Koozali.org: home of the SME Server

What is the max hard drive size?

Offline petermoe

  • 3
  • +0/-0
What is the max hard drive size?
« on: February 11, 2013, 11:00:25 AM »
I apologize if this is a stupid question. Tried searches here and via Google, but couldn't find the answer.

I'm running out of space on my SME8 server. Currently running 2 x 1TB SATA drives. The case can only accommodate 2 x 3.5" bays.

Does anything stop me from using 2 x 2TB or 2 x 3TB drives?

Offline idp_qbn

  • ****
  • 346
  • +0/-0
Re: What is the max hard drive size?
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2013, 11:10:07 AM »
You motherboard nay limit you to 2Tb drives - so you could have 2 x 2Tb in RAID1 That should give you about 1.6Tb disk space.

If the motherboard can handle 3Tb, then 2 x 3Tb is your maximum.

The 2 drive limit is your box limit not SME limit. People with PC cases that can handle more drives and a mother board to suit can have more drives eg 4x 2Tb RAID 5 gives you just under 6 Tb space.

Some people st up 2 RAID 1 when they have 4 drives but that is not usual. eg drive sda and sdb one RAID 1 set and sdc and sdb a second RAID 1

Cheers
Ian
___________________
Sydney, NSW, Australia

Offline petermoe

  • 3
  • +0/-0
Re: What is the max hard drive size?
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2013, 11:12:27 AM »
Thank you Ian for the quick reply.

That's the other question I had, how can I find out what max hard drive my motherboard can handle? The manufacturers manual does not tell me - it's a Shuttle K48.

Offline purvis

  • ****
  • 567
  • +0/-0
Re: What is the max hard drive size?
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2013, 06:52:58 PM »
I did not know SME would support drives larger that 2TB. I will have to test that again. That must be the GUID format.
I knew it would format a 3TB drive to up to 2TB.

I also did not know about having 2 sets of Raid 1 drives. That interest me.

Offline idp_qbn

  • ****
  • 346
  • +0/-0
Re: What is the max hard drive size?
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2013, 07:57:27 PM »
Yes, I must admit I am not sure about 3Tb HDD either - depends what Centos 5 supports. I should have made it clear I was talking generally about motherboards and 3Tb (just for that point).

SME definitely supports 2Tb drives. I have an HP N40L Microserver with 2 x 2Tb drives in RAID1 - been rock solid for months, now.

Ian
___________________
Sydney, NSW, Australia

Offline petermoe

  • 3
  • +0/-0
Re: What is the max hard drive size?
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2013, 02:17:39 PM »
Well, tried some Google searches. Centos 5 seems to refer to Redhad Linux. Redhat has a long list of hardware, but that only tells me what version of Redhat Linux that hardware supports.  :???:

It really seems not an easy question to get answered = how do I find out if a system can run 3 TB drives?

If anyone knows an answer, please help!

Offline janet

  • ****
  • 4,812
  • +0/-0
Re: What is the max hard drive size?
« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2013, 02:56:09 PM »
petermoe

Quote
It really seems not an easy question to get answered = how do I find out if a system can run 3 TB drives?
If anyone knows an answer, please help!

This was answered/explained/confirmed by Shad in either bugzilla or maillists, maybe a few months ago, so start searching.
Please search before asking, an answer may already exist.
The Search & other links to useful information are at top of Forum.

Offline janet

  • ****
  • 4,812
  • +0/-0
Re: What is the max hard drive size?
« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2013, 03:43:59 PM »
« Last Edit: February 12, 2013, 03:49:12 PM by mary »
Please search before asking, an answer may already exist.
The Search & other links to useful information are at top of Forum.

Offline purvis

  • ****
  • 567
  • +0/-0
Re: What is the max hard drive size?
« Reply #8 on: February 13, 2013, 12:13:34 AM »
I understand it has something to do with Grub installer and the Grub installer cannot us GUID formatted drives compared to MBR formatted drives.

Offline janet

  • ****
  • 4,812
  • +0/-0
Re: What is the max hard drive size?
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2013, 01:40:43 AM »
petermoe

Quote
It really seems not an easy question to get answered = how do I find out if a system can run 3 TB drives?

Based on comments in those links I provided:

Your 3Tb drive (and anything larger than 2Tb) will not be addressed correctly by the sme (Anaconda) installer which uses fdisk which has a 2Tb format limit, so sme will only see the first 2Tb of any larger drive.
Due to lack of upstream support in the base OS, you cannot install sme server to a GPT partitioned drive (which does support drives larger than 2Tb).
So the idea is to keep your install drive less than 2Tb, and add other drives/partitions (that are using GPT partition table) which can be larger than 2Tb.
The upper possible storage limit is very high ie 10's of Tb's, which I think depends on which base OS version you use & whether 32 bit or 64 bit architecture.

Note: you need to prepare (ie partition) your larger than 2Tb drives appropriately before installing sme server, either manually for single drives, or using a drive controller software for multiple drive arrays that use a hardware controller.
Please search before asking, an answer may already exist.
The Search & other links to useful information are at top of Forum.