Bug 680812 - use larger initial partition size with --grow
Summary: use larger initial partition size with --grow
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Classification: Red Hat
Component: doc-Installation_Guide
Version: 6.0
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
high
high
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: Jack Reed
QA Contact: ecs-bugs
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2011-02-27 21:58 UTC by Jeff Bastian
Modified: 2013-06-17 05:28 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-12-09 01:13:56 UTC
Target Upstream Version:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Jeff Bastian 2011-02-27 21:58:27 UTC
Description of problem:
The RHEL 6 Installation Guide Advanced Partitioning Example shows creating a RAID partition with '--size=1 --grow':
http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Installation_Guide/s1-kickstart2-options.html#s2-kickstart2-options-part-examples

This can result in Anaconda tracebacks and the error "new lv is too large to fit in free space" as shown in bug 677915.

Furthermore, as mentioned in bug 677915 comment 4:
   Second, the use of growable raid partitions is problematic as we make no
   guarantees that the various raid partitions will end up with sizes that
   please mdadm when the time comes to create the array.  Fixed sizes are 
   strongly recommended for software raid partitions.

The initial size should be larger than the sum of logical volumes or filesystems that will be on the partition.  In the example shown, there are two logical volumes 8000 MiB each, plus a third logical volume at least 1 MiB, so the RAID partitions should be 16001 plus some extra for overhead, so 16384 should be a good starting place:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
part raid.15    --size 16384 --grow                 --ondrive=hda
...
part raid.25    --size 16384 --grow                 --ondrive=hdc 
... 
raid pv.01      --fstype ext3 --device md4 --level=RAID1 raid.15 raid.25
...  
volgroup sysvg pv.01     
logvol /var             --vgname=sysvg  --size=8000     --name=var 
logvol /var/freespace   --vgname=sysvg  --size=8000     --name=freespacetouse 
logvol /usr/local       --vgname=sysvg  --size=1 --grow --name=usrlocal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please update the Installation Guide to use larger starting sizes for growable partitions.


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