lvm

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LVM(8) LVM(8)

NAME
lvm - LVM2 tools

SYNOPSIS
lvm [command | file]

DESCRIPTION
lvm provides the command-line tools for LVM2. A separate manual page
describes each command in detail.

If lvm is invoked with no arguments it presents a readline prompt
(assuming it was compiled with readline support). LVM commands may be
entered interactively at this prompt with readline facilities includ-
ing history and command name and option completion. Refer to read-
line(3) for details.

If lvm is invoked with argv[0] set to the name of a specific LVM com-
mand (for example by using a hard or soft link) it acts as that com-
mand.

Where commands take VG or LV names as arguments, the full path name is
optional. An LV called "lvol0" in a VG called "vg0" can be specified
as "vg0/lvol0". Where a list of VGs is required but is left empty, a
list of all VGs will be substituted. Where a list of LVs is required
but a VG is given, a list of all the LVs in that VG will be substi-
tuted. So "lvdisplay vg0" will display all the LVs in "vg0". Tags
can also be used - see addtag below.

One advantage of using the built-in shell is that configuration infor-
mation gets cached internally between commands.

A file containing a simple script with one command per line can also
be given on the command line. The script can also be executed
directly if the first line is #! followed by the absolute path of lvm.

BUILT-IN COMMANDS
The following commands are built into lvm without links normally being
created in the filesystem for them.

dumpconfig — Display the configuration information after
loading lvm.conf (5) and any other configuration files.

formats — Display recognised metadata formats.

help — Display the help text.

pvdata — Not implemented in LVM2.

segtypes — Display recognised logical volume segment types.

version — Display version information.

COMMANDS
The following commands implement the core LVM functionality.

pvchange — Change attributes of a physical volume.

pvck — Check physical volume metadata.

pvcreate — Initialize a disk or partition for use by LVM.

pvdisplay — Display attributes of a physical volume.

pvmove — Move physical extents.

pvremove — Remove a physical volume.

pvresize — Resize a disk or partition in use by LVM2.

pvs — Report information about physical volumes.

pvscan — Scan all disks for physical volumes.

vgcfgbackup — Backup volume group descriptor area.

vgcfgrestore — Restore volume group descriptor area.

vgchange — Change attributes of a volume group.

vgck — Check volume group metadata.

vgconvert — Convert volume group metadata format.

vgcreate — Create a volume group.

vgdisplay — Display attributes of volume groups.

vgexport — Make volume groups unknown to the system.

vgextend — Add physical volumes to a volume group.

vgimport — Make exported volume groups known to the system.

vgmerge — Merge two volume groups.

vgmknodes — Recreate volume group directory and logical volume special
files

vgreduce — Reduce a volume group by removing one or more physical vol-
umes.

vgremove — Remove a volume group.

vgrename — Rename a volume group.

vgs — Report information about volume groups.

vgscan — Scan all disks for volume groups and rebuild caches.

vgsplit — Split a volume group into two, moving any logical volumes
from one volume group to another by moving entire physical volumes.

lvchange — Change attributes of a logical volume.

lvconvert — Convert a logical volume from linear to mirror or snap-
shot.

lvcreate — Create a logical volume in an existing volume group.

lvdisplay — Display attributes of a logical volume.

lvextend — Extend the size of a logical volume.

lvmchange — Change attributes of the logical volume manager.

lvmdiskscan — Scan for all devices visible to LVM2.

lvmdump — Create lvm2 information dumps for diagnostic purposes.

lvreduce — Reduce the size of a logical volume.

lvremove — Remove a logical volume.

lvrename — Rename a logical volume.

lvresize — Resize a logical volume.

lvs — Report information about logical volumes.

lvscan — Scan (all disks) for logical volumes.

The following commands are not implemented in LVM2 but might be in the
future: lvmsadc, lvmsar, pvdata.

OPTIONS
The following options are available for many of the commands. They
are implemented generically and documented here rather than repeated
on individual manual pages.

-h | --help — Display the help text.

--version — Display version information.

-v | --verbose — Set verbose level.
Repeat from 1 to 3 times to increase the detail of messages
sent to stdout and stderr. Overrides config file setting.

-d | --debug — Set debug level.
Repeat from 1 to 6 times to increase the detail of messages
sent to the log file and/or syslog (if configured). Overrides
config file setting.

--quiet — Suppress output and log messages.
Overrides -d and -v.

-t | --test — Run in test mode.
Commands will not update metadata. This is implemented by dis-
abling all metadata writing but nevertheless returning success
to the calling function. This may lead to unusual error mes-
sages in multi-stage operations if a tool relies on reading
back metadata it believes has changed but hasn’t.

--driverloaded { y | n }
Whether or not the device-mapper kernel driver is loaded. If
you set this to n, no attempt will be made to contact the
driver.

