging.
335 -f|--force ...
337 Override various checks, confirmations and protections. Use
338 with extreme caution.
339 -h|--help
341 Display help text.
342 -K|--ignoreactivationskip
344 Ignore the "activation skip" LV flag during activation to allow
345 LVs with the flag set to be activated.
346 --ignorelockingfailure
348 Allows a command to continue with read-only metadata operations
349 after locking failures.
350 --ignoremonitoring
352 Do not interact with dmeventd unless --monitor is specified. Do
353 not use this if dmeventd is already monitoring a device.
354 --journal String
356 Record information in the systemd journal. This information is
357 in addition to information enabled by the lvm.conf log/journal
358 setting. command: record information about the command. out‐
359 put: record the default command output. debug: record full com‐
360 mand debugging.
361 --lockopt String
363 Used to pass options for special cases to lvmlockd. See lvm‐
364 lockd(8) for more information.
365 --lockstart
367 Start the lockspace of a shared VG in lvmlockd. lvmlockd locks
368 becomes available for the VG, allowing LVM to use the VG. See
369 lvmlockd(8) for more information.
370 --lockstop
372 Stop the lockspace of a shared VG in lvmlockd. lvmlockd locks
373 become unavailable for the VG, preventing LVM from using the VG.
374 See lvmlockd(8) for more information.
375 --locktype sanlock|dlm|none
377 Change the VG lock type to or from a shared lock type used with
378 lvmlockd. See lvmlockd(8) for more information.
379 -l|--logicalvolume Number
381 Sets the maximum number of LVs allowed in a VG.
382 --longhelp
384 Display long help text.
385 -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number
387 Sets the maximum number of PVs that can belong to the VG. The
388 value 0 removes any limitation. For large numbers of PVs, also
389 see options --pvmetadatacopies, and --vgmetadatacopies for im‐
390 proving performance.
391 --metadataprofile String
393 The metadata profile to use for command configuration. See
394 lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.
395 --monitor y|n
397 Start (yes) or stop (no) monitoring an LV with dmeventd.
398 dmeventd monitors kernel events for an LV, and performs automat‐
399 ed maintenance for the LV in reponse to specific events. See
400 dmeventd(8) for more information.
401 --nohints
403 Do not use the hints file to locate devices for PVs. A command
404 may read more devices to find PVs when hints are not used. The
405 command will still perform standard hint file invalidation where
406 appropriate.
407 --nolocking
409 Disable locking. Use with caution, concurrent commands may pro‐
410 duce incorrect results.
411 --noudevsync
413 Disables udev synchronisation. The process will not wait for no‐
414 tification from udev. It will continue irrespective of any pos‐
415 sible udev processing in the background. Only use this if udev
416 is not running or has rules that ignore the devices LVM creates.
417 -P|--partial
419 Commands will do their best to activate LVs with missing PV ex‐
420 tents. Missing extents may be replaced with error or zero seg‐
421 ments according to the missing_stripe_filler setting. Metadata
422 may not be changed with this option.
423 -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT]
425 Sets the physical extent size of PVs in the VG. The value must
426 be either a power of 2 of at least 1 sector (where the sector
427 size is the largest sector size of the PVs currently used in the
428 VG), or at least 128 KiB. Once this value has been set, it is
429 difficult to change without recreating the VG, unless no extents
430 need moving. Before increasing the physical extent size, you
431 might need to use lvresize, pvresize and/or pvmove so that ev‐
432 erything fits. For example, every contiguous range of extents
433 used in a LV must start and end on an extent boundary.
434 --poll y|n
436 When yes, start the background transformation of an LV. An in‐
437 complete transformation, e.g. pvmove or lvconvert interrupted by
438 reboot or crash, can be restarted from the last checkpoint with
439 --poll y. When no, background transformation of an LV will not
440 occur, and the transformation will not complete. It may not be
441 appropriate to immediately poll an LV after activation, in which
442 case --poll n can be used to defer polling until a later --poll
443 y command.
444 --profile String
446 An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, depending on
447 the command.
448 --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2
450 The number of metadata areas to set aside on a PV for storing VG
451 metadata. When 2, one copy of the VG metadata is stored at the
452 front of the PV and a second copy is stored at the end. When 1,
453 one copy of the VG metadata is stored at the front of the PV.
454 When 0, no copies of the VG metadata are stored on the given PV.
455 This may be useful in VGs containing many PVs (this places limi‐
456 tations on the ability to use vgsplit later.)
457 -q|--quiet ...
459 Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and --ver‐
460 bose. Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with answer
461 'no'.
462 --readonly
464 Run the command in a special read-only mode which will read on-
465 disk metadata without needing to take any locks. This can be
466 used to peek inside metadata used by a virtual machine image
467 while the virtual machine is running. No attempt will be made to
468 communicate with the device-mapper kernel driver, so this option
469 is unable to report whether or not LVs are actually in use.
470 --refresh
472 If the LV is active, reload its metadata. This is not necessary
473 in normal operation, but may be useful if something has gone
474 wrong, or if some form of manual LV sharing is being used.
475 --reportformat basic|json|json_std
477 Overrides current output format for reports which is defined
478 globally by the report/output_format setting in lvm.conf(5).
479 basic is the original format with columns and rows. If there is
480 more than one report per command, each report is prefixed with
481 the report name for identification. json produces report output
482 in JSON format. json_std produces report output in JSON format
483 which is more compliant with JSON standard. See lvmreport(7)
484 for more information.
485 -x|--resizeable y|n
487 Enables or disables the addition or removal of PVs to/from a VG
488 (by vgextend/vgreduce).
