From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 8 19:14:01 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2EBE91065676 for ; Tue, 8 Dec 2009 19:14:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mkhitrov@gmail.com) Received: from ey-out-2122.google.com (ey-out-2122.google.com [74.125.78.26]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B72EF8FC1E for ; Tue, 8 Dec 2009 19:14:00 +0000 (UTC) Received: by ey-out-2122.google.com with SMTP id 22so1470131eye.9 for ; Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:13:59 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :from:date:message-id:subject:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=OFGXbtjT0CnLrScgpKWKeITnNP7JM0K201elqVh3wVU=; b=D+lDcxNyjupVdWxKHV+OYLr4Z3c+msuDcdwZj/3afmxzKULfF027zZ+WTjyIERmmF4 KBqF93ULAtU1Tju2q9FocDiO/LqAyMRRVTnumk9c1MWbPW76+8zYFkT4S8oPty26z9l7 SgZMnyomD+d3/MQ7cSVRoEGo/GnR+VfXbKSrY= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=MaScxfKreEr7tT6+f0tja9IiN2IWvRszv9YnZnS5z2nCC+2nMEc9r3nJo3qSGe9jyL vhX/ssnpbYZ213OcoemQJZ0aH615JYKMJCtURBLzg5Rl4aN7WnnsgZXMm+/nduMzzhh8 N3Gyvn4hCGm/ivK5VwUzdYHNau6wyQPPCSxZc= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.213.79.66 with SMTP id o2mr4726262ebk.22.1260299639608; Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:13:59 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB33D0D44A@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> References: <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB33D0D44A@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> From: Maxim Khitrov Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 14:13:39 -0500 Message-ID: <26ddd1750912081113w2c09474ldd258d2cd6143cf3@mail.gmail.com> To: Peter Steele Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: How do I create large partitions in FreeBSD? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:14:01 -0000 On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 1:36 PM, Peter Steele wrote: > We have 3U systems with 3Ware raid controllers configured to give us larg= e 11TB logical drives. The diskinfo command shows this: > > # diskinfo -v da1 > da1 > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0512 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 = # sectorsize > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A011999933104128 =C2=A0# mediasize in bytes (11T= ) > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A023437369344 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 # mediasize in secto= rs > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A01458908 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 # Cylinder= s according to firmware. > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0255 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 = # Heads according to firmware. > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A063 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 = =C2=A0# Sectors according to firmware. > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0Y08210901E792700BAB9 =C2=A0 =C2=A0# Disk ident= . > > We want to create a BSD slice to cover the entire drive. My plan was to u= se the fdisk -I option: > > [snip] You cannot use fdisk for this, because fdisk creates MBR partition tables and these partitions are limited to 2 TB. You have three options: 1. Use GPT instead of MBR. This is handled by gpt (FreeBSD 7) and gpart (FreeBSD 8) commands. 2. Use a "dangerously dedicated" partitioning scheme. 3. Bypass all partitioning issues and do what Polytropon suggested. The third option will only work if you don't need to boot from the array and are happy with a single 11TB file system. The second option gives you partitions and the ability to boot FreeBSD, but no other operating system will recognize the array. Device names will be da1a, da1b, etc. To do this run the following commands: bsdlabel -w -B da1 bsdlabel -e da1 newfs /dev/da1a newfs -U /dev/da1d ... I've never used GPT, but that's what you would have become familiar with if you want these arrays to be recognized by operating systems other than FreeBSD. - Max