.TH PVCREATE 8 "LVM TOOLS 2.02.169(2)-git (2016-11-30)" "Red Hat, Inc."
.SH NAME
.
pvcreate \- Initialize physical volume(s) for use by LVM
.P
.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.br
.P
.
\fBpvcreate\fP \fIposition_args\fP
.br
    [ \fIoption_args\fP ]
.br
.P

.SH DESCRIPTION
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
.BR fdisk (8),
.BR 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:

.BI "dd if=/dev/zero of=" PhysicalVolume " bs=512 count=1"

Use \fBvgcreate\fP(8) to create a new VG on the PV, or \fBvgextend\fP(8)
to add the PV to existing VG.

The force option will create a PV without confirmation.  Repeating the
force option (\fB-ff\fP) will forcibly create a PV, overriding checks that
normally prevent it, e.g. if the PV is already in a VG.

.P
.SH USAGE
.br
.P
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\fBpvcreate\fP \fIPV\fP ...
.br
.RS 4
.ad l
[ \fB-f\fP|\fB--force\fP ]
.ad b
.br
.ad l
[ \fB-M\fP|\fB--metadatatype\fP \fBlvm2\fP|\fBlvm1\fP ]
.ad b
.br
.ad l
[ \fB-u\fP|\fB--uuid\fP \fIString\fP ]
.ad b
.br
.ad l
[ \fB-Z\fP|\fB--zero\fP \fBy\fP|\fBn\fP ]
.ad b
.br
.ad l
[    \fB--dataalignment\fP \fISize\fP[k|UNIT] ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[    \fB--dataalignmentoffset\fP \fISize\fP[k|UNIT] ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[    \fB--bootloaderareasize\fP \fISize\fP[m|UNIT] ]
.ad b
.br
.ad l
[    \fB--labelsector\fP \fINumber\fP ]
.ad b
.br
.ad l
[    \fB--[pv]metadatacopies\fP \fB0\fP|\fB1\fP|\fB2\fP ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[    \fB--metadatasize\fP \fISize\fP[m|UNIT] ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[    \fB--metadataignore\fP \fBy\fP|\fBn\fP ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[    \fB--norestorefile\fP ]
.ad b
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[    \fB--setphysicalvolumesize\fP \fISize\fP[m|UNIT] ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[    \fB--reportformat\fP \fBbasic\fP|\fBjson\fP ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[    \fB--restorefile\fP \fIString\fP ]
.ad b
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[ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
.RE
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Common options for lvm:
.
.RS 4
.ad l
[ \fB-d\fP|\fB--debug\fP ]
.ad b
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[ \fB-h\fP|\fB--help\fP ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[ \fB-q\fP|\fB--quiet\fP ]
.ad b
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[ \fB-t\fP|\fB--test\fP ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[ \fB-v\fP|\fB--verbose\fP ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[ \fB-y\fP|\fB--yes\fP ]
.ad b
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[    \fB--commandprofile\fP \fIString\fP ]
.ad b
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[    \fB--config\fP \fIString\fP ]
.ad b
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[    \fB--driverloaded\fP \fBy\fP|\fBn\fP ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[    \fB--longhelp\fP ]
.ad b
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[    \fB--profile\fP \fIString\fP ]
.ad b
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.ad l
[    \fB--version\fP ]
.ad b

