xenial (8) vgcreate.8.gz

NAME

       vgcreate — create a volume group

SYNOPSIS

       vgcreate  [--addtag  Tag]  [--alloc  AllocationPolicy]  [-A|--autobackup  {y|n}]  [-c|--clustered  {y|n}]
       [--commandprofile  ProfileName]  [-d|--debug]  [-h|--help]   [-l|--maxlogicalvolumes   MaxLogicalVolumes]
       [-M|--metadatatype  type]  [--metadataprofile  ProfileName]  [-p|--maxphysicalvolumes MaxPhysicalVolumes]
       [--[vg]metadatacopies               NumberOfCopies|unmanaged|all]                [-s|--physicalextentsize
       PhysicalExtentSize[bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE]]   [--shared]   [--systemid   SystemID]  [-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.

       --metadataprofile ProfileName
              Uses and attaches the ProfileName configuration profile to the volume group metadata. Whenever the
              volume  group  is  processed  next  time,  the  profile  is  automatically applied. The profile is
              inherited by all logical volumes in the volume group unless the logical volume itself has its  own
              profile attached.  See lvm.conf(5) for more information about metadata profiles.

       -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.
              For LVM2 format, the value must be a power of 2 of at least 1 sector (where the sector size is the
              largest sector size of the PVs currently used in the VG) or, if not a power of 2, at least 128KiB.
              For  the older LVM1 format, it must be a power of 2 of at least 8KiB.  The default is 4 MiB.  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.

       --shared
              Create a shared VG using lvmlockd.  lvmlockd will select lock type sanlock  or  dlm  depending  on
              which  lock  manager is running.  This allows multiple hosts to share a VG on shared devices.  See
              lvmlockd(8).

       --systemid SystemID
              Specifies the system ID that will be given to the new VG, overriding the system  ID  of  the  host
              running  the  command.   A VG is normally created without this option, in which case the new VG is
              given the system ID of the host creating it.  Using  this  option  requires  caution  because  the
              system  ID  of the new VG may not match the system ID of the host running the command, leaving the
              VG inaccessible to the host.  See lvmsystemid(7).

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)