From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list xfs); Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:43:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ext.agami.com (64.221.212.177.ptr.us.xo.net [64.221.212.177]) by oss.sgi.com (8.12.10/8.12.10/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id k7VKgmDW003634 for ; Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:42:54 -0700 Received: from agami.com ([192.168.168.133]) by ext.agami.com (8.12.5/8.12.5) with ESMTP id k7VKgBuu004832 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA bits=168 verify=NO) for ; Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:42:11 -0700 Received: from mx1.agami.com (mx1.agami.com [10.123.10.30]) by agami.com (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id k7VKg6lA002944 for ; Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:42:06 -0700 Message-ID: <44F74996.8000209@agami.com> Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 02:11:58 +0530 From: Shailendra Tripathi MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: XFS and 3.2TB Partition References: <44F714F2.7050502@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <44F714F2.7050502@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: xfs-bounce@oss.sgi.com Errors-To: xfs-bounce@oss.sgi.com List-Id: xfs To: Chris Hane Cc: xfs@oss.sgi.com Hi Chris, > > I am trying to create a 3.2TB partition on my Raid 5. Is there a > document that could help? You can get generic information on partitions and how to create them at http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Partition.html > I have a 3ware 9500 controller and 8 *500GB sata drives configured > into a single RAID 5 array. > I am running linux 2.6.16 with the 3ware drivers compiled into the > kernel. > > I've tried a couple of different means to create the partition and > format the file system with xfs without success (or confidence that I > haven't done something wrong). > > 1. FDISK > > I've tried fdisk on the array to create the partition; but it forces > me enter the number of cylinders before letting me create the > partition. I enter the largest number of cylinders since I'm not sure > how to calculate the correct cylinder number across an 8 disk RAID 5 > array. > > I then create the partition starting at 0 (or whatever the default > was) and ending at 3500GB. > > Once the partition is created this way, I can mkfs.xfs; but I'm a > little hesitant to use this since I input and arbitrary cylinder number. > > Thoughts on what to use for the correct cylinder count with fdisk? > It is not actually arbitrary. There are various options to create a partition - can specify the size, sectors or cylinders. fdisk -l /dev/ can hopefully give you details about the size of the disk, cylinders etc. Now, it is upto to you as to how many partiotions you want to create and use. > 2. PARTED > > I've tried to use parted without any success. Here is what I've tried > and the errors I get. > > > parted > parted> mklabel gpt > parted> mkpart primary 0 3500GB > parted> quit > > ok - the partition now exists. If I use ext2 everything works ok. > > however, when I run > > > mkfs.xfs /dev/sda1 > > the file system is formated but is truncated to to 2TB. XFS can limit the FS size this way when AG count is just 2. xfs_info will list the details about the number of AG count. XFS can support about 1 TB in one AG. By default, it calculates the agcount automatically unless you force them. Your command line option does not suggest this. The 2 TB limit might be coming, perhaps, because parted uses 4 byte addresses data structures. This way, it can support maximum of 2^32 sectors of 512 size ~ 41 bits ~ 2TB. It is my guess, though. -shailendra