NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | USAGE | OPTIONS | VARIABLES | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

PVCREATE(8)                System Manager's Manual               PVCREATE(8)

NAME         top

       pvcreate - Initialize physical volume(s) for use by LVM

SYNOPSIS         top

       pvcreate position_args
           [ option_args ]

DESCRIPTION         top

       pvcreate initializes a PV so that it is recognized as belonging to
       LVM, and allows the PV to be used in a VG. A PV 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 GUID Partition Table (GPT),
       the id is E6D6D379-F507-44C2-A23C-238F2A3DF928. 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
       Use vgcreate(8) to create a new VG on the PV, or vgextend(8) to add
       the PV to existing VG.
       The force option will create a PV without confirmation.  Repeating
       the force option (-ff) will forcibly create a PV, overriding checks
       that normally prevent it, e.g. if the PV is already in a VG.

USAGE         top

       pvcreate PV ...
           [ -f|--force ]
           [ -M|--metadatatype lvm2|lvm1 ]
           [ -u|--uuid String ]
           [ -Z|--zero y|n ]
           [    --dataalignment Size[k|UNIT] ]
           [    --dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT] ]
           [    --bootloaderareasize Size[m|UNIT] ]
           [    --labelsector Number ]
           [    --[pv]metadatacopies 0|1|2 ]
           [    --metadatasize Size[m|UNIT] ]
           [    --metadataignore y|n ]
           [    --norestorefile ]
           [    --setphysicalvolumesize Size[m|UNIT] ]
           [    --reportformat basic|json ]
           [    --restorefile String ]
           [ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
       Common options for lvm:
           [ -d|--debug ]
           [ -h|--help ]
           [ -q|--quiet ]
           [ -t|--test ]
           [ -v|--verbose ]
           [ -y|--yes ]
           [    --commandprofile String ]
           [    --config String ]
           [    --driverloaded y|n ]
           [    --longhelp ]
           [    --profile String ]
           [    --version ]

OPTIONS         top

       --bootloaderareasize Size[m|UNIT]
              Create a separate bootloader area of specified size besides
              PV's data area. The bootloader area is an area of reserved
              space on the PV from which LVM will not allocate any extents
              and it's kept untouched. This is primarily aimed for use with
              bootloaders to embed their own data or metadata.  The start of
              the bootloader area is always aligned, see also
              --dataalignment and --dataalignmentoffset. The bootloader area
              size may eventually end up increased due to the alignment, but
              it's never less than the size that is requested. To see the
              bootloader area start and size of an existing PV use pvs -o
              +pv_ba_start,pv_ba_size.
       --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
              settings.  The String arg uses the same format as lvm.conf, or
              may use section/field syntax.  See lvm.conf(5) for more
              information about config.
       --dataalignment Size[k|UNIT]
              Align the start of the data to a multiple of this number.
              Also specify an appropriate Physical Extent size when creating
              a VG.  To see the location of the first Physical Extent of an
              existing PV, use pvs -o +pe_start. In addition, it may be
              shifted by an alignment offset.  See
              lvm.conf/data_alignment_offset_detection and
              --dataalignmentoffset.
       --dataalignmentoffset Size[k|UNIT]
              Shift the start of the 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).
       --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.
       --labelsector Number
              By default the PV is labelled with an LVM2 identifier in its
              second sector (sector 1). This lets you use a different sector
              near the start of the disk (between 0 and 3 inclusive - see
              LABEL_SCAN_SECTORS in the source). Use with care.
       --longhelp
              Display long help text.
       --metadataignore y|n
              Specifies the metadataignore property of a PV.  If yes,
              metadata areas on the PV are ignored, and lvm will not store
              metadata in the metadata areas of the PV.  If no, lvm will
              store metadata on the PV.
       --metadatasize Size[m|UNIT]
              The approximate amount of space used for each VG metadata
              area.  The size may be rounded.
       -M|--metadatatype lvm2|lvm1
              Specifies the type of on-disk metadata to use.  lvm2 (or just
              2) is the current, standard format.  lvm1 (or just 1) is a
              historical format that can be used for accessing old data.
       --norestorefile
              In conjunction with --uuid, this allows a uuid to be specified
              without also requiring that a backup of the metadata be
              provided.
       --profile String
              An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, depending
              on the command.
       --[pv]metadatacopies 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 (starting in the 5th sector).  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 limitations on the
              ability to use vgsplit later.)
       -q|--quiet ...
              Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and
              --verbose.  Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with
              answer 'no'.
       --reportformat basic|json
              Overrides current output format for reports which is defined
              globally by the report/output_format setting in lvm.conf.
              basic 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. See lvmreport(7) for more information.
       --restorefile String
              In conjunction with --uuid, this reads the file (produced by
              vgcfgbackup), extracts the location and size of the data on
              the PV, and ensures that the metadata produced by the program
              is consistent with the contents of the file, i.e. the physical
              extents will be in the same place and not be overwritten by
              new metadata. This provides a mechanism to upgrade the
              metadata format or to add/remove metadata areas. Use with
              care.
       --setphysicalvolumesize Size[m|UNIT]
              Overrides the automatically detected size of the PV.  Use with
              care, or prior to reducing the physical size of the device.
       -t|--test
              Run in test mode. Commands will not update metadata.  This is
              implemented by disabling all metadata writing but nevertheless
              returning 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.
       -u|--uuid String
              Specify a UUID for the device.  Without this option, a random
              UUID is generated.  This option is needed 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.  All PVs must have unique
              UUIDs, and LVM will prevent certain operations if multiple
              devices are seen with the same UUID.  See vgimportclone(8) for
              more information.
       -v|--verbose ...
              Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase the
              detail of messages sent to stdout and stderr.
       --version
              Display version information.
       -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         top

