man > vgchange(8)

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

NAME
       vgchange — Change volume group attributes

SYNOPSIS
       vgchange option_args position_args
           [ option_args ]
           [ position_args ]

        -a|--activate y|n|ay
           --activationmode partial|degraded|complete
           --addtag Tag
           --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
           --autoactivation String
        -A|--autobackup y|n
           --commandprofile String
           --config String
        -d|--debug
           --deltag Tag
           --detachprofile
           --devices PV
           --devicesfile String
           --driverloaded y|n
        -f|--force
        -h|--help
        -K|--ignoreactivationskip
           --ignorelockingfailure
           --ignoremonitoring
           --journal String
           --lockopt String
           --lockstart
           --lockstop
           --locktype sanlock|dlm|none
        -l|--logicalvolume Number
           --longhelp
        -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number
           --metadataprofile String
           --monitor y|n
           --nohints
           --nolocking
           --noudevsync
        -P|--partial
        -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT]
           --poll y|n
           --profile String
           --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2
        -q|--quiet
           --readonly
           --refresh
           --reportformat basic|json
        -x|--resizeable y|n
        -S|--select String
           --setautoactivation y|n
           --sysinit
           --systemid String
        -t|--test
        -u|--uuid
        -v|--verbose
           --version
           --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number
        -y|--yes

DESCRIPTION
       vgchange changes VG attributes, changes LV activation in the kernel, and includes other util‐
       ities for VG maintenance.

USAGE
       Change a general VG attribute.
       For options listed in parentheses, any one is
       required, after which the others are optional.

       vgchange
           ( -l|--logicalvolume Number
             -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number
             -u|--uuid
             -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT]
             -x|--resizeable y|n
                --addtag Tag
                --deltag Tag
                --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
                --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2
                --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number
                --profile String
                --detachprofile
                --metadataprofile String
                --setautoactivation y|n )
           [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
           [ -S|--select String ]
           [ -f|--force ]
           [    --poll y|n ]
           [    --ignoremonitoring ]
           [    --noudevsync ]
           [    --reportformat basic|json ]
           [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
           [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]

       —

       Start or stop monitoring LVs from dmeventd.

       vgchange --monitor y|n
           [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
           [ -S|--select String ]
           [ -f|--force ]
           [    --sysinit ]
           [    --ignorelockingfailure ]
           [    --poll y|n ]
           [    --ignoremonitoring ]
           [    --noudevsync ]
           [    --reportformat basic|json ]
           [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
           [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]

       —

       Start or stop processing LV conversions.

       vgchange --poll y|n
           [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
           [ -S|--select String ]
           [ -f|--force ]
           [    --ignorelockingfailure ]
           [    --ignoremonitoring ]
           [    --noudevsync ]
           [    --reportformat basic|json ]
           [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
           [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]

       —

       Activate or deactivate LVs.

       vgchange -a|--activate y|n|ay
           [ -K|--ignoreactivationskip ]
           [ -P|--partial ]
           [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
           [ -S|--select String ]
           [ -f|--force ]
           [    --activationmode partial|degraded|complete ]
           [    --sysinit ]
           [    --readonly ]
           [    --ignorelockingfailure ]
           [    --monitor y|n ]
           [    --poll y|n ]
           [    --autoactivation String ]
           [    --ignoremonitoring ]
           [    --noudevsync ]
           [    --reportformat basic|json ]
           [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
           [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]

       —

       Reactivate LVs using the latest metadata.

       vgchange --refresh
           [ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
           [ -S|--select String ]
           [ -f|--force ]
           [    --sysinit ]
           [    --ignorelockingfailure ]
           [    --poll y|n ]
           [    --ignoremonitoring ]
           [    --noudevsync ]
           [    --reportformat basic|json ]
           [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
           [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]

       —

       Change the system ID of a VG.

       vgchange --systemid String VG
           [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]

       —

       Start the lockspace of a shared VG in lvmlockd.

       vgchange --lockstart
           [ -S|--select String ]
           [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
           [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]

       —

       Stop the lockspace of a shared VG in lvmlockd.

       vgchange --lockstop
           [ -S|--select String ]
           [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
           [ VG|Tag|Select ... ]

       —

       Change the lock type for a shared VG.

       vgchange --locktype sanlock|dlm|none VG
           [ 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


