[CentOS] Formatting a USB Drive

[m.roth at 5-cent.us]

Jason T. Slack-Moehrle wrote:
> Hi Mark,
>
> Do you override the automatic fsck check with tune2fs? It would be a huge
> bummer to do through a check frequently, I forget the defaults but I think
> 180 days or a certain number of mounts, iirc.
>
We do it manually, when we get to it, and when the users are going to be
off long enough....

Btw, I saw that you said you'd started on 1M - good move. I always start
parted with -a optimal. I've read that non-optimal alignment can result in
serious slowdowns in throughput - half as fast, or even slower.

      mark
> Jason
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 11:39 AM, <m.roth at 5-cent.us> wrote:
>
>> Jason T. Slack-Moehrle wrote:
>> >
>> > I have a Drobo, connected to a CentOS 6.4 box. The box sees it as
>> > /dev/sdg.
>> >
>> > I want to format it ext3 (as they dont support ext4) but when I try I
>> get:
>> <snip>
>> > So I run:
>> > # parted
>> > GNU Parted 2.1
>> > Using /dev/sda
>> > Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
>> > (parted) select /dev/sdg
>> > Using /dev/sdg
>> > (parted) print
>> > Model: DROBO DroboPro (scsi)
>> > Disk /dev/sdg: 17.6TB
>> > Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
>> > Partition Table: gpt
>> >
>> > Number  Start  End  Size  File system  Name  Flags
>> >
>> > (parted)
>> >
>> > and looking at an example of creating a partition: (parted) mkpart
>> primary
>> > 106 16179
>> >
>> > I dont know what to do next since I dont see any partitions listed. I
>> dont
>> > know what do to for the start and end point, although the man page
>> says
>> > "size in MB". Do I just say 0 to (and convert 16.0TB to MB? Yes, I
>> know
>> it
>> > says 17.6 TB but this model drobo can only support partitions up to
>> 16tb
>> > without making a second partition.
>> >
>> > Can anyone provide some advice on that I am missing conceptually?
>>
>> Several issues. First, if you use 4k blocks, the max filesystem size for
>> ext3 is 16TB (see wikipedia on ext3). Second, I can't remember where,
>> but
>> on some filesystem tool's manpage, I read that the tools have problems
>> going over 16TB. Third, fsck on a 16TB filesystem will take *days*,
>> literally. I'm setting up, right now, a humongous RAID box, and I'll
>> probably be divvying up the 42TB (mirrored!) as 3 14TB filesystems, and
>> they're going to be ext4.
>>
>>         mark
>>
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