VGCREATE(8) System Manager's Manual VGCREATE(8)
NAME
vgcreate — Create a volume group
SYNOPSIS
vgcreate position_args
[ option_args ]
DESCRIPTION
vgcreate creates a new VG on block devices. If the devices were not pre-
viously initialized as PVs with pvcreate(8), vgcreate will initialize
them, making them PVs. The pvcreate options for initializing devices are
also available with vgcreate.
When vgcreate uses an existing PV, that PV's existing values for meta-
data size, PE start, etc, are used, even if different values are speci-
fied in the vgcreate command. To change these values, first use pvre-
move on the device.
USAGE
vgcreate VG_new PV ...
[ -A|--autobackup y|n ]
[ -c|--clustered y|n ]
[ -l|--maxlogicalvolumes Number ]
[ -p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number ]
[ -M|--metadatatype lvm2 ]
[ -s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT] ]
[ -f|--force ]
[ -Z|--zero y|n ]
[ --addtag Tag ]
[ --alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
]
[ --metadataprofile String ]
[ --labelsector Number ]
[ --metadatasize Size[m|UNIT] ]
[ --pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2 ]
[ --[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number ]
[ --reportformat basic|json|json_std ]
[ --dataalignment Size[k|UNIT] ]
[ --dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT] ]
[ --shared ]
[ --systemid String ]
[ --locktype sanlock|dlm|none ]
[ --setautoactivation y|n ]
[ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
Common options for lvm:
[ -d|--debug ]
[ -h|--help ]
[ -q|--quiet ]
[ -t|--test ]
[ -v|--verbose ]
[ -y|--yes ]
[ --commandprofile String ]
[ --config String ]
[ --devices PV ]
[ --devicesfile String ]
[ --driverloaded y|n ]
[ --journal String ]
[ --lockopt String ]
[ --longhelp ]
[ --nohints ]
[ --nolocking ]
[ --profile String ]
[ --version ]
OPTIONS
--addtag Tag
Adds a tag to a PV, VG or LV. This option can be repeated to add
multiple tags at once. See lvm(8) for information about tags.
--alloc contiguous|cling|cling_by_tags|normal|anywhere|inherit
Determines the allocation policy when a command needs to allocate
Physical Extents (PEs) from the VG. Each VG and LV has an alloca-
tion policy which can be changed with vgchange/lvchange, or over-
ridden on the command line. normal applies common sense rules
such as not placing parallel stripes on the same PV. inherit ap-
plies the VG policy to an LV. contiguous requires new PEs be
placed adjacent to existing PEs. cling places new PEs on the
same PV as existing PEs in the same stripe of the LV. If there
are sufficient PEs for an allocation, but normal does not use
them, anywhere will use them even if it reduces performance, e.g.
by placing two stripes on the same PV. Optional positional PV
args on the command line can also be used to limit which PVs the
command will use for allocation. See lvm(8) for more information
about allocation.
-A|--autobackup y|n
Specifies if metadata should be backed up automatically after a
change. Enabling this is strongly advised! See vgcfgbackup(8)
for more information.
-c|--clustered y|n
This option was specific to clvm and is now replaced by the
--shared option with lvmlockd(8).
--commandprofile String
The command profile to use for command configuration. See
lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.
--config String
Config settings for the command. These override lvm.conf(5) set-
tings. The String arg uses the same format as lvm.conf(5), or
may use section/field syntax. See lvm.conf(5) for more informa-
tion about config.
--dataalignment Size[k|UNIT]
Align the start of a PV data area with a multiple of this number.
To see the location of the first Physical Extent (PE) of an ex-
isting PV, use pvs -o +pe_start. In addition, it may be shifted
by an alignment offset, see --dataalignmentoffset. Also specify
an appropriate PE size when creating a VG.
--dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT]
Shift the start of the PV data area by this additional offset.
-d|--debug ...
Set debug level. Repeat from 1 to 6 times to increase the detail
of messages sent to the log file and/or syslog (if configured).
--devices PV
Restricts the devices that are visible and accessible to the com-
mand. Devices not listed will appear to be missing. This option
can be repeated, or accepts a comma separated list of devices.
This overrides the devices file.