       -a|--activate y|n|ay
              Change  the active state of LVs.  An active LV can be used through a block device, al‐
              lowing data on the LV to be accessed.  y makes LVs active, or available.  n makes  LVs
              inactive,  or  unavailable.   The block device for the LV is added or removed from the
              system using device-mapper in the kernel.  A symbolic link /dev/VGName/LVName pointing
              to the device node is also added/removed.  All software and scripts should access  the
              device  through the symbolic link and present this as the name of the device.  The lo‐
              cation and name of the underlying device node may depend on the distribution, configu‐
              ration (e.g. udev), or release version.  ay specifies autoactivation, which is used by
              system-generated activation commands.  By default, LVs are autoactivated.  An  autoac‐
              tivation property can be set on a VG or LV to disable autoactivation, see --setautoac‐
              tivation y|n in vgchange, lvchange, vgcreate, and lvcreate.  Display the property with
              vgs  or lvs "-o autoactivation".  The lvm.conf(5) auto_activation_volume_list includes
              names of VGs or LVs that should be autoactivated, and anything not listed is  not  au‐
              toactivated.   When  auto_activation_volume_list is undefined (the default), it has no
              effect.  If auto_activation_volume_list is defined and empty, no LVs are  autoactivat‐
              ed.   Items  included  by auto_activation_volume_list will not be autoactivated if the
              autoactivation property has been disabled.  See lvmlockd(8) for more information about
              activation options ey and sy for shared VGs.

       --activationmode partial|degraded|complete
              Determines if LV activation is allowed when PVs are missing, e.g. because of a  device
              failure.   complete  only  allows  LVs with no missing PVs to be activated, and is the
              most restrictive mode.  degraded allows RAID LVs with missing  PVs  to  be  activated.
              (This does not include the "mirror" type, see "raid1" instead.)  partial allows any LV
              with missing PVs to be activated, and should only be used for recovery or repair.  For
              default, see lvm.conf(5) activation_mode.  See lvmraid(7) for more information.

       --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 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 information about allo‐
              cation.

       --autoactivation String
              Specify if autoactivation is being used from an event.  This allows the command to ap‐
              ply settings that are specific to event activation, such as device scanning  optimiza‐
              tions using pvs_online files created by event-based pvscans.

       -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.

       --commandprofile String
              The command profile to use for command configuration.  See lvm.conf(5) for more infor‐
              mation 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.

       -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).

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

       --detachprofile
              Detaches  a  metadata  profile  from a VG or LV.  See lvm.conf(5) for more information
              about profiles.

       --devices PV
              Restricts the devices that are visible and accessible to  the  command.   Devices  not
              listed will appear to be missing. This option can be repeated, or accepts a comma sep‐
              arated 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 de‐
              bugging.

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

       -h|--help
              Display help text.

       -K|--ignoreactivationskip
              Ignore the "activation skip" LV flag during activation to allow LVs with the flag  set
              to be activated.

       --ignorelockingfailure
              Allows  a  command  to continue with read-only metadata operations after locking fail‐
              ures.

       --ignoremonitoring
              Do not interact with dmeventd unless --monitor is  specified.   Do  not  use  this  if
              dmeventd is already monitoring a device.

       --journal String
              Record  information in the systemd journal.  This information is in addition to infor‐
              mation 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.

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

       --lockstart
              Start  the lockspace of a shared VG in lvmlockd.  lvmlockd locks becomes available for
              the VG, allowing LVM to use the VG.  See lvmlockd(8) for more information.

       --lockstop
              Stop the lockspace of a shared VG in lvmlockd.  lvmlockd locks become unavailable  for
              the VG, preventing LVM from using the VG.  See lvmlockd(8) for more information.

       --locktype sanlock|dlm|none
              Change  the  VG  lock type to or from a shared lock type used with lvmlockd.  See lvm‐
              lockd(8) for more information.

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

       --longhelp
              Display long help text.

       -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 --vg‐
              metadatacopies for improving performance.

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

       --monitor y|n
              Start  (yes)  or  stop  (no) monitoring an LV with dmeventd.  dmeventd monitors kernel
              events for an LV, and performs automated maintenance for the LV in reponse to specific
              events.  See dmeventd(8) for more information.

       --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. Use with caution, concurrent commands may produce incorrect results.


       --noudevsync
              Disables udev synchronisation. The process will not wait for notification  from  udev.
              It  will continue irrespective of any possible udev processing in the background. Only
              use this if udev is not running or has rules that ignore the devices LVM creates.

       -P|--partial
              Commands will do their best to activate LVs with missing PV extents.  Missing  extents
              may  be  replaced  with error or zero segments according to the  missing_stripe_filler
              setting.  Metadata may not be changed with this option.

       -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  dif‐
              ficult to change without recreating the VG, unless no extents need moving.  Before in‐
              creasing the physical extent size, you might need to use lvresize, pvresize and/or pv‐
              move so that everything fits. For example, every contiguous range of extents used in a
              LV must start and end on an extent boundary.

