CentOS - Jan 2015 - CentOS 6.6 64-bit won't install on a 3 TB disk

> I'm having an issue getting a C6.6 install to work on a 3 TB dual hard
>drive system, raid 0. I'm hoping that someone here can help.
1: Is this system booting UEFI or BIOS?
2: Is the disk partitioned with MBR or GPT?
3: Is /boot on its own partition?

3TB drives are larger than MBR and BIOS properly support, so they're 
only really expected to work on a system partitioned with GPT and 
booting via UEFI.  And in that case, /boot and /boot/efi need to be 
individual partitions.

Hi Gordon,

On Tue, 13 Jan 2015, Gordon Messmer wrote:
>> I'm having an issue getting a C6.6 install to work on a 3 TB dual
hard
>> drive system, raid 0. I'm hoping that someone here can help.
>
> 1: Is this system booting UEFI or BIOS?
UEFI,
> 2: Is the disk partitioned with MBR or GPT?
MBR
> 3: Is /boot on its own partition?
No.
> 3TB drives are larger than MBR and BIOS properly support, so they're
only
> really expected to work on a system partitioned with GPT and booting via 
> UEFI.  And in that case, /boot and /boot/efi need to be individual 
> partitions.
Ahhhhh, OK. Well, I have some work to do this afternoon. Thanks for the 
very helpful tips!

Gilbert

*******************************************************************************
Gilbert Sebenste                                                    ********
(My opinions only!)                                                  ******
*******************************************************************************

On 01/13/2015 12:47 PM, Gordon Messmer wrote:
>> I'm having an issue getting a C6.6 install to work on a 3 TB dual
hard
>> drive system, raid 0. I'm hoping that someone here can help.
> 1: Is this system booting UEFI or BIOS?
> 2: Is the disk partitioned with MBR or GPT?
> 3: Is /boot on its own partition?
>
> 3TB drives are larger than MBR and BIOS properly support, so they're
> only really expected to work on a system partitioned with GPT and
Not exactly true - they work fine with an MBR but you can access 2/3 of the
drive.
Also it is not necessary to use UEFI to boot.

You can have a fakeout mbr that is used for a standard bios boot.

# fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util
fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

Disk /dev/sda: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1      267350  2147483647+  ee  GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Tue Jan 13 12:55:21 EST 2015
P308771:~

# parted -l
Model: ATA WDC WD30EFRX-68E (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 3001GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name     Flags
  1      1049kB  2097kB  1049kB                  bbp      bios_grub
  2      2097kB  1002MB  1000MB  ext3            primary
  3      1002MB  5002MB  3999MB  linux-swap(v1)  primary
  4      5002MB  3001GB  2996GB  ext4            primary

> booting via UEFI.  And in that case, /boot and /boot/efi need to be
> individual partitions.
>
-- 
Stephen Clark
*NetWolves Managed Services, LLC.*
Director of Technology
Phone: 813-579-3200
Fax: 813-882-0209
Email: steve.clark at netwolves.com
http://www.netwolves.com

On 01/13/2015 12:57 PM, Steve Clark wrote:
> On 01/13/2015 12:47 PM, Gordon Messmer wrote:
>>> I'm having an issue getting a C6.6 install to work on a 3 TB
dual hard
>>> drive system, raid 0. I'm hoping that someone here can help.
>> 1: Is this system booting UEFI or BIOS?
>> 2: Is the disk partitioned with MBR or GPT?
>> 3: Is /boot on its own partition?
>>
>> 3TB drives are larger than MBR and BIOS properly support, so
they're
>> only really expected to work on a system partitioned with GPT and
> Not exactly true - they work fine with an MBR but you can access 2/3 of the
drive.
> Also it is not necessary to use UEFI to boot.
>
> You can have a fakeout mbr that is used for a standard bios boot.
>
> # fdisk -l
>
> WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The
util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x00000000
>
>      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sda1               1      267350  2147483647+  ee  GPT
> Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
> Tue Jan 13 12:55:21 EST 2015
> P308771:~
>
> # parted -l
> Model: ATA WDC WD30EFRX-68E (scsi)
> Disk /dev/sda: 3001GB
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
> Partition Table: gpt
>
> Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name     Flags
>    1      1049kB  2097kB  1049kB                  bbp      bios_grub
>    2      2097kB  1002MB  1000MB  ext3            primary
>    3      1002MB  5002MB  3999MB  linux-swap(v1)  primary
>    4      5002MB  3001GB  2996GB  ext4            primary
>
In addition this is how we partition our 3TB drives for a bios boot using
parted.
parted -s ${DRIVE} -- mklabel gpt \
mkpart bbp 1MB 2MB \
set 1 bios_grub on \
mkpart primary ext3 2MB 1002MB \
mkpart primary linux-swap 1002MB 5002MB \
mkpart primary ext2 5002MB -1
>> booting via UEFI.  And in that case, /boot and /boot/efi need to be
>> individual partitions.
>>

-- 
Stephen Clark
*NetWolves Managed Services, LLC.*
Director of Technology
Phone: 813-579-3200
Fax: 813-882-0209
Email: steve.clark at netwolves.com
http://www.netwolves.com