Hi,
If you have partition larger than 2TB you need to use GPT. Why are you avoiding the use of GPT? What is the harm using it? Why is the use of it unacceptable?
Cheers,
K.
Main Topics
Browse All Topics
Loading Advertisement...
Question
Create 3TB msdos partition table in CentOS5.3 x64
Hello all,
My company is trying to install CentOS 5.3 x64 on to a 3TB RAID6 volume that was configured using a ServeRaid 8k on an IBM x3650. The problem we keep running into is that the anaconda installer see's that the disk is 3TB and then rewrites our msdos partition table as GPT. This is unacceptable as our server is not Itanium nor does it have EFI.
We tried reverting the changes to the partition table made by anaconda using dd to zero out the first 64 and last 9000 sectors on the disk. After that we used fdisk to create a partition structure:
Using /dev/sda
Model: ServeRA SERVER (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 3000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 518MB 518MB primary ext3 boot
2 518MB 1469GB 1468GB primary lvm
3 1469GB 3000GB 1532GB primary lvm
Unfortunately, anaconda isn't able to recognize the msdos partition table when the installer is restarted and it only gives us the option to try and clear the partition table, resulting in the disk being partitioned using GPT again.
The only reason I think that I am able to get around using GPT is because another server in our office with the same specs is running CentOS fine using the same partition layout. Any pointers or advice would be appreciated. We would like to avoid having to use GPT for the 3TB volume and then a separate device for /boot.
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get
Instant Access to this Solution
- Plus...
- 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
- Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
- Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
- Never be left without tech help again
Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.
- "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
- "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
- "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.
See what Experts Exchange can do for you.
Got a question?
We've got the answer.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
Need individual assistance?
Our experts are ready to help.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Want to learn from the best?
Read articles from industry experts.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Working on a long term project?
Store your work and research.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Trusted by the world's most respected brands.
Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Free Tech Articles
-
WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
-
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
-
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
-
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
-
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
-
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...
Cloud Class Webinars
- Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
- Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
- IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
- Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
- How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...
Join the Community
Give a Little. Get a Lot.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
Answers
GPT can be made bootable on BIOS-based systems by adding a BIOS boot partition, see http://grub.enbug.org/BIOS
Turns out that the CentOS5.3 installer didn't like the size of the RAID6 volume so it kept overwriting the partition table using GPT. We had managed to use a msdos partition table with another server running CentOS5.2. The steps I took get my desired result were:
Creating a msdos partitioning scheme as follows using a gparted boot CD:
/dev/sda1 128MB ext3 (/boot)
/dev/sda2 1.5TB LVM
/dev/sda3 ~1.5TB LVM
I then used a CentOS5.2 install DVD with GUI anaconda. It did not complain about the large disk size. In the anaconda partition manager we added the two 1.5 TB together to make one large 3TB LVM volume. After installation completed, we just ran yum upgrade to get our system up to CentOS5.3.
> Creating a msdos partitioning scheme as follows using a gparted boot CD:
This is simply impossible.
You can create such partitioning tables, but kernel will not use it - I have tried that.
You sure it's msdos partition scheme? Gpartes is creating GPT partition tables... Maybe You only think You have creates msdos partition table?
Uniserveps,
Having an Itanium or EFI system is not a requirement for GPT booting at all; GPT is backwards-compatible with BIOS systems (only the boot loader needs to be GPT-aware, which is true for GRUB2 and a patch for GRUB-Legacy also exists, presumably incorporated into CentOS). In fact, when writing gptgen, I heavily relied on VMware Workstation's ability to boot from GPT for testing on Linux (VMware emulates an Intel 440BX chipset with an AMI-like BIOS, and has absolutely no support for EFI).
As ravenpl said, please post the output of "fdisk -l /dev/sda".
3 Ways to Join
Business Accounts
- Perfect for organizations
- Multiple users
- Save over 36%
- Create a Business Account
Answer for Membership
- Earn free access
- Showcase your knowledge
- No credit card required
- Sign Up to Answer
Loading Advertisement...
by: ravenplPosted on 2009-07-17 at 13:13:03ID: 24882456
Well this is well known msdos partition format shortcoming - 2TB is the limit.
Verify, if the controlled is capable of creating boot partition on the raid6 volume. This way You can have small boot disk, then large data disk. The large disk of course have to use GPT if larger than 2TB.