       --poll y|n
              When yes, start the background transformation of an LV.  An incomplete transformation,
              e.g.  pvmove  or  lvconvert  interrupted by reboot or crash, can be restarted from the
              last checkpoint with --poll y.  When no, background transformation of an LV  will  not
              occur,  and the transformation will not complete. It may not be appropriate to immedi‐
              ately poll an LV after activation, in which case --poll n can be used to defer polling
              until a later --poll y command.

       --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.   When  0,  no  copies of the VG metadata are stored on the given PV.  This may be
              useful 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 al‐
              so suppress any prompts with answer 'no'.

       --readonly
              Run  the  command in a special read-only mode which will read on-disk metadata without
              needing to take any locks. This can be used to peek inside metadata used by a  virtual
              machine  image while the virtual machine is running. No attempt will be made to commu‐
              nicate with the device-mapper kernel driver,  so  this  option  is  unable  to  report
              whether or not LVs are actually in use.

       --refresh
              If  the LV is active, reload its metadata.  This is not necessary in normal operation,
              but may be useful if something has gone wrong, or if some form of manual LV sharing is
              being used.

       --reportformat basic|json
              Overrides current output format for reports which  is  defined  globally  by  the  re‐
              port/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 identification. json produces report output in JSON format. See
              lvmreport(7) for more information.

       -x|--resizeable y|n
              Enables or disables the addition or removal of PVs to/from  a  VG  (by  vgextend/vgre‐
              duce).

       -S|--select String
              Select objects for processing and reporting based on specified criteria.  The criteria
              syntax  is  described  by --select help and lvmreport(7).  For reporting commands, one
              row is displayed for each object matching the criteria.  See --options help for selec‐
              table object fields.  Rows can be displayed with an additional  "selected"  field  (-o
              selected) showing 1 if the row matches the selection and 0 otherwise.  For non-report‐
              ing  commands  which  process  LVM  entities, the selection is used to choose items to
              process.

       --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  us‐
              ing  -aay.)   If  autoactivation  is disabled on a VG, no LVs will be autoactivated in
              that VG, and the LV autoactivation property has no effect.  If autoactivation  is  en‐
              abled on a VG, autoactivation can be disabled for individual LVs.

       --sysinit
              Indicates  that  vgchange/lvchange  is  being invoked from early system initialisation
              scripts (e.g. rc.sysinit or an initrd), before writable filesystems are available.  As
              such, some functionality needs to be disabled and this option acts as a shortcut which
              selects  an  appropriate  set of options. Currently, this is equivalent to using --ig‐
              norelockingfailure,  --ignoremonitoring,  --poll  n,  and  setting  env  var  LVM_SUP‐
              PRESS_LOCKING_FAILURE_MESSAGES.   vgchange/lvchange  skip autoactivation, and defer to
              pvscan autoactivation.

       --systemid String
              Changes the system ID of the VG.  Using this option requires caution  because  the  VG
              may  become foreign to the host running the command, leaving the host unable to access
              it.  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 read‐
              ing back metadata it believes has changed but hasn't.

       -u|--uuid
              Generate new random UUID for specified VGs.

       -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.  Keep‐
              ing  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 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.)

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

       Tag    Tag name.  See lvm(8) for information about tag names and using tags in place of a VG,
              LV or PV.

       Select Select indicates that a required positional parameter can be omitted if  the  --select
              option is used.  No arg appears in this position.

       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, regardless of capitalization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024.
              The  default  input  unit  is specified by letter, followed 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 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.

NOTES
       If  vgchange  recognizes COW snapshot LVs that were dropped because they ran out of space, it
       displays a message informing the administrator that the snapshots should be removed.

EXAMPLES
       Activate all LVs in all VGs on all existing devices.
       vgchange -a y

       Change the maximum number of LVs for an inactive VG.
       vgchange -l 128 vg00

SEE ALSO
       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), lvmraid(7), lvmthin(7), lvmcache(7)

Red Hat, Inc.                     LVM TOOLS 2.03.16(2) (2022-05-18)                      VGCHANGE(8)
vgchange(8)
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION USAGE
vgchange vgchange --refresh vgchange --lockstart vgchange --lockstop
OPTIONS
-a|--activate y|n|ay -A|--autobackup y|n -d|--debug ... --detachprofile -f|--force ... -h|--help -K|--ignoreactivationskip --ignorelockingfailure --ignoremonitoring --lockstart --lockstop -l|--logicalvolume Number --longhelp -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number --nohints --nolocking --noudevsync -P|--partial -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT] -q|--quiet ... --readonly --refresh -x|--resizeable y|n -S|--select String --sysinit -t|--test -u|--uuid -v|--verbose ... --version -y|--yes
VARIABLES ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES NOTES EXAMPLES
vgchange -a y vgchange -l 128 vg00
SEE ALSO

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