[linux-lvm] 2GB limit

[linux-lvm] 2GB limit

[ml]

Hello List,

i have a 32bit Linux box with a 3Ware Raidcontroller and 4x 1TB disks. 
After installing Debian Etch i had to find out that i am running into 
some limits.

Is there a way to use a Partition >2GB with 32Linux/LVM?

Cheers,
Mario

Re: [linux-lvm] 2GB limit

[Lupe Christoph]

On Tuesday, 2009-01-20 at 10:02:34 +0100, ml@bortal.de wrote:

> i have a 32bit Linux box with a 3Ware Raidcontroller and 4x 1TB disks.  
> After installing Debian Etch i had to find out that i am running into  
> some limits.

> Is there a way to use a Partition >2GB with 32Linux/LVM?

There is no problem creating partitions larger than 2 GB, up to 2 TB :-P

The old-style disk partitioning has no room for larger values. If you
don't need the old-style MBR (e.g. for booting), use an EFI label.

Here is an article about the whole stuff:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/fdisk-unable-to-create-partition-greater-2tb.html

HTH,
Lupe Christoph
-- 
| There is no substitute for bad design except worse design.                   |
| /me                                                                          |

Re: [linux-lvm] 2GB limit

[Morten Torstensen]

ml@bortal.de wrote:
> Hello List,
> 
> i have a 32bit Linux box with a 3Ware Raidcontroller and 4x 1TB disks. 
> After installing Debian Etch i had to find out that i am running into 
> some limits.
> 
> Is there a way to use a Partition >2GB with 32Linux/LVM?

You hit the 2TB partition max size (I assume you mean 2TB and not 2GB).

With LVM you can use physical disks as a PV, e.g /dev/sdb instead of 
/dev/sdb1. If you need to boot from the disk too, then you have to use a 
partition table. With such a small RAID anyway, your easiest option in 
that case is to create one root disk (and a /boot), say 20-30GB, on a 
root vg, then two more partitions with the rest of the space and use 
them as PVs for another vg for data/apps.

You can also put all three partitions into one VG if you prefer that.

-- 

//Morten Torstensen
//Email: morten@mortent.org
//IM: morten.torstensen@gmail.com

I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer 
Poland.
	-- Woody Allen

Re: [linux-lvm] 2GB limit

[Bryn M. Reeves]

ml@bortal.de wrote:
> Hello List,
> 
> i have a 32bit Linux box with a 3Ware Raidcontroller and 4x 1TB disks. 
> After installing Debian Etch i had to find out that i am running into 
> some limits.
> 
> Is there a way to use a Partition >2GB with 32Linux/LVM?

You mean 2TiB? Partitions greater than 2GiB (but less than 2TiB) 
should "just work".

If that's the case, you need to use a real partition table as the 
traditional MSDOS partitioning scheme is limited to 2TiB partitions or 
devices (it can't address disk locations beyond this point).

The GPT partition format is widely used on ia64 and does not have this 
limitation. It's supported by parted and most distribution installers 
(even for non-Itanium systems).

Regards,
Bryn.

Re: [linux-lvm] 2GB limit

[Larry Dickson]

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We have considerable experience getting parted to work. Basically, the
distinction between primary and extended partitions is not needed, nor are
partition types. There are other subtle differences too. Very annoyingly,
SOME versions of parted interpret megabytes and even kilobytes (but not
sectors) as decimal only. For these you have to use unit B (bytes) to regain
control. Experiment a little, to see what uses counting from 1 or counting
from 0, and what uses last-index or total-size, as these off-by-1 errors can
be killer.

Larry Dickson
Cutting Edge Networked Storage

On 1/20/09, Bryn M. Reeves <bmr@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> ml@bortal.de wrote:
>
>> Hello List,
>>
>> i have a 32bit Linux box with a 3Ware Raidcontroller and 4x 1TB disks.
>> After installing Debian Etch i had to find out that i am running into some
>> limits.
>>
>> Is there a way to use a Partition >2GB with 32Linux/LVM?
>>
>
> You mean 2TiB? Partitions greater than 2GiB (but less than 2TiB) should
> "just work".
>
> If that's the case, you need to use a real partition table as the
> traditional MSDOS partitioning scheme is limited to 2TiB partitions or
> devices (it can't address disk locations beyond this point).
>
> The GPT partition format is widely used on ia64 and does not have this
> limitation. It's supported by parted and most distribution installers (even
> for non-Itanium systems).
>
> Regards,
> Bryn.
>
> _______________________________________________
> linux-lvm mailing list
> linux-lvm@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm
> read the LVM HOW-TO at http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/
>

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Re: [linux-lvm] 2GB limit

[Bryn M. Reeves]

Larry Dickson wrote:
> We have considerable experience getting parted to work. Basically, the
> distinction between primary and extended partitions is not needed, nor are
> partition types. There are other subtle differences too. Very annoyingly,

Correct.

> SOME versions of parted interpret megabytes and even kilobytes (but not

Older versions, right?

> sectors) as decimal only. For these you have to use unit B (bytes) to regain
> control. Experiment a little, to see what uses counting from 1 or counting
> from 0, and what uses last-index or total-size, as these off-by-1 errors can
> be killer.

If you find problems like this with recent versions then please let us 
know via the parted mailing lists:

http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/lists.shtml

Ironing out the UI inconsistencies in parted is one of the areas that 
we are keen to improve at the moment so if you hit issues like this, 
we would very much like to hear about them.

Regards,
Bryn.

Re: [linux-lvm] 2GB limit

[Larry Dickson]

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On 1/20/09, Bryn M. Reeves <bmr@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> Larry Dickson wrote:
>
>> We have considerable experience getting parted to work. Basically, the
>> distinction between primary and extended partitions is not needed, nor are
>> partition types. There are other subtle differences too. Very annoyingly,
>>
>
> Correct.
>
> SOME versions of parted interpret megabytes and even kilobytes (but not
>>
>
> Older versions, right?


1.6.19-1.EL had "standard" binary kB and mB.

1.8.1-17.el5 (CentOS 5.2), presumably a newer version, went to the
decimal-only kB and mB. There were a lot of other format changes in output,
too. We are on top of them, but decimal-only kB and mB is really a bad idea,
since it's inconsistent with all previous practice and also with sectors.

Larry Dickson

 sectors) as decimal only. For these you have to use unit B (bytes) to
>> regain
>> control. Experiment a little, to see what uses counting from 1 or counting
>> from 0, and what uses last-index or total-size, as these off-by-1 errors
>> can
>> be killer.
>>
>
> If you find problems like this with recent versions then please let us know
> via the parted mailing lists:
>
> http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/lists.shtml
>
> Ironing out the UI inconsistencies in parted is one of the areas that we
> are keen to improve at the moment so if you hit issues like this, we would
> very much like to hear about them.
>
> Regards,
> Bryn.
>
>
>

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