pvcreate(1M)

pvcreate(1M)

NAME pvcreate - create physical volume for use in LVM volume group SYNOPSIS

/usr/sbin/pvcreate
pv_path

[-b]

[-B]

[-d

soft_defects ]

[-s

disk_size ]

[-f]

[-t

disk_type ]

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 le system and the -f option is not specied, pvcreate asks for conrmation. The request for conrmation avoids accidentally deleting a le system. Furthermore, when the -f option is not specied, 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 physical volume for boot-related data. This is a prerequisite for creating root volumes on logical volumes. If the specied 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. 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

-B

Make a bootable physical volume (that is, a system disk). On PA-RISC systems, 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 physical 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 specied, 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, specied 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 maximum physical volume size).

-f

Force the creation of a physical volume (thus deleting any le system or volume manager information present) without rst requesting conrmation. 1 Hewlett-Packard Company 1

HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010

pvcreate(1M)

pvcreate(1M)

Warning: The -f option should only be used as a last resort to over write le 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 verication, so care should be taken to assure that the disk is not already in use prior to invoking the command.

-t disk_type

Retrieve conguration information about the physical volume from the le /etc/disktab. disk_type species the device (for example, hp7959S). The disk_type only needs to be specied when pvcreate fails to get the size from the underlying disk driver. If the driver successfully returns the size of the device, disk_type is ignored.

Note The user data size of the same physical volume may differ, when initialized by pvcreate command under different releases of HP-UX. EXTERNAL INFLUENCES Environment Variables LANG determines the language in which messages are displayed. If LANG is not specied or is null, it defaults to "C" (see lang (5)). If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting, all internationalization variables default to "C" (see environ (5)). EXAMPLES Create a physical volume on raw device /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0, and force the creation without conrmation:

pvcreate -f /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0
Create a bootable physical volume for an HP Integrity system on raw device /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s2, and force the creation without conrmation:

pvcreate -fB /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s2

WARNINGS If you are using pvcreate command on an HP Integrity system boot disk, ensure that the specied device special le correspond to the HP-UX partition. For example,

pvcreate /dev/rdsk/c1t1d0s2 pvcreate initializes only the rst 2,147,483,647 Kilobytes (2TB - 1KB) of disk space when the disk size
exceeds this value. Disk space beyond this point will not be used by LVM. FILES

/etc/disktab

Disk geometry and disk partition characteristics for all disk devices on the system

SEE ALSO getconf(1), model(1), idisk(1M), lvlnboot(1M), lvrmboot(1M), mkboot(1M), vgcreate(1M), vgextend(1M), lif(4), intro(7), lvm(7).

Hewlett-Packard Company

HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010