VGCREATE(8) System Manager's Manual VGCREATE(8)
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|--maxlogi-
calvolumes MaxLogicalVolumes] [-M|--metadatatypetype] [-p|--maxphysicalvolumes MaxPhysicalVolumes] [--[vg]metadatacopies] NumberOf-
Copies|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. If non-default pvcreate values are desired, they may be given on the commandline with the same options as pvcreate.
See PHYSICAL DEVICE OPTIONS for available options. Note that the restore-related options such as --restorefile, --uuid, and --physicalvol-
umesize are not available. If a restore operation is needed, use pvcreate (8) and vgcfgrestore (8).
OPTIONS
See lvm 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. 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.
--vgmetadatacopies 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 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 vgmetadata-
copies 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 MB and it must be at least 1 KB 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 8KB to 16GB and there is a limit of 65534 extents in
each logical volume. The default of 4 MB leads to a maximum logical volume size of around 256GB.
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 1KB.
The 2.4 kernel has a limitation of 2TB 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 man page.
-f, --force
-y, --yes
-Z, --zero y|n
--labelsector sector
--metadatasize size
--pvmetadatacopies copies
--dataalignment alignment
--dataalignmentoffset alignment_offset
EXAMPLES
To create a volume group named test_vg using physical volumes /dev/sdk1, and /dev/sdl1 with default physical extent size of 4MB:
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)
Sistina Software UK LVM TOOLS 2.02.95(2) (2012-03-06) VGCREATE(8)