[gentoo-user] 14TB filesystem problems...

[gentoo-user] 14TB filesystem problems...

[Bryan Whitehead]

I need a big partition, and have a 14TB raid5 (with hot spares)

I get this problem:
[root@dbay ~]# fdisk /dev/sdc

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 437698.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-170349, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-170349, default 170349): 
437698
Value out of range.
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-170349, default 170349):


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Re: [gentoo-user] 14TB filesystem problems...

[Richard Fish]

On 11/11/05, Bryan Whitehead <driver@megahappy.net> wrote:
>
> I need a big partition, and have a 14TB raid5 (with hot spares)
>
> I get this problem:
> [root@dbay ~]# fdisk /dev/sdc

Why partition it?  Just make a filesystem that uses the entire disk. 
Or use LVM to divide it up into logical devices.

-Richard

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Re: [gentoo-user] 14TB filesystem problems...

[kashani]

Bryan Whitehead wrote:
> 
> I need a big partition, and have a 14TB raid5 (with hot spares)
> 
> I get this problem:
> [root@dbay ~]# fdisk /dev/sdc

fdisk is known to have issues with large volumes. I don't recall offhand 
what the best tool is, but I believe partd and cfdisk would work better 
than fdisk. However they may some quirks of their own with that much space.

kashani
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Re: [gentoo-user] 14TB filesystem problems...

[Bryan Whitehead]

good idea,

I suppose I've put off learning LVM long enough... :P

On Fri, 11 Nov 2005, Richard Fish wrote:

> On 11/11/05, Bryan Whitehead <driver@megahappy.net> wrote:
>>
>> I need a big partition, and have a 14TB raid5 (with hot spares)
>>
>> I get this problem:
>> [root@dbay ~]# fdisk /dev/sdc
>
> Why partition it?  Just make a filesystem that uses the entire disk.
> Or use LVM to divide it up into logical devices.
>
> -Richard
>
>

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Email:driver@megahappy.net
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Re: [gentoo-user] 14TB filesystem problems...

[Richard Fish]

On 11/11/05, kashani <kashani-list@badapple.net> wrote:
> Bryan Whitehead wrote:
> >
> > I need a big partition, and have a 14TB raid5 (with hot spares)
> >
> > I get this problem:
> > [root@dbay ~]# fdisk /dev/sdc
>
> fdisk is known to have issues with large volumes. I don't recall offhand
> what the best tool is, but I believe partd and cfdisk would work better
> than fdisk. However they may some quirks of their own with that much space.

The largest partition possible in a traditional PC partition table on
any disk with 512-byte sectors is 2TB.


-Richard


>
> kashani
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] 14TB filesystem problems...

[Bryan Whitehead]

So if I use a non-traditional partition... then I should be good?

On Fri, 11 Nov 2005, Richard Fish wrote:

> On 11/11/05, kashani <kashani-list@badapple.net> wrote:
>> Bryan Whitehead wrote:
>>>
>>> I need a big partition, and have a 14TB raid5 (with hot spares)
>>>
>>> I get this problem:
>>> [root@dbay ~]# fdisk /dev/sdc
>>
>> fdisk is known to have issues with large volumes. I don't recall offhand
>> what the best tool is, but I believe partd and cfdisk would work better
>> than fdisk. However they may some quirks of their own with that much space.
>
> The largest partition possible in a traditional PC partition table on
> any disk with 512-byte sectors is 2TB.
>
>
> -Richard
>
>
>>
>> kashani
>> --
>> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>>
>>
>
>

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Bryan Whitehead
Email:driver@megahappy.net
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Re: [gentoo-user] 14TB filesystem problems...

[Richard Fish]

On 11/11/05, Bryan Whitehead <driver@megahappy.net> wrote:
> So if I use a non-traditional partition... then I should be good?

AFAIK, yes.  LVM2 would be the "non-traditional" partitioning scheme
of choice for Linux.  Plus, you can grow the filesystem to a second
array later if you need more space.

But, I have no experience with filesystems larger than 0.5TB, so I
cannot say what the _best_ method is.  LVM2 would just be my first
choice.

HTH,
-Richard

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Re: [gentoo-user] 14TB filesystem problems...

[Bob Sanders]

On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 16:19:26 -0800 (PST)
Bryan Whitehead <driver@megahappy.net> wrote:

> So if I use a non-traditional partition... then I should be good?
> 

Use parted/gparted and select EFI GUID Partition support in
your kernel config, under Files types --> Partition types.

Make the partition an EFI partition - to beware, fdisk/cfdisk will
complain about disks that have had parted used to create a partition.
These are known bugs that, to my knowledge, haven't been fixed.

Though ,as Richard stated, LVM will take care of this as well.

Bob 
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[gentoo-user] Re: 14TB filesystem problems...

[James]

Richard Fish <bigfish <at> asmallpond.org> writes:



> AFAIK, yes.  LVM2 would be the "non-traditional" partitioning scheme
> of choice for Linux.  Plus, you can grow the filesystem to a second
> array later if you need more space.

> But, I have no experience with filesystems larger than 0.5TB, so I
> cannot say what the _best_ method is.  LVM2 would just be my first
> choice.

Why would this be better than EVMS?  Note, I'm not challenging what
you are saying, just curious to learn the advantages  or 
limitations of LVM2 versus EVMS? 

http://evms.sourceforge.net

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_setup_evms

I only ask these questions, as I'm researching how to use either LVM
or something to manage a very large file sytem (T bytes) of
video  and several databases.

James

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: 14TB filesystem problems...

[Brett I. Holcomb]

LVM and EVMS are not directly comparable.  EVMS is a full volume 
management system which can manage LVM volumes.  I used EVMS to manage my 
disks and part of that was creating LVM2 volumes under EVMS.  To me EVMS 
allows me to manage the disks easier.

  On Sat, 12 Nov 2005, James wrote:

> Richard Fish <bigfish <at> asmallpond.org> writes:
>
>
>
>> AFAIK, yes.  LVM2 would be the "non-traditional" partitioning scheme
>> of choice for Linux.  Plus, you can grow the filesystem to a second
>> array later if you need more space.
>
>> But, I have no experience with filesystems larger than 0.5TB, so I
>> cannot say what the _best_ method is.  LVM2 would just be my first
>> choice.
>
> Why would this be better than EVMS?  Note, I'm not challenging what
> you are saying, just curious to learn the advantages  or
> limitations of LVM2 versus EVMS?
>
> http://evms.sourceforge.net
>
> http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_setup_evms
>
> I only ask these questions, as I'm researching how to use either LVM
> or something to manage a very large file sytem (T bytes) of
> video  and several databases.
>
> James
>
>

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Brett I. Holcomb
brettholcomb@R777bellsouth.net
Registered Linux User #188143
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