# man > vgreduce(8) [_VGREDUCE_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/VGREDUCE/8/markdown) System Manager's Manual [_VGREDUCE_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/VGREDUCE/8/markdown) ## NAME vgreduce — Remove physical volume(s) from a volume group ## SYNOPSIS **vgreduce _**option_args_ _position_args_ [ _option_args_ ] **-a**|**--all** **-A**|**--autobackup y**|**n** **--commandprofile _**String_ **--config _**String_ **-d**|**--debug** **--devices _**PV_ **--devicesfile _**String_ **--driverloaded y**|**n** **-f**|**--force** **-h**|**--help** **--journal _**String_ **--lockopt _**String_ **--longhelp** **--mirrorsonly** **--nohints** **--nolocking** **--profile _**String_ **-q**|**--quiet** **--removemissing** **--reportformat basic**|**json** **-t**|**--test** **-v**|**--verbose** **--version** **-y**|**--yes** ## DESCRIPTION vgreduce removes one or more unused PVs from a VG. ## USAGE Remove a PV from a VG. **vgreduce _**VG_ _PV_ ... [ COMMON_OPTIONS ] — Remove all unused PVs from a VG. **vgreduce -a**|**--all _**VG_ [ COMMON_OPTIONS ] — Remove all missing PVs from a VG. **vgreduce --removemissing _**VG_ [ **--mirrorsonly **] [ COMMON_OPTIONS ] — Common options for command: [ **-A**|**--autobackup y**|**n **] [ **-f**|**--force **] [ **--reportformat basic**|**json **] 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 --all Removes all empty PVs if none are named on the command line. ### -A --autobackup y Specifies if metadata should be backed up automatically after a change. Enabling this is strongly advised! See [**vgcfgbackup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgcfgbackup/8/markdown) for more information. **--commandprofile _**String_ The command profile to use for command configuration. See [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown) for more infor‐ mation about profiles. **--config _**String_ Config settings for the command. These override [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown) settings. The String arg uses the same format as [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown), or may use section/field syntax. See [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown) 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). **--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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmdevices/8/markdown) command. This overrides the [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown) **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. **--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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmlockd/8/markdown) for more informa‐ tion. ### --longhelp Display long help text. ### --mirrorsonly Only remove missing PVs from mirror LVs. ### --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. **--profile _**String_ An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, depending on the command. ### -q --quiet Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and --verbose. Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with answer 'no'. ### --removemissing Removes all missing PVs from the VG, if there are no LVs allocated on them. This re‐ sumes normal operation of the VG (new LVs may again be created, changed and so on). If this is not possible because LVs are referencing the missing PVs, this option can be combined with --force to have the command remove any partial LVs. In this case, any LVs and dependent snapshots that were partly on the missing disks are removed com‐ pletely, including those parts on disks that are still present. If LVs spanned sev‐ eral disks, including ones that are lost, salvaging some data first may be possible by activating LVs in partial mode. **--reportformat basic**|**json** Overrides current output format for reports which is defined globally by the re‐ port/output_format setting in [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown). **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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmreport/7/markdown) 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. ### -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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm/8/markdown) 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: **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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm/8/markdown) for information about environment variables used by lvm. For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a required VG parameter. ## SEE ALSO [**lvm**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm/8/markdown), [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown), [**lvmconfig**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmconfig/8/markdown), [**lvmdevices**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmdevices/8/markdown), [**pvchange**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvchange/8/markdown), [**pvck**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvck/8/markdown), [**pvcreate**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvcreate/8/markdown), [**pvdisplay**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvdisplay/8/markdown), [**pvmove**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvmove/8/markdown), [**pvremove**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvremove/8/markdown), [**pvresize**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvresize/8/markdown), [**pvs**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvs/8/markdown), [**pvscan**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvscan/8/markdown), [**vgcfgbackup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgcfgbackup/8/markdown), [**vgcfgrestore**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgcfgrestore/8/markdown), [**vgchange**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgchange/8/markdown), [**vgck**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgck/8/markdown), [**vgcreate**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgcreate/8/markdown), [**vgconvert**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgconvert/8/markdown), [**vgdisplay**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgdisplay/8/markdown), [**vgexport**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgexport/8/markdown), [**vgextend**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgextend/8/markdown), [**vgimport**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgimport/8/markdown), [**vgimportclone**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgimportclone/8/markdown), [**vgimportdevices**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgimportdevices/8/markdown), [**vgmerge**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgmerge/8/markdown), [**vgmknodes**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgmknodes/8/markdown), [**vgreduce**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgreduce/8/markdown), [**vgremove**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgremove/8/markdown), [**vgrename**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgrename/8/markdown), [**vgs**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgs/8/markdown), [**vgscan**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgscan/8/markdown), [**vgsplit**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgsplit/8/markdown), [**lvcreate**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvcreate/8/markdown), [**lvchange**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvchange/8/markdown), [**lvconvert**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvconvert/8/markdown), [**lvdisplay**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvdisplay/8/markdown), [**lvextend**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvextend/8/markdown), [**lvreduce**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvreduce/8/markdown), [**lvremove**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvremove/8/markdown), [**lvrename**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvrename/8/markdown), [**lvresize**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvresize/8/markdown), [**lvs**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvs/8/markdown), [**lvscan**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvscan/8/markdown), [**lvm-fullreport**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm-fullreport/8/markdown), [**lvm-lvpoll**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm-lvpoll/8/markdown), [**blkdeactivate**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/blkdeactivate/8/markdown), [**lvmdump**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmdump/8/markdown), [**dmeventd**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dmeventd/8/markdown), [**lvmpolld**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmpolld/8/markdown), [**lvmlockd**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmlockd/8/markdown), [**lvmlockctl**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmlockctl/8/markdown), [**cmirrord**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/cmirrord/8/markdown), [**lvmdbusd**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmdbusd/8/markdown), [**fsadm**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fsadm/8/markdown), [**lvmsystemid**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmsystemid/7/markdown), [**lvmreport**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmreport/7/markdown), [**lvmraid**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmraid/7/markdown), [**lvmthin**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmthin/7/markdown), [**lvmcache**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmcache/7/markdown) Red Hat, Inc. LVM TOOLS [2.03.16(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/2.03.16/2/markdown) (2022-05-18) [_VGREDUCE_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/VGREDUCE/8/markdown)