From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 8 19:44:34 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 D6C411065676 for ; Tue, 8 Dec 2009 19:44:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mkhitrov@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ew0-f211.google.com (mail-ew0-f211.google.com [209.85.219.211]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 37C898FC22 for ; Tue, 8 Dec 2009 19:44:33 +0000 (UTC) Received: by ewy3 with SMTP id 3so24277ewy.13 for ; Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:44:32 -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; bh=sYb6QzpSUatULwNsNnaNuQTowMTm3iRpP/3WP5GHi+0=; b=XumkAnZpJXNydJjKesqwN5oAHhk2WsIIavHixAz/XctJK6Nv3sQbYW+hFPIbsvzwnJ B0764hsX7oKQgZ17KJmNWzsHwdhbf8XeyhFU2v146djn+wkHR9TO6D8zDOzof/S86y/q iNOgJaXfSZYLZ8wKIsE/ka5IlYZmwnuZgCcBs= 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; b=sCHA4LT4uptG1obCYCgd1MySGRkzmeb9dMDjQ20VDheX15ifK01fWL1qde7+U7vk2p j5/wbX3Q6rMZWhorB4tZ9OIJ7dIfu8YREAfrJbAp45a9hDrHzgqgRnrGHaIUy8kqZPHd 1i+UUGvANTgiqs1nF6lx2qtrFmScgEW1tK0Lc= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.213.25.66 with SMTP id y2mr16557276ebb.54.1260301464144; Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:44:24 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB33D0D4AC@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> References: <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB33D0D44A@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> <26ddd1750912081113w2c09474ldd258d2cd6143cf3@mail.gmail.com> <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB33D0D4AC@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> From: Maxim Khitrov Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 14:44:04 -0500 Message-ID: <26ddd1750912081144j62235981j9db9c005ba07c7bb@mail.gmail.com> To: Peter Steele Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 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 19:44:34 -0000 On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 2:24 PM, Peter Steele wrote: >>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. > > We're running 8.0. I'll have to check out gpart. > >>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. > > We do need to boot from these drives so this is not an option. > >> 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 > > When I run this command I get: > > # bsdlabel -w -B da1 > bsdlabel: disks with more than 2^32-1 sectors are not supported I forgot about that one, sorry. > So that seems we are limited to option 1. We didn't anticipate this; hope there aren't unexpected gotchas lurking around the corner... Not sure if you're able to do this, but I would advise you against using the same array for OS, swap, and data. For all the servers I've configured, I always use a two small (32-64 GB) drives in RAID 1 configuration for the first two functions. The data is always on a physically-separate array, which means that I'm free to use newfs on the entire thing and never have to deal with partitions. This setup is simpler, safer, and faster since your data drives are now performing just one function. - Max