PVCREATE(8)

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

SYNOPSIS
pvcreate position_args
    [ option_args ]

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 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
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

--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

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
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
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
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)