From: Alexei_Roudnev (Alexei_Roudnev_at_exigengroup.com)
Date: Mon Nov 26 2007 - 23:05:04 CET
Message-ID: <077b01c83078$65e69c40$7031a8c0@exigengroup.com> From: "Alexei_Roudnev" <Alexei_Roudnev@exigengroup.com> Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:05:04 -0800 Subject: Re: [suse-sles-e] Re: What is up with >2TB luns?
It does not looks as a huge system change.
Moreover, you can propose a simple way to do things without serious change
and big risk:
- if GRUB see GPT label on the disk, even if it dont understand it, it is
trying to use first partition on the disk,
- so GRUB does not depend of GPT label format
- GRUB can use first GPT partition ONLY.
It can be enough, instead of backproting grub2 into SLES9 with all necessary
changes and dependencies.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Joffe" <rjoffe@yahoo.com>
To: "Alexei_Roudnev" <Alexei_Roudnev@exigengroup.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 7:51 PM
Subject: Re: [suse-sles-e] Re: What is up with >2TB luns?
>
> Alexi,
>
> I follow you completely. Two fixes would completely cure this issue:
>
> 1. Having YAST partitioner allow us to set gpt labels on disks. This is
> not
> specifically for my install, it is for any time you have a single LUN >
> 2TB
> which must be getting more an more common.
>
> 2. Patch Grub and Initrd utilizing know patches in the community or
> support
> Grub2.
>
> Is this too much to ask ? I have followed your posts over the years and I
> completely agree with everything you have said.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ron
>
>
>
>
> On Wednesday 21 November 2007 22:21, you wrote:
>> It's impossible. SuSe is Linux, and Novell can't do special patch for you
>> alone, if this patch do not corresponds to the general Linux
>> approach.
>>
>> I guess, that having single disk > 2 GB in capacity, we will have SATA
>> controller (togethre with BIOS) which split this disk into a few smaller
>> ones. Many RAID controllers already have partitioning capability. Of
>> course, it is a global problem with MBR (fdisk catalohg) format, but it
>> is
>> not Linux or Novell problem alone.
>>
>> If they (Novell) could not provide a simple workaround for you (advicing
>> to
>> have 2 smaller disks for boot, for example, or
>> UCB disk for /boot), it is, of course, another story (but why do you
>> expect
>> too much from support? No matter how much you pay, support have, in any
>> company, limited skills and limited possibility to change things).
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Ron Joffe" <rjoffe@yahoo.com>
>> To: "Alexei_Roudnev" <Alexei_Roudnev@exigengroup.com>
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 11:25 AM
>> Subject: Re: [suse-sles-e] Re: What is up with >2TB luns?
>>
>> > Alexi,
>> >
>> > I really can do that, but I want Novell to support my 3TB RAID 10. I
>> > can
>> > easily see in 12 months having single disks with capacity > 2TB, what
>> > are
>> > we
>> > going to do then ?
>> >
>> > Ron
>> >
>> > On Wednesday 21 November 2007 14:16, you wrote:
>> >> Hmm, why dont create 3 x raid-1 logical disks, then create normal
>> >> partitions on them, then make some partition LVM type and group them
>> >> together into the logical volume > 2 TB?
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ----- Original Message -----
>> >> From: "Ron Joffe" <rjoffe@yahoo.com>
>> >> To: "Alexei_Roudnev" <Alexei_Roudnev@exigengroup.com>
>> >> Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 7:11 PM
>> >> Subject: Re: [suse-sles-e] Re: What is up with >2TB luns?
>> >>
>> >> > Sorry,
>> >> >
>> >> > Let me be more clear:
>> >> >
>> >> > I want/have a single logical disk served up via onboard RAID
>> >> > controller
>> >> >
>> >> > 2TB.
>> >> >
>> >> > In small rack mounted machines, I do not have the ability to waste
>> >> > two
>> >> > drive
>> >> > slots for a small RAID 1 pair just so I can boot the machine.
>> >> >
>> >> > In the particular example I have here, I have 6 drive slots. I have
>> >> > a
>> >> > valid
>> >> > business case for requiring 3TB of on board storage. I also do not
>> >> > want RAID5. I do want maximum spindle counts for a RAID10. That
>> >> > leaves
>> >> > me with
>> >> > 6
>> >> > 1TB drives in a RAID 10 which provides 3TB (2.7) in a single logical
>> >> > disk.
>> >> >
>> >> > The only way to address that disk in Linux is to make it a GPT
>> >> > labeled
>> >> > disk,
>> >> > otherwise I can not partition it in any way which will allocate the
>> >> > full
>> >> > storage capacity.
>> >> >
>> >> > This is problem #1, you can not label a disk as GPT in SLES i386
>> >> > YAST
>> >> > tools.
>> >> >
>> >> > If I format it at GPT, then I can not boot from it, without hacking
>> >> > grub
>> >> > and
>> >> > initrd.
>> >> >
>> >> > This is problem #2, you can not utilize SLES i386 supplied grub to
>> >> > boot from
>> >> > GPT disks.
>> >> >
>> >> > Ron
>> >> >
>> >> > On Tuesday 20 November 2007 21:18, you wrote:
>> >> >> Why do you whant to BOOT from this partition? Create /boot
>> >> >> partition,
>> >> >> 200MB, and then make any partitions you want on the rest of the
>> >> >> disk.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> No one need boot partition > 2 TB, it is not just the case of
>> >> >> anyonbe's
>> >> >> interest so you should not 4expect that it will be done in near (<=
>> >> >> 5
>> >> >> years) future.
>
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