man > vgcreate(8)

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



NAME
       vgcreate - Create a volume group

SYNOPSIS
       vgcreate position_args
           [ option_args ]

DESCRIPTION
       vgcreate  creates a new VG on block devices. If the devices were not previously intialized 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
       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 ]
           [ 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 ]
           [    --lockopt String ]
           [    --longhelp ]
           [    --nolocking ]
           [    --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 allocate 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 information about allo‐
              cation.

       -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 lvm‐‐
              lockd(8).

       --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 settings.  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 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 addi‐
              tion, it may be shifted by an alignment offset, see --dataalignmentoffset.  Also spec‐
              ify an appropriate PE size when creating 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).

       --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.

       --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 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 informa‐
              tion.

       --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 --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.

       --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, stan‐
              dard format.  lvm1 (or just 1) is no longer used.

       --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 dif‐
              ficult 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.  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
              also suppress any prompts with answer 'no'.

       --reportformat basic|json
              Overrides current output format for reports which is defined globally by the re‐
              port/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 lvmre‐‐
              port(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 depending 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.  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 creating it. Using this option re‐
              quires 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 read‐
              ing 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.  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.)

       -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 ex‐
              tents, 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 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:  bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE.  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.

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

SEE ALSO
       lvm(8) lvm.conf(5) lvmconfig(8)

       pvchange(8)  pvck(8)  pvcreate(8)  pvdisplay(8) pvmove(8) pvremove(8) pvresize(8) pvs(8) pvs‐‐
       can(8)

       vgcfgbackup(8) vgcfgrestore(8) vgchange(8) vgck(8) vgcreate(8) vgconvert(8) vgdisplay(8)  vg‐‐
       export(8)  vgextend(8) vgimport(8) vgimportclone(8) vgmerge(8) vgmknodes(8) vgreduce(8) vgre‐‐
       move(8) vgrename(8) vgs(8) vgscan(8) vgsplit(8)

       lvcreate(8) lvchange(8) lvconvert(8) lvdisplay(8) lvextend(8) lvreduce(8)  lvremove(8)  lvre‐‐
       name(8) lvresize(8) lvs(8) lvscan(8)

       lvm-fullreport(8) lvm-lvpoll(8) lvm2-activation-generator(8) blkdeactivate(8) lvmdump(8)

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

       lvmsystemid(7) lvmreport(7) lvmraid(7) lvmthin(7) lvmcache(7)



Red Hat, Inc.                     LVM TOOLS 2.03.11(2) (2021-01-08)                      VGCREATE(8)