.TH VGCFGBACKUP 8 "LVM TOOLS 2.03.33(2) (2025-06-27)" "Red Hat, Inc."
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.\"List of all options as O_string.
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.de O_commandprofile
.OPA commandprofile
\fIString\fP
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.de O_config
.OPA config
\fIString\fP
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.de O_debug
.OPA d debug
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.de O_devices
.OPA devices
\fIPV\fP
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.de O_devicesfile
.OPA devicesfile
\fIString\fP
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.de O_driverloaded
.OPA driverloaded
\fBy\fP|\fBn\fP
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.de O_file
.OPA f file
\fIString\fP
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.de O_foreign
.OPS foreign
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.de O_help
.OPS h help
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.de O_ignorelockingfailure
.OPS ignorelockingfailure
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.de O_journal
.OPA journal
\fIString\fP
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.de O_lockopt
.OPA lockopt
\fIString\fP
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.de O_longhelp
.OPS longhelp
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.de O_nohints
.OPS nohints
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.de O_nolocking
.OPS nolocking
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.de O_profile
.OPA profile
\fIString\fP
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.OPA q quiet
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.de O_readonly
.OPS readonly
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.OPA reportformat
\%\fBbasic\fP|\:\
\fBjson\fP|\:\
\fBjson_std\fP
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.OPS t test
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.OPA v verbose
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.OPS version
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.SH NAME
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vgcfgbackup \(em Backup volume group configuration(s)
.
.SH SYNOPSIS
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.nh
.TP
\fBvgcfgbackup\fP
[ \fIoption_args\fP ]
.br
[ \fIposition_args\fP ]
.hy
.
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.SH DESCRIPTION
.
vgcfgbackup creates back up files containing metadata of VGs.
If no VGs are named, back up files are created for all VGs. See
.BR vgcfgrestore (8)
for information on using the back up files.
.P
In a default installation, each VG is backed up into a separate file
bearing the name of the VG in the directory
\fI/etc/lvm/backup\fP.
.P
To use an alternative back up file, use \fB\-f\fP. In this case, when
backing up multiple VGs, the file name is treated as a template, with %s
replaced by the VG name.
.P
NB. This DOES NOT back up the data content of LVs.
.P
It may also be useful to regularly back up the files in
\fI/etc/lvm\fP.
.
.SH USAGE
.
.nh
.na
.B vgcfgbackup
.RS
[
.O_file
]
.br
[
.O_foreign
]
.br
[
.O_ignorelockingfailure
]
.br
[
.O_readonly
]
.br
[
.O_reportformat
]
.br
[ COMMON_OPTIONS ]
.br
[ \fIVG\fP\ .\|.\|.\& ]
.RE
.P
\(em
.P
Common options for lvm:
.RS
[
.O_debug
]
.br
[
.O_help
]
.br
[
.O_quiet
]
.br
[
.O_test
]
.br
[
.O_verbose
]
.br
[
.O_yes
]
.br
[
.O_commandprofile
]
.br
[
.O_config
]
.br
[
.O_devices
]
.br
[
.O_devicesfile
]
.br
[
.O_driverloaded
]
.br
[
.O_journal
]
.br
[
.O_lockopt
]
.br
[
.O_longhelp
]
.br
[
.O_nohints
]
.br
[
.O_nolocking
]
.br
[
.O_profile
]
.br
[
.O_version
]
.RE
.hy
.ad
.
.SH OPTIONS
.
.TP
.O_commandprofile
The command profile to use for command configuration.
See \fBlvm.conf\fP(5) for more information about profiles.
.
.TP
.O_config
Config settings for the command. These override \fBlvm.conf\fP(5) settings.
The String arg uses the same format as \fBlvm.conf\fP(5),
or may use section/field syntax.
See \fBlvm.conf\fP(5) for more information about config.
.
.TP
.O_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).
.
.TP
.O_devices
Restricts the devices that are visible and accessible to the command.
Devices not listed will appear to be missing. This option can be
repeated, or accepts a comma separated list of devices. This overrides
the devices file.
.
.TP
.O_devicesfile
A file listing devices that LVM should use.
The file must exist in \fI/etc/lvm/devices/\fP and is managed
with the \fBlvmdevices\fP(8) command.
This overrides the \fBlvm.conf\fP(5) \fBdevices/devicesfile\fP and
\fBdevices/use_devicesfile\fP settings.
.
.TP
.O_driverloaded
If set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-mapper.
For testing and debugging.
.
.TP
.O_file
Write the backup to the named file.
When backing up more than one VG, the file name is
treated as a template, and %s is replaced by the VG name.
.
.TP
.O_foreign
Report/display foreign VGs that would otherwise be skipped.
See \fBlvmsystemid\fP(7) for more information about foreign VGs.
.
.TP
.O_help
Display help text.
.
