[CentOS] Setting up large (12.5 TB) filesystem howto?

Fri Aug 28 12:59:31 UTC 2009
Jim Perrin <jperrin at gmail.com>

On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 7:03 AM, Götz Reinicke -
IT-Koordinator<goetz.reinicke at filmakademie.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to set up an iscsi 12.5 TB storage for some data backup.
>
> Doing so, I had some difficulties to find the right tool, maybe it's
> also a question of the system settings...
>
> The server is a 32Bit CentOS 5.3 with the recent updates. Ths iscsi
> connection can be establised.
>
> fdisk and parted fail to create any information on the device or fail
> completely.
>
> using the lvm tools (pvcreate, vgcreate, lvcreate), I could finaly
> create a logical volume:
>
> lvdisplay /dev/VolGroup02/lvol0
>  --- Logical volume ---
>  LV Name                /dev/VolGroup02/lvol0
>  VG Name                VolGroup02
>  LV UUID                h7T6tD-JZw2-UEdb-q1ml-BDqp-9E0u-mAop6x
>  LV Write Access        read/write
>  LV Status              available
>  # open                 0
>  LV Size                12,73 TB
>  Current LE             3337487
>  Segments               1
>  Allocation             inherit
>  Read ahead sectors     auto
>  - currently set to     256
>  Block device           253:4
>
>
> But, I can't create a filesystem on it:
>
> mkfs.ext3 -m 2 -j -O dir_index -v -b 4096 -L iscsi2lvol0
> /dev/mapper/VolGroup02-lvol0

You have to smack mkfs around a bit to get it to work.
The incantations are listed here, along with the various limitations.
The long and short of it is that you have to use -F to tell mkfs that
you're really, REALLY sure.
http://www.bofh-hunter.com/2008/02/11/large-filesystem-creation/



-- 
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
George Orwell