Provided by: lvm2_2.02.98-6ubuntu2_amd64 
NAME
lvm - LVM2 tools
SYNOPSIS
lvm [command | file]
DESCRIPTION
lvm provides the command-line tools for LVM2. A separate manual page describes each
command in detail.
If lvm is invoked with no arguments it presents a readline prompt (assuming it was
compiled with readline support). LVM commands may be entered interactively at this prompt
with readline facilities including history and command name and option completion. Refer
to readline(3) for details.
If lvm is invoked with argv[0] set to the name of a specific LVM command (for example by
using a hard or soft link) it acts as that command.
On invocation, lvm requires that only the standard file descriptors stdin, stdout and
stderr are available. If others are found, they get closed and messages are issued
warning about the leak.
Where commands take VG or LV names as arguments, the full path name is optional. An LV
called "lvol0" in a VG called "vg0" can be specified as "vg0/lvol0". Where a list of VGs
is required but is left empty, a list of all VGs will be substituted. Where a list of LVs
is required but a VG is given, a list of all the LVs in that VG will be substituted. So
lvdisplay vg0 will display all the LVs in "vg0". Tags can also be used - see --addtag
below.
One advantage of using the built-in shell is that configuration information gets cached
internally between commands.
A file containing a simple script with one command per line can also be given on the
command line. The script can also be executed directly if the first line is #! followed
by the absolute path of lvm.
BUILT-IN COMMANDS
The following commands are built into lvm without links normally being created in the
filesystem for them.
dumpconfig — Display the configuration information after
loading lvm.conf(5) and any other configuration files.
formats — Display recognised metadata formats.
help — Display the help text.
pvdata — Not implemented in LVM2.
segtypes — Display recognised Logical Volume segment types.
version — Display version information.
COMMANDS
The following commands implement the core LVM functionality.
pvchange — Change attributes of a Physical Volume.
pvck — Check Physical Volume metadata.
pvcreate — Initialize a disk or partition for use by LVM.
pvdisplay — Display attributes of a Physical Volume.
pvmove — Move Physical Extents.
pvremove — Remove a Physical Volume.
pvresize — Resize a disk or partition in use by LVM2.
pvs — Report information about Physical Volumes.
pvscan — Scan all disks for Physical Volumes.
vgcfgbackup — Backup Volume Group descriptor area.
vgcfgrestore — Restore Volume Group descriptor area.
vgchange — Change attributes of a Volume Group.
vgck — Check Volume Group metadata.
vgconvert — Convert Volume Group metadata format.
vgcreate — Create a Volume Group.
vgdisplay — Display attributes of Volume Groups.
vgexport — Make volume Groups unknown to the system.
vgextend — Add Physical Volumes to a Volume Group.
vgimport — Make exported Volume Groups known to the system.
vgimportclone — Import and rename duplicated Volume Group (e.g. a hardware snapshot).
vgmerge — Merge two Volume Groups.
vgmknodes — Recreate Volume Group directory and Logical Volume special files
vgreduce — Reduce a Volume Group by removing one or more
Physical Volumes.
vgremove — Remove a Volume Group.
vgrename — Rename a Volume Group.
vgs — Report information about Volume Groups.
vgscan — Scan all disks for Volume Groups and rebuild caches.
vgsplit — Split a Volume Group into two, moving any logical
volumes from one Volume Group to another by moving entire Physical Volumes.
lvchange — Change attributes of a Logical Volume.
lvconvert — Convert a Logical Volume from linear to mirror or snapshot.
lvcreate — Create a Logical Volume in an existing Volume Group.
lvdisplay — Display attributes of a Logical Volume.
lvextend — Extend the size of a Logical Volume.
lvmchange — Change attributes of the Logical Volume Manager.
lvmdiskscan — Scan for all devices visible to LVM2.
lvmdump — Create lvm2 information dumps for diagnostic purposes.
lvreduce — Reduce the size of a Logical Volume.
lvremove — Remove a Logical Volume.
lvrename — Rename a Logical Volume.
lvresize — Resize a Logical Volume.
lvs — Report information about Logical Volumes.
lvscan — Scan (all disks) for Logical Volumes.
