Create a Logical Volume larger than 2TB and format it in HP-UX

You cannot extend/create any logical volume of more than 2 TB in HP-UX LVM with VG version 1.0. Max is 2 TB and that too on 11.31 because the number of max physical extents (PE) on 11.31 is 65536 and with that max size of PE 32 MB. so total size= 65536*32 mb= 2 TB.

To create or extend a logical volume greater than 2TB you need VG Version 2.0. Here I have shown the process to create a logical volume of 3TB.

Scan Newly Added Disk

First, scan the newly exported disk from the storage using the command ioscan -fnNC disk

# ioscan -fnNC disk
Class     I  H/W Path  Driver S/W State   H/W Type     Description
===================================================================
disk      3  64000/0xfa00/0x1   esdisk   CLAIMED     DEVICE       HP      Virtual LvDisk
                      /dev/disk/disk3      /dev/disk/disk3_p2   /dev/rdisk/disk3     /dev/rdisk/disk3_p2
                      /dev/disk/disk3_p1   /dev/disk/disk3_p3   /dev/rdisk/disk3_p1  /dev/rdisk/disk3_p3
disk      4  64000/0xfa00/0x7   esdisk   CLAIMED     DEVICE       3PARdataVV
                      /dev/disk/disk4   /dev/rdisk/disk4
disk      5  64000/0xfa00/0x8   esdisk   CLAIMED     DEVICE       3PARdataVV
                      /dev/disk/disk5   /dev/rdisk/disk5
disk     17  64000/0xfa00/0x2b  esdisk   CLAIMED     DEVICE       3PARdataVV
                      /dev/disk/disk17   /dev/rdisk/disk17

Create Physical Volume

Create the physical volume using the command pvcreate. Physical volume “/dev/rdisk/disk17” has been successfully created.

# pvcreate /dev/rdisk/disk17
pvcreate: Warning: The physical volume "/dev/rdisk/disk17", is initialized
to use only the first 2147483647KB of disk space in volume group version 1.0.
On volume group version 2.x, the physical volume size will be recalculated to use full size upto a maximum of 17179869184KB.
Physical volume "/dev/rdisk/disk17" has been successfully created.

Create Volume Group

Now create the volume group using the command vgcreate with the parameters given below. Here I have given VG name as vgrctest and after successful execution of the command Volume group “/dev/vgrctest” has been successfully created.

-V: vg version 2.0

-s : PE size (256 mb)

-S: max vg size 2 peta byte.

# vgcreate -V 2.0 -s 256 -S 2p /dev/vgrctest /dev/disk/disk17
Volume group "/dev/vgrctest" has been successfully created.
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vgrctest has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vgrctest.conf

Display Volume Group Information

Display the VG information of the newly created volume group named vgrctest using the command vgdisplay -v. Here you can see the details that show the information like PE size, Total PE, Free PE etc. This is a new volume group so all the 12287 PEs are free in this volume group.

# vgdisplay -v /dev/vgrctest
--- Volume groups ---
VG Name                     /dev/vgrctest
VG Write Access             read/write
VG Status                   available
Max LV                      511
Cur LV                      0
Open LV                     0
Max PV                      511
Cur PV                      1
Act PV                      1
Max PE per PV               65536
VGDA                        2
PE Size (Mbytes)            256
Total PE                    12287
Alloc PE                    0
Free PE                     12287
Total PVG                   0
Total Spare PVs             0
Total Spare PVs in use      0
VG Version                  2.0
VG Max Size                 2p
VG Max Extents              8388608


   --- Physical volumes ---
   PV Name                     /dev/disk/disk17
   PV Status                   available
   Total PE                    12287
   Free PE                     12287
   Autoswitch                  On
   Proactive Polling           On

Create Logical Volume

Create the logical volume using the command lvcreate and give the no of PEs for which you want to create the logical volume. Here I have taken all PEs which are free. Logical volume “/dev/vgrctest/lvol1” has been successfully created.

# lvcreate -l 12287 /dev/vgrctest
Logical volume "/dev/vgrctest/lvol1" has been successfully created with
character device "/dev/vgrctest/rlvol1".
Logical volume "/dev/vgrctest/lvol1" has been successfully extended.
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vgrctest has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vgrctest.conf

Format Raw Logical Volume

Format the raw logical volume using the command shown below.

# newfs -F vxfs -o largefiles /dev/vgrctest/rlvol1
    version 7 layout
    3220963328 sectors, 402620416 blocks of size 8192, log size 32768 blocks
    largefiles supported

Create Mount Point and Mount

Create the mount point directory and mount the formatted volume on the mount point directory.

# mkdir /rctest

# mount /dev/vgrctest/lvol1 /rctest

# bdf
Filesystem          kbytes    used   avail %used Mounted on
/dev/vg00/lvol3    4194304 3727320  466984   89% /
/dev/vg00/lvol4    10485760 8895680 1580536   85% /home
/dev/vgrctest/lvol1
                   3220963328  362072 3195440320    0% /rctest