Provided by: lvm2_2.03.11-2.1ubuntu4_amd64 bug

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 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 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 addition, it may be shifted by an alignment offset, see --dataalignmentoffset.
              Also specify 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
              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 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
              --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
              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.

       --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 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.  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
              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 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 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 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
              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 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)
       pvscan(8)

       vgcfgbackup(8)  vgcfgrestore(8)  vgchange(8) vgck(8) vgcreate(8) vgconvert(8) vgdisplay(8)
       vgexport(8) vgextend(8) vgimport(8) vgimportclone(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) 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)