vgcreate returns "File too large" error

[ES UNIX Team]

I want to create a vg00 volume group using 2 72GB disk drives on an L box running HP-UX 11.0. But, I'm getting the following error:

vgcreate returns "File too large" error

What's the max_pe for this size disk? and why am I getting the above error.

Thanks

Willie

[John Poff]

Hi,

What command line are you using for your 'vgcreate'?

JP

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Willie:

One or more of your arguments to 'vgcreate' cause the creation of LVM header information that can't be stored in one physical extent on the disk. Decrease your 'max_pv', 'max_lv' and/or increase your 'pe_size'. See the man pages for 'vgcreate' for more information.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Martin Johnson]

For disks that size, you can't use the default max_pe setting if you are including more than one disk. You must use the "-p" qualifier. Valid values are from 1 to 65535.

Alternatively, you can adjust the pe_size greater than the 4 MB default. If you do this, the size must be a power of 2 (i.e. 8, 16, 32, 64, etc).

HTH
Marty

[Patrick Wallek]

In this case make sure you set the max_pvs setting to something other than the default, like maybe 6. Set your pe_size to 8.

Check out these documents for more information on this issue:

TKB document KBRC00000716
http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000065011234

TKB document KBRC00009036
http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000062909773

[Wodisch]

Hi Willie,

all the PE/LE information must fit into one PE's size, and 4MB is too small for your PVs...
So use "vgcreate" with some of the (not so optional any more) options:
-s 8 # or 16 or 32 or 64...256
-l 30 # do you really need 255 LVs?
-p 4 # do you really need 16 PVs in that VG?
-e 20480 # i.e. 160GB max, needed for substitutes in the future

Your values may vary, of course, but IMHO *all* the defaults are severly wrong (16PVs max, 4MB PE size, 255 LVs max, 2500 PEs max, and such, maybe that was reasonable many years back, when HP got LVM from OSF/IBM).

FWIW,
Wodisch