how to create partition on multipath device ?

[Maaz]

OS: SLES10SP2x864

/dev/cciss/c0d0 is a local drive.

/dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, and /dev/sdd are all single LUN(multiple path device).

/dev/mapper/longstringofnumber is a multipath LUN/device consisting upon sda,sdb, sdc, and sdd.

"yast2 disk" only allow me to create partitions on /dev/cciss/c0d0 or on sda,sdb,sdc,sdd but not on "/dev/mapper/longstringofnumber".

so via "yast2 disk"(Storage Mgmt Tool) I created the filesystem directly on top of "/dev/mapper/longstringofnumber" without making the partition.

is it good ?
or should I first crearte a partition on "/dev/mapper/longstringofnumber" via some other method/tool, and then create filesystem on partition.

please help and recommend

Regards
Maaz

[Hakki Aydin Ucar]

I believe, the standard is still the fdisk utility. You can use manpages of fdisk to find your request.

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=954734

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Maaz,

A few links of interest:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=3559651&swItem=co-68651-1&prodNameId=3559652&swEnvOID=2026&swLang=13&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=0

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/lnxinfo/v3r0m0/index.jsp?topic=/liaai/multiisci/liaaimisciinstallrhel.htm

I recommend using LVM for the increased flexibility.

SEP

[Andrew Cowan]

If your multipath device is not allowing you to slice your device and you can still see the individual paths I would start by booting your machine and trying to interrupt it at the Fibre-card's BIOS. Check the settings are correct and that you have the latest BIOS.
Next check you have the latest CORRECT drivers for your distro.

If everything is working correctly you should only see slices and your MPIO meta device, and the individual PATHs should be raw.

[Maaz]

I think, I didnt convery properly

asking the same question, again

how can I create partition on a multipath device ?

I have created filesystem(ext3) on /dev/mapper/LongStringOfNumbers, and also mount it.. its working,... but since /dev/mapper/LongStringOfNumbers is a disk/lun, and I think I should first create a partition on /dev/mapper/LongStringOfNumbers, and then format the partition instead of formating the multipth disk/lun.

regards