       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 extents (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
              content.
       Size[UNIT]
              Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit.  Input
              units are always treated as base two values, regardless of
              capitalization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024.  The
              default input unit is specified by letter, followed by |UNIT.
              UNIT represents other possible input units: bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE.
              b|B is bytes, s|S is sectors of 512 bytes, k|K is kilobytes,
              m|M is megabytes, g|G is gigabytes, t|T is terabytes, p|P is
              petabytes, e|E is exabytes.  (This should not be confused with
              the output control --units, where capital letters mean
              multiple of 1000.)

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

       See lvm(8) for information about environment variables used by lvm.
       For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a required
       VG parameter.

EXAMPLES         top

       Initialize a partition and a full device.
       pvcreate /dev/sdc4 /dev/sde
       If a device is a 4KiB sector drive that compensates for windows
       partitioning (sector 7 is the lowest aligned logical block, the 4KiB
       sectors start at LBA -1, and consequently sector 63 is aligned on a
       4KiB boundary) manually account for this when initializing for use by
       LVM.
       pvcreate --dataalignmentoffset 7s /dev/sdb

SEE ALSO         top

       lvm(8) lvm.conf(5) lvmconfig(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) 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) lvm2-activation-generator(8)
       blkdeactivate(8) lvmdump(8)
       dmeventd(8) lvmetad(8) lvmpolld(8) lvmlockd(8) lvmlockctl(8) clvmd(8)
       cmirrord(8) lvmdbusd(8)
       lvmsystemid(7) lvmreport(7) lvmraid(7) lvmthin(7) lvmcache(7)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the lvm2 (Logical Volume Manager 2) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.sourceware.org/lvm2/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, send it to linux-lvm@redhat.com.  This page was obtained
       from the project's upstream Git repository 
       ⟨git://sourceware.org/git/lvm2.git⟩ on 2017-07-05.  If you discover
       any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
       believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or
       you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
       COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail
       to man-pages@man7.org
Red Hat, Inc.      LVM TOOLS 2.02.173(2)-git (2017-06-28)        PVCREATE(8)

Pages that refer to this page: lvchange(8)lvconvert(8)lvcreate(8)lvdisplay(8)lvextend(8)lvm(8)lvmconfig(8)lvmdiskscan(8)lvm-fullreport(8)lvm-lvpoll(8)lvreduce(8)lvremove(8)lvrename(8)lvresize(8)lvs(8)lvscan(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)vgconvert(8)vgcreate(8)vgdisplay(8)vgexport(8)vgextend(8)vgimport(8)vgimportclone(8)vgmerge(8)vgmknodes(8)vgreduce(8)vgremove(8)vgrename(8)vgs(8)vgscan(8)vgsplit(8)