Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 623261
clearpart --initlabel is broken for disks with a whole disk format.
Last modified: 2010-10-01 15:04:54 EDT
When a ks file contains: clearpart --initlabel And one of the disks to be cleared contains a whole disk format like a whole disk lvm PV "clearpart --initlabel" is not honored and the disk will not be given a fresh disklabel.
This issue has been proposed when we are only considering blocker issues in the current Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. ** If you would still like this issue considered for the current release, ask your support representative to file as a blocker on your behalf. Otherwise ask that it be considered for the next Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. **
Technical note added. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team. New Contents: Some disks containing a whole disk format, such as a whole disk LVM PV, may not be cleared correctly with the "clearpart --initlabel" command in kickstart. In these cases, users may add a %pre section to the kickstart file to run "parted -s /dev/PATH mklabel msdos" on the problem device. The clearpart command should then work as expected. See the RHEL 6.0 Kickstart documentation for more information on the %pre section.
About the technote, I believe that an easier workaround exists. When discussing this with dlehman yesterday it was mentioned that while: clearpart --initlabel Will not do the right thing for whole disk formats, that: clearpart --initlabel --linux Will do the right thing for linux whole disk formats, ie a PV / mdraid member (albeit the disklabel for whole disk formats will get cleared later in the partition process then the ones for regular partitioned disks). Thinking more about this, that means that: clearpart --initlabel --all Should do the right thing for all formats. dlehman do you agree with this assessment ? If so I think we should modify the technote to document this as a workaround instead.
That is correct. The --linux and --all modifiers will have the same effect for whole-disk formats as they do for formats on partitions.
Technical note updated. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team. Diffed Contents: @@ -1 +1 @@ -Some disks containing a whole disk format, such as a whole disk LVM PV, may not be cleared correctly with the "clearpart --initlabel" command in kickstart. In these cases, users may add a %pre section to the kickstart file to run "parted -s /dev/PATH mklabel msdos" on the problem device. The clearpart command should then work as expected. See the RHEL 6.0 Kickstart documentation for more information on the %pre section.+Some disks containing a whole disk format, such as a whole disk LVM PV, may not be cleared correctly with the "clearpart --initlabel" command in kickstart. To work around this issue use "clearpart --initlabel --all"
Technical note updated. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team. Diffed Contents: @@ -1 +1 @@ -Some disks containing a whole disk format, such as a whole disk LVM PV, may not be cleared correctly with the "clearpart --initlabel" command in kickstart. To work around this issue use "clearpart --initlabel --all"+Disks that contain a whole disk format (e.g. a LVM Physical Volume populating a whole disk) might not be cleared correctly using the "clearpart --initlabel" kickstart command. To work around this issue, use the kickstart command "clearpart --initlabel --all"
Technical note updated. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team. Diffed Contents: @@ -1 +1 @@ -Disks that contain a whole disk format (e.g. a LVM Physical Volume populating a whole disk) might not be cleared correctly using the "clearpart --initlabel" kickstart command. To work around this issue, use the kickstart command "clearpart --initlabel --all"+In some circumstances, disks that contain a whole disk format (e.g. a LVM Physical Volume populating a whole disk) are not cleared correctly using the clearpart --initlabel kickstart command. Adding the --all switch — as in clearpart --initlabel --all — ensures disks are cleared correctly
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