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