Version 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 enable the configuration of larger volume groups, logical volumes,
physical volumes, and other parameters. Version 2.1 is identical to Version 2.0, but allows a
greater number of volume groups, physical volumes, and logical volumes. Version 2.x volume
groups are managed exactly like Version 1.0 volume groups, with the following exceptions:
•
Version 2.x volume groups have simpler options to the
vgcreate
command. When creating
a Version 2.x volume group, you specify only the extent size and the maximum size to which
the volume group can grow. This gives LVM greater flexibility in managing space; you can
use the same parameters for a volume group with many small PVs and for a volume group
with a few large PVs. For more information on volume group creation, see
“Creating a Volume
Group” (page 44)
•
Version 2.0 volume groups are not recognized on previous releases of HP-UX, including
versions of HP-UX 11i Version 3 before March 2008. Version 2.1 volume groups are not
recognized on previous releases of HP-UX, including versions of HP-UX 11i Version 3 before
September 2008. Version 2.2 volume groups are only supported on systems operating with
the HP-UX 11i Version 3 March 2010 Update and forward.
•
Version 2.0 and 2.1 volume groups do not support root, boot, swap, or dump logical volumes.
The
lvlnboot
and
lvrmboot
commands display an error message if run on a Version 2.0
or 2.1 volume group. Note that Version 2.2 and higher do support root, boot, swap, or dump
logical volumes.
•
Version 2.0 and 2.1 volume groups do not support bootable physical volumes. You cannot
add a physical volume created with
pvcreate -B
to a Version 2.0 or 2.1 volume group.
Note that Version 2.2 and higher do support bootable physical volumes.
•
Version 2.2 or higher volume groups support creation of snapshots of logical volumes.
•
Version 2.x volume groups do not support disk sparing. Using the
-z
option to the
vgextend
or
pvchange
command displays an error message.
•
The
pvck
command is not supported on Version 2.x volume groups.
•
Some HP-UX products do not support Version 2.x volume groups. For more information, see
the HP-UX Logical Volume Manager and MirrorDisk/UX Release Notes for your release.
To compare Version 1.0 and Version 2.x volume groups, see the tables that list maximum limits
for different volume group versions in
“LVM Specifications and Limitations” (page 147)
. You can
also display volume group limits with the
lvmadm
command; an example is shown in
“LVM
Specifications and Limitations” (page 147)
. The
lvmadm
is fully covered in the lvmadm(1M) manual
page.
See
“Creating and Administering Snapshot Logical Volumes” (page 103)
for information about
snapshot logical volumes.
LVM Device File Usage
All LVM components are represented by device special files located in the
/dev
directory. Device
special files act as agents for managing the interactions with the disk space. The LVM device files
are created by both HP SMH and HP-UX commands. This section describes the device special files
used by LVM, and naming conventions for LVM objects.
HP-UX 11i v3 introduces a new representation of mass storage devices called the
agile view
. In
this representation, the device special file (DSF) name for each disk no longer contains path (or
link) information. The multipathed disk has a single
persistent DSF
regardless of the number of
physical paths to it. The
legacy view
, represented by the
legacy DSF
, continue to exist.
Legacy Device Files versus Persistent Device Files
As of HP-UX 11i Version 3, disk devices can be represented by two different types of device files
in the
/dev
directory,
legacy
and
persistent
.
12
Introduction