PVCREATE(8)						      System Manager's Manual						       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] [-t|--test] [-v|--verbose] [--labelsector] [-M|--metadatatypetype]
       [--[pv]metadatacopies#copies] [--metadatasizesize] [--dataalignmentalignment]  [--dataalignmentoffsetalignment_offset]  [--restorefilefile]
       [--setphysicalvolumesizesize] [-u|--uuiduuid] [--version] [-Z|--zeroy|n] 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 partition id should be set to  0x8e  using  fdisk(8),  cfdisk(8),  or  a
       equivalent.   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 PhysicalVolume, or vgextend(8) to add PhysicalVolume to an existing volume group.

OPTIONS

       See lvm(8) for common options.

       -f, --force
	      Force the creation without any confirmation.  You can not recreate (reinitialize) a physical volume belonging to an existing  volume
	      group.  In an emergency you can override this behaviour with -ff.

       -u, --uuid uuid
	      Specify  the  uuid  for  the device.  Without this option, pvcreate generates a random uuid.  All of your physical volumes must have
	      unique uuids.  You need to use this option before restoring a backup of LVM metadata  onto  a  replacement  device  -  see  vgcfgre-
	      store(8).

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

       -Z, --zero y|n
	      Whether  or not the first 4 sectors (2048 bytes) of the device should be wiped.  If this option is not given, the default is to wipe
	      these sectors unless either or both of the --restorefile or --uuid options were specified.

NEW METADATA OPTIONS

       LVM2 introduces a new format for storing metadata on disk.  This new format is more efficient and resilient than the  format  the  original
       version of LVM used and offers the advanced user greater flexibility and control.

       The new format may be selected on the command line with -M2 or by setting format = "lvm2" in the global section of lvm.conf.  Each physical
       volume in the same volume group must use the same format, but different volume groups on a machine may  use  different  formats	simultane-
       ously: the tools can handle both formats.  Additional formats can be added as shared libraries.

       Additional  tools  for manipulating the locations and sizes of metadata areas will be written in due course.  Use the verbose/debug options
       on the tools to see where the metadata areas are placed.

       --metadatasize size
	      The approximate amount of space to be set aside for each metadata area.  (The size you specify may get rounded.)

       --dataalignment alignment
	      Align the start of the data to a multiple of this number.  You should also specify an appropriate PhysicalExtentSize  when  creating
	      the Volume Group with vgcreate.

	      To see the location of the first Physical Extent of an existing Physical Volume use pvs -o +pe_start .  It will be a multiple of the
	      requested alignment.  In addition it may	be  shifted  by  alignment_offset  from  data_alignment_offset_detection  (if  enabled	in
	      lvm.conf) or --dataalignmentoffset.

       --dataalignmentoffset alignment_offset
	      Shift the start of the data area by this additional alignment_offset.

       --[pv]metadatacopies copies
	      The number of metadata areas to set aside on each PV.  Currently this can be 0, 1 or 2.  If set to 2, two copies of the volume group
	      metadata are held on the PV, one at the front of the PV and one at the end.  If set to 1 (the default), one  copy  is  kept  at  the
	      front of the PV (starting in the 5th sector).  If set to 0, no copies are kept on this PV - you might wish to use this with VGs con-
	      taining large numbers of PVs.  But if you do this and then later use vgsplit you must ensure that each VG is still going to  have  a
	      suitable number of copies of the metadata after the split!

       --restorefile file
	      In  conjunction  with  --uuid, this extracts the location and size of the data on the PV from the file (produced by vgcfgbackup) and
	      ensures that the metadata that the program produces is consistent with the contents of the file i.e. the physical extents will be in
	      the  same  place and not get overwritten by new metadata.  This provides a mechanism to upgrade the metadata format or to add/remove
	      metadata areas. Use with care. See also vgconvert(8).

       --labelsector sector
	      By default the PV is labelled with an LVM2 identifier in its second sector (sector 1).  This lets you use a  different  sector  near
	      the start of the disk (between 0 and 3 inclusive - see LABEL_SCAN_SECTORS in the source).  Use with care.

       --setphysicalvolumesize size
	      Overrides the automatically-detected size of the PV.  Use with care.

EXAMPLES

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

       pvcreate /dev/sdc4 /dev/sde

       If the 2nd SCSI disk is a 4KB sector drive that compensates for windows partitioning (sector 7 is the lowest aligned logical block, the 4KB
       sectors start at LBA -1, and consequently sector 63 is aligned on a 4KB boundary) manually account for this when initializing  for  use	by
       LVM:

       pvcreate --dataalignmentoffset 7s /dev/sdb

SEE ALSO

       lvm.conf(5), lvm(8), vgcreate(8), vgextend(8), lvcreate(8), cfdisk(8), fdisk(8), losetup(8), mdadm(8), vgcfgrestore(8), vgconvert(8)

Sistina Software UK					 LVM TOOLS 2.02.67(2) (2010-06-04)					       PVCREATE(8)