[CentOS] Format big drives (4TB) in the installer?

[Dennis Jacobfeuerborn]

On 07.05.2014 17:31, CS_DBA wrote:
> 
> On 05/07/2014 09:14 AM, Bob Marcan wrote:
>> On Wed, 07 May 2014 08:41:23 -0600
>> CS_DBA <cs_dba at consistentstate.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all;
>>>
>>> I cross posted this to the fedora list since we use Fedora as a test bed
>>> from time to time, however given this is a production server we'll
>>> likely be running CentOS.
>>>
>>> we've just ordered a new server
>>> (http://www.spectrumservers.com/ssproducts/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=26&idproduct=787)
>>>
>>>
>>> Originally I tried to simply upgrade an older server with more drive
>>> space, I installed six (6)  4TB drives and did a new CentOS 6.5 install
>>> but the OS would not allow me to configure more than 2TB per drive.
>>>
>>> Subsequent research leads me to conclude that if the bios supports UEFI
>>> and the installer boots as such then the installer should see 4TB drives
>>> without any issues.  I'm also assuming that any server I order today
>>> (i.e. a more modern server) should ship with UEFI support in the bios.
>>>
>>> Are my conclusions above per UEFI correct?
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> CentOS mailing list
>>> CentOS at centos.org
>>> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>> Use parted and make GPT label.
>> BR, Bob
>> _______________________________________________
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>> CentOS at centos.org
>> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> Thanks for the advice, can someone point me to a good step by step how 
> to per setting up a RAID 10 volume per the parted & GPT tools?

Unless your server supports UEFI it will probably not boot from a GPT
partitioned disk. RAID controllers usually support splitting off a part
of the array as a boot disk. I recently did this with an old server with
a 3ware controller and 3TB disks. I created a RAID-10 and then in the
advanced settings I told it to use 50G as a boot disk. The result was
that I got a 50G /dev/sda which I could partition with a DOS label and
2.95T /dev/sdb which I let anaconda put a GPT label on.

Anyway if you are using a BIOS instead of UEFI you need to provide a
disk with a DOS partition label to boot from.

Regards,
  Dennis