first find out what is going on:
pvcreate /dev/sdb -vvv 2>&1| less
Look for errors. In my case it said the volume was mpath managed.
So exclude from mpath, put the
vi /etc/multipath.conf && systemctl restart multipathd.service
Add a block at the bottom:
blacklist {
wwid WD40EFRX-68N32N0_WD-WCC7K2KD8PV5
wwid WD40EFRX-68N32N0_WD-WCC7K7NUFLSF
}
Find the WWID by doing:
ls -al /dev/disk/by-id/*
in my case:
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 9 Oct 2 19:24 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD40EFRX-68N32N0_WD-WCC7K2KD8PV5 -> ../../sdb
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 9 Oct 2 17:13 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD40EFRX-68N32N0_WD-WCC7K7NUFLSF -> ../../sdc