Logical volume >2TB required on MSA 1500 with Linux OS

[Buero]

i have MSA 1500 installed with Redhat Linux. I need 6 TB of Logical volume. As in windows 2000 we can span disks. How can we get it done in Linux. Do we need some additional volume management application....
thanks

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Muhammad,

When you install your system, use LVM to set up everything except /boot

LVM can span disks better than windows can. It has a gui that permits you to safely make disk changes after installation.

SEP

[Ivan Ferreira]

Your option can be LVM or Software RAID. You can create 2 TB LUNS in the msa1000, all LUNS to the same volume group and you will have a volume group of 6 TB, then configure the logical volumes.

If you use software RAID, create a RAID 0 using ALL the LUNs created on the MSA1000.

Is better to use LVM because you will get more flexibility in the future, to resize the filesystem or continue growing your volume group.

[Matti_Kurkela]

You will also need to ensure that you are using a Linux 2.6 series kernel which has at least the LBD option (Large Block devices) enabled to handle devices larger than 2 TB. You might also need the LSF (Large Single Files) option enabled, if you are going to have individual files larger than 2 TB.

Both of these options are in "Block layer" group of Linux kernel configuration options.

If you're using RedHat ES/AS 3 or any other distribution with a 2.4 series kernel, the maximum size of a logical volume is 2 TB.

With a 2.6 series kernel (as in RedHat ES/AS 4 and other new distributions) the maximum size of a logical volume is 16 TB if the system has a 32-bit CPU. If you're starting at 6 TB, you have to keep in mind that there will be a limit for future upgrades, until you upgrade to 64-bit systems.

With a 2.6 series kernel and a 64-bit system, the maximum size of a logical volume will be 8 exabytes, which should be large enough for a while :-)