--devicesfile String
A file listing devices that LVM should use. The file must exist
in /etc/lvm/devices/ and is managed with the lvmdevices(8) com-
mand. This overrides the lvm.conf(5) devices/devicesfile and de-
vices/use_devicesfile settings.
--driverloaded y|n
If set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-mapper.
For testing and debugging.
-f|--force ...
Override various checks, confirmations and protections. Use with
extreme caution.
-h|--help
Display help text.
--journal String
Record information in the systemd journal. This information is
in addition to information enabled by the lvm.conf log/journal
setting. command: record information about the command. output:
record the default command output. debug: record full command
debugging.
--labelsector Number
By default the PV is labelled with an LVM2 identifier in its sec-
ond sector (sector 1). This lets you use a different sector near
the start of the disk (between 0 and 3 inclusive - see LA-
BEL_SCAN_SECTORS in the source). Use with care.
--lockopt String
Used to pass options for special cases to lvmlockd. See lvm-
lockd(8) for more information.
--locktype sanlock|dlm|none
Specify the VG lock type directly in place of using --shared.
See lvmlockd(8) for more information.
--longhelp
Display long help text.
-l|--maxlogicalvolumes Number
Sets the maximum number of LVs allowed in a VG.
-p|--maxphysicalvolumes Number
Sets the maximum number of PVs that can belong to the VG. The
value 0 removes any limitation. For large numbers of PVs, also
see options --pvmetadatacopies, and --vgmetadatacopies for im-
proving performance.
--metadataprofile String
The metadata profile to use for command configuration. See
lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.
--metadatasize Size[m|UNIT]
The approximate amount of space used for each VG metadata area.
The size may be rounded.
-M|--metadatatype lvm2
Specifies the type of on-disk metadata to use. lvm2 (or just 2)
is the current, standard format. lvm1 (or just 1) is no longer
used.
--nohints
Do not use the hints file to locate devices for PVs. A command
may read more devices to find PVs when hints are not used. The
command will still perform standard hint file invalidation where
appropriate.
--nolocking
Disable locking. Use with caution, concurrent commands may pro-
duce incorrect results.
-s|--physicalextentsize Size[m|UNIT]
Sets the physical extent size of PVs in the VG. The value must
be either a power of 2 of at least 1 sector (where the sector
size is the largest sector size of the PVs currently used in the
VG), or at least 128 KiB. Once this value has been set, it is
difficult to change without recreating the VG, unless no extents
need moving.
--profile String
An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, depending on
the command.
--pvmetadatacopies 0|1|2
The number of metadata areas to set aside on a PV for storing VG
metadata. When 2, one copy of the VG metadata is stored at the
front of the PV and a second copy is stored at the end. When 1,
one copy of the VG metadata is stored at the front of the PV.
When 0, no copies of the VG metadata are stored on the given PV.
This may be useful in VGs containing many PVs (this places limi-
tations on the ability to use vgsplit later.)
-q|--quiet ...
Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and --ver-
bose. Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with answer 'no'.
--reportformat basic|json|json_std
Overrides current output format for reports which is defined
globally by the report/output_format setting in lvm.conf(5). ba-
sic is the original format with columns and rows. If there is
more than one report per command, each report is prefixed with
the report name for identification. json produces report output
in JSON format. json_std produces report output in JSON format
which is more compliant with JSON standard. See lvmreport(7) for
more information.
--setautoactivation y|n
Set the autoactivation property on a VG or LV. Display the prop-
erty with vgs or lvs "-o autoactivation". When the autoactiva-
tion property is disabled, the VG or LV will not be activated by
a command doing autoactivation (vgchange, lvchange, or pvscan us-
ing -aay.) If autoactivation is disabled on a VG, no LVs will be
autoactivated in that VG, and the LV autoactivation property has
no effect. If autoactivation is enabled on a VG, autoactivation
can be disabled for individual LVs.
--shared
Create a shared VG using lvmlockd if LVM is compiled with lockd
support. lvmlockd will select lock type sanlock or dlm depending
on which lock manager is running. This allows multiple hosts to
share a VG on shared devices. lvmlockd and a lock manager must be
configured and running. See lvmlockd(8) for more information
about shared VGs.
