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Bug 680812

Summary: use larger initial partition size with --grow
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Reporter: Jeff Bastian <jbastian>
Component: doc-Installation_GuideAssignee: Jack Reed <jreed>
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE QA Contact: ecs-bugs
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: high    
Version: 6.0CC: jreed, pbokoc
Target Milestone: rcKeywords: Documentation
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-12-09 01:13:56 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

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.