vgcreate

Additional Notes

vgcreate creates an LVM volume group (VG) from one or more physical volumes (PVs). A volume group is a pool of storage that can be subdivided into logical volumes (LVs), which act like flexible disk partitions.

When you create a VG, the physical extents (PEs) from the constituent PVs are combined into a single storage pool. The VG name must be unique on the system. You can later create, resize, and remove logical volumes from the VG, as well as add or remove physical volumes.

Syntax

vgcreate [options] volume_group physical_volume...

Parameters

• volume_group: Name for the new volume group.
• physical_volume: One or more block devices (e.g. /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdc1) already initialized with pvcreate.

Common Options

• -s, --physicalextentsize size: Set the physical extent size (default 4 MiB). Affects minimum LV size and alignment.
• -p, --maxphysicalvolumes N: Limit the maximum number of PVs in the VG.
• -l, --maxlogicalvolumes N: Limit the maximum number of LVs in the VG.
• -A, --autobackup y|n: Enable or disable metadata backup.
• --clustered y|n: Create a clustered volume group (shared storage).
• --zero y|n: Zero the first sector of the PVs.

Examples

vgcreate vg_data /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1

Create a volume group named vg_data using two physical volumes.

vgcreate -s 8M vg_data /dev/sdb1

Create a VG with 8 MiB physical extents.

vgcreate vg_system /dev/nvme0n1p3

Create a VG from a single NVMe partition.

Practical Notes

• Initialize devices with pvcreate before adding them to a VG.
• The physical extent size should be chosen based on expected LV sizes. Larger extents work well for large volumes.
• Use pvdisplay, vgdisplay, and lvdisplay to inspect the storage stack.
• A VG can be extended later with vgextend or reduced with vgreduce.
• Logical volumes are created from the VG with lvcreate.