From owner-freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 7 05:13:36 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8C4AB16A403 for ; Fri, 7 Apr 2006 05:13:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from scottl@samsco.org) Received: from pooker.samsco.org (pooker.samsco.org [168.103.85.57]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9827443D45 for ; Fri, 7 Apr 2006 05:13:35 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from scottl@samsco.org) Received: from [192.168.254.11] (junior.samsco.home [192.168.254.11]) (authenticated bits=0) by pooker.samsco.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k375DVoZ006028; Thu, 6 Apr 2006 23:13:31 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from scottl@samsco.org) Message-ID: <4435F4F2.2080301@samsco.org> Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 23:13:22 -0600 From: Scott Long User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20051230 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Ensel Sharon References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.4 required=3.8 tests=ALL_TRUSTED autolearn=failed version=3.1.1 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.1 (2006-03-10) on pooker.samsco.org Cc: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Subject: Re: UFS2 with 4TB disk _totally absurd_ X-BeenThere: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Filesystems List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 05:13:36 -0000 Ensel Sharon wrote: >>The FDISK and bsdlabel schemes simply cannot deal with >2TB. You'll >>need to either put your filesystem directly on the storage device >>without and slices/labels, or use GPT to create logical partitions. > > > 2TB filesystems are _not large_. FreeBSD should expect 2-4TB filesystems > to be in common use in peoples _living rooms_, never mind in the office or > datacenter. > > So 5.x was a total wash in terms of UFS2 and snapshots, largefiles, etc., > 6.0 still doesn't have working filesystem quotas or snapshots, and it > seems, doesn't support modern (circa 2004) hard drives. > > Maybe a little less time working on FreeBSD 23.0 ... ? > What are you talking about? UFS2, the filesystem, supports storage volumes up to 2^63 blocks in size, and filesystems themselves of more than 2^53 blocks in size. There is no 2TB limit in UFS2, and I've personally created filesystems that are indeed much larger than that.. These sizes were supported in 2004, and they are supported in 2006. What is limited is the FDISK and BSDLABEL formats, which were designed in the early 80's to handle up to 2^32 blocks. Neither of these prevent you from creating a large filesystem. Maybe you're looking to have a single large volume to hold both your boot filesystem and your data filesystem? That's generally a bad idea since it puts more things into the path of a failure. Try doing what most people do, which is to boot off of a 2 disk mirror (go big and get 500GB disks if you want) and have your data on a separate array that is more redundant and doesn't need to use the above partition formats. Alternatively, find a PC that understands how to boot off of GPT partitions, and use that format. It's not FreeBSD's fault that the PC BIOS uses the FDISK format. Go complain to IBM and Microsoft for not having the foresight to future-proof their partition format 25 years ago. Scott