[CentOS] mdadm size issues

[John R Pierce]

Nathan Norton wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to create a 10 drive raid6 array. OS is Centos 5.3 (64 Bit)
>   

thats way too big of a single raid stripe set.    rebuilding that when a 
drive fails will take days, maybe even weeks.

a volume that big (8*2TB == 16TB) will need to be partitioned as GPT 
rather than MBR.

a 16TB file system will be unwieldy when something goes sideways and it 
requires a FSCK or similar.

your output *looks* like its built and its busy striping.  I'd wait 
about 12 hours and check the status again, then whatever % its done, 
take (1 / that fraction) times the number of hours so far, and thats how 
long it will take to complete, eg, if its 5% done after 12 hours, it 
will take (1/.05)*12 hours = 10 days to complete