Fix It CD, bsdlabel, and /dev?

[Drew Tomlinson]

Sorry for the poor subject.  Thanks for reading.

I'm using this page as a guide but am at the console so I'm just using
the Fix It CD:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/remote-install/installation.html

I'm attempting to install FBSD 7.2 64bit  on a fresh machine.  The
machine has 3 500G drives and 1 750G drive.  I'm trying to mirror root
with gmirror.  Following the examples, I've used fdisk to create one
slice for each drive that uses the entire disk.  Next I used bsdlabel
and created 500M a: partitions on two of the drives (ad6 & ad8).  
However /dev/ad6s1a and /dev/ad8s1a do not exist. I do have entries such
as /dev/ad6a and/dev/ad8a but gmirror doesn't like those. What must I do
the get them to show after I've labeled?

Thanks,

Drew

--
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Visit The Alchemist's Warehouse

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[Polytropon]

On Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:05:13 -0700, Drew Tomlinson <drew@...> wrote:
> Next I used bsdlabel
> and created 500M a: partitions on two of the drives (ad6 & ad8).  
                    ^
There is no colon after the partition letter. The colon
is used to refer (or change) to the 1st DOS diskette drive. :-)



> However /dev/ad6s1a and /dev/ad8s1a do not exist. I do have entries such
> as /dev/ad6a and/dev/ad8a but gmirror doesn't like those. What must I do
> the get them to show after I've labeled?

If you have /dev/ad[68]a, it indicates that you haven't created a
slice on those disks, instead you created one partition (a) on
each of the disks.

If you are a lazy guy (as I am), then use sysinstall to create the
slices and the partition. Choose "standard MBR" after the slice
editor and go ahead with the partition editor.




--
Polytropon
>From Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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[Anton Shterenlikht]

On Fri, Jul 03, 2009 at 10:04:06PM +0200, Polytropon wrote:

> On Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:05:13 -0700, Drew Tomlinson <drew@...> wrote:
> > Next I used bsdlabel
> > and created 500M a: partitions on two of the drives (ad6 & ad8).  
>                     ^
> There is no colon after the partition letter. The colon
> is used to refer (or change) to the 1st DOS diskette drive. :-)
>
>
>
> > However /dev/ad6s1a and /dev/ad8s1a do not exist. I do have entries such
> > as /dev/ad6a and/dev/ad8a but gmirror doesn't like those. What must I do
> > the get them to show after I've labeled?
>
> If you have /dev/ad[68]a, it indicates that you haven't created a
> slice on those disks, instead you created one partition (a) on
> each of the disks.
>
> If you are a lazy guy (as I am), then use sysinstall to create the
> slices and the partition. Choose "standard MBR" after the slice
> editor and go ahead with the partition editor.

why not give gpart(8) a go?

--
Anton Shterenlikht
Room 2.6, Queen's Building
Mech Eng Dept
Bristol University
University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
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[Wojciech Puchar-5]

>> However /dev/ad6s1a and /dev/ad8s1a do not exist. I do have entries such
>> as /dev/ad6a and/dev/ad8a but gmirror doesn't like those. What must I do
>> the get them to show after I've labeled?
>
> If you have /dev/ad[68]a, it indicates that you haven't created a
> slice on those disks, instead you created one partition (a) on
> each of the disks.

there is completely NO REASON to create slices at all, unless you want to
use windoze on the same drive.

i don't have slices on any of my FreeBSD systems
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[Drew Tomlinson]

Polytropon wrote:
> On Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:05:13 -0700, Drew Tomlinson <drew@...> wrote:
>  
>> Next I used bsdlabel
>> and created 500M a: partitions on two of the drives (ad6 & ad8).  
>>    
>                     ^
> There is no colon after the partition letter. The colon
> is used to refer (or change) to the 1st DOS diskette drive. :-)
>  

I'm not sure what you mean here.  I showed it as "a:" as that's how
bsdlabel reports it when displaying the label 'bsdlabel ad6' for example.

>> However /dev/ad6s1a and /dev/ad8s1a do not exist. I do have entries such
>> as /dev/ad6a and/dev/ad8a but gmirror doesn't like those. What must I do
>> the get them to show after I've labeled?
>>    
>
> If you have /dev/ad[68]a, it indicates that you haven't created a
> slice on those disks, instead you created one partition (a) on
> each of the disks.
>  
I think this was part of my problem.  For example, I did 'bsdlabel ad6'
instead of 'bsdlabel ad6s1'.  Now I have entries such as /dev/ad6s1a and
/dev/ad8s1a after using 'bsdlabel -e <dev>'.

However now I use 'gmirror label root /dev/ad[68]s1a' as in the guide.  
No error is reported at the command line but /dev/mirror/root is not
created either.  Any ideas?

