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

Sat May 1 13:50:02 UTC 2021

 What release are you trying to install? I last did this using 2021.04.05, but I can easily verify the behavior with 2020.10.

I *strongly* recommend that you put all the disks you plan to use in the machine and run the text-installer from the Live Desktop. Select F2 on the first screen. When you get to the disk list, select all the disks. Make sure you don't have a USB stick plugged in. I wiped out mine by accident. Selecting multiple disks triggers the appearance of options to create a mirror, RAIDZ1 or RAIDZ2 depending on whether you have 2, 3 or 4 disks. Just make sure you select an EFI label, not MBR

Let it wipe out the partitions and create the 250 MB slice and the rest of disk slice. That *is* the best practice today. The mirrored root pool slice is a bodge for releases which can't boot from RAIDZ.

If for some reason you want to do something different this is the step by step recipe. It will give you exactly whatever you set up with format(1m). Because the F5 option is expecting to be used on an existing bootable pool it doesn't create dump and swap, so you have to do that by hand. The absence of /reconfigure was what beat me up for a week before I figured it out quite by accident.

All this is done in a terminal window after doing "sudo /bin/su" as jack.

> format -e
# select disk
> fdisk
# create Solaris partition for entire drive and commit to disk
> partition
# create the desired slices 
> label
# 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. You will need to do this for each disk and then check using prtvtoc(1m) that they all match. The disks don't need to match, but the slice sizes should.

I should note that format(1m) will not allow deleting a slice by setting the start and end to 0 easily. I have managed to do it, but I'm not sure what the correct incantation is. It gives "0 is out of range" messages most of the time.

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

Reg     On Saturday, May 1, 2021, 08:16:07 AM CDT, Michelle <michelle at msknight.com> wrote:  

 OK - I give in.

I've tried various combinations and I just can't get this into a
configuration where I can get things installed.

I need a step by step guide please, because I'm lost. I don't know what
options to choose in the installer to not avoid it wanting to wipe
whatever combinations of partitions I've set.

Michelle.

On Sat, 2021-05-01 at 15:42 +0300, Toomas Soome via openindiana-discuss 
wrote:
> > On 1. May 2021, at 15:30, Michelle <michelle at msknight.com> wrote:
> > 
> > That's where I'm becoming unstuck.
> > 
> > A Solaris 2 partition will only see the first 2Tb.
> > 
> > There hangs my first problem.
> > 
> > If I try and create any other partition it gives me the warning
> > about
> > the 2TB limit and if I then try and create the EFI partition, it
> > won't
> > co-exist with anything and wants to wipe the whole disk again.
> > 
> > Michelle.
> 
> MBR and GPT can not co-exist. On this disk, you need GPT and this
> means, MBR partitions will be removed.
> 
> Rgds,
> Toomas
> 
> > 
> > > On Sat, 2021-05-01 at 12:21 +0000, Reginald Beardsley via
> > > openindiana-
> > > discuss 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.
> > > 
> > > 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.
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > openindiana-discuss mailing list
> > > > openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> > > > https://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
> > > 
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