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)