pvcreate

PVCREATE(8)                                                        PVCREATE(8)



NAME
       pvcreate - initialize a disk or partition for use by LVM

SYNOPSIS
       pvcreate  [-d|--debug] [-f[f]|--force [--force]] [-y|--yes] [-h|--help]
       [-v|--verbose] [-V|--version] PhysicalVolume [PhysicalVolume...]

DESCRIPTION
       pvcreate initializes PhysicalVolume for later use by the Logical Volume
       Manager  (LVM).   Each  PhysicalVolume  can  be a disk partition, whole
       disk, meta device, or loopback file.  For DOS disk partitions, the par-
       tition  id  must be set to 0x8e using fdisk(8), cfdisk(8), or a equiva-
       lent.  For whole disk devices only the partition table must be  erased,
       which will effectively destroy all data on that disk.  This can be done
       by zeroing the first sector with:

       dd if=/dev/zero of=PhysicalVolume bs=512 count=1

       Continue with vgcreate(8) to create a new volume group on  PhysicalVol-
       ume,  or vgextend(8) to add PhysicalVolume to an existing volume group.

   OPTIONS
       -d, --debug
              Enables additional debugging output (if compiled with DEBUG).

       -f, --force
              Force the creation without any confirmation.  You can not recre-
              ate  (reinitialize)  a  physical volume belonging to an existing
              volume group.  In an emergency you can override  this  behaviour
              with -ff.  In no case case can you initialize an active physical
              volume with this command.

       -s, --size
              Overrides the size of the  physical  volume  which  is  normally
              retrieved.   Useful in rare case where this value is wrong. More
              useful to fake large physical volumes of up to 2  Terabyes  -  1
              Kilobyte  on  smaller devices for testing purposes only where no
              real access to data in created logical volumes  is  needed.   If
              you  wish  to  create  the  supported  maximum, use "pvcreate -s
              2147483647k PhysicalVolume [PhysicalVolume ...]".  All other LVM
              tools will use this size with the exception of lvmdiskscan(8)

       -y, --yes
              Answer yes to all questions.

       -h, --help
              Print  a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.

       -v, --verbose
              Gives verbose runtime information about pvcreate's activities.

       -V, --version
              Print the version number on standard output  and  exit  success-
              fully.

Example
       Initialize  partition  #4  on  the third SCSI disk and the entire fifth
       SCSI disk for later use by LVM:

       pvcreate /dev/sdc4 /dev/sde


DIAGNOSTICS
       pvcreate returns an exit code of 0 for success or > 0 for error:

       1  no physical volume on command line
       2  error removing existing lvmtab entry for new physical volume
       3  error setting up physical volume structure
       4  error writing physical volume structure to disk
       5  wrong partition type identifier
       6  error physical volume name
       7  error getting size of physical volume

       95 driver/module not in kernel
       96 invalid I/O protocol version
       97 error locking logical volume manager
       98 invalid lvmtab (run vgscan(8))
       99 invalid command line

SEE ALSO
       lvm(8), vgcreate(8),  vgextend(8),  lvcreate(8),  cfdisk(8),  fdisk(8),
       losetup(8), mdadd(8)

AUTHOR
       Heinz Mauelshagen <Linux-LVM@Sistina.com>



Heinz Mauelshagen                  LVM TOOLS                       PVCREATE(8)