A method, system, and apparatus for controlling the behavior of an application through a device or device subtype in a logical volume manager. The present invention allows for creating device types or subtypes to be used when creating a logical volume. The device type or device subtype specified during the creation of the logical volume signals to an application that the application may perform a particular behavior. The use of alternate device types and subtypes when creating a logical volume inform an application that the application can behave in a new way defined by the device type and subtype.