VGCREATE(8)VGCREATE(8)NAMEvgcreate - Create a volume group
SYNOPSISvgcreate position_args
[ option_args ]
DESCRIPTIONvgcreate creates a new VG on block devices. If the devices were not
previously intialized as PVs with pvcreate(8), vgcreate will inititial‐
ize them, making them PVs. The pvcreate options for initializing
devices are also available with vgcreate.
USAGEvgcreate VG_new PV ...
[ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
[ -c|--clustered y|n ]
[ -l|--maxlogicalvolumes Number ]
[ -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number ]
[ -M|--metadatatype lvm2|lvm1 ]
[ -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 ]
[ --lockopt String ]
[ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
Common options for lvm:
[ -d|--debug ]
[ -h|--help ]
[ -q|--quiet ]
[ -t|--test ]
[ -v|--verbose ]
[ -y|--yes ]
[ --commandprofile String ]
[ --config String ]
[ --driverloaded y|n ]
[ --longhelp ]
[ --profile String ]
[ --version ]
OPTIONS--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 allo‐
cate Physical Extents (PEs) from the VG. Each VG and LV has an
allocation policy which can be changed with vgchange/lvchange,
or overriden on the command line. normal applies common sense
rules such as not placing parallel stripes on the same PV.
inherit applies the VG policy to an LV. contiguous requires new
PEs be placed adjacent 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 performance,
e.g. by placing two stripes on the same PV. Optional positional
PV args on the command line can also be used to limit which PVs
the command will use for allocation. See lvm(8) for more infor‐
mation 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
Create a clustered VG using clvmd if LVM is compiled with clus‐
ter support. This allows multiple hosts to share a VG on shared
devices. clvmd and a lock manager must be configured and run‐
ning. (A clustered VG using clvmd is different from a shared VG
using lvmlockd.) See clvmd(8) for more information about clus‐
tered VGs.
--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 set‐
tings. The String arg uses the same format as lvm.conf, or may
use section/field syntax. See lvm.conf(5) for more information
about config.
--dataalignment Size[k|UNIT]
Align the start of the data to a multiple of this number. Also
specify an appropriate Physical Extent size when creating a VG.
To see the location of the first Physical Extent of an existing
PV, use pvs -o +pe_start. In addition, it may be shifted by an
alignment offset. See lvm.conf/data_alignment_offset_detection
and --dataalignmentoffset.
--dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT]
Shift the start of the 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).
--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.
--labelsector Number
By default the PV is labelled with an LVM2 identifier in its
second sector (sector 1). This lets you use a different sector
near the start of the disk (between 0 and 3 inclusive - see
LABEL_SCAN_SECTORS in the source). Use with care.
--lockopt String
Used to pass options for special cases to lvmlockd. See lvm‐
lockd(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 --vgmetadatacopies 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|lvm1
Specifies the type of on-disk metadata to use. lvm2 (or just 2)
is the current, standard format. lvm1 (or just 1) is a histori‐
cal format that can be used for accessing old data.
-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 currently 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, depending 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
(starting in the 5th sector). When 0, no copies of the VG meta‐
data are stored on the given PV. This may be useful in VGs con‐
taining many PVs (this places limitations on the ability to use
vgsplit later.)
-q|--quiet ...
Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and --ver‐
bose. Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with answer
'no'.
--reportformat basic|json
Overrides current output format for reports which is defined
globally by the report/output_format setting in lvm.conf. 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 identification. json produces report output in
JSON format. See lvmreport(7) for more information.
--shared
Create a shared VG using lvmlockd if LVM is compiled with lockd
support. lvmlockd will select lock type sanlock or dlm depend‐
ing on which lock manager is running. This allows multiple hosts
to share a VG on shared devices. lvmlockd and a lock manager
must be configured and running. (A shared VG using lvmlockd is
different from a clustered VG using clvmd.) See lvmlockd(8) for
more information about shared VGs.
--systemid String
Specifies the system ID that will be given to the new VG, over‐
riding 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 creating 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 nevertheless
returning success to the calling function. This may lead to
unusual error messages in multi-stage operations if a tool
relies on reading back metadata it believes 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 automatically choose PVs on which to store meta‐
data, using the metadataignore flags on PVs to achieve the spec‐
ified number. 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 become unmanaged.
-y|--yes
Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always assume
the answer yes. Use with extreme caution. (For automatic 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
VG
Volume Group name. See lvm(8) for valid names.
PV
Physical Volume name, a device path under /dev. For commands
managing physical extents, a PV positional arg generally 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 con‐
tent.
Size[UNIT]
Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit. Input
units are always treated as base two values, regardless of capi‐
talization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024. The default
input unit is specified by letter, followed by |UNIT. UNIT rep‐
resents other possible input units: bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE. b|B is
bytes, s|S is sectors of 512 bytes, k|K is kilobytes, m|M is
megabytes, g|G is gigabytes, t|T is terabytes, p|P is petabytes,
e|E is exabytes. (This should not be confused with the output
control --units, where capital letters mean multiple of 1000.)
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
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
Create a VG with two PVs, using the default physical extent size.
vgcreate myvg /dev/sdk1 /dev/sdl1
SEE ALSOlvm(8)lvm.conf(5)lvmconfig(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) vgcon‐
vert(8)vgdisplay(8)vgexport(8)vgextend(8)vgimport(8) vgimport‐
clone(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) lvre‐
duce(8)lvremove(8)lvrename(8)lvresize(8)lvs(8)lvscan(8)lvm-fullreport(8)lvm-lvpoll(8)lvm2-activation-generator(8) blkdeacti‐
vate(8)lvmdump(8)dmeventd(8)lvmetad(8)lvmpolld(8)lvmlockd(8)lvmlockctl(8)clvmd(8)cmirrord(8)lvmdbusd(8)lvmsystemid(7)lvmreport(7)lvmraid(7)lvmthin(7)lvmcache(7)Red Hat, Inc. LVM TOOLS 2.02.176(2) (2017-11-03) VGCREATE(8)
