Provided by: lvm2_2.02.133-1ubuntu10_amd64 bug

NAME

       pvcreate — initialize a disk or partition for use by LVM

SYNOPSIS

       pvcreate    [--commandprofile    ProfileName]    [-d|--debug]    [-h|--help]   [-t|--test]
       [-v|--verbose]   [--version]   [-f[f]|--force   [--force]]   [-y|--yes]    [--labelsector]
       [--bootloaderareasize size] [-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.

       --bootloaderareasize size
              Create  a  separate  bootloader  area of specified size besides PV's data area. The
              bootloader area is an area of reserved space on the PV from  which  LVM2  will  not
              allocate  any extents and it's kept untouched. This is primarily aimed for use with
              bootloaders to embed their own data or metadata.  The start of the bootloader  area
              is   always  aligned,  see  also  --dataalignment  and  --dataalignmentoffset.  The
              bootloader area size may eventually end up increased due to the alignment, but it's
              never  less  than  the size that is requested. To see the bootloader area start and
              size of an existing Physical Volume use pvs -o +pv_ba_start,pv_ba_size.

       --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)