.TP
.O_ignorelockingfailure
Allows a command to continue with read-only metadata
operations after locking failures.
.
.TP
.O_journal
Record information in the systemd journal.
This information is in addition to information
enabled by the lvm.conf log/journal setting.
command: record information about the command.
output: record the default command output.
debug: record full command debugging.
.
.TP
.O_lockopt
Used to pass options for special cases to lvmlockd.
See \fBlvmlockd\fP(8) for more information.
.
.TP
.O_longhelp
Display long help text.
.
.TP
.O_nohints
Do not use the hints file to locate devices for PVs. A command may read
more devices to find PVs when hints are not used. The command will still
perform standard hint file invalidation where appropriate.
.
.TP
.O_nolocking
Disable locking. Use with caution, concurrent commands may produce
incorrect results.
.
.TP
.O_profile
An alias for \-\-commandprofile or \-\-metadataprofile, depending
on the command.
.
.TP
.O_quiet
Suppress output and log messages. Overrides \-\-debug and \-\-verbose.
Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with answer 'no'.
.
.TP
.O_readonly
Prevent the command from making changes, including activation and
metadata updates.  (See \-\-permission r for read only LVs.)
.
.TP
.O_reportformat
Overrides current output format for reports which is defined globally by
the report/output_format setting in \fBlvm.conf\fP(5).
\fBbasic\fP 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. \fBjson\fP produces report
output in JSON format. \fBjson_std\fP produces report output in
JSON format which is more compliant with JSON standard.
See \fBlvmreport\fP(7) for more information.
.
.TP
.O_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 unusual
error messages in multi-stage operations if a tool relies on reading
back metadata it believes has changed but hasn't.
.
.TP
.O_verbose
Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase the detail
of messages sent to stdout and stderr.
.
.TP
.O_version
Display version information.
.
.TP
.O_yes
Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always assume the
answer yes. Use with extreme caution.
(For automatic no, see \-qq.)
.
.SH VARIABLES
.
.TP
.I VG
Volume Group name.  See \fBlvm\fP(8) for valid names.
.
.TP
.I String
See the option description for information about the string content.
.
.TP
.IR Size [UNIT]
Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit.
Input units are always treated as base two values, regardless of
capitalization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024.
The default input unit is specified by letter, followed by |UNIT.
UNIT represents other possible input units:
.BR b | B
is bytes,
.BR s | S
is sectors of 512 bytes,
.BR k | K
is KiB,
.BR m | M
is MiB,
.BR g | G
is GiB,
.BR t | T
is TiB,
.BR p | P
is PiB,
.BR e | E
is EiB.
(This should not be confused with the output control \-\-units,
where capital letters mean multiple of 1000.)
.
.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.
See \fBlvm\fP(8) for information about environment variables used by lvm.
For example, \fBLVM_VG_NAME\fP can generally be substituted
for a required VG parameter.
.
.SH SEE ALSO
.
.nh
.na
.BR lvm (8),
.BR lvm.conf (5),
.BR lvmconfig (8),
.BR lvmdevices (8),
.P
.BR pvchange (8),
.BR pvck (8),
.BR pvcreate (8),
.BR pvdisplay (8),
.BR pvmove (8),
.BR pvremove (8),
.BR pvresize (8),
.BR pvs (8),
.BR pvscan (8),
.P
.BR vgcfgbackup (8),
.BR vgcfgrestore (8),
.BR vgchange (8),
.BR vgck (8),
.BR vgcreate (8),
.BR vgconvert (8),
.BR vgdisplay (8),
.BR vgexport (8),
.BR vgextend (8),
.BR vgimport (8),
.BR vgimportclone (8),
.BR vgimportdevices (8),
.BR vgmerge (8),
.BR vgmknodes (8),
.BR vgreduce (8),
.BR vgremove (8),
.BR vgrename (8),
.BR vgs (8),
.BR vgscan (8),
.BR vgsplit (8),
.P
.BR lvcreate (8),
.BR lvchange (8),
.BR lvconvert (8),
.BR lvdisplay (8),
.BR lvextend (8),
.BR lvreduce (8),
.BR lvremove (8),
.BR lvrename (8),
.BR lvresize (8),
.BR lvs (8),
.BR lvscan (8),
.P
.BR lvm\-fullreport (8),
.BR lvm\-lvpoll (8),
.BR blkdeactivate (8),
.BR lvmdump (8),
.P
.BR dmeventd (8),
.BR lvmpolld (8),
.BR lvmlockd (8),
.BR lvmlockctl (8),
.BR cmirrord (8),
.BR lvmdbusd (8),
.BR fsadm (8),
.P
.BR lvmsystemid (7),
.BR lvmreport (7),
.BR lvmcache (7),
.BR lvmraid (7),
.BR lvmthin (7),
.BR lvmvdo (7),
.BR lvmautoactivation (7)