From owner-freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 7 18:59:01 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 62A3616A404 for ; Fri, 7 Apr 2006 18:59:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Received: from mh2.centtech.com (moat3.centtech.com [207.200.51.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2C18343D5A for ; Fri, 7 Apr 2006 18:58:59 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Received: from [10.177.171.220] (neutrino.centtech.com [10.177.171.220]) by mh2.centtech.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k37Iww5f059230; Fri, 7 Apr 2006 13:58:59 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Message-ID: <4436B665.9010200@centtech.com> Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 13:58:45 -0500 From: Eric Anderson User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5 (X11/20060402) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Scott Long References: <4435F4F2.2080301@samsco.org> In-Reply-To: <4435F4F2.2080301@samsco.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.87.1/1381/Fri Apr 7 07:54:35 2006 on mh2.centtech.com X-Virus-Status: Clean 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 18:59:01 -0000 Scott Long wrote: > 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. Now if only fsck could be fixed to actually be able to fsck a full >2TB filesystem with a reasonable amount of memory, without swapping forever. Even with journaling, you still need to be able to run fsck in case of very hard errors. Eric -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eric Anderson Sr. Systems Administrator Centaur Technology Anything that works is better than anything that doesn't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------