Create volume groups on AIX - Normal Big Scalable

You can create three types of volume groups on AIX:

• Normal
• Big
• Scalable

VG type      Max-PVs      Max-LVs         Max-PPs per VG         Max-PP per size
Normal          32           256              32,512                    1 GB
Big            128           512             130,048                    1 GB
Scalable      1024          4096           2,097,152                  128 GB

First, identify free disk you want to use. In our case is hdisk2.

[root@aix:/] lspv
hdisk0 000fd1bbd4229068 rootvg active
hdisk2 000fd1bb7390f5fb None

Create a NORMAL type volume group:

[root@aix:/] mkvg -y normalvg hdisk2
normalvg

Let’s verify:

[root@aix:/] lsvg normalvg
VOLUME GROUP:       normalvg                 VG IDENTIFIER:  000fd1bb0000d4000000015982f0724b
VG STATE:           active                   PP SIZE:        4 megabyte(s)
VG PERMISSION:      read/write               TOTAL PPs:      511 (2044 megabytes)
MAX LVs:            256                      FREE PPs:       511 (2044 megabytes)
LVs:                0                        USED PPs:       0 (0 megabytes)
OPEN LVs:           0                        QUORUM:         2 (Enabled)
TOTAL PVs:          1                        VG DESCRIPTORS: 2
STALE PVs:          0                        STALE PPs:      0
ACTIVE PVs:         1                        AUTO ON:        yes
MAX PPs per VG:     32512
MAX PPs per PV:     1016                     MAX PVs:        32
LTG size (Dynamic): 512 kilobyte(s)          AUTO SYNC:      no
HOT SPARE:          no                       BB POLICY:      relocatable
PV RESTRICTION:     none                     INFINITE RETRY: no
DISK BLOCK SIZE:    512                      CRITICAL VG:    no	

Create a BIG type volume group:

[root@aix:/] mkvg  -B -y bigvg hdisk2
bigvg

Let’s verify:

[root@aix:/] lsvg bigvg
VOLUME GROUP:       bigvg                 VG IDENTIFIER:  000fd1bb0000d4000000015982f0dd62
VG STATE:           active                PP SIZE:        4 megabyte(s)
VG PERMISSION:      read/write            TOTAL PPs:      509 (2036 megabytes)
MAX LVs:            512                   FREE PPs:       509 (2036 megabytes)
LVs:                0                     USED PPs:       0 (0 megabytes)
OPEN LVs:           0                     QUORUM:         2 (Enabled)
TOTAL PVs:          1                     VG DESCRIPTORS: 2
STALE PVs:          0                     STALE PPs:      0
ACTIVE PVs:         1                     AUTO ON:        yes
MAX PPs per VG:     130048
MAX PPs per PV:     1016                  MAX PVs:        128
LTG size (Dynamic): 512 kilobyte(s)       AUTO SYNC:      no
HOT SPARE:          no                    BB POLICY:      relocatable
PV RESTRICTION:     none                  INFINITE RETRY: no
DISK BLOCK SIZE:    512                   CRITICAL VG:    no

Create a SCALABLE type volume group:

[root@aix:/] mkvg -y scalablevg -S -P 1024 -v 4096 hdisk2
scalablevg

Let’s verify:

[root@aix:/] lsvg scalablevg
VOLUME GROUP:       scalablevg               VG IDENTIFIER:  000fd1bb0000d4000000015982efddcd
VG STATE:           active                   PP SIZE:        4 megabyte(s)
VG PERMISSION:      read/write               TOTAL PPs:      494 (1976 megabytes)
MAX LVs:            256                      FREE PPs:       494 (1976 megabytes)
LVs:                0                        USED PPs:       0 (0 megabytes)
OPEN LVs:           0                        QUORUM:         2 (Enabled)
TOTAL PVs:          1                        VG DESCRIPTORS: 2
STALE PVs:          0                        STALE PPs:      0
ACTIVE PVs:         1                        AUTO ON:        yes
MAX PPs per VG:     32768                    MAX PVs:        1024
LTG size (Dynamic): 512 kilobyte(s)          AUTO SYNC:      no
HOT SPARE:          no                       BB POLICY:      relocatable
MIRROR POOL STRICT: off
PV RESTRICTION:     none                     INFINITE RETRY: no
DISK BLOCK SIZE:    512                      CRITICAL VG:    no

You can also convert a VG from BIG or (NORMAL) to SCALABLE using ‘chvg’ command

NOTE: VG must be varyoff before convertion!

[root@nodetest:/] chvg -G newvg
0516-1224 chvg: WARNING, once this operation is completed, volume group newvg
cannot be imported into AIX 5.2 or lower versions. Continue (y/n)  y
0516-1712 chvg: Volume group newvg changed. newvg can include up to 1024 physical volumes with 2097152 total physical partitions in the volume group.

[root@nodetest:/] varyonvg newvg