vgcreate(8) — Linux manual page
VGCREATE(8) System Manager's Manual VGCREATE(8)
NAME
vgcreate — Create a volume group
SYNOPSIS
vgcreate position_args
[ option_args ]
DESCRIPTION
vgcreate creates a new VG on block devices. If the devices were
not previously initialized as PVs with pvcreate(8), vgcreate will
inititialize them, making them PVs. The pvcreate options for
initializing devices are also available with vgcreate.
When vgcreate uses an existing PV, that PV's existing values for
metadata size, PE start, etc, are used, even if different values
are specified in the vgcreate command. To change these values,
first use pvremove on the device.
USAGE
vgcreate VG_new PV ...
[ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
[ -c|--clustered y|n ]
[ -l|--maxlogicalvolumes Number ]
[ -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number ]
[ -M|--metadatatype lvm2 ]
[ -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT] ]
[ -f|--force ]
[ -Z|--zero y|n ]
[ --addtag Tag ]
[ --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|
inherit ]
[ --metadataprofile String ]
[ --labelsector Number ]
[ --metadatasize Size[m|UNIT] ]
[ --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2 ]
[ --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number ]
[ --reportformat basic|json ]
[ --dataalignment Size[k|UNIT] ]
[ --dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT] ]
[ --shared ]
[ --systemid String ]
[ --locktype sanlock|dlm|none ]
[ --setautoactivation y|n ]
[ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
Common options for lvm:
[ -d|--debug ]
[ -h|--help ]
[ -q|--quiet ]
[ -t|--test ]
[ -v|--verbose ]
[ -y|--yes ]
[ --commandprofile String ]
[ --config String ]
[ --devices PV ]
[ --devicesfile String ]
[ --driverloaded y|n ]
[ --journal String ]
[ --lockopt String ]
[ --longhelp ]
[ --nohints ]
[ --nolocking ]
[ --profile String ]
[ --version ]
OPTIONS
--addtag Tag
Adds a tag to a PV, VG or LV. This option can be repeated
to add multiple tags at once. See lvm(8) for information
about tags.
--alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
Determines the allocation policy when a command needs to
allocate Physical Extents (PEs) from the VG. Each VG and
LV has an allocation policy which can be changed with
vgchange/lvchange, or overridden on the command line.
normal applies common sense rules such as not placing par‐
allel stripes on the same PV. inherit applies the VG pol‐
icy to an LV. contiguous requires new PEs be placed adja‐
cent to existing PEs. cling places new PEs on the same PV
as existing PEs in the same stripe of the LV. If there
are sufficient PEs for an allocation, but normal does not
use them, anywhere will use them even if it reduces per‐
formance, e.g. by placing two stripes on the same PV. Op‐
tional positional PV args on the command line can also be
used to limit which PVs the command will use for alloca‐
tion. See lvm(8) for more information about allocation.
-A|--autobackup y|n
Specifies if metadata should be backed up automatically
after a change. Enabling this is strongly advised! See
vgcfgbackup(8) for more information.
-c|--clustered y|n
This option was specific to clvm and is now replaced by
the --shared option with lvmlockd(8).
--commandprofile String
The command profile to use for command configuration. See
lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.
--config String
Config settings for the command. These override
lvm.conf(5) settings. The String arg uses the same format
as lvm.conf(5), or may use section/field syntax. See
lvm.conf(5) for more information about config.
--dataalignment Size[k|UNIT]
Align the start of a PV data area with a multiple of this
number. To see the location of the first Physical Extent
(PE) of an existing PV, use pvs -o +pe_start. In addition,
it may be shifted by an alignment offset, see --dataalign‐
mentoffset. Also specify an appropriate PE size when cre‐
ating a VG.
--dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT]
Shift the start of the PV data area by this additional
offset.
-d|--debug ...
Set debug level. Repeat from 1 to 6 times to increase the
detail of messages sent to the log file and/or syslog (if
configured).
--devices PV
Devices that the command can use. This option can be re‐
peated or accepts a comma separated list of devices. This
overrides the devices file.
--devicesfile String
A file listing devices that LVM should use. The file must
exist in /etc/lvm/devices/ and is managed with the
lvmdevices(8) command. This overrides the lvm.conf(5) de‐
vices/devicesfile and devices/use_devicesfile settings.
--driverloaded y|n
If set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-
mapper. For testing and debugging.
-f|--force ...
Override various checks, confirmations and protections.
