vgcreate(8) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | USAGE | OPTIONS | VARIABLES | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

VGCREATE(8)              System Manager's Manual             VGCREATE(8)

NAME         top

       vgcreate — Create a volume group

SYNOPSIS         top

       vgcreate position_args
           [ option_args ]

DESCRIPTION         top

       vgcreate creates a new VG on block devices. If the devices were
       not previously initialized as PVs with pvcreate(8), vgcreate will
       inititialize them, making them PVs. The pvcreate options for
       initializing devices are also available with vgcreate.

       When vgcreate uses an existing PV, that PV's existing values for
       metadata size, PE start, etc, are used, even if different values
       are specified in the vgcreate command.  To change these values,
       first use pvremove on the device.

USAGE         top

       vgcreate VG_new PV ...
           [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
           [ -c|--clustered y|n ]
           [ -l|--maxlogicalvolumes Number ]
           [ -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number ]
           [ -M|--metadatatype lvm2 ]
           [ -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT] ]
           [ -f|--force ]
           [ -Z|--zero y|n ]
           [    --addtag Tag ]
           [    --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|
           inherit ]
           [    --metadataprofile String ]
           [    --labelsector Number ]
           [    --metadatasize Size[m|UNIT] ]
           [    --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2 ]
           [    --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number ]
           [    --reportformat basic|json ]
           [    --dataalignment Size[k|UNIT] ]
           [    --dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT] ]
           [    --shared ]
           [    --systemid String ]
           [    --locktype sanlock|dlm|none ]
           [    --setautoactivation y|n ]
           [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]

       Common options for lvm:
           [ -d|--debug ]
           [ -h|--help ]
           [ -q|--quiet ]
           [ -t|--test ]
           [ -v|--verbose ]
           [ -y|--yes ]
           [    --commandprofile String ]
           [    --config String ]
           [    --devices PV ]
           [    --devicesfile String ]
           [    --driverloaded y|n ]
           [    --journal String ]
           [    --lockopt String ]
           [    --longhelp ]
           [    --nohints ]
           [    --nolocking ]
           [    --profile String ]
           [    --version ]

OPTIONS         top


       --addtag Tag
              Adds  a tag to a PV, VG or LV. This option can be repeated
              to add multiple tags at once. See lvm(8)  for  information
              about tags.

       --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
              Determines  the  allocation policy when a command needs to
              allocate Physical Extents (PEs) from the VG. Each  VG  and
              LV  has  an  allocation  policy  which can be changed with
              vgchange/lvchange, or  overridden  on  the  command  line.
              normal applies common sense rules such as not placing par‐
              allel stripes on the same PV.  inherit applies the VG pol‐
              icy to an LV.  contiguous requires new PEs be placed adja‐
              cent to existing PEs.  cling places new PEs on the same PV
              as  existing  PEs  in the same stripe of the LV.  If there
              are sufficient PEs for an allocation, but normal does  not
              use  them,  anywhere will use them even if it reduces per‐
              formance, e.g. by placing two stripes on the same PV.  Op‐
              tional positional PV args on the command line can also  be
              used  to  limit which PVs the command will use for alloca‐
              tion.  See lvm(8) for more information about allocation.

       -A|--autobackup y|n
              Specifies if metadata should be  backed  up  automatically
              after  a  change.   Enabling this is strongly advised! See
              vgcfgbackup(8) for more information.

       -c|--clustered y|n
              This option was specific to clvm and is  now  replaced  by
              the --shared option with lvmlockd(8).

       --commandprofile String
              The command profile to use for command configuration.  See
              lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.

       --config String
              Config   settings   for   the   command.   These  override
              lvm.conf(5) settings.  The String arg uses the same format
              as lvm.conf(5), or  may  use  section/field  syntax.   See
              lvm.conf(5) for more information about config.

       --dataalignment Size[k|UNIT]
              Align  the start of a PV data area with a multiple of this
              number.  To see the location of the first Physical  Extent
              (PE) of an existing PV, use pvs -o +pe_start. In addition,
              it may be shifted by an alignment offset, see --dataalign‐
              mentoffset.  Also specify an appropriate PE size when cre‐
              ating a VG.

       --dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT]
              Shift  the  start  of  the PV data area by this additional
              offset.

       -d|--debug ...
              Set debug level. Repeat from 1 to 6 times to increase  the
              detail  of messages sent to the log file and/or syslog (if
              configured).

       --devices PV
              Devices that the command can use. This option can  be  re‐
              peated  or accepts a comma separated list of devices. This
              overrides the devices file.

       --devicesfile String
              A file listing devices that LVM should use.  The file must
              exist  in  /etc/lvm/devices/  and  is  managed  with   the
              lvmdevices(8) command.  This overrides the lvm.conf(5) de‐
              vices/devicesfile and devices/use_devicesfile settings.

       --driverloaded y|n
              If  set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-
              mapper.  For testing and debugging.

       -f|--force ...
              Override various checks,  confirmations  and  protections.
              Use with extreme caution.

       -h|--help
              Display help text.