.RE

.SH OPTIONS
.br

.HP
.ad l
\fB--bootloaderareasize\fP \fISize\fP[m|UNIT]
.br
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.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--commandprofile\fP \fIString\fP
.br
The command profile to use for command configuration.
See \fBlvm.conf\fP(5) for more information about profiles.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--config\fP \fIString\fP
.br
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 \fBlvm.conf\fP(5) for more information about config.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--dataalignment\fP \fISize\fP[k|UNIT]
.br
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.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--dataalignmentoffset\fP \fISize\fP[k|UNIT]
.br
Shift the start of the data area by this additional offset.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB-d\fP|\fB--debug\fP ...
.br
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).
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--driverloaded\fP \fBy\fP|\fBn\fP
.br
If set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-mapper.
For testing and debugging.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB-f\fP|\fB--force\fP ...
.br
Override various checks, confirmations and protections.
Use with extreme caution.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB-h\fP|\fB--help\fP
.br
Display help text.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--labelsector\fP \fINumber\fP
.br
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.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--longhelp\fP
.br
Display long help text.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--metadataignore\fP \fBy\fP|\fBn\fP
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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.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--metadatasize\fP \fISize\fP[m|UNIT]
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The approximate amount of space used for each VG metadata area.
The size may be rounded.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB-M\fP|\fB--metadatatype\fP \fBlvm2\fP|\fBlvm1\fP
.br
Specifies the type of on-disk metadata to use.
\fBlvm2\fP (or just \fB2\fP) is the current, standard format.
\fBlvm1\fP (or just \fB1\fP) is a historical format that
can be used for accessing old data.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--norestorefile\fP
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In conjunction with --uuid, this allows a uuid to be specified
without also requiring that a backup of the metadata be provided.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--profile\fP \fIString\fP
.br
An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, depending
on the command.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--[pv]metadatacopies\fP \fB0\fP|\fB1\fP|\fB2\fP
.br
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.)
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB-q\fP|\fB--quiet\fP ...
.br
Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and --verbose.
Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with answer no.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--reportformat\fP \fBbasic\fP|\fBjson\fP
.br
Overrides current output format for reports which is defined globally by
the report/output_format setting in lvm.conf.
\fBbasic\fP 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. \fBjson\fP produces report
output in JSON format. See \fBlvmreport\fP(7) for more information.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--restorefile\fP \fIString\fP
.br
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.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--setphysicalvolumesize\fP \fISize\fP[m|UNIT]
.br
Overrides the automatically detected size of the PV.
Use with care, or prior to reducing the physical size of the device.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB-t\fP|\fB--test\fP
.br
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.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB-u\fP|\fB--uuid\fP \fIString\fP
.br
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.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB-v\fP|\fB--verbose\fP ...
.br
Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase the detail
of messages sent to stdout and stderr.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB--version\fP
.br
Display version information.
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB-y\fP|\fB--yes\fP
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Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always assume the
answer yes. Use with extreme caution.
(For automatic no, see -qq.)
.ad b

.HP
.ad l
\fB-Z\fP|\fB--zero\fP \fBy\fP|\fBn\fP
.br
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.
.ad b
.SH VARIABLES
.br

.HP
\fIPV\fP
.br
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): \fIPV\fP[\fB:\fP\fIPE\fP\fB-\fP\fIPE\fP]...
Start and length range (counting from 0): \fIPV\fP[\fB:\fP\fIPE\fP\fB+\fP\fIPE\fP]...

.HP
\fIString\fP
.br
See the option description for information about the string content.

.HP
\fISize\fP[UNIT]
.br
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: \fBbBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE\fP.
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.)
.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.br
See \fBlvm\fP(8) for information about environment variables used by lvm.
For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a required VG parameter.
.SH EXAMPLES

Initialize a partition and a full device.
.br
.B 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.
.br
.B pvcreate \-\-dataalignmentoffset 7s /dev/sdb

.SH SEE ALSO

.BR lvm (8)
.BR lvm.conf (5)
.BR lvmconfig (8)

.BR pvchange (8)
.BR pvck (8)
.BR pvcreate (8)
.BR pvdisplay (8)
.BR pvmove (8)
.BR pvremove (8)
.BR pvresize (8)
.BR pvs (8)
.BR pvscan (8) 

.BR vgcfgbackup (8)
.BR vgcfgrestore (8)
.BR vgchange (8)
.BR vgck (8)
.BR vgcreate (8)
.BR vgconvert (8)
.BR vgdisplay (8)
.BR vgexport (8)
.BR vgextend (8)
.BR vgimport (8)
.BR vgimportclone (8)
.BR vgmerge (8)
.BR vgmknodes (8)
.BR vgreduce (8)
.BR vgremove (8)
.BR vgrename (8)
.BR vgs (8)
.BR vgscan (8)
.BR vgsplit (8) 

.BR lvcreate (8)
.BR lvchange (8)
.BR lvconvert (8)
.BR lvdisplay (8)
.BR lvextend (8)
.BR lvreduce (8)
.BR lvremove (8)
.BR lvrename (8)
.BR lvresize (8)
.BR lvs (8)
.BR lvscan (8)

.BR lvm2-activation-generator (8)
.BR blkdeactivate (8)
.BR lvmdump (8)

.BR dmeventd (8)
.BR lvmetad (8)
.BR lvmpolld (8)
.BR lvmlockd (8)
.BR lvmlockctl (8)
.BR clvmd (8)
.BR cmirrord (8)
.BR lvmdbusd (8)

.BR lvmsystemid (7)
.BR lvmreport (7)
.BR lvmraid (7)
.BR lvmthin (7)
.BR lvmcache (7)