VGCREATE(8)                                                                                                          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|--maxlogicalvolumes MaxLogicalVolumes] [-M|--metadatatypetype]  [-p|--maxphysicalvolumes  MaxPhysicalVol-
       umes] [--[vg]metadatacopies] NumberOfCopies|unmanaged|all] [-s|--physicalextentsize PhysicalExtentSize[bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE]]
       [-t|--test] [-v|--verbose] [--version] [ PHYSICAL DEVICE  OPTIONS  ]  VolumeGroupName  PhysicalDevicePath  [PhysicalDevi-
       cePath...]

DESCRIPTION
       vgcreate creates a new volume group called VolumeGroupName using the block special device PhysicalDevicePath.

       If  PhysicalDevicePath  was  not previously configured for LVM with pvcreate (8), the device will be initialized with the
       same default values used with pvcreate.  If non-default pvcreate values are desired, they may be given on the commandline
       with  the  same  options  as pvcreate.  See PHYSICAL DEVICE OPTIONS for available options.  Note that the restore-related
       options such as --restorefile, --uuid, and --physicalvolumesize are not available.  If a restore operation is needed, use
       pvcreate (8) and vgcfgrestore (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 value 0 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 --pvmetadatacopies 0 as described in pvcreate(8), and/or use --vgmetadatacopies.

       --vgmetadatacopies NumberOfCopies|unmanaged|all
              Sets the desired number of metadata copies in the volume group.  If set to a non-zero value,  LVM  will  automati-
              cally  manage  the  'metadataignore'  flags on the physical volumes (see pvcreate or pvchange --metadataignore) in
              order to achieve NumberOfCopies copies of metadata.  If set to unmanaged, LVM will not  automatically  manage  the
              'metadataignore'  flags.   If  set  to all, LVM will first clear all of the 'metadataignore' flags on all metadata
              areas in the volume group, then set the value to unmanaged.  The vgmetadatacopies  option  is  useful  for  volume
              groups  containing large numbers of physical volumes with metadata as it may be used to minimize metadata read and
              write overhead.  The default value is unmanaged.

       -s, --physicalextentsize PhysicalExtentSize[bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE]
              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.

PHYSICAL DEVICE OPTIONS
       The  following  options  are  available for initializing physical devices in the volume group.  These options are further
       described in the pvcreate man page.

       -f, --force

       -y, --yes

       -Z, --zero y|n

       --labelsector sector

       --metadatasize size

       --pvmetadatacopies copies

       --dataalignment alignment

       --dataalignmentoffset alignment_offset

EXAMPLES
       To create a volume group named test_vg using physical volumes /dev/sdk1, and /dev/sdl1 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), lvre-
       duce(8)



Sistina Software UK                             LVM TOOLS 2.02.84(2) (2011-02-09)                                    VGCREATE(8)