From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 5 12:03:10 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F1E5D16A4E9 for ; Wed, 5 Jul 2006 12:03:10 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ijeff@sandbox.ca) Received: from sandbox.ca (zaphod.sandbox.ca [199.246.50.125]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 02DAD43D45 for ; Wed, 5 Jul 2006 12:03:09 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ijeff@sandbox.ca) Received: from [127.0.0.1] (sandbox.ca [199.246.50.125]) by sandbox.ca (8.12.6/8.12.6) with ESMTP id k65C34x1096811; Wed, 5 Jul 2006 08:03:05 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from ijeff@sandbox.ca) In-Reply-To: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <336788B4-2716-4AB4-8689-94647321AF53@sandbox.ca> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Ian Jefferson Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 21:03:03 +0900 To: "Travis H." X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.1.0-igj_main_2005_08_07 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.0-igj_main_2005_08_07 (2005-09-13) on zaphod.sandbox.ca Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: gvinum question: why are subdisks not attached? 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: Wed, 05 Jul 2006 12:03:11 -0000 Howdy, On Jun 26, 2006, at 9:39 AM, Travis H. wrote: > Hiya, > > I finally resolved the source of my gvinum problems. Every time I > reboot, the plexes and volumes come up attached to one another, but > both are size zero and the subdisks exist but are not attached. Has > anyone a guess about the source of this problem? One possibility is your partition type. I'm not certain. (see below on my bsdlabel output sample) I was working on a Raid5 configuration and finally did get it working. I have a few suggestions. One is to try to find to find old vinum documentation. What finally brought clarity to me is looking at the vinum man pages from FreeBSD 4.7. It has a lot more information vinum(8), including a nice section on the config file format and examples. Of course I could have just missed it (nope just checked again). The second is to try marking your partitions as type vinum. The third is to drop the slices since the configuration that worked for my Raid 5 set used just partitions no slices (see below). The fourth is to move up to 6.1. I did this during my struggles but I don't think that was my issue. However 6.1 does have improved man pages :-), but not as good as the 4.7 pages. You have to read both because gvinum doesn't implement the full vinum command set. I *think* the config file is the same though. # /dev/ad4: # same as /dev/ad8 and /dev/ad10 for a Raid 5 3-disk system. 8 partitions: # size offset fstype [fsize bsize bps/cpg] a: 390721952 16 unused 0 0 c: 390721968 0 unused 0 0 # "raw" part, don't edit d: 20971520 0 vinum Finally, enough people have been able to get/claim vinum success to make me believe it's OK. There are two key issues in my mind. I'll add that now that I found TFM I can RTFM. ;-) #1 it is a little fragile (ie not idiot proof enough yet for this hack) #2 the documentation needs some work ... but that's kind of up to us now isn't it... I think I owe Freebsd-docs a long post but I have another 20 hours of understanding and playing to do at least. This is a great capability for small systems. Frankly I'm a bit puzzled by geom and why the change was made from whatever it replaced. Overall 6.x looks like a step backwards from a filesystem management perspective... maybe someone could comment on geom... perhaps a future enabler? Ian