NAME

       pvcreate - initialize a disk or partition for use by LVM

SYNOPSIS

       pvcreate  [-d|--debug]  [-h|--help]  [-t|--test] [-v|--verbose] [--version] [-f[f]|--force
       [--force]]  [-y|--yes]  [--labelsector]  [-M|--metadatatype  type]   [--[pv]metadatacopies
       NumberOfCopies] [--metadatasize size] [--metadataignore {y|n}] [--dataalignment alignment]
       [--dataalignmentoffset   alignment_offset]    [--restorefile    file]    [--norestorefile]
       [--setphysicalvolumesize   size]   [-u|--uuid   uuid]   [-Z|--zero  {y|n}]  PhysicalVolume
       [PhysicalVolume...]

DESCRIPTION

       pvcreate initializes PhysicalVolume for later use by the  Logical  Volume  Manager  (LVM).
       Each  PhysicalVolume  can  be a disk partition, whole disk, meta device, or loopback file.
       For DOS disk partitions, the partition id should be set to 0x8e using fdisk(8), cfdisk(8),
       or  a  equivalent.   For whole disk devices only the partition table must be erased, which
       will effectively destroy all data on that disk.  This can be done  by  zeroing  the  first
       sector with:

       dd if=/dev/zero of=PhysicalVolume bs=512 count=1

       Continue  with  vgcreate(8) to create a new volume group on PhysicalVolume, or vgextend(8)
       to add PhysicalVolume to an existing volume group.

OPTIONS

       See lvm(8) for common options.

       -f, --force
              Force the creation without any confirmation.  You can not recreate (reinitialize) a
              physical  volume  belonging  to  an existing volume group.  In an emergency you can
              override this behaviour with -ff.

       -u, --uuid uuid
              Specify the uuid for the device.  Without  this  option,  pvcreate(8)  generates  a
              random uuid.  All of your physical volumes must have unique uuids.  You need to use
              this option before restoring a backup of LVM metadata onto a replacement  device  -
              see  vgcfgrestore(8).   As  such,  use  of  --restorefile  is compulsory unless the
              --norestorefile is used.

       -y, --yes
              Answer yes to all questions.

       -Z, --zero {y|n}
              Whether or not the first 4 sectors (2048 bytes) of the device should be wiped.   If
              this  option  is  not  given, the default is to wipe these sectors unless either or
              both of the --restorefile or --uuid options were specified.

NEW METADATA OPTIONS

       LVM2 introduces a new format for storing metadata  on  disk.   This  new  format  is  more
       efficient  and  resilient  than the format the original version of LVM used and offers the
       advanced user greater flexibility and control.

       The new format may be selected on the command line with -M2 or by setting format =  "lvm2"
       in  the global section of lvm.conf(5).  Each physical volume in the same volume group must
       use the same format, but different volume groups on a machine may  use  different  formats
       simultaneously:  the  tools  can  handle both formats.  Additional formats can be added as
       shared libraries.

       Additional tools for manipulating the locations  and  sizes  of  metadata  areas  will  be
       written  in  due  course.   Use  the  verbose/debug  options on the tools to see where the
       metadata areas are placed.

       --metadatasize size
              The approximate amount of space to be set aside for each metadata area.  (The  size
              you specify may get rounded.)

       --dataalignment alignment
              Align  the start of the data to a multiple of this number.  You should also specify
              an appropriate PhysicalExtentSize when creating the Volume Group with vgcreate.

              To see the location of the first Physical Extent of an existing Physical Volume use
              pvs  -o +pe_start .  It will be a multiple of the requested alignment.  In addition
              it may be shifted  by  alignment_offset  from  data_alignment_offset_detection  (if
              enabled in lvm.conf(5)) or --dataalignmentoffset.

       --dataalignmentoffset alignment_offset
              Shift the start of the data area by this additional alignment_offset.

       --[pv]metadatacopies NumberOfCopies
              The  number  of metadata areas to set aside on each PV.  Currently this can be 0, 1
              or 2.  If set to 2, two copies of the volume group metadata are held on the PV, one
              at  the front of the PV and one at the end.  If set to 1 (the default), one copy is
              kept at the front of the PV (starting in the 5th sector).  If set to 0,  no  copies
              are  kept on this PV - you might wish to use this with VGs containing large numbers
              of PVs.  But if you do this and then later use vgsplit(8) you must ensure that each
              VG  is  still  going  to have a suitable number of copies of the metadata after the
              split!

       --metadataignore {y|n}
              Ignore or un-ignore metadata areas on this physical volume.  The  default  is  "n".
              This  setting can be changed with pvchange.  If metadata areas on a physical volume
              are ignored, LVM will not store metadata in the  metadata  areas  present  on  this
              Physical  Volume.   Metadata  areas  cannot  be  created  or extended after Logical
              Volumes have been allocated on the device. If you do not want to store metadata  on
              this  device,  it is still wise always to allocate a metadata area in case you need
              it in the future and to use this option to instruct LVM2 to ignore it.

       --restorefile file
              In conjunction with --uuid, this extracts the location and size of the data on  the
              PV  from  the file (produced by vgcfgbackup) and ensures that the metadata that the
              program produces is consistent with the contents of  the  file  i.e.  the  physical
              extents  will  be  in the same place and not get overwritten by new metadata.  This
              provides a mechanism to upgrade the  metadata  format  or  to  add/remove  metadata
              areas. Use with care. See also vgconvert(8).

       --norestorefile
              In  conjunction  with  --uuid,  this  allows  a  uuid  to be specified without also
              requiring that a backup of the metadata be provided.

       --labelsector sector
              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.

       --setphysicalvolumesize size
              Overrides the automatically-detected size of the PV.  Use with care.

Examples

       Initialize partition #4 on the third SCSI disk and the entire fifth SCSI  disk  for  later
       use by LVM:

       pvcreate /dev/sdc4 /dev/sde

       If  the  2nd  SCSI  disk  is a 4KiB sector drive that compensates for windows partitioning
       (sector 7 is the lowest aligned logical block, the 4KiB  sectors  start  at  LBA  -1,  and
       consequently  sector  63  is  aligned  on  a 4KiB boundary) manually account for this when
       initializing for use by LVM:

       pvcreate --dataalignmentoffset 7s /dev/sdb

SEE ALSO

       lvm.conf(5),  lvm(8),  vgcreate(8),   vgextend(8),   lvcreate(8),   cfdisk(8),   fdisk(8),
       losetup(8), mdadm(8), vgcfgrestore(8), vgconvert(8)