redhat man page for vgcreate

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)