VGCREATE(8)                                           VGCREATE(8)



NAME
       vgcreate - create a volume group

SYNOPSIS
       vgcreate  [-A|--autobackup {y|n}] [-d|--debug] [-h|--help]
       [-l|--maxlogicalvolumes MaxLogicalVolumes] [-p|--maxphysi-
       calvolumes   MaxPhysicalVolumes]  [-s|--physicalextentsize
       PhysicalExtentSize[kKmMgGtT]]  [-v|--verbose]  [--version]
       VolumeGroupName PhysicalVolumePath [PhysicalVolumePath...]

DESCRIPTION
       vgcreate creates a new volume group called VolumeGroupName
       using  the  block special device PhysicalVolumePath previ-
       ously 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  vol-
              ume 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  kilo-
              bytes 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 vgcre-
              ate's activities.

       --version
              Display tool and IOP version and exit successfully.

EXAMPLES
       To create a volume group named test_vg using physical vol-
       umes /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),  vgremove(8),  vgdis-
       play(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)