-A | --autobackup { y | n }
Whether or not to metadata should be backed up automatically
after a change. You are strongly advised not to disable this!
See vgcfgbackup (8).

-P | --partial
When set, the tools will do their best to provide access to
volume groups that are only partially available. Where part of
a logical volume is missing, /dev/ioerror will be substituted,
and you could use dmsetup (8) to set this up to return I/O
errors when accessed, or create it as a large block device of
nulls. Metadata may not be changed with this option. To insert
a replacement physical volume of the same or large size use
pvcreate -u to set the uuid to match the original followed by
vgcfgrestore (8).

-M | --metadatatype type
Specifies which type of on-disk metadata to use, such as lvm1
or lvm2, which can be abbreviated to 1 or 2 respectively. The
default (lvm2) can be changed by setting format in the global
section of the config file.

--ignorelockingfailure
This lets you proceed with read-only metadata operations such
as lvchange -ay and vgchange -ay even if the locking module
fails. One use for this is in a system init script if the lock
directory is mounted read-only when the script runs.

--addtag tag
Add the tag tag to a PV, VG or LV. A tag is a word that can be
used to group LVM2 objects of the same type together. Tags can
be given on the command line in place of PV, VG or LV argu-
ments. Tags should be prefixed with @ to avoid ambiguity.
Each tag is expanded by replacing it with all objects possess-
ing that tag which are of the type expected by its position on
the command line. PVs can only possess tags while they are
part of a Volume Group: PV tags are discarded if the PV is
removed from the VG. As an example, you could tag some LVs as
database and others as userdata and then activate the database
ones with lvchange -ay @database. Objects can possess multiple
tags simultaneously. Only the new LVM2 metadata format sup-
ports tagging: objects using the LVM1 metadata format cannot be
tagged because the on-disk format does not support it. Snap-
shots cannot be tagged. Characters allowed in tags are: A-Z a-
z 0-9 _ + . -

--deltag tag
Delete the tag tag from a PV, VG or LV, if it’s present.

--alloc AllocationPolicy
The allocation policy to use: contiguous, cling, normal, any-
where or inherit. When a command needs to allocate physical
extents from the volume group, the allocation policy controls
how they are chosen. Each volume group and logical volume has
an allocation policy. The default for a volume group is normal
which applies common-sense rules such as not placing parallel
stripes on the same physical volume. The default for a logical
volume is inherit which applies the same policy as for the vol-
ume group. These policies can be changed using lvchange (8)
and vgchange (8) or over-ridden on the command line of any com-
mand that performs allocation. The contiguous policy requires
that new extents be placed adjacent to existing extents. The
cling policy places new extents on the same physical volume as
existing extents in the same stripe of the Logical Volume. If
there are sufficient free extents to satisfy an allocation
request but normal doesn’t use them, anywhere will - even if
that reduces performance by placing two stripes on the same
physical volume.

N.B. The policies described above are not implemented fully
yet. In particular, contiguous free space cannot be broken up
to satisfy allocation attempts.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
LVM_SYSTEM_DIR
Directory containing lvm.conf and other LVM system files.
Defaults to "/etc/lvm".

HOME Directory containing .lvm_history if the internal readline
shell is invoked.

LVM_VG_NAME
The volume group name that is assumed for any reference to a
logical volume that doesn’t specify a path. Not set by
default.

VALID NAMES
The following characters are valid for VG and LV names: a-z A-Z 0-9 +
_ . -

VG and LV names cannot begin with a hyphen. There are also various
reserved names that are used internally by lvm that can not be used as
LV or VG names. A VG cannot be called anything that exists in /dev/
at the time of creation, nor can it be called ’.’ or ’..’. A LV can-
not be called ’.’ ’..’ ’snapshot’ or ’pvmove’. The LV name may also
not contain the strings ’_mlog’ or ’_mimage’

DIAGNOSTICS
All tools return a status code of zero on success or non-zero on fail-
ure.

FILES
/etc/lvm/lvm.conf
$HOME/.lvm_history

SEE ALSO
clvmd(8), lvchange(8), lvcreate(8), lvdisplay(8), lvextend(8), lvm-
change(8), lvmdiskscan(8), lvreduce(8), lvremove(8), lvrename(8),
lvresize(8), lvs(8), lvscan(8), pvchange(8), pvck(8), pvcreate(8),
pvdisplay(8), pvmove(8), pvremove(8), pvs(8), pvscan(8), vgcfg-
backup(8), vgchange(8), vgck(8), vgconvert(8), vgcreate(8), vgdis-
play(8), vgextend(8), vgimport(8), vgmerge(8), vgmknodes(8), vgre-
duce(8), vgremove(8), vgrename(8), vgs(8), vgscan(8), vgsplit(8),
readline(3), lvm.conf(5)

Sistina Software UK LVM TOOLS LVM(8)