| .TH VGCREATE 8 "LVM TOOLS #VERSION#" "Sistina Software UK" \" -*- nroff -*- |
| .SH NAME |
| vgcreate \(em create a volume group |
| .SH SYNOPSIS |
| .B vgcreate |
| .RB [ \-\-addtag |
| .IR Tag ] |
| .RB [ \-\-alloc |
| .IR AllocationPolicy ] |
| .RB [ \-A | \-\-autobackup |
| .RI { y | n }] |
| .RB [ \-c | \-\-clustered |
| .RI { y | n }] |
| .RB [ \-\-commandprofile |
| .IR ProfileName ] |
| .RB [ \-d | \-\-debug ] |
| .RB [ \-h | \-\-help ] |
| .RB [ \-l | \-\-maxlogicalvolumes |
| .IR MaxLogicalVolumes ] |
| .RB [ \-M | \-\-metadatatype |
| .IR type ] |
| .RB [ \-\-metadataprofile |
| .IR ProfileName ] |
| .RB [ \-p | \-\-maxphysicalvolumes |
| .IR MaxPhysicalVolumes ] |
| .RB [ \-\- [ vg ] metadatacopies |
| .IR NumberOfCopies | unmanaged | all ] |
| .RB [ \-s | \-\-physicalextentsize |
| .IR PhysicalExtentSize [ bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE ]] |
| .RB [ \-\-reportformat |
| .RB { basic | json }] |
| .RB [ \-\-shared ] |
| .RB [ \-\-systemid |
| .IR SystemID ] |
| .RB [ \-t | \-\-test ] |
| .RB [ \-v | \-\-verbose ] |
| .RB [ \-\-version ] |
| .RB [ "PHYSICAL DEVICE OPTIONS" ] |
| .I VolumeGroupName PhysicalDevicePath |
| .RI [ PhysicalDevicePath ...] |
| .SH DESCRIPTION |
| vgcreate creates a new volume group called |
| .I VolumeGroupName |
| using the block special device \fIPhysicalDevicePath\fP. |
| .sp |
| If \fIPhysicalDevicePath\fP was not previously configured for LVM with |
| \fBpvcreate\fP(8), the device will be initialized with the same |
| default values used with \fBpvcreate\fP(8). If non-default |
| \fPpvcreate\fP values are desired, they may be given on the |
| commandline with the same options as \fBpvcreate\fP(8). See |
| .B PHYSICAL DEVICE OPTIONS |
| for available options. Note that the restore-related options such as |
| .BR \-\-restorefile ", " \-\-uuid " and " \-\-physicalvolumesize |
| are not available. If a restore operation is needed, use |
| \fBpvcreate\fP(8) and \fBvgcfgrestore\fP(8). |
| .SH OPTIONS |
| See \fBlvm\fP(8) for common options. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-c ", " \-\-clustered " {" \fIy | \fIn } |
| If clustered locking is enabled, this defaults to \fBy\fP 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 \fB\-\-clustered\ n\fP. |
| If the cluster infrastructure is unavailable on a particular node at a |
| particular time, you may still be able to use such Volume Groups. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-l ", " \-\-maxlogicalvolumes " " \fIMaxLogicalVolumes |
| Sets the maximum number of logical volumes allowed in this |
| volume group. |
| The setting can be changed with \fBvgchange\fP(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. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-p ", " \-\-maxphysicalvolumes " " \fIMaxPhysicalVolumes |
| Sets the maximum number of physical volumes that can belong |
| to this volume group. |
| The setting can be changed with \fBvgchange\fP. |
| 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 \fB\-\-pvmetadatacopies 0\fP as described in |
| \fBpvcreate\fP(8), and/or use \fB\-\-vgmetadatacopies\fP. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-\- [ vg ] metadatacopies " " \fINumberOfCopies | \fIunmanaged | \fIall |
| 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 \fBpvcreate\fP(8) or |
| \fBpvchange \-\-metadataignore\fP) in order |
| to achieve \fINumberOfCopies\fP copies of metadata. If set to \fIunmanaged\fP, |
| LVM will not automatically manage the 'metadataignore' flags. If set to |
| \fIall\fP, LVM will first clear all of the 'metadataignore' flags on all |
| metadata areas in the volume group, then set the value to \fIunmanaged\fP. |
| The \fBvgmetadatacopies\fP 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 \fIunmanaged\fP. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-\-metadataprofile " " \fIProfileName |
| 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 \fBlvm.conf\fP(5) for more information about \fBmetadata profiles\fP. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-s ", " \-\-physicalextentsize " " \fIPhysicalExtentSize [ \fIbBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE ] |
| 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 \fBvgchange \-s\fP. |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| .TP |
| .B \-\-shared |
| Create a shared VG using lvmlockd if LVM is compiled with lockd support. |
| 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. lvmlockd and a lock manager must be configured and running. See |
| .BR lvmlockd (8). |
| |
| .TP |
| .BR \-\-systemid " " \fISystemID |
| 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 |
| .BR lvmsystemid (7). |
| |
| .SH PHYSICAL DEVICE OPTIONS |
| The following options are available for initializing physical devices in the |
| volume group. These options are further described in the \fBpvcreate\fP(8) |
| man page. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-f ", " \-\-force |
| .TP |
| .BR \-y ", " \-\-yes |
| .TP |
| .BR \-Z ", " \-\-zero " {" \fIy | \fIn } |
| .TP |
| .B \-\-labelsector \fIsector |
| .TP |
| .B \-\-metadatasize \fIsize |
| .TP |
| .B \-\-pvmetadatacopies \fIcopies |
| .TP |
| .B \-\-dataalignment \fIalignment |
| .TP |
| .B \-\-dataalignmentoffset \fIalignment_offset |
| .SH Examples |
| Creates a volume group named "test_vg" using physical volumes "/dev/sdk1" |
| and "/dev/sdl1" with default physical extent size of 4MiB: |
| .sp |
| .B vgcreate test_vg /dev/sdk1 /dev/sdl1 |
| |
| .SH SEE ALSO |
| .BR lvm (8), |
| .BR pvdisplay (8), |
| .BR pvcreate (8), |
| .BR vgdisplay (8), |
| .BR vgextend (8), |
| .BR vgreduce (8), |
| .BR lvcreate (8), |
| .BR lvdisplay (8), |
| .BR lvextend (8), |
| .BR lvreduce (8) |