PVSCAN(8) System Manager's Manual PVSCAN(8)
NAME
pvscan - List all physical volumes
SYNOPSIS
pvscan option_args
[ option_args ]
[ position_args ]
DESCRIPTION
When called without the --cache option, pvscan lists PVs on the system,
like pvs(8) or pvdisplay(8).
When the --cache and -aay options are used, pvscan records which PVs
are available on the system, and activates LVs in completed VGs. A VG
is complete when pvscan sees that the final PV in the VG has appeared.
This is used by event-based system startup (systemd, udev) to activate
LVs.
The four main variations of this are:
pvscan --cache device
If device is present, lvm adds a record that the PV on device is on-
line. If device is not present, lvm removes the online record for the
PV. In most cases, the pvscan will only read the named devices.
pvscan --cache -aay device...
This begins by performing the same steps as above. Afterward, if the
VG for the specified PV is complete, then pvscan will activate LVs in
the VG (the same as vgchange -aay vgname would do.)
pvscan --cache
This first clears all existing PV online records, then scans all de-
vices on the system, adding PV online records for any PVs that are
found.
pvscan --cache -aay
This begins by performing the same steps as pvscan --cache. Afterward,
it activates LVs in any complete VGs.
To prevent devices from being scanned by pvscan --cache, add them to
lvm.conf(5) devices/global_filter. For more information, see:
lvmconfig --withcomments devices/global_filter
Auto-activation of VGs or LVs can be enabled/disabled using:
lvm.conf(5) activation/auto_activation_volume_list
For more information, see:
lvmconfig --withcomments activation/auto_activation_volume_list
To disable auto-activation, explicitly set this list to an empty list,
i.e. auto_activation_volume_list = [ ].
When this setting is undefined (e.g. commented), then all LVs are auto-
activated.
USAGE
Display PV information.
pvscan
[ -e|--exported ]
[ -n|--novolumegroup ]
[ -s|--short ]
[ -u|--uuid ]
[ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
Autoactivate a VG when all PVs are online.
pvscan --cache
[ -a|--activate ay ]
[ -j|--major Number ]
[ --minor Number ]
[ --noudevsync ]
[ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
[ String|PV ... ]
Common options for command:
[ --ignorelockingfailure ]
[ --reportformat basic|json ]
Common options for lvm:
[ -d|--debug ]
[ -h|--help ]
[ -q|--quiet ]
[ -t|--test ]
[ -v|--verbose ]
[ -y|--yes ]
[ --commandprofile String ]
[ --config String ]
[ --driverloaded y|n ]
[ --lockopt String ]
[ --longhelp ]
[ --nolocking ]
[ --profile String ]
[ --version ]
OPTIONS
-a|--activate y|n|ay
Auto-activate LVs in a VG when the PVs scanned have completed
the VG. (Only ay is applicable.)
--cache
Scan one or more devices and record that they are online.
--commandprofile String
The command profile to use for command configuration. See
lvm.conf(5) for more information about profiles.
--config String
Config settings for the command. These override lvm.conf set-
tings. The String arg uses the same format as lvm.conf, or may
use section/field syntax. See lvm.conf(5) for more information
about config.
-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).
--driverloaded y|n
If set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-mapper.
For testing and debugging.
-e|--exported
Only show PVs belonging to exported VGs.
-h|--help
Display help text.
--ignorelockingfailure
Allows a command to continue with read-only metadata operations
after locking failures.
--lockopt String
Used to pass options for special cases to lvmlockd. See lvm-
lockd(8) for more information.
--longhelp
Display long help text.
-j|--major Number
The major number of a device.
--minor Number
The minor number of a device.
--nolocking
Disable locking.
--noudevsync
Disables udev synchronisation. The process will not wait for no-
tification from udev. It will continue irrespective of any pos-
sible udev processing in the background. Only use this if udev
is not running or has rules that ignore the devices LVM creates.
-n|--novolumegroup
Only show PVs not belonging to any VG.
--profile String
An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, depending on
the command.
-q|--quiet ...
Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and --ver-
bose. Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with answer
'no'.
--reportformat basic|json
Overrides current output format for reports which is defined
globally by the report/output_format setting in lvm.conf. basic
is the original format with columns and rows. If there is more
than one report per command, each report is prefixed with the
report name for identification. json produces report output in
JSON format. See lvmreport(7) for more information.
-s|--short
Short listing format.
-t|--test
Run in test mode. Commands will not update metadata. This is
implemented by disabling all metadata writing but nevertheless
returning success to the calling function. This may lead to un-
usual error messages in multi-stage operations if a tool relies
on reading back metadata it believes has changed but hasn't.
-u|--uuid
Show UUIDs in addition to device names.
-v|--verbose ...
Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase the de-
tail of messages sent to stdout and stderr.
--version
Display version information.
-y|--yes
Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always assume
the answer yes. Use with extreme caution. (For automatic no,
see -qq.)
VARIABLES
PV
Physical Volume name, a device path under /dev. For commands
managing physical extents, a PV positional arg generally accepts
a suffix indicating a range (or multiple ranges) of physical ex-
tents (PEs). When the first PE is omitted, it defaults to the
start of the device, and when the last PE is omitted it defaults
to end. Start and end range (inclusive): PV[:PE-PE]... Start
and length range (counting from 0): PV[:PE+PE]...
String
See the option description for information about the string con-
tent.
Size[UNIT]
Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit. Input
units are always treated as base two values, regardless of capi-
talization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024. The default
input unit is specified by letter, followed by |UNIT. UNIT rep-
resents other possible input units: bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE. b|B is
bytes, s|S is sectors of 512 bytes, k|K is kilobytes, m|M is
megabytes, g|G is gigabytes, t|T is terabytes, p|P is petabytes,
e|E is exabytes. (This should not be confused with the output
control --units, where capital letters mean multiple of 1000.)
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See lvm(8) for information about environment variables used by lvm.
For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a required VG
parameter.
SEE ALSO
lvm(8)lvm.conf(5)lvmconfig(8)pvchange(8)pvck(8)pvcreate(8)pvdisplay(8)pvmove(8)pvremove(8)pvresize(8)pvs(8)pvscan(8)vgcfgbackup(8)vgcfgrestore(8)vgchange(8)vgck(8)vgcreate(8) vgcon-
vert(8)vgdisplay(8)vgexport(8)vgextend(8)vgimport(8) vgimport-
clone(8)vgmerge(8)vgmknodes(8)vgreduce(8)vgremove(8)vgrename(8)vgs(8)vgscan(8)vgsplit(8)lvcreate(8)lvchange(8)lvconvert(8)lvdisplay(8)lvextend(8) lvre-
duce(8)lvremove(8)lvrename(8)lvresize(8)lvs(8)lvscan(8)lvm-fullreport(8)lvm-lvpoll(8)lvm2-activation-generator(8) blkdeacti-
vate(8)lvmdump(8)dmeventd(8)lvmpolld(8)lvmlockd(8)lvmlockctl(8)cmirrord(8) lvmd-
busd(8)lvmsystemid(7)lvmreport(7)lvmraid(7)lvmthin(7)lvmcache(7)
Red Hat, Inc. LVM TOOLS 2.03.07(2) (2019-11-30) PVSCAN(8)