Creating volume groups and assigning source volumes

A volume group allows for many related volumes to be grouped so that they can be managed together. A volume group also ensures consistency across all volumes in the group when used with snapshot or replication functions.

A Safeguarded volume group describes a set of source volumes that can span different pools and are backed up collectively with the Safeguarded Copy function. Safeguarded snapshots are supported on the system through an internal scheduler that is defined in the snapshot policy or can be configured with an external snapshot scheduling application such as IBM Copy Services Manager.

Using the management GUI

To create a volume group, complete these steps:
  1. In the management GUI, select Volumes > Volumes Groups.
  2. Click Create Volume Group.
  3. On the Create Volume Group page, enter the volume group name. If you do not specify a volume group name, the system automatically assigns the name.
  4. To assign volumes, select the following options:
    Choose existing volumes
    Select this option if you want to add existing volumes to a volume group by completing these steps:
    1. Select Choose existing volumes and click Next.
    2. From the list, select the volumes that you want to add to the volume group.
    3. Click Create Volume Group.

Using the command-line interface (CLI)

To create and configure a new volume group and assign volumes to that group, complete these steps:
  1. To create the new volume group, enter the following command: 
    mkvolumegroup -name volumegroup_name
    where volumegroup_name specifies a volume group name. This command creates the volume group.
  2. After creating the volume group, either create new volumes or change existing volumes and assign them to volume group that you created in Step 1.
    If you are assigning a new volume to the volume group, enter the following command:
    mkvolume -volumegroup <volumegroup_name_or_id> -size <disk_size>
    where <volumegroup_name_or_id> is the name or identifier of the volume group; and <disk_size> indicates the capacity that is provisioned for the volume from the parent pool.
    If you are assigning existing volumes to the volume group, enter the following command:
    chvdisk -volumegroup <volumegroup_name_or_id> <name_or_id>
    where <volumegroup_name_or_id> is the name or identifier of the volume group and <name_or_id> of the volume.