From owner-freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Tue May 16 23:37:06 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AE90916A42C for ; Tue, 16 May 2006 23:37:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rick@kiwi-computer.com) Received: from kiwi-computer.com (megan.kiwi-computer.com [63.224.10.3]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 098EB43D46 for ; Tue, 16 May 2006 23:37:05 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rick@kiwi-computer.com) Received: (qmail 16870 invoked by uid 2001); 16 May 2006 23:37:04 -0000 Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 18:37:04 -0500 From: "Rick C. Petty" To: Darcy Buskermolen Message-ID: <20060516233704.GD15395@megan.kiwi-computer.com> References: <200605161555.08195.darcy@wavefire.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200605161555.08195.darcy@wavefire.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Cc: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Slices + stripes and mirrors X-BeenThere: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: GEOM-specific discussions and implementations List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 23:37:06 -0000 On Tue, May 16, 2006 at 03:55:07PM -0700, Darcy Buskermolen wrote: > > I have a 6.1 setup with 4 identical 300GB disks, ad4,6,8,10. I'd like to > create a bootable mirror (gm0s1) of all 4 disks on a 512MB slice, and have > the remaining space a big slice (gs0s2). I've tried several different things > using the docs found @ http://people.freebsd.org/~rse/mirror/ as a guide, > with little luck, what I usually end up with an invalid partition table, or > no boot device error when I reboot. I think the key is somehow in how the > slices are created on the original (ad4) disk. Why don't you try using gvinum? Although intimidating-looking, it's really not that difficult to setup, and with current geom "bugs" you can't modify a geom'd disk if it's active (e.g. "fdisk -B" or "bsdlabel -e" both fail & get stuck in a lock if anything on those disks are mounted). At least with gvinum, you can create/delete volumes while the other volumes on the same disk are mounted. I think what's happening, although I've not been able to find it in the source code, is that either gmirror isn't mirroring the boot blocks, or the procedure everyone's using to create & synchronize the mirror is skipping the boot blocks. Try performing "fdisk -B" on each disk before adding them to the mirror. -- Rick C. Petty