Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 14:09:31 -0500 From: Eric Anderson <anderson@centtech.com> To: Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org> Cc: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Subject: Re: UFS2 with 4TB disk _totally absurd_ Message-ID: <4436B8EB.4090901@centtech.com> In-Reply-To: <4436B87F.8040004@samsco.org> References: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0604070025110.11218-100000@shell.dhp.com> <4435F4F2.2080301@samsco.org> <4436B665.9010200@centtech.com> <4436B87F.8040004@samsco.org>
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Scott Long wrote: > Eric Anderson wrote: >> 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 >> >> >> > > Yup, that's a problem. It's on my TODO list. Anything I can do to help? Keep in mind that I have test hardware, including real arrays (6TB array, and a 1TB array) available for testing anything. Eric -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eric Anderson Sr. Systems Administrator Centaur Technology Anything that works is better than anything that doesn't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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