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vgcreate(8) [redhat man page]

VGCREATE(8)						      System Manager's Manual						       VGCREATE(8)

NAME
vgcreate - create a volume group SYNOPSIS
vgcreate [-A|--autobackup {y|n}] [-d|--debug] [-h|--help] [-l|--maxlogicalvolumes MaxLogicalVolumes] [-p|--maxphysicalvolumes MaxPhysi- calVolumes] [-s|--physicalextentsize PhysicalExtentSize[kKmMgGtT]] [-v|--verbose] [--version] VolumeGroupName PhysicalVolumePath [Physi- calVolumePath...] 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 maximum 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 logical 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), vgreduce(8), lvcreate(8), lvdisplay(8), lvextend(8), lvreduce(8) AUTHOR
Heinz Mauelshagen <Linux-LVM@Sistina.com> Heinz Mauelshagen LVM TOOLS VGCREATE(8)
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