       --journal String
              Record  information in the systemd journal.  This informa‐
              tion is in addition to information enabled by the lvm.conf
              log/journal setting.  command:  record  information  about
              the  command.   output: record the default command output.
              debug: record full command debugging.

       --labelsector Number
              By default the PV is labelled with an LVM2  identifier  in
              its  second sector (sector 1). This lets you use a differ‐
              ent sector near the start of the disk (between 0 and 3 in‐
              clusive - see LABEL_SCAN_SECTORS in the source). Use  with
              care.

       --lockopt String
              Used  to  pass options for special cases to lvmlockd.  See
              lvmlockd(8) for more information.

       --locktype sanlock|dlm|none
              Specify the VG  lock  type  directly  in  place  of  using
              --shared.  See lvmlockd(8) for more information.

       --longhelp
              Display long help text.

       -l|--maxlogicalvolumes Number
              Sets the maximum number of LVs allowed in a VG.

       -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number
              Sets  the maximum number of PVs that can belong to the VG.
              The value 0 removes any limitation.  For large numbers  of
              PVs, also see options --pvmetadatacopies, and --vgmetadat‐
              acopies for improving performance.

       --metadataprofile String
              The  metadata  profile  to  use for command configuration.
              See lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.

       --metadatasize Size[m|UNIT]
              The approximate amount of space used for each VG  metadata
              area.  The size may be rounded.

       -M|--metadatatype lvm2
              Specifies  the  type of on-disk metadata to use.  lvm2 (or
              just 2) is the current, standard format.  lvm1 (or just 1)
              is no longer used.

       --nohints
              Do not use the hints file to locate  devices  for  PVs.  A
              command  may  read more devices to find PVs when hints are
              not used. The command will  still  perform  standard  hint
              file invalidation where appropriate.

       --nolocking
              Disable locking.

       -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT]
              Sets the physical extent size of PVs in the VG.  The value
              must  be  either  a power of 2 of at least 1 sector (where
              the sector size is the largest sector size of the PVs cur‐
              rently used in the VG), or at  least  128KiB.   Once  this
              value  has  been  set,  it  is difficult to change without
              recreating the VG, unless no extents need moving.

       --profile String
              An alias for --commandprofile  or  --metadataprofile,  de‐
              pending on the command.

       --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2
              The  number  of  metadata  areas  to set aside on a PV for
              storing VG metadata.  When 2, one copy of the VG  metadata
              is  stored  at  the  front  of the PV and a second copy is
              stored at the end.  When 1, one copy of the VG metadata is
              stored at the front of the PV.  When 0, no copies  of  the
              VG  metadata are stored on the given PV.  This may be use‐
              ful in VGs containing many PVs (this places limitations on
              the ability to use vgsplit later.)

       -q|--quiet ...
              Suppress output and log messages.  Overrides  --debug  and
              --verbose.   Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with
              answer 'no'.

       --reportformat basic|json
              Overrides current output format for reports which  is  de‐
              fined  globally  by  the  report/output_format  setting in
              lvm.conf(5).  basic is the original  format  with  columns
              and  rows.   If there is more than one report per command,
              each report is prefixed with the report name for identifi‐
              cation. json produces report output in  JSON  format.  See
              lvmreport(7) for more information.

       --setautoactivation y|n
              Set  the  autoactivation  property on a VG or LV.  Display
              the property with vgs or lvs  "-o  autoactivation".   When
              the autoactivation property is disabled, the VG or LV will
              not   be  activated  by  a  command  doing  autoactivation
              (vgchange, lvchange, or pvscan using -aay.)  If  autoacti‐
              vation  is  disabled on a VG, no LVs will be autoactivated
              in that VG, and the LV autoactivation property has no  ef‐
              fect.   If  autoactivation is enabled on a VG, autoactiva‐
              tion can be disabled for individual LVs.

       --shared
              Create a shared VG using lvmlockd if LVM is compiled  with
              lockd  support.  lvmlockd will select lock type sanlock or
              dlm depending on which lock manager is running.  This  al‐
              lows  multiple hosts to share a VG on shared devices. lvm‐
              lockd and a lock manager must be configured  and  running.
              See lvmlockd(8) for more information about shared VGs.

       --systemid String
              Specifies  the system ID that will be given to the new VG,
              overriding the system ID of the host running the  command.
              A  VG  is  normally  created without this option, in which
              case the new VG is given the system ID of the host  creat‐
              ing  it.  Using  this  option requires caution because the
              system ID of the new VG may not match the system ID of the
              host running the command, leaving the VG  inaccessible  to
              the host.  See lvmsystemid(7) for more information.

       -t|--test
              Run in test mode. Commands will not update metadata.  This
              is  implemented by disabling all metadata writing but nev‐
              ertheless returning success to the calling function.  This
              may  lead  to unusual error messages in multi-stage opera‐
              tions if a tool relies on reading  back  metadata  it  be‐
              lieves has changed but hasn't.

       -v|--verbose ...
              Set  verbose  level.  Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase
              the detail of messages sent to stdout and stderr.

       --version
              Display version information.

