Ubuntu Manpage: vgcreate — create a volume group

Provided by: lvm2_2.02.133-1ubuntu10_amd64

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