The following commands are not implemented in LVM2 but might be in the future: lvmsadc,
lvmsar, pvdata.
OPTIONS
The following options are available for many of the commands. They are implemented
generically and documented here rather than repeated on individual manual pages.
-h, --help
Display the help text.
--version
Display version information.
-v, --verbose
Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 3 times to increase the detail of messages sent
to stdout and stderr. Overrides config file setting.
-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). Overrides config file setting.
-q, --quiet
Suppress output and log messages. Overrides -d and -v.
-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.
--driverloaded {y|n}
Whether or not the device-mapper kernel driver is loaded. If you set this to n, no
attempt will be made to contact the driver.
-A, --autobackup {y|n}
Whether or not to metadata should be backed up automatically after a change. You
are strongly advised not to disable this! See vgcfgbackup(8).
-P, --partial
When set, the tools will do their best to provide access to Volume Groups that are
only partially available (one or more Physical Volumes belonging to the Volume
Group are missing from the system). Where part of a logical volume is missing,
/dev/ioerror will be substituted, and you could use dmsetup(8) to set this up to
return I/O errors when accessed, or create it as a large block device of nulls.
Metadata may not be changed with this option. To insert a replacement Physical
Volume of the same or large size use pvcreate -u to set the uuid to match the
original followed by vgcfgrestore(8).
-M, --metadatatype Type
Specifies which type of on-disk metadata to use, such as lvm1 or lvm2, which can be
abbreviated to 1 or 2 respectively. The default (lvm2) can be changed by setting
format in the global section of the config file.
--ignorelockingfailure
This lets you proceed with read-only metadata operations such as lvchange -ay and
vgchange -ay even if the locking module fails. One use for this is in a system
init script if the lock directory is mounted read-only when the script runs.
--addtag Tag
Add the tag Tag to a PV, VG or LV. Supply this argument multiple times to add more
than one tag at once. A tag is a word that can be used to group LVM2 objects of
the same type together. Tags can be given on the command line in place of PV, VG
or LV arguments. Tags should be prefixed with @ to avoid ambiguity. Each tag is
expanded by replacing it with all objects possessing that tag which are of the type
expected by its position on the command line. PVs can only possess tags while they
are part of a Volume Group: PV tags are discarded if the PV is removed from the VG.
As an example, you could tag some LVs as database and others as userdata and then
activate the database ones with lvchange -ay @database. Objects can possess
multiple tags simultaneously. Only the new LVM2 metadata format supports tagging:
objects using the LVM1 metadata format cannot be tagged because the on-disk format
does not support it. Characters allowed in tags are: A-Z a-z 0-9 _ + . - and as of
version 2.02.78 the following characters are also accepted: / = ! : # &
--deltag Tag
Delete the tag Tag from a PV, VG or LV, if it's present. Supply this argument
multiple times to remove more than one tag at once.
--alloc AllocationPolicy
The allocation policy to use: contiguous, cling, normal, anywhere or inherit. When
a command needs to allocate Physical Extents from the Volume Group, the allocation
policy controls how they are chosen. Each Volume Group and Logical Volume has an
allocation policy defined. The default for a Volume Group is normal which applies
common-sense rules such as not placing parallel stripes on the same Physical
Volume. The default for a Logical Volume is inherit which applies the same policy
as for the Volume Group. These policies can be changed using lvchange(8) and
vgchange(8) or overridden on the command line of any command that performs
allocation. The contiguous policy requires that new Physical Extents be placed
adjacent to existing Physical Extents. The cling policy places new Physical
Extents on the same Physical Volume as existing Physical Extents in the same stripe
of the Logical Volume. If there are sufficient free Physical Extents to satisfy an
allocation request but normal doesn't use them, anywhere will - even if that
reduces performance by placing two stripes on the same Physical Volume.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
HOME Directory containing .lvm_history if the internal readline shell is invoked.
LVM_SYSTEM_DIR
Directory containing lvm.conf(5) and other LVM system files. Defaults to
"/etc/lvm".
LVM_VG_NAME
The Volume Group name that is assumed for any reference to a Logical Volume that
doesn't specify a path. Not set by default.