Use with extreme caution.
-h|--help
Display help text.
--journal String
Record information in the systemd journal. This informa‐
tion is in addition to information enabled by the lvm.conf
log/journal setting. command: record information about
the command. output: record the default command output.
debug: record full command debugging.
--labelsector Number
By default the PV is labelled with an LVM2 identifier in
its second sector (sector 1). This lets you use a differ‐
ent sector near the start of the disk (between 0 and 3 in‐
clusive - see LABEL_SCAN_SECTORS in the source). Use with
care.
--lockopt String
Used to pass options for special cases to lvmlockd. See
lvmlockd(8) for more information.
--locktype sanlock|dlm|none
Specify the VG lock type directly in place of using
--shared. See lvmlockd(8) for more information.
--longhelp
Display long help text.
-l|--maxlogicalvolumes Number
Sets the maximum number of LVs allowed in a VG.
-p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number
Sets the maximum number of PVs that can belong to the VG.
The value 0 removes any limitation. For large numbers of
PVs, also see options --pvmetadatacopies, and --vgmetadat‐
acopies for improving performance.
--metadataprofile String
The metadata profile to use for command configuration.
See lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.
--metadatasize Size[m|UNIT]
The approximate amount of space used for each VG metadata
area. The size may be rounded.
-M|--metadatatype lvm2
Specifies the type of on-disk metadata to use. lvm2 (or
just 2) is the current, standard format. lvm1 (or just 1)
is no longer used.
--nohints
Do not use the hints file to locate devices for PVs. A
command may read more devices to find PVs when hints are
not used. The command will still perform standard hint
file invalidation where appropriate.
--nolocking
Disable locking.
-s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT]
Sets the physical extent size of PVs in the VG. The value
must be either a power of 2 of at least 1 sector (where
the sector size is the largest sector size of the PVs cur‐
rently used in the VG), or at least 128KiB. Once this
value has been set, it is difficult to change without
recreating the VG, unless no extents need moving.
--profile String
An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, de‐
pending on the command.
--pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2
The number of metadata areas to set aside on a PV for
storing VG metadata. When 2, one copy of the VG metadata
is stored at the front of the PV and a second copy is
stored at the end. When 1, one copy of the VG metadata is
stored at the front of the PV. When 0, no copies of the
VG metadata are stored on the given PV. This may be use‐
ful in VGs containing many PVs (this places limitations on
the ability to use vgsplit later.)
-q|--quiet ...
Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and
--verbose. Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with
answer 'no'.
--reportformat basic|json
Overrides current output format for reports which is de‐
fined globally by the report/output_format setting in
lvm.conf(5). basic is the original format with columns
and rows. If there is more than one report per command,
each report is prefixed with the report name for identifi‐
cation. json produces report output in JSON format. See
lvmreport(7) for more information.
--setautoactivation y|n
Set the autoactivation property on a VG or LV. Display
the property with vgs or lvs "-o autoactivation". When
the autoactivation property is disabled, the VG or LV will
not be activated by a command doing autoactivation
(vgchange, lvchange, or pvscan using -aay.) If autoacti‐
vation is disabled on a VG, no LVs will be autoactivated
in that VG, and the LV autoactivation property has no ef‐
fect. If autoactivation is enabled on a VG, autoactiva‐
tion can be disabled for individual LVs.
--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 al‐
lows multiple hosts to share a VG on shared devices. lvm‐
lockd and a lock manager must be configured and running.
See lvmlockd(8) for more information about shared VGs.
--systemid String
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 creat‐
ing 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) for more information.
-t|--test
Run in test mode. Commands will not update metadata. This
is implemented by disabling all metadata writing but nev‐
ertheless returning success to the calling function. This
may lead to unusual error messages in multi-stage opera‐
tions if a tool relies on reading back metadata it be‐
lieves has changed but hasn't.
-v|--verbose ...
Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase
the detail of messages sent to stdout and stderr.
--version
Display version information.
--[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number
Number of copies of the VG metadata that are kept. VG
metadata is kept in VG metadata areas on PVs in the VG,
i.e. reserved space at the start and/or end of the PVs.
Keeping a copy of the VG metadata on every PV can reduce
performance in VGs containing a large number of PVs. When
this number is set to a non-zero value, LVM will automati‐
cally choose PVs on which to store metadata, using the
metadataignore flags on PVs to achieve the specified num‐
ber. The number can also be replaced with special string
values: unmanaged causes LVM to not automatically manage
the PV metadataignore flags. all causes LVM to first
clear the metadataignore flags on all PVs, and then to be‐
come unmanaged.
