lvm2/man/vgcreate.8

.TH VGCREATE 8 "LVM TOOLS" "Sistina Software UK" \" -*- nroff -*-
.SH NAME
vgcreate \- create a volume group
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B vgcreate
.RB [ \-A | \-\-autobackup " {" y | n }]
.RB [ \-d | \-\-debug ]
.RB [ \-h | \-\-help ]
.RB [ \-l | \-\-maxlogicalvolumes
.IR MaxLogicalVolumes ]
.RB [ -M | \-\-metadatatype type]
.RB [ -p | \-\-maxphysicalvolumes
.IR MaxPhysicalVolumes ]
.RB [ \-s | \-\-physicalextentsize
.IR PhysicalExtentSize [ \fBkKmMgGtT\fR ]]
.RB [ \-t | \-\-test ]
.RB [ \-v | \-\-verbose ]
.RB [ \-\-version ]
.I VolumeGroupName PhysicalVolumePath
.RI [ PhysicalVolumePath ...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B vgcreate
creates a new volume group called
.I VolumeGroupName
using the block special device
.IR PhysicalVolumePath
previously configured for LVM with
.BR pvcreate (8).
.SH OPTIONS
See \fBlvm\fP for common options.
.TP
.BR \-A ", " \-\-autobackup " {" y | n }
Controls automatic backup of VG metadata after the change (see
.BR vgcfgbackup (8)).
Default is yes.
.TP
.BR \-l ", " \-\-maxlogicalvolumes " " \fIMaxLogicalVolumes\fR
Sets the maximum possible logical volume count.
More logical volumes can't be created in this volume group.
Absolute maximum is 256.
.TP
.BR \-p ", " \-\-maxphysicalvolumes " " \fIMaxPhysicalVolumes\fR
Sets the maximum possible physical volume count.
More physical volumes can't be included in this volume group.
Absolute maximum is 256.
.TP
.BR \-s ", " \-\-physicalextentsize " " \fIPhysicalExtentSize\fR[\fBkKmMgGtT\fR]
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.  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.
.SH EXAMPLES
To create a volume group named
.B test_vg 
using physical volumes
.BR /dev/hdk1 ", " /dev/hdl1 ", and " /dev/hdm1
with default physical extent size of 4MB:
.nf

\	vgcreate test_vg /dev/sd[k-m]1

.fi
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.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR lvm (8),
.BR pvdisplay (8),
.BR pvcreate (8),
.BR vgdisplay (8),
.BR vgextend (8),
.BR vgreduce (8),
.BR lvcreate (8),
.BR lvdisplay (8),
.BR lvextend (8),
.BR lvreduce (8)