VALID NAMES
The following characters are valid for VG and LV names: a-z A-Z 0-9 + _ . -
VG and LV names cannot begin with a hyphen. There are also various reserved names that
are used internally by lvm that can not be used as LV or VG names. A VG cannot be called
anything that exists in /dev/ at the time of creation, nor can it be called '.' or '..'.
A LV cannot be called '.' '..' 'snapshot' or 'pvmove'. The LV name may also not contain
the strings '_mlog', '_mimage', '_rimage', '_tdata', '_tmeta'.
ALLOCATION
When an operation needs to allocate Physical Extents for one or more Logical Volumes, the
tools proceed as follows:
First of all, they generate the complete set of unallocated Physical Extents in the Volume
Group. If any ranges of Physical Extents are supplied at the end of the command line,
only unallocated Physical Extents within those ranges on the specified Physical Volumes
are considered.
Then they try each allocation policy in turn, starting with the strictest policy
(contiguous) and ending with the allocation policy specified using --alloc or set as the
default for the particular Logical Volume or Volume Group concerned. For each policy,
working from the lowest-numbered Logical Extent of the empty Logical Volume space that
needs to be filled, they allocate as much space as possible according to the restrictions
imposed by the policy. If more space is needed, they move on to the next policy.
The restrictions are as follows:
Contiguous requires that the physical location of any Logical Extent that is not the first
Logical Extent of a Logical Volume is adjacent to the physical location of the Logical
Extent immediately preceding it.
Cling requires that the Physical Volume used for any Logical Extent to be added to an
existing Logical Volume is already in use by at least one Logical Extent earlier in that
Logical Volume. If the configuration parameter allocation/cling_tag_list is defined, then
two Physical Volumes are considered to match if any of the listed tags is present on both
Physical Volumes. This allows groups of Physical Volumes with similar properties (such as
their physical location) to be tagged and treated as equivalent for allocation purposes.
When a Logical Volume is striped or mirrored, the above restrictions are applied
independently to each stripe or mirror image (leg) that needs space.
Normal will not choose a Physical Extent that shares the same Physical Volume as a Logical
Extent already allocated to a parallel Logical Volume (i.e. a different stripe or mirror
image/leg) at the same offset within that parallel Logical Volume.
When allocating a mirror log at the same time as Logical Volumes to hold the mirror data,
Normal will first try to select different Physical Volumes for the log and the data. If
that's not possible and the allocation/mirror_logs_require_separate_pvs configuration
parameter is set to 0, it will then allow the log to share Physical Volume(s) with part of
the data.
When allocating thin pool metadata, similar considerations to those of a mirror log in the
last paragraph apply based on the value of the
allocation/thin_pool_metadata_require_separate_pvs configuration parameter.
If you rely upon any layout behaviour beyond that documented here, be aware that it might
change in future versions of the code.
For example, if you supply on the command line two empty Physical Volumes that have an
identical number of free Physical Extents available for allocation, the current code
considers using each of them in the order they are listed, but there is no guarantee that
future releases will maintain that property. If it is important to obtain a specific
layout for a particular Logical Volume, then you should build it up through a sequence of
lvcreate(8) and lvconvert(8) steps such that the restrictions described above applied to
each step leave the tools no discretion over the layout.
To view the way the allocation process currently works in any specific case, read the
debug logging output, for example by adding -vvvv to a command.
DIAGNOSTICS
All tools return a status code of zero on success or non-zero on failure.
FILES
/etc/lvm/lvm.conf
$HOME/.lvm_history
SEE ALSO
clvmd(8), lvchange(8), lvcreate(8), lvdisplay(8), lvextend(8), lvmchange(8),
lvmdiskscan(8), lvreduce(8), lvremove(8), lvrename(8), lvresize(8), lvs(8), lvscan(8),
pvchange(8), pvck(8), pvcreate(8), pvdisplay(8), pvmove(8), pvremove(8), pvs(8),
pvscan(8), vgcfgbackup(8), vgchange(8), vgck(8), vgconvert(8), vgcreate(8), vgdisplay(8),
vgextend(8), vgimport(8), vgimportclone(8), vgmerge(8), vgmknodes(8), vgreduce(8),
vgremove(8), vgrename(8), vgs(8), vgscan(8), vgsplit(8), readline(3), lvm.conf(5)