Thanks,

Drew

--
Be a Great Magician!
Visit The Alchemist's Warehouse

http://www.alchemistswarehouse.com

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[Drew Tomlinson]

Wojciech Puchar wrote:

>>> However /dev/ad6s1a and /dev/ad8s1a do not exist. I do have entries
>>> such
>>> as /dev/ad6a and/dev/ad8a but gmirror doesn't like those. What must
>>> I do
>>> the get them to show after I've labeled?
>>
>> If you have /dev/ad[68]a, it indicates that you haven't created a
>> slice on those disks, instead you created one partition (a) on
>> each of the disks.
>
> there is completely NO REASON to create slices at all, unless you want
> to use windoze on the same drive.
>
> i don't have slices on any of my FreeBSD systems

I must admit I am confused by slices and partitions.  I only want to use
FreeBSD on this box.  It has 4 drives detected as follows:

ad6 - 750 GB
ad8 - 500 GB
ad12 - 500 GB
ad14 - 500 GB

My thought is to break the disks up as so:

ad6
a: 500M
b: 500M
d: 465G
e: 225G (rest of drive)

ad8
a: 500M
b: 500M
d: 465G (rest of drive)

ad12
b: 1000M
d: 465G (rest of drive)

ad14
b: 1000M
d: 465G (rest of drive)

Then to install, I want to use gmirror and zfs as so:

/ - mirror ad6a and ad8a

swap - all the b: partitions (if that's the right term) for a total of 3
GB swap.

zfs - make a raid1z zpool with ad6d, ad8d, ad12d, and ad14d.  in this
pool I will create /usr and /var

ad6e will just be extra space for some other use.

So does my plan make sense?  And if so, how can I best accomplish it?

Thanks,

Drew

--
Be a Great Magician!
Visit The Alchemist's Warehouse

http://www.alchemistswarehouse.com

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[Polytropon]

On Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:04:45 -0700, Drew Tomlinson <drew@...> wrote:

> Polytropon wrote:
> > On Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:05:13 -0700, Drew Tomlinson <drew@...> wrote:
> >  
> >> Next I used bsdlabel
> >> and created 500M a: partitions on two of the drives (ad6 & ad8).  
> >>    
> >                     ^
> > There is no colon after the partition letter. The colon
> > is used to refer (or change) to the 1st DOS diskette drive. :-)
> >  
>
> I'm not sure what you mean here.  I showed it as "a:" as that's how
> bsdlabel reports it when displaying the label 'bsdlabel ad6' for example.

Of course you're correct: bsdlabel shows "a:". In terminology, when
refering to a partition, it's usually said "partition a" or "partition
ad6s1a" instead of "partition a:". The convention "a:" - "drive letters" -
is very common in DOS, as well as in other "modern" MICROS~1 products.
In fact, I was just joking, as when people are asking questions
about a "/home folder" or "hard discs". Terminology. :-)



> I think this was part of my problem.  For example, I did 'bsdlabel ad6'
> instead of 'bsdlabel ad6s1'.  Now I have entries such as /dev/ad6s1a and
> /dev/ad8s1a after using 'bsdlabel -e <dev>'.

As Wojciech mentioned, the *need* to have a slice on a disk is
mostly not there when you're using BSD only - there's no problem
if you don't have a slice, but just one partition covering the
whole disk. Then you just operate on this partition.

You can even newfs the whole disk without making a partition.
In this case, the c partition - "the whole disk" - is used,
and you can omit the c. If you newfs ad6, you end up with a
formatted ad6 partition ad6c, which is equivalent to ad6.
But that's going off-topic.




--
Polytropon
>From Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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[Doug Denault]

On Fri, 3 Jul 2009, Drew Tomlinson wrote:

> Wojciech Puchar wrote:
>>>> However /dev/ad6s1a and /dev/ad8s1a do not exist. I do have entries such
>>>> as /dev/ad6a and/dev/ad8a but gmirror doesn't like those. What must I do
>>>> the get them to show after I've labeled?
>>>
>>> If you have /dev/ad[68]a, it indicates that you haven't created a
>>> slice on those disks, instead you created one partition (a) on
>>> each of the disks.
>>
>> there is completely NO REASON to create slices at all, unless you want to
>> use windoze on the same drive.
>>
>> i don't have slices on any of my FreeBSD systems
>
> I must admit I am confused by slices and partitions.  I only want to use
> FreeBSD on this box.  It has 4 drives detected as follows:
>

Try http://www.freebsdwiki.net/ and search for 'disk partitions' Sections on

    Hard Disk Partition Sizes
    Partitioning Tips and Tricks

should be helpful. You can adapt these concepts to suit how your system is to be
used and to take advantage of the hardware you have.
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