[Triumf-linux-managers] Installing TRIUMF SL 6.1 kickstart on > 2TB disks

[Konstantin Olchanski]

On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 01:38:27PM -0700, sclaret at triumf.ca wrote:
>
> I ran into trouble installing SL on a machine with 3TB disks.
> 


You ran into trouble installing SL *** 6.1 ***

SL 6.1 is out of date, current version of SL is 6.2.

I confirm that SL 6.2 does not have a problem such as you decribe - I have
installed it on a machine with dual 3TB disks (iris00) and the installer
has created GPT partitions as expected.

(I did have trouble creating additional GPT partitions afterwards
because RHEL/SL do not prove any useful text mode tool for managing
GPT partitions - fdisk does not work. Graphical tool worked just fine)


K.O.


P.S. All the stuff below is unnecessary unless one insists on using
an out of date version of the operating system.


>
> The problem was that the installer created 'MBR' partition tables (which
> only support disks < 2TB).
> 
> To support larger disks, 'GPT' partition tables must be used.
> 
> For me, the solution was to boot with a livecd, and manually create GPT
> tables:
> 
> > parted /dev/sda
> (parted) mklabel
> New disk label type? gpt
> (parted) quit
> 
> > parted /dev/sdb
> (parted) mklabel
> New disk label type? gpt
> (parted) quit
> 
> When I subsequently ran the installer, it recognized and used the GPT tables.
> 
> Annoyingly, fdisk is not GPT-aware.  So, the home and data partitions
> (which we create post-install) had to be made with a new tool:
> 
> [root at neut19 ~]# yum install gdisk
> [root at neut19 ~]# gdisk /dev/sda
> Command (? for help): n
> Partition number (3-128, default 3):
> First sector (34-5860533134, default = 73730048) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
> Last sector (73730048-5860533134, default = 5860533134) or
> {+-}size{KMGTP}: +60G
> Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): fd00
> Changed type of partition to 'Linux RAID'
> Command (? for help): w
> 
> Note 1: parted and gdisk have similar functionality, though gdisk seems to
> be more advanced and has an interface that resembles fdisk.  In my
> opinion, gdisk is the way to go.
> 
> Note 2: There is a feature in some BIOSes which may need to be enabled for
> GPT to work. For an Intel DH67BL, I changed BIOS->'Boot'->'UEFI Boot' from
> 'Disable' to 'Enable'.
> 
> For information on GPT vs MBR, see:
> http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/dw/linux/l-gpt/l-gpt-pdf.pdf
> 
> -Simon
> 
> 
> 
> p.s.
> 
> Below, we see the 'msdos' (aka MBR) partition tables created by the
> installer the first time around:
> 
> [root at neut19 ~]# parted /dev/sda
> (parted) print
> ...
> Disk /dev/sda: 3001GB
> Partition Table: msdos
> 
> Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
>  1      1049kB  21.0GB  21.0GB  primary  ext4         boot, raid
>  2      21.0GB  37.7GB  16.8GB  primary               raid
> 
> Next, we see the 'gpt' partition tables that I created, and that were
> reused by the installer the second time around:
> 
> [root at neut19 ~]# parted /dev/sda
> ...
> Partition Table: gpt
> 
> Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
>  1      1049kB  21.0GB  21.0GB  ext4               boot
>  2      21.0GB  37.7GB  16.8GB                     raid
> 
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-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada