vgcreate
VGCREATE(8) VGCREATE(8)
NAME
vgcreate - create a volume group
SYNOPSIS
vgcreate [-A|--autobackup {y|n}] [-d|--debug] [-h|--help] [-l|--maxlog-
icalvolumes MaxLogicalVolumes] [-p|--maxphysicalvolumes MaxPhysicalVol-
umes] [-s|--physicalextentsize PhysicalExtentSize[kKmMgGtT]] [-v|--ver-
bose] [--version] VolumeGroupName PhysicalVolumePath [PhysicalVol-
umePath...]
DESCRIPTION
vgcreate creates a new volume group called VolumeGroupName using the
block special device PhysicalVolumePath previously configured for LVM
with pvcreate(8).
OPTIONS
-A, --autobackup {y|n}
Controls automatic backup of VG metadata after the change (see
vgcfgbackup(8)). Default is yes.
-d, --debug
Enables additional debugging output (if compiled with DEBUG).
-h, --help
Print a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.
-l, --maxlogicalvolumes MaxLogicalVolumes
Sets the maximum possible logical volume count. More logical
volumes can't be created in this volume group. Absolute maximum
is 256.
-p, --maxphysicalvolumes MaxPhysicalVolumes
Sets the maximum possible physical volume count. More physical
volumes can't be included in this volume group. Absolute maxi-
mum is 256.
-s, --physicalextentsize PhysicalExtentSize[kKmMgGtT]
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.
Values can be from 8 KB to 16 GB in powers of 2. The default of
4 MB causes maximum LV sizes of ~256GB because as many as ~64k
extents are supported per LV. In case larger maximum LV sizes
are needed (later), you need to set the PE size to a larger
value as well. Later changes of the PE size in an existing VG
are not supported.
-v, --verbose
Display verbose runtime information about vgcreate's activities.
--version
Display tool and IOP version and exit successfully.
EXAMPLES
To create a volume group named test_vg using physical volumes
/dev/hdk1, /dev/hdl1, and /dev/hdm1 with default physical extent size
of 4MB:
vgcreate test_vg /dev/sd[k-m]1
NOTE: If you are using devfs it is essential to use the full devfs name
of the device rather than the symlinked name in /dev. so: the above
could be
vgcreate test_vg /dev/scsi/host1/bus0/target[1-3]/lun0/part1
To limit kernel memory usage, there is a limit of 65536 physical
extents (PE) per logical volume, so the PE size determines the maximum
logical volume size. The default PE size of 4MB limits a single logi-
cal volume to 256GB (see the -s option to raise that limit). There is
also (as of Linux 2.4) a kernel limitation of 2TB per block device.
DIAGNOSTICS
vgcreate returns an exit code of 0 for success and > 0 for error;
1 no volume group and physical volume names on command line
2 no physical volume names on command line
3 invalid volume group name
4 error checking existence of volume group
5 maximum number of volume groups exceeded
6 error reading physical volume(s)
7 invalid physical volume name
8 error getting physical volume size
9 no new physical volume
10 physical volume occurs multiple times on command line
11 memory reallocation error
12 no valid physical volumes on command line
13 some invalid physical volumes on command line
14 physical volume is too small
15 error setting up VGDA
16 error writing VGDA to physical volumes
17 error creating VGDA in kernel
18 error inserting volume group into lvmtab
19 error doing backup of VGDA
20 error writing VGDA to lvmtab
21 volume group directory already exists in /dev
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
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
LVM_AUTOBACKUP
If this variable is set to "no" then the automatic backup of VG
metadata is turned off.
LVM_VG_MAX_BACKUPS
This variable determines the backup history depth of kept VGDA
copy files in /etc/lvmconf. It can be set to a positive number
between 0 and 999. The higher this number is, the more changes
you can restore using vgcfgrestore(8).
SEE ALSO
lvm(8), pvdisplay(8), pvcreate(8), vgdisplay(8), vgextend(8), vgre-
duce(8), lvcreate(8), lvdisplay(8), lvextend(8), lvreduce(8)
AUTHOR
Heinz Mauelshagen <Linux-LVM@Sistina.com>
Heinz Mauelshagen LVM TOOLS VGCREATE(8)