-y|--yes
Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always
assume the answer yes. Use with extreme caution. (For au‐
tomatic no, see -qq.)
-Z|--zero y|n
Controls if the first 4 sectors (2048 bytes) of the device
are wiped. The default is to wipe these sectors unless
either or both of --restorefile or --uuid are specified.
VARIABLES
VG Volume Group name. See lvm(8) for valid names.
PV Physical Volume name, a device path under /dev. For com‐
mands managing physical extents, a PV positional arg gen‐
erally accepts a suffix indicating a range (or multiple
ranges) of physical extents (PEs). When the first PE is
omitted, it defaults to the start of the device, and when
the last PE is omitted it defaults to end. Start and end
range (inclusive): PV[:PE-PE]... Start and length range
(counting from 0): PV[:PE+PE]...
String See the option description for information about the
string content.
Size[UNIT]
Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit.
Input units are always treated as base two values, regard‐
less of capitalization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to
1024. The default input unit is specified by letter, fol‐
lowed by |UNIT. UNIT represents other possible input
units: b|B is bytes, s|S is sectors of 512 bytes, k|K is
KiB, m|M is MiB, g|G is GiB, t|T is TiB, p|P is PiB, e|E
is EiB. (This should not be confused with the output con‐
trol --units, where capital letters mean multiple of
1000.)
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See lvm(8) for information about environment variables used by
lvm. For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a
required VG parameter.
EXAMPLES
Create a VG with two PVs, using the default physical extent size.
vgcreate myvg /dev/sdk1 /dev/sdl1
SEE ALSO
lvm(8), lvm.conf(5), lvmconfig(8), lvmdevices(8),
pvchange(8), pvck(8), pvcreate(8), pvdisplay(8), pvmove(8),
pvremove(8), pvresize(8), pvs(8), pvscan(8),
vgcfgbackup(8), vgcfgrestore(8), vgchange(8), vgck(8),
vgcreate(8), vgconvert(8), vgdisplay(8), vgexport(8),
vgextend(8), vgimport(8), vgimportclone(8), vgimportdevices(8),
vgmerge(8), vgmknodes(8), vgreduce(8), vgremove(8), vgrename(8),
vgs(8), vgscan(8), vgsplit(8),
lvcreate(8), lvchange(8), lvconvert(8), lvdisplay(8),
lvextend(8), lvreduce(8), lvremove(8), lvrename(8), lvresize(8),
lvs(8), lvscan(8),
lvm-fullreport(8), lvm-lvpoll(8), blkdeactivate(8), lvmdump(8),
dmeventd(8), lvmpolld(8), lvmlockd(8), lvmlockctl(8),
cmirrord(8), lvmdbusd(8), fsadm(8),
lvmsystemid(7), lvmreport(7), lvmcache(7), lvmraid(7),
lvmthin(7), lvmvdo(7), lvmautoactivation(7)
COLOPHON
This page is part of the lvm2 (Logical Volume Manager 2) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.sourceware.org/lvm2/⟩. If you have a bug report for
this manual page, see ⟨https://github.com/lvmteam/lvm2/issues⟩.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://sourceware.org/git/lvm2.git⟩ on 2024-06-14. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2024-06-11.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Red Hat, Inc. LVM TOOLS 2.03.25(2)-git (2024-05-16) VGCREATE(8)
Pages that refer to this page: lvmsystemid(7), lvchange(8), lvconvert(8), lvcreate(8), lvdisplay(8), lvextend(8), lvm(8), lvmconfig(8), lvmdevices(8), lvmdiskscan(8), lvm-fullreport(8), lvm-lvpoll(8), lvreduce(8), lvremove(8), lvrename(8), lvresize(8), lvs(8), lvscan(8), pvchange(8), pvck(8), pvcreate(8), pvdisplay(8), pvmove(8), pvremove(8), pvresize(8), pvs(8), pvscan(8), vgcfgbackup(8), vgcfgrestore(8), vgchange(8), vgck(8), vgconvert(8), vgcreate(8), vgdisplay(8), vgexport(8), vgextend(8), vgimport(8), vgimportclone(8), vgimportdevices(8), vgmerge(8), vgmknodes(8), vgreduce(8), vgremove(8), vgrename(8), vgs(8), vgscan(8), vgsplit(8)