PVCREATE(8)                                                                                                          PVCREATE(8)



NAME
       pvcreate - initialize a disk or partition for use by LVM

SYNOPSIS
       pvcreate  [-d|--debug]  [-h|--help] [-t|--test] [-v|--verbose] [--version] [-f[f]|--force [--force]] [-y|--yes] [--label-
       sector]  [-M|--metadatatype  type]  [--[pv]metadatacopies  #copies]  [--metadatasize   size]   [--metadataignore   {y|n}]
       [--dataalignment  alignment] [--dataalignmentoffset alignment_offset] [--restorefile file] [--norestorefile] [--setphysi-
       calvolumesize size] [-u|--uuid uuid] [-Z|--zero {y|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 vgcfgrestore(8).  As such, use of --restorefile is compulsory unless the --norestorefile
              is used.

       -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 for-
       mat 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 simultaneously: 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 ver-
       bose/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  PhysicalExtent-
              Size 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_off-
              set_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 containing 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!

       --metadataignore y|n
              Ignore or un-ignore metadata areas on this physical volume.  The default is "n".  This setting can be changed with
              pvchange.   If  metadata  areas  on a physical volume are ignored, LVM will not not store metadata in the metadata
              areas present on this Physical Volume.  Metadata areas cannot be created or extended after  Logical  Volumes  have
              been  allocated  on  the  device.  If you do not want to store metadata on this device, it is still wise always to
              allocate a metadata area in case you need it in the future and to use this option to instruct LVM2 to ignore it.

       --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).

       --norestorefile
              In  conjunction  with --uuid, this allows a uuid to be specified without also requiring that a backup of the meta-
              data be provided.

       --labelsector sector
              By default the PV is labelled with an LVM2 identifier in its second sector (sector 1).  This lets you use  a  dif-
              ferent  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 log-
       ical  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 2.02.84(2) (2011-02-09)                                    PVCREATE(8)