Initializing a Data Disk Greater Than 2 TB in Linux (parted)

The method for initializing a disk varies depending on the OS running on the server. This document is used for reference only. For the detailed operations and differences, see the product documents of the corresponding OS.

When using a disk for the first time, if you have not initialized it, including creating partitions and file systems, the additional space added to this disk in an expansion later may not be normally used.

1. Run the following command to query information about the new data disk:

   lsblk

   Information similar to the following is displayed:

   [root@ecs-centos74 ~]# lsblk
   NAME   MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
   vda    253:0    0  40G  0 disk
   ├─vda1 253:1    0   1G  0 part /boot
   └─vda2 253:2    0  39G  0 part /
   vdb    253:16   0   3T  0 disk

   In the command output, the server contains two disks. /dev/vda is the system disk, and /dev/vdb is the new data disk.

2. Run the following command to enter parted to partition the new data disk:

   parted New data disk

   In this example, run the following command:

   parted /dev/vdb

   Information similar to the following is displayed:

   [root@ecs-centos74 ~]# parted /dev/vdb
   GNU Parted 3.1
   Using /dev/vdb
   Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
   (parted)

3. Enter p and press Enter to view the current disk partition style.

   Information similar to the following is displayed:

   (parted) p
   Error: /dev/vdb: unrecognised disk label
