pvcreate.1m (2011 03)

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pvcreate(1M) pvcreate(1M)

NAME

pvcreate - create physical volume for use in LVM volume group

SYNOPSIS

/usr/sbin/pvcreate

[-b][-B][

-d soft_defects ][-s disk_size ][-f][-t disk_type ]

pv_path

DESCRIPTION

The

pvcreate command initializes a direct access storage device (a raw disk device) for use as a physi-

cal volume in a volume group.

If pv_path contains a ﬁle system and the

-f option is not speciﬁed, pvcreate asks for conﬁrmation.

The request for conﬁrmation avoids accidentally deleting a ﬁle system.

Furthermore, when the

-f option is not speciﬁed, the operation is denied if pv_path already belongs to

another LVM volume group, or the pv_path refers to a disk device under the control of the VERITAS or

Oracle ASM Volume Manager.

After using

pvcreate to create a physical volume, use

vgcreate to add it to a new volume group or

vgextend to add it to an existing volume group (see vgcreate (1M) and vgextend (1M)).

Disks cannot be added to a volume group until they are properly initialized by

pvcreate.

pv_path can be made into a bootable disk by specifying the

-B option, which reserves space on the physi-

cal volume for boot-related data. This is a prerequisite for creating root volumes on logical volumes. If

the speciﬁed pv_path does not have any active, boot capable path, then pvcreate will fail. Refer to

vgcreate (1M), mkboot (1M), lvlnboot (1M), and lif (4) for more information.

Options and Arguments

pvcreate recognizes the following options and arguments:

pv_path The character (raw) device path name of a physical volume.

-b Read from standard input the numbers that correspond to the indexes of all

known bad blocks on the physical volume, pv_path , that is being created.

Specify the indexes using decimal, octal, or hexadecimal numbers in standard

C-language notation, with numbers separated by newline, tab, or formfeed

characters. If this option is not used, pvcreate assumes that the physical

volume contains no bad blocks.

This option is being retained solely for backward compatibility reasons and is

currently ignored. It will be obsoleted in the next HP-UX release.

-B Make a bootable physical volume (that is, a system disk). On PA-RISC sys-

tems, pv_path should be the path name for the whole disk. On HP Integrity

systems, pv_path should be the path name for the disk section containing the

HP-UX partition (see model (1), getconf (1)).

NOTE: Booting from a volume group version 2.0 or 2.1 is not supported. Only

volume groups version 1.0 and 2.2 or higher support boot. Therefore, a physi-

cal volume initialized with the -B option cannot be added to a volume group

version 2.0 or 2.1.

-d soft_defects Specify the minimum number of bad blocks that LVM should reserve in order

to perform software bad block relocation. This number can be no larger than

7039. If not speciﬁed, one block is reserved for each 8K of data blocks.

This option is being retained solely for backward compatibility reasons and is

currently ignored. It will be obsoleted in the next HP-UX release.

-s disk_size Effective size of the physical volume to be created, speciﬁed in kilobytes (KB).

NOTE: This option is only supported on version 1.0 volume groups. When a

physical volume is added to a volume group version 2.0 or higher any value set

using the -s option is replaced with the full size of the disk (up to the max-

imum physical volume size).

-f Force the creation of a physical volume (thus deleting any ﬁle system or

volume manager information present) without ﬁrst requesting conﬁrmation.

HP-UX 11i Version 3: March 2011 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1

Summary of content (2 pages)

PAGE 1
pvcreate(1M) pvcreate(1M) NAME pvcreate - create physical volume for use in LVM volume group SYNOPSIS /usr/sbin/pvcreate [-b] [-B] [-d soft_defects ] [-s disk_size ] [-f] [-t disk_type ] pv_path DESCRIPTION The pvcreate command initializes a direct access storage device (a raw disk device) for use as a physical volume in a volume group. If pv_path contains a file system and the -f option is not specified, pvcreate asks for confirmation.
PAGE 2
pvcreate(1M) pvcreate(1M) Warning: The -f option should only be used as a last resort to over write file system or volume manager information that cannot properly be removed using the commands designed for that purpose. When invoked with -f, the command does minimal verification, so care should be taken to assure that the disk is not already in use prior to invoking the command. -t disk_type Retrieve configuration information about the physical volume from the file /etc/disktab.