489 -S|--select String
491 Select objects for processing and reporting based on specified
492 criteria. The criteria syntax is described by --select help and
493 lvmreport(7). For reporting commands, one row is displayed for
494 each object matching the criteria. See --options help for se‐
495 lectable object fields. Rows can be displayed with an addition‐
496 al "selected" field (-o selected) showing 1 if the row matches
497 the selection and 0 otherwise. For non-reporting commands which
498 process LVM entities, the selection is used to choose items to
499 process.
500 --setautoactivation y|n
502 Set the autoactivation property on a VG or LV. Display the
503 property with vgs or lvs "-o autoactivation". When the autoac‐
504 tivation property is disabled, the VG or LV will not be activat‐
505 ed by a command doing autoactivation (vgchange, lvchange, or
506 pvscan using -aay.) If autoactivation is disabled on a VG, no
507 LVs will be autoactivated in that VG, and the LV autoactivation
508 property has no effect. If autoactivation is enabled on a VG,
509 autoactivation can be disabled for individual LVs.
510 --sysinit
512 Indicates that vgchange/lvchange is being invoked from early
513 system initialisation scripts (e.g. rc.sysinit or an initrd),
514 before writable filesystems are available. As such, some func‐
515 tionality needs to be disabled and this option acts as a short‐
516 cut which selects an appropriate set of options. Currently, this
517 is equivalent to using --ignorelockingfailure, --ignoremonitor‐
518 ing, --poll n, and setting env var LVM_SUPPRESS_LOCKING_FAIL‐
519 URE_MESSAGES. vgchange/lvchange skip autoactivation, and defer
520 to pvscan autoactivation.
521 --systemid String
523 Changes the system ID of the VG. Using this option requires
524 caution because the VG may become foreign to the host running
525 the command, leaving the host unable to access it. See lvmsys‐
526 temid(7) for more information.
527 -t|--test
529 Run in test mode. Commands will not update metadata. This is
530 implemented by disabling all metadata writing but nevertheless
531 returning success to the calling function. This may lead to un‐
532 usual error messages in multi-stage operations if a tool relies
533 on reading back metadata it believes has changed but hasn't.
534 -u|--uuid
536 Generate new random UUID for specified VGs.
537 -v|--verbose ...
539 Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase the de‐
540 tail of messages sent to stdout and stderr.
541 --version
543 Display version information.
544 --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number
546 Number of copies of the VG metadata that are kept. VG metadata
547 is kept in VG metadata areas on PVs in the VG, i.e. reserved
548 space at the start and/or end of the PVs. Keeping a copy of the
549 VG metadata on every PV can reduce performance in VGs containing
550 a large number of PVs. When this number is set to a non-zero
551 value, LVM will automatically choose PVs on which to store meta‐
552 data, using the metadataignore flags on PVs to achieve the spec‐
553 ified number. The number can also be replaced with special
554 string values: unmanaged causes LVM to not automatically manage
555 the PV metadataignore flags. all causes LVM to first clear the
556 metadataignore flags on all PVs, and then to become unmanaged.
557 -y|--yes
559 Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always assume
560 the answer yes. Use with extreme caution. (For automatic no,
561 see -qq.)
562
564 VG Volume Group name. See lvm(8) for valid names.
565 Tag Tag name. See lvm(8) for information about tag names and using
567 tags in place of a VG, LV or PV.
568 Select Select indicates that a required positional parameter can be
570 omitted if the --select option is used. No arg appears in this
571 position.
572 String See the option description for information about the string con‐
574 tent.
575 Size[UNIT]
577 Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit. Input
578 units are always treated as base two values, regardless of capi‐
579 talization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024. The default
580 input unit is specified by letter, followed by |UNIT. UNIT rep‐
581 resents other possible input units: b|B is bytes, s|S is sectors
582 of 512 bytes, k|K is KiB, m|M is MiB, g|G is GiB, t|T is TiB,
583 p|P is PiB, e|E is EiB. (This should not be confused with the
584 output control --units, where capital letters mean multiple of
585 1000.)
586
588 See lvm(8) for information about environment variables used by lvm.
589 For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a required VG
590 parameter.
591
593 If vgchange recognizes COW snapshot LVs that were dropped because they
594 ran out of space, it displays a message informing the administrator
595 that the snapshots should be removed.
596
598 Activate all LVs in all VGs on all existing devices.
599 vgchange -a y
600 Change the maximum number of LVs for an inactive VG.
602 vgchange -l 128 vg00
603
605 lvm(8), lvm.conf(5), lvmconfig(8), lvmdevices(8),
606 pvchange(8), pvck(8), pvcreate(8), pvdisplay(8), pvmove(8),
608 pvremove(8), pvresize(8), pvs(8), pvscan(8),
609 vgcfgbackup(8), vgcfgrestore(8), vgchange(8), vgck(8), vgcreate(8),
611 vgconvert(8), vgdisplay(8), vgexport(8), vgextend(8), vgimport(8),
612 vgimportclone(8), vgimportdevices(8), vgmerge(8), vgmknodes(8),
613 vgreduce(8), vgremove(8), vgrename(8), vgs(8), vgscan(8), vgsplit(8),
614 lvcreate(8), lvchange(8), lvconvert(8), lvdisplay(8), lvextend(8),
616 lvreduce(8), lvremove(8), lvrename(8), lvresize(8), lvs(8), lvscan(8),
617 lvm-fullreport(8), lvm-lvpoll(8), blkdeactivate(8), lvmdump(8),
619 dmeventd(8), lvmpolld(8), lvmlockd(8), lvmlockctl(8), cmirrord(8),
621 lvmdbusd(8), fsadm(8),
622 lvmsystemid(7), lvmreport(7), lvmraid(7), lvmthin(7), lvmcache(7)
624Red Hat, Inc. LVM TOOLS 2.03.18(2)-git (2022-11-10) VGCHANGE(8)