vgscan

Scan for LVM volume groups

TLDR

Scan for all volume groups

$ sudo vgscan

Scan and recreate missing device nodes

$ sudo vgscan --mknodes

Scan with verbose output

$ sudo vgscan -v

Scan in test mode without updating metadata

$ sudo vgscan -t

vgscan scans all supported LVM block devices in the system for volume groups. It builds the LVM cache file that holds current information about volume groups on the system.On modern LVM2 systems, volume group scans happen automatically when changes are made. Manual use of vgscan is mainly needed after hardware changes or to rebuild the cache.

PARAMETERS

--mknodes

Check and recreate LVM special device files in /dev. Creates missing nodes and removes unused ones.

-v, --verbose

Verbose mode. Repeat up to 4 times to increase detail.

--notifydbus

Send a notification to D-Bus after the scan completes.

--reportformat basic|json

Override the output format for reports.

--ignorelockingfailure

Continue with read-only metadata operations after locking failures.

-t, --test

Run in test mode without updating metadata.

-d, --debug

Set debug level. Repeat up to 6 times to increase detail.

-q, --quiet

Suppress output and log messages.

INSTALL

sudo apt install lvm2

sudo dnf install lvm2

sudo pacman -S lvm2

sudo apk add lvm2

sudo zypper install lvm2

nix profile install nixpkgs#lvm2

CAVEATS

vgscan is typically run automatically during system boot. Manually running vgscan is rarely necessary on modern systems as LVM automatically detects changes. Use vgchange -a y to activate volume groups after scanning. Requires root privileges.

HISTORY

vgscan is part of LVM2 (Logical Volume Manager), which evolved from the original LVM implementation. LVM2 was developed by Red Hat and uses the device-mapper kernel framework for dynamic disk management on Linux.