Drives not showing when sudo pvdisplay

Question

I'm going to make a RAID5 setup on my ubuntu 14.04 server. I had 2 4 TB WD NAS drive and have purchased another. However, when I try to find those drives in my system using pvs, I only find 3 drives (my system drive and two additional drives).

 PV         VG        Fmt  Attr PSize   PFree
  /dev/sda5  unas14-vg lvm2 a--  111.55g  27.73g
  /dev/sdb1  storage   lvm2 a--    3.64t 654.02g
  /dev/sdd1            lvm2 a--    3.64t   3.64t

fidsk -l provides me with

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdb: 4000.8 GB, 4000787030016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 486401 cylinders, total 7814037168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1  4294967295  2147483647+  ee  GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000baa50

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      499711      248832   83  Linux
/dev/sda2          501758   234440703   116969473    5  Extended
/dev/sda5          501760   234440703   116969472   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdc: 4000.8 GB, 4000787030016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 486401 cylinders, total 7814037168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdc doesn't contain a valid partition table

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdd'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdd: 4000.8 GB, 4000787030016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 486401 cylinders, total 7814037168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1               1  4294967295  2147483647+  ee  GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

Disk /dev/mapper/storage-storage: 3298.5 GB, 3298534883328 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 401024 cylinders, total 6442450944 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/storage-storage doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/unas14--vg-root: 85.7 GB, 85714796544 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10420 cylinders, total 167411712 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/unas14--vg-root doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/unas14--vg-swap_1: 4282 MB, 4282384384 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 520 cylinders, total 8364032 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/unas14--vg-swap_1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

So the sdc drive isn't showing in pvs. Is this something to be concerned about before making the RAID, or shall I just move on?

Thanks in advance.. :)

Solution

pvs doesn’t list physical drives, it lists physical volumes. You need to create a physical volume before it will appear in pvs’ output:

pvcreate /dev/sdc

or

pvcreate /dev/sdc1

(the latter if you’ve partitioned the drive).