NAME

       vgcreate - create a volume group

SYNOPSIS

       vgcreate  [--addtag  Tag]  [--alloc  AllocationPolicy]  [-A|--autobackup  {y|n}]  [-c|--clustered  {y|n}]
       [-d|--debug]   [-h|--help]   [-l|--maxlogicalvolumes    MaxLogicalVolumes]    [-M|--metadatatype    type]
       [-p|--maxphysicalvolumes    MaxPhysicalVolumes]    [--[vg]metadatacopies    NumberOfCopies|unmanaged|all]
       [-s|--physicalextentsize  PhysicalExtentSize[bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE]]  [-t|--test]  [-v|--verbose]  [--version]
       [PHYSICAL DEVICE OPTIONS] VolumeGroupName PhysicalDevicePath [PhysicalDevicePath...]

DESCRIPTION

       vgcreate   creates   a   new   volume  group  called  VolumeGroupName  using  the  block  special  device
       PhysicalDevicePath.

       If PhysicalDevicePath was not previously  configured  for  LVM  with  pvcreate(8),  the  device  will  be
       initialized  with  the  same  default  values  used with pvcreate(8).  If non-default pvcreate values are
       desired, they may be given on the commandline with the same options as pvcreate(8).  See PHYSICAL  DEVICE
       OPTIONS  for  available options.  Note that the restore-related options such as --restorefile, --uuid and
       --physicalvolumesize are  not  available.   If  a  restore  operation  is  needed,  use  pvcreate(8)  and
       vgcfgrestore(8).

OPTIONS

       See lvm(8) for common options.

       -c, --clustered {y|n}
              If  clustered  locking  is enabled, this defaults to y indicating that this Volume Group is shared
              with other nodes in the cluster.

              If the new Volume Group contains only local disks that are not visible on  the  other  nodes,  you
              must  specify --clustered n.  If the cluster infrastructure is unavailable on a particular node at
              a particular time, you may still be able to use such Volume Groups.

       -l, --maxlogicalvolumes MaxLogicalVolumes
              Sets the maximum number of logical volumes allowed in this  volume  group.   The  setting  can  be
              changed  with  vgchange(8).  For volume groups with metadata in lvm1 format, the limit and default
              value is 255.  If the metadata uses lvm2 format,  the  default  value  is  0  which  removes  this
              restriction: there is then no limit.

       -p, --maxphysicalvolumes MaxPhysicalVolumes
              Sets the maximum number of physical volumes that can belong to this volume group.  The setting can
              be changed with vgchange.  For volume groups with metadata in lvm1 format, the limit  and  default
              value  is  255.   If the metadata uses lvm2 format, the value 0 removes this restriction: there is
              then no limit.  If you have a large number of physical volumes in a volume group with metadata  in
              lvm2 format, for tool performance reasons, you should consider some use of --pvmetadatacopies 0 as
              described in pvcreate(8), and/or use --vgmetadatacopies.

       --[vg]metadatacopies NumberOfCopies|unmanaged|all
              Sets the desired number of metadata copies in the volume group.  If set to a non-zero  value,  LVM
              will  automatically  manage the 'metadataignore' flags on the physical volumes (see pvcreate(8) or
              pvchange --metadataignore) in order to achieve NumberOfCopies  copies  of  metadata.   If  set  to
              unmanaged,  LVM will not automatically manage the 'metadataignore' flags.  If set to all, LVM will
              first clear all of the 'metadataignore' flags on all metadata areas in the volume group, then  set
              the  value to unmanaged.  The vgmetadatacopies option is useful for volume groups containing large
              numbers of physical volumes with metadata as it may be used to minimize metadata  read  and  write
              overhead.  The default value is unmanaged.

       -s, --physicalextentsize PhysicalExtentSize[bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE]
              Sets  the  physical  extent  size  on physical volumes of this volume group.  A size suffix (k for
              kilobytes up to t for terabytes) is optional, megabytes is the default if no  suffix  is  present.
              The default is 4 MiB and it must be at least 1 KiB and a power of 2.

              Once  this  value  has  been set, it is difficult to change it without recreating the volume group
              which would involve backing up and restoring data on any logical volumes.  However, if no  extents
              need moving for the new value to apply, it can be altered using vgchange -s.

              If  the  volume  group  metadata uses lvm1 format, extents can vary in size from 8KiB to 16GiB and
              there is a limit of 65534 extents in each logical volume.  The default of 4 MiB leads to a maximum
              logical volume size of around 256GiB.

              If  the volume group metadata uses lvm2 format those restrictions do not apply, but having a large
              number of extents will slow down the tools but have no impact on I/O performance  to  the  logical
              volume.  The smallest PE is 1KiB

              The 2.4 kernel has a limitation of 2TiB per block device.

PHYSICAL DEVICE OPTIONS

       The following options are available for initializing physical devices in the volume group.  These options
       are further described in the pvcreate(8) man page.

       -f, --force

       -y, --yes

       -Z, --zero {y|n}

       --labelsector sector

       --metadatasize size

       --pvmetadatacopies copies

       --dataalignment alignment

       --dataalignmentoffset alignment_offset

Examples

       Creates a volume group named "test_vg" using physical volumes "/dev/sdk1" and  "/dev/sdl1"  with  default
       physical extent size of 4MiB:

       vgcreate test_vg /dev/sdk1 /dev/sdl1

SEE ALSO

       lvm(8),  pvdisplay(8),  pvcreate(8),  vgdisplay(8),  vgextend(8), vgreduce(8), lvcreate(8), lvdisplay(8),
       lvextend(8), lvreduce(8)