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Date:      Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:54:25 -0600 (MDT)
From:      Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
To:        freebsd@johnea.net
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: 9.1 and gmirror with GPT?
Message-ID:  <alpine.BSF.2.00.1210221631250.13158@wonkity.com>
In-Reply-To: <5085C743.8000508@johnea.net>
References:  <5082EAEE.4040609@johnea.net> <50833F78.1060609@bnrlabs.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1210210827530.70277@wonkity.com> <5085C743.8000508@johnea.net>

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On Mon, 22 Oct 2012, freebsd@johnea.net wrote:

> On 10/21/2012 07:32 AM, Warren Block wrote:
>> On Sun, 21 Oct 2012, Lucas B. Cohen wrote:
>> 
>>> On 2012.10.20 20:17, freebsd@johnea.net wrote:
>>>> Just wondering if 9.1 will bring any improvement to the situation of 
>>>> creating a full disk geom mirror while also using GPT partition table?
>>> 
>>> I'm curious about what this is about. Could you refer me to an article
>>> or a discussion where this issue is described ?
>> 
>> The GPT backup partition tables goes at the end of a disk, the same
>> place gmirror(8) and other GEOM modules keep metadata.  If GPT
>> partitions are created inside a mirror, the backup GPT table is no
>> longer at the end of the disk.  Hiroki Sato created a patch which fixed
>> the gptboot complaints, but there was concern about the nonstandard
>> location of the backup table.
>> 
>> At present, MBR partitioning is recommended with gmirror(8).
>
> I've been reading your article on formatting disks in FreeBSD:
> http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html
>
> It's a great description of using gpart to create GPT partitions, and using 
> fdisk and bsdlabel to create MBR partitions.

Thanks!

> Would you still recommend this method, using fdisk and bsdlabel, for MRB 
> setup?

For drives with 512-byte blocks, they are equivalent.  Only gpart can 
align the bsdlabel partitions to 4K.

> Do you have any docs on setting up MBR using gpart, to allign for 4K sector 
> size drives?

This is a copy from the update of the gmirror section I'm planning to 
commit to the Handbook.  For a single drive, replace mirror/gm0 with 
just the drive name, like ada4.

# create the MBR and add a FreeBSD slice
gpart create -s MBR mirror/gm0
gpart add -t freebsd -a 4k mirror/gm0

# create the bsdlabel partitions in slice 1 (s1)
gpart create -s BSD mirror/gm0s1
gpart add -t freebsd-ufs  -a 4k -s 2g mirror/gm0s1
gpart add -t freebsd-swap -a 4k -s 4g mirror/gm0s1
gpart add -t freebsd-ufs  -a 4k -s 2g mirror/gm0s1
gpart add -t freebsd-ufs  -a 4k -s 1g mirror/gm0s1
gpart add -t freebsd-ufs  -a 4k       mirror/gm0s1

# put bootcode on the MBR and mark the first slice active
gpart bootcode -b /boot/mbr mirror/gm0
gpart set -a active -i 1 mirror/gm0

# put bootcode on the bsdlabel
gpart bootcode -b /boot/boot mirror/gm0s1



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