Both VGIDs and PVIDs on HP-UX are a combination of two values: the CPU ID of the machine

on which the VG or PV is created and the Unix timestamp at the time of creation.
VGIDs from VGs
To view the VGID of a VG, use vgexport with the scanable flag to create a map file for the
VG. Inside the map file will be the VGID as one, big hex number:
Note: The man page vgexport(1M) calls the -s flag the sharable option. In my opinion, this
is a confusing misnomer. I call it the scanable flag because all it does is put the VGID line at the
top of the map file allowing vgimport to scan all of the PVs in order to determine which PVs
belong to that VG. Without that VGID line in the map file and the scanable flag in vgimport,
you must specify each PV manually. Obviously, being able to scan for all of the PVs in a VG
during importation is nice when a VG can move between multiple machines, but its just as handy
if the VG never leaves the machine on which it was created.
# vgexport -p -v -s -m vg170.map vg170
Beginning the export process on Volume Group "vg170".
vgexport: Volume group "vg170" is still active.
/dev/dsk/c15t5d7
/dev/dsk/c15t7d6
/dev/dsk/c15t7d7
/dev/dsk/c15t8d1
/dev/dsk/c16t0d4
/dev/dsk/c16t0d5
/dev/dsk/c16t0d6
/dev/dsk/c19t5d2
/dev/dsk/c19t5d3
/dev/dsk/c23t7d4
/dev/dsk/c24t7d4
/dev/dsk/c24t7d5
/dev/dsk/c24t7d6
# cat vg170.map
VGID 075354214cf400f2
1 depot
The first 8 characters are the CPU ID and the last 8 are the timestamp. To check the CPU ID just
convert from hex to decimal. The CPU ID of a machine can be obtained with uname -i.
# echo "0X07535421=D" | adb
122901537
# uname -i
122901537
As we can see here, this VG was created on this computer.
Seeing the creation date is very similar.
# echo "0X4cf400f2=Y" | adb
2010 Nov 29 13:37:22
VGIDs and PVIDs from disk headers

The headers of each LVM-controlled disk contain both the VGID of the VG the disk belongs to, as
well as a unique PVID. There are a few ways to format the VGID, depending on what you are
trying to do.
To get the VGID off of a disk in hex (maybe to compare with a VG map file):
# echo 0d8208?XX | adb /dev/dsk/c19t5d3
2010:
7535421
4CF400F2
To get the VGID off of a disk in decimal (maybe to compare CPU ID):
# echo 0d8208?UU | adb /dev/dsk/c19t5d3
2010:
122901537
1291059442
To get the date in human-readable format:
# echo 0d8208?UY | adb /dev/dsk/c19t5d3
2010:
122901537
2010 Nov 29 13:37:22
Viewing the PVID is very similar, we just have to look at a slightly different offset:
# echo "0d8200?UY" | adb /dev/dsk/c19t5d3
2008:
122901537
2010 Nov 29 13:53:31