PVCREATE(8) System Manager's Manual PVCREATE(8)
NAME
pvcreate — initialize a disk or partition for use by LVM
SYNOPSIS
pvcreate [--commandprofile ProfileName] [-d|--debug] [-h|--help] [-t|--test] [-v|--verbose] [--version]
[-f[f]|--force [--force]] [-y|--yes] [--labelsector] [--bootloaderareasize size] [-M|--metadatatype type]
[--[pv]metadatacopies NumberOfCopies] [--metadatasize size] [--metadataignore {y|n}] [--dataalignment align‐
ment] [--dataalignmentoffset alignment_offset] [--restorefile file] [--norestorefile] [--reportformat
{basic|json}] [--setphysicalvolumesize size] [-u|--uuid uuid] [-Z|--zero {y|n}] PhysicalVolume [PhysicalVol‐
ume...]
DESCRIPTION
pvcreate initializes PhysicalVolume for later use by the Logical Volume Manager (LVM). Each PhysicalVolume
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
Continue with vgcreate(8) to create a new volume group on PhysicalVolume, or vgextend(8) to add PhysicalVolume
to an existing volume group.
OPTIONS
See lvm(8) for common options.
-f, --force
Force the creation without any confirmation. You can not recreate (reinitialize) a physical volume
belonging to an existing volume group. In an emergency you can override this behaviour with -ff.
-u, --uuid uuid
Specify the uuid for the device. Without this option, pvcreate(8) generates a random uuid. All of
your physical volumes must have unique uuids. You need to use this option before restoring a backup of
LVM metadata onto a replacement device - see vgcfgrestore(8). As such, use of --restorefile is compul‐
sory unless the --norestorefile is used.
-y, --yes
Answer yes to all questions.
-Z, --zero {y|n}
Whether or not the first 4 sectors (2048 bytes) of the device should be wiped. If this option is not
given, the default is to wipe these sectors unless either or both of the --restorefile or --uuid
options were specified.
NEW METADATA OPTIONS
LVM2 introduces a new format for storing metadata on disk. This new format is more efficient and resilient
than the format the original version of LVM used and offers the advanced user greater flexibility and control.
The new format may be selected on the command line with -M2 or by setting format = "lvm2" in the global sec‐
tion of lvm.conf(5). Each physical volume in the same volume group must use the same format, but different
volume groups on a machine may use different formats simultaneously: the tools can handle both formats. Addi‐
tional formats can be added as shared libraries.
Additional tools for manipulating the locations and sizes of metadata areas will be written in due course.
Use the verbose/debug options on the tools to see where the metadata areas are placed.
--dataalignmentoffset alignment_offset
Shift the start of the data area by this additional alignment_offset.
--[pv]metadatacopies NumberOfCopies
The number of metadata areas to set aside on each PV. Currently this can be 0, 1 or 2. If set to 2,
two copies of the volume group metadata are held on the PV, one at the front of the PV and one at the
end. If set to 1 (the default), one copy is kept at the front of the PV (starting in the 5th sector).
If set to 0, no copies are kept on this PV - you might wish to use this with VGs containing large num‐
bers of PVs. But if you do this and then later use vgsplit(8) you must ensure that each VG is still
going to have a suitable number of copies of the metadata after the split!
--metadataignore {y|n}
Ignore or un-ignore metadata areas on this physical volume. The default is "n". This setting can be
changed with pvchange. If metadata areas on a physical volume are ignored, LVM will not store metadata
in the metadata areas present on this Physical Volume. Metadata areas cannot be created or extended
after Logical Volumes have been allocated on the device. If you do not want to store metadata on this
device, it is still wise always to allocate a metadata area in case you need it in the future and to
use this option to instruct LVM2 to ignore it.
--restorefile file
In conjunction with --uuid, this extracts the location and size of the data on the PV from the file
(produced by vgcfgbackup) and ensures that the metadata that the program produces is consistent with
the contents of the file i.e. the physical extents will be in the same place and not get overwritten by
new metadata. This provides a mechanism to upgrade the metadata format or to add/remove metadata
areas. Use with care. See also vgconvert(8).
--norestorefile
In conjunction with --uuid, this allows a uuid to be specified without also requiring that a backup of
the metadata be provided.
--labelsector sector
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.
--bootloaderareasize size
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 LVM2 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 Physical Volume use pvs -o
+pv_ba_start,pv_ba_size.
--setphysicalvolumesize size
Overrides the automatically-detected size of the PV. Use with care.
Examples
Initialize partition #4 on the third SCSI disk and the entire fifth SCSI disk for later use by LVM:
pvcreate /dev/sdc4 /dev/sde
If the 2nd SCSI disk 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
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