cannot create a volume group named the same as one already removed

I'm using lvm 1.0.3 that came with my Red Hat 7.3 system, with kernel 2.4.18-24.7.x. When I try to create a volume group that has the same name as one that existed in the past but was removed, I get an error stating that the volume group already exists and to use a different name. What can I do to fix this?

I appreciate any tips. Most of the command outputs are below to help illustrate what I'm seeing/doing.

Tom

[root@mom root]# vgcreate volgrp2 /dev/hdg vgcreate -- volume group directory or file already exists vgcreate -- please choose a different name

[root@mom root]# vgremove volgrp2
vgremove -- volume group "volgrp2" doesn't exist

Before I tried recreating this group, I removed all of the LVs from it:

[root@mom root]# df -hl

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda3             9.6G  1.3G  7.8G  15% /
/dev/hda1             144M   17M  120M  12% /boot
none                  503M     0  503M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda2             6.4G   33M  6.0G   1% /usr/local
/dev/hda6            1011M  273M  687M  29% /var
/dev/volgrp1/lvol1     36G   32G  1.9G  95% /volumes/v01
/dev/volgrp1/lvol2     36G   29G  5.2G  85% /volumes/v02
/dev/volgrp1/lvol3     36G   25G  9.4G  73% /volumes/v03
/dev/volgrp2/lvol1     36G   31G  3.0G  92% /volumes/v10
/dev/volgrp2/lvol2     36G   18G   16G  51% /volumes/v11
/dev/volgrp2/lvol3     36G  915M   32G   3% /volumes/v12
/dev/volgrp3/lvol1     36G  2.5G   31G   8% /volumes/v20
/dev/volgrp3/lvol2    1.9G  208M  1.6G  12% /volumes/v21

[root@mom /]# umount /volumes/v10
[root@mom /]# umount /volumes/v11
[root@mom /]# umount /volumes/v12
[root@mom /]# lvremove /dev/volgrp2/lvol1
lvremove -- do you really want to remove "/dev/volgrp2/lvol1"? [y/n]: y lvremove -- doing automatic backup of volume group "volgrp2" lvremove -- logical volume "/dev/volgrp2/lvol1" successfully removed

[root@mom /]# lvremove /dev/volgrp2/lvol2
lvremove -- do you really want to remove "/dev/volgrp2/lvol2"? [y/n]: y lvremove -- doing automatic backup of volume group "volgrp2" lvremove -- logical volume "/dev/volgrp2/lvol2" successfully removed

[root@mom /]# lvremove /dev/volgrp2/lvol3
lvremove -- do you really want to remove "/dev/volgrp2/lvol3"? [y/n]: y lvremove -- doing automatic backup of volume group "volgrp2" lvremove -- logical volume "/dev/volgrp2/lvol3" successfully removed

The new disk was been initialized:
[root@mom root]# pvdisplay /dev/hdg
pvdisplay -- "/dev/hdg" is a new physical volume of 114.50 GB

And volgrp2 isn't active:
[root@mom root]# vgdisplay
--- Volume group ---

VG Name               volgrp1
VG Access             read/write
VG Status             available/resizable
VG #                  0
MAX LV                256
Cur LV                3
Open LV               3
MAX LV Size           255.99 GB
Max PV                256
Cur PV                1
Act PV                1
VG Size               114.49 GB
PE Size               4 MB
Total PE              29310
Alloc PE / Size       27786 / 108.54 GB
Free  PE / Size       1524 / 5.95 GB
VG UUID               5sIM7c-KUYL-O1fc-wjdX-A8fj-v7RG-Fj4ssE

--- Volume group ---

VG Name               volgrp3
VG Access             read/write
VG Status             available/resizable
VG #                  2
MAX LV                256
Cur LV                3
Open LV               3
MAX LV Size           255.99 GB
Max PV                256
Cur PV                1
Act PV                1
VG Size               114.49 GB
PE Size               4 MB
Total PE              29310
Alloc PE / Size       18750 / 73.24 GB
Free  PE / Size       10560 / 41.25 GB
VG UUID               kIC7Td-UXGl-oJSx-AXRV-YzHE-DYFN-CBVCFb

Your mail doesn't show clearly, if vgremove was run prior to pvcreate.

The directory in /dev/ still exists so run:

rm -r /dev/volgrp2

and retry.

Regards,
Heinz -- The LVM Guy --

*** Software bugs are stupid.
Nevertheless it needs not so stupid people to solve them ***

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Heinz Mauelshagen Sistina Software Inc.
Senior Consultant/Developer Am Sonnenhang 11
56242 Marienrachdorf Germany
[email protected] +49 2626 141200

                                                       FAX 924446

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I believe I did them out of order, which got me into this mess. :(

Thank you, that solved the problem.

Tom

                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

if you are sure the group does not exist any more:

[root@mom root] # vgscan
[root@mom root] $ rm -rf /dev/volgrp2

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