[CentOS] creating partitions on a 2.7TB drive

[Robert Heller]

At Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:11:48 +0000 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote:

> 
> Thanks for your replies, just to clear things up, here is what I am seeing.
> 
> If I reboot server "A" with the Ubuntu LiveCD, I get:
> ----------------------------------------
> # parted /dev/sda p
> 
> Model: DELL PERC 5/i (scsi)
> Disk /dev/sda: 2998GB
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
> Partition Table: msdos
> 
> Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
> 1      32.3kB  53.7GB  53.7GB  primary  ext3              
> 2      53.7GB  62.3GB  8595MB  primary  linux-swap        
> 3      62.3GB  83.8GB  21.5GB  primary  ext3              
> 4      83.8GB  2199GB  2115GB  primary  xfs
> 
> # fdisk -l
> 
> Disk /dev/sda: 2998.4 GB, 2998424043520 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364537 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x852b68e5
> 
>   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sda1               1        6528    52436128+  83  Linux
> /dev/sda2            6529        7573     8393962+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
> /dev/sda3            7574       10185    20980890   83  Linux
> /dev/sda4           10186      267349  2065669830   83  Linux
> ----------------------------------------
> 
> Now when I try this with CentOS, I get:
> ----------------------------------------
> Error: msdos labels do not support devices that have more than 4294967295 sectors.
> -----------------------------------------
> 
> straight away. I understand what you guys are saying about GPT and
> not being able to boot off it, etc but how did I end up in this
> situation? And is this dangerous? 
> 
> I am thinking that if this is possible, why not try and setup the
> second server the same way? But it just feels wrong that Ubuntu allows
> this and if CentOS does not, there must be a good reason.

I guessing one of these things is going on:

A) Ubuntu has *patched* versions of parted and fdisk that disable their
error checking (!).

B) Ubuntu has new versions of parted and fdisk that are more liberal
than the (older) versions shipped with CentOS.

What does

parted -v
and 
fdisk -v

display under the Ubuntu LiveCD?  BTW which version of Ubuntu are you
using? Hardy (8.4) or Karma (9.1)?


> 
> 
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>                                                 

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