--systemid String
Specifies the system ID that will be given to the new VG, over-
riding the system ID of the host running the command. A VG is
normally created without this option, in which case the new VG is
given the system ID of the host creating it. Using this option
requires caution because the system ID of the new VG may not
match the system ID of the host running the command, leaving the
VG inaccessible to the host. See lvmsystemid(7) for more infor-
mation.
-t|--test
Run in test mode. Commands will not update metadata. This is im-
plemented by disabling all metadata writing but nevertheless re-
turning success to the calling function. This may lead to unusual
error messages in multi-stage operations if a tool relies on
reading back metadata it believes has changed but hasn't.
-v|--verbose ...
Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase the de-
tail of messages sent to stdout and stderr.
--version
Display version information.
--[vg]metadatacopies all|unmanaged|Number
Number of copies of the VG metadata that are kept. VG metadata
is kept in VG metadata areas on PVs in the VG, i.e. reserved
space at the start and/or end of the PVs. Keeping a copy of the
VG metadata on every PV can reduce performance in VGs containing
a large number of PVs. When this number is set to a non-zero
value, LVM will automatically choose PVs on which to store meta-
data, using the metadataignore flags on PVs to achieve the speci-
fied number. The number can also be replaced with special string
values: unmanaged causes LVM to not automatically manage the PV
metadataignore flags. all causes LVM to first clear the meta-
dataignore flags on all PVs, and then to become unmanaged.
-y|--yes
Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always assume
the answer yes. Use with extreme caution. (For automatic no, see
-qq.)
-Z|--zero y|n
Controls if the first 4 sectors (2048 bytes) of the device are
wiped. The default is to wipe these sectors unless either or
both of --restorefile or --uuid are specified.
VARIABLES
VG Volume Group name. See lvm(8) for valid names.
PV Physical Volume name, a device path under /dev. For commands
managing physical extents, a PV positional arg generally accepts
a suffix indicating a range (or multiple ranges) of physical ex-
tents (PEs). When the first PE is omitted, it defaults to the
start of the device, and when the last PE is omitted it defaults
to end. Start and end range (inclusive): PV[:PE-PE]... Start
and length range (counting from 0): PV[:PE+PE]...
String See the option description for information about the string con-
tent.
Size[UNIT]
Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit. Input
units are always treated as base two values, regardless of capi-
talization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024. The default in-
put unit is specified by letter, followed by |UNIT. UNIT repre-
sents other possible input units: b|B is bytes, s|S is sectors of
512 bytes, k|K is KiB, m|M is MiB, g|G is GiB, t|T is TiB, p|P is
PiB, e|E is EiB. (This should not be confused with the output
control --units, where capital letters mean multiple of 1000.)
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See lvm(8) for information about environment variables used by lvm. For
example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a required VG pa-
rameter.
EXAMPLES
Create a VG with two PVs, using the default physical extent size.
vgcreate myvg /dev/sdk1 /dev/sdl1
SEE ALSO
lvm(8), lvm.conf(5), lvmconfig(8), lvmdevices(8),
pvchange(8), pvck(8), pvcreate(8), pvdisplay(8), pvmove(8), pvremove(8),
pvresize(8), pvs(8), pvscan(8),
vgcfgbackup(8), vgcfgrestore(8), vgchange(8), vgck(8), vgcreate(8),
vgconvert(8), vgdisplay(8), vgexport(8), vgextend(8), vgimport(8),
vgimportclone(8), vgimportdevices(8), vgmerge(8), vgmknodes(8),
vgreduce(8), vgremove(8), vgrename(8), vgs(8), vgscan(8), vgsplit(8),
lvcreate(8), lvchange(8), lvconvert(8), lvdisplay(8), lvextend(8),
lvreduce(8), lvremove(8), lvrename(8), lvresize(8), lvs(8), lvscan(8),
lvm-fullreport(8), lvm-lvpoll(8), blkdeactivate(8), lvmdump(8),
dmeventd(8), lvmpolld(8), lvmlockd(8), lvmlockctl(8), cmirrord(8),
lvmdbusd(8), fsadm(8),
lvmsystemid(7), lvmreport(7), lvmcache(7), lvmraid(7), lvmthin(7),
lvmvdo(7), lvmautoactivation(7)
Red Hat, Inc. LVM TOOLS 2.03.31(2) (2025-02-27) VGCREATE(8)
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