[OpenIndiana-discuss] Partitions for co-exist NAS drive

Sat May 1 12:40:32 UTC 2021

> On 1. May 2021, at 15:22, Reginald Beardsley via openindiana-discuss <openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> I just went through several iterations of this, and like you the last time I had done it was long ago. The following is based on 2021.04.05.
> 
> Large disks require an EFI or GPT label. The gparted program creates 128 slices which is a bit much. format(1m) will also write an EFI label which is usable with large disks.
> 
>> format -e
> # select disk
>> fdisk
> # create Solaris partition for entire drive and commit to disk
>> partition
> # create the desired slices and write an EFI label
>> quit
>> verify
>> quit
> 
> You should now have a Sun EFI label with 9 slices. 8 is set by format(1m) and can't be changed. The other two should be the ones you created.
> 
> In the first text installer screen chose F5, in the 2nd screen select the slice you want to use. Continue with the install. When It completes reboot to single user.
> 
> zfs create -V <size> rpool/dump rpool
> zfs create -V <size> rpool/swap rpool
> dumpadm -d /dev/zvol/dsk/rpool/dump
> swap -a /dev/zvol/dsk/rpool/swap
> touch /reconfigure
> init 6
> 
> You should now come up with rpool in the 100 GB slice.
> 
> That said, we can boot from RAIDZ now. The text-install on the Desktop live image will let you create a mirror, RAIDZ1 or RAIDZ2 and will take care of all the label stuff. Despite the statement that it will only use 2 TB, it in fact uses the entire disk.
> 
> It creates a 250 MB s0 slice and the rest of the disk in s1. The 250 MB slice is labeled "System", but I've not seen any explanation of it. I've also created RAIDZ2 pools by hand and used F5 to install into them. F5 appears to be intended to install into a new BE in an existing pool, hence the need to set up dump and swap by hand.

This is EFI System partition, that is partition, created with FAT file system, where UEFI firmware can load and start applications such as os boot loaders and firmware updates.

The 250MB is too large for illumos loader alone, but is allocated to allow storing of other applications too. 

In fact, 250MB is picked to keep in mind 4k sector size disks, and is actually buggy value - it should be abort 260MB instead. The fix is still on my desk;)

Rgds,
Toomas

> 
> Ultimately I decided I didn't care about 1 GB of unused space in 16 TB of space. So I just went with the text-install created RAIDZ2 pool. The reconfigure on the first boot after the install is critical to getting 2021.04.05 up properly.
> 
> Reg
>     On Saturday, May 1, 2021, 02:57:23 AM CDT, Michelle <michelle at msknight.com> wrote:  
> 
> OK - I appear to be well out of touch.
> 
> I booted the installer and went into prompt.
> 
> Used format (only 1 x 6TB drive in the machine at this point) to create
> a new Solaris 2 partition table and then fdisk'd an all free hog to
> partition 1, giving partition 0 100gig. 
> 
> I noticed that it must have gone on for 40 odd partitions, and also
> there was none of the usual backup and reserved partitions for 2, 8 and
> 9 as I saw before.
> 
> On installation of OI, I selected the drive and got the warning...
> "you have chosen a gpt labelled disk. installing onto a gpt labelled
> disk will cause the loss of all existing data"
> 
> Out of interest I continued through and got the options for whole disk
> or partition (MBR) ... the second of which gave me a 2Tb Solaris 2
> partition in the list.
> 
> I did try F5 to change partition, but it just took me straight back to
> the installation menu at the start again.
> 
> Things have obviously moved on and I haven't kept pace.
> 
> I now have to work out how to do this on a gpt drive.
> 
> If anyone has any notes, I'd be grateful.
> 
> Michelle.
> 
> 
>> On Sat, 2021-05-01 at 08:31 +0100, Michelle wrote:
>> Well, I looked over my notes and the last time I did this was in
>> 2014.
>> 
>> My preference has always been to run OI on its own drive and have the
>> main ZFS tank as a "whole drive" basis. However, thanks to the QNAP,
>> that's changed.
>> 
>> In 2014 I did a test. I took two 40gig drives and did the partitions
>> as
>> an all free hog on partition 0 ... I was simply testing the ability
>> to
>> configure rpool on two drives and have both active, so if one failed
>> the other would keep running the OS.
>> 
>> My immediate thought is to have 100gig for the OS on partition 0 and
>> the rest on partition 1. Also, turn on auto expand for the tank pool
>> and off for the rpool.
>> 
>> That's my gut feel.
>> 
>> Anyone got any advice to offer please, before I commit finger to
>> keyboard?
>> 
>> Michelle.
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
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