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] [-s|--physicalextentsize PhysicalExtent-
       Size[kKmMgGtT]] [-t|--test] [-v|--verbose] [--version] VolumeGroupName PhysicalVolumePath [PhysicalVolumePath...]

DESCRIPTION

       vgcreate  creates a new volume group called VolumeGroupName using the block special device PhysicalVolumePath previously configured for LVM
       with pvcreate(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 default value
	      is  0 which 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 --metadatacopies 0  as  described	in  pvcre-
	      ate(8).

       -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.  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.

EXAMPLES

       To create a volume group named test_vg using physical volumes /dev/hdk1, and /dev/hdl1 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 2.02.44-cvs (02-17-09)					       VGCREATE(8)