       --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number
              Number of copies of the VG metadata  that  are  kept.   VG
              metadata  is  kept  in VG metadata areas on PVs in the VG,
              i.e. reserved space at the start and/or end  of  the  PVs.
              Keeping  a  copy of the VG metadata on every PV can reduce
              performance in VGs containing a large number of PVs.  When
              this number is set to a non-zero value, LVM will automati‐
              cally choose PVs on which to  store  metadata,  using  the
              metadataignore  flags on PVs to achieve the specified num‐
              ber.  The number can also be replaced with special  string
              values:  unmanaged  causes LVM to not automatically manage
              the PV metadataignore flags.   all  causes  LVM  to  first
              clear the metadataignore flags on all PVs, and then to be‐
              come unmanaged.

       -y|--yes
              Do  not  prompt  for confirmation interactively but always
              assume the answer yes. Use with extreme caution.  (For au‐
              tomatic no, see -qq.)

       -Z|--zero y|n
              Controls if the first 4 sectors (2048 bytes) of the device
              are wiped.  The default is to wipe  these  sectors  unless
              either or both of --restorefile or --uuid are specified.

VARIABLES         top

       VG     Volume Group name.  See lvm(8) for valid names.

       PV     Physical Volume name, a device path under /dev.  For com‐
              mands managing physical extents, a PV positional arg gen‐
              erally accepts a suffix indicating a range (or multiple
              ranges) of physical extents (PEs). When the first PE is
              omitted, it defaults to the start of the device, and when
              the last PE is omitted it defaults to end.  Start and end
              range (inclusive): PV[:PE-PE]...  Start and length range
              (counting from 0): PV[:PE+PE]...

       String See the option description for information about the
              string content.

       Size[UNIT]
              Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit.
              Input units are always treated as base two values, regard‐
              less of capitalization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to
              1024.  The default input unit is specified by letter, fol‐
              lowed by |UNIT.  UNIT represents other possible input
              units: b|B is bytes, s|S is sectors of 512 bytes, k|K is
              KiB, m|M is MiB, g|G is GiB, t|T is TiB, p|P is PiB, e|E
              is EiB.  (This should not be confused with the output con‐
              trol --units, where capital letters mean multiple of
              1000.)

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

       See lvm(8) for information about environment variables used by
       lvm.  For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a
       required VG parameter.

EXAMPLES         top

       Create a VG with two PVs, using the default physical extent size.
       vgcreate myvg /dev/sdk1 /dev/sdl1

SEE ALSO         top

       lvm(8), lvm.conf(5), lvmconfig(8), lvmdevices(8),

       pvchange(8), pvck(8), pvcreate(8), pvdisplay(8), pvmove(8),
       pvremove(8), pvresize(8), pvs(8), pvscan(8),

       vgcfgbackup(8), vgcfgrestore(8), vgchange(8), vgck(8),
       vgcreate(8), vgconvert(8), vgdisplay(8), vgexport(8),
       vgextend(8), vgimport(8), vgimportclone(8), vgimportdevices(8),
       vgmerge(8), vgmknodes(8), vgreduce(8), vgremove(8), vgrename(8),
       vgs(8), vgscan(8), vgsplit(8),

       lvcreate(8), lvchange(8), lvconvert(8), lvdisplay(8),
       lvextend(8), lvreduce(8), lvremove(8), lvrename(8), lvresize(8),
       lvs(8), lvscan(8),

       lvm-fullreport(8), lvm-lvpoll(8), blkdeactivate(8), lvmdump(8),

       dmeventd(8), lvmpolld(8), lvmlockd(8), lvmlockctl(8),
       cmirrord(8), lvmdbusd(8), fsadm(8),

       lvmsystemid(7), lvmreport(7), lvmcache(7), lvmraid(7),
       lvmthin(7), lvmvdo(7), lvmautoactivation(7)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the lvm2 (Logical Volume Manager 2) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.sourceware.org/lvm2/⟩.  If you have a bug report for
       this manual page, see ⟨https://github.com/lvmteam/lvm2/issues⟩.
       This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨git://sourceware.org/git/lvm2.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2024-06-11.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

Red Hat, Inc.     LVM TOOLS 2.03.25(2)-git (2024-05-16)      VGCREATE(8)

Pages that refer to this page: lvmsystemid(7)lvchange(8)lvconvert(8)lvcreate(8)lvdisplay(8)lvextend(8)lvm(8)lvmconfig(8)lvmdevices(8)lvmdiskscan(8)lvm-fullreport(8)lvm-lvpoll(8)lvreduce(8)lvremove(8)lvrename(8)lvresize(8)lvs(8)lvscan(8)pvchange(8)pvck(8)pvcreate(8)pvdisplay(8)pvmove(8)pvremove(8)pvresize(8)pvs(8)pvscan(8)vgcfgbackup(8)vgcfgrestore(8)vgchange(8)vgck(8)vgconvert(8)vgcreate(8)vgdisplay(8)vgexport(8)vgextend(8)vgimport(8)vgimportclone(8)vgimportdevices(8)vgmerge(8)vgmknodes(8)vgreduce(8)vgremove(8)vgrename(8)vgs(8)vgscan(8)vgsplit(8)