RHEL installer (anaconda) can not make ext3 and ext4 partition which size is more than 8TB. How to avoid it.
Environment
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8 or earlier.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 or earlier.
- anaconda
Issue
RHEL installer (anaconda) can not make ext3 and ext4 partition which size is more than 8TB. How to avoid it.
Resolution
There are two methods to avoid this problem.
One is 'use fixed anaconda', the other is 'extend filesystem after installation'.
The details are below.
Use fixed anconda.
In RHEL5, anaconda with RHEL5.9 is fixed this problem.
From RHEL5.9 Technical Notes anaconda.
BZ#769287
The maximum size limit for all ext file systems was set to 8 TB. Consequently,
Anaconda limited the maximum size artificially for the ext3 and ext4 file systems, even though these systems support sizes up to 16 TB.
The size limits for ext3 and ext4 have been extended to 16 TB.
In RHEL6, Anaconda with RHEL6.2 is fixed this problem.
From RHEL6.3 Technical Notes anaconda.
BZ#767727
The Ext2FS class in Anaconda has a maximum file size attribute correctly set to 8 TB, but Ext3FS and Ext4FS inherited this value without overriding it.
Consequently, when attempting to create an ext3 or ext4 file system of a size greater than 8Tb the installer would not allow it.
With this update, the installer's upper bound for new ext3 and ext4 filesystem size has been adjusted from 8Tb to 16TB.
As a result, the installer now allows creation of ext3 and ext4 filesystems up to 16TB.
Extend filesystems after installation.
Root Cause
Previous anaconda has disk size limitation. But the limitation does not match to filesystem's limitation. In these fixes, the anaconda limitation matches to filesystem's limitation.
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