pvcreate(1M) — Series 800 Only

NAME

pvcreate − create physical volume for use in a volume group

SYNOPSIS

/etc/pvcreate [-b] [-f] [-B] [-t disk_type] [-d soft_defects] physical_vol_path

DESCRIPTION

pvcreate initializes a direct access storage device (a raw disk device) for use as a physical volume in a volume group. physical_vol_path specifies the pathname of the raw device to be used.

If physical_vol_path contains a file system, pvcreate asks for confirmation if the -f option is not specified. Request for confirmation avoids accidentally deleting a file system. Currently, BSD and System V file systems are recognized.

The operation is denied if physical_vol_path belongs to another volume group. Only physical volumes not belonging to other volume groups can be created.

If physical_vol_path contains a disk label, it is updated to reflect that physical_vol_path is now a physical volume that can be installed in a volume group.

After using pvcreate to create a physical volume, use vgcreate to add it to a new volume group or vgextend or to add it to an existing volume group (see vgcreate(1M) and vgextend(1M)).

Raw devices cannot be added to a volume group until they are properly initialized by pvcreate.

physical_vol_path can be made 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. Refer to mkboot(1M) and lif(4) for more information.

Options

pvcreate recognizes the following options:

-b Used to specify (on standard input) the numbers that correspond to the indexes of all known bad blocks on physical volume physical_vol_path, that is being created. Specify the indexes using decimal, octal, or hexadecimal numbers in standard C-language notation, with numbers separated by new-line, tab, or form-feed character. If this option is not used, pvcreate assumes that the physical volume contains no bad blocks.

-f Force creation of a physical volume (thus deleting any file system present) without first requesting confirmation. Currently BSD and System V file systems are recognized.

-t disk_type Retrieve configuration information about the physical volume from file /etc/disktab. disk_type specifies the device (hp7959S, for example).

This size only needs to be specified 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.

-d soft_defects Used to specify minimum number of bad blocks that LVM should reserved 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 data blocks.

This option is not supported on HP-IB devices and soft_defects is set to 0 when pvcreate is executed for an HP-IB device.

-B Make a physical volume bootable (i.e. a system disk).

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Environment Variables

LANG determines the language in which messages are displayed.

If LANG is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead of LANG.

If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting, pvcreate behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C". See environ(5).

EXAMPLES

Create a physical volume on raw device /dev/rdsk/c1d0s2, and force the creation without confirmation:

pvcreate -f /dev/rdsk/c1d0s2

Create a physical volume on raw device /dev/rdsk/c1d0s2, specifying that a bad blocks list ( 7, 13, 95, and 133) must be read from standard input:

echo 7 13 95 133 | pvcreate -b /dev/rdsk/c1d0s2

FILES

/etc/disktab disk geometry and disk partition characteristics for all disk devices on the system

WARNINGS

Check the manufacturer’s listing or run diagnostics testing for bad blocks on the device prior to creating a physical volume. If bad blocks are present, use the -b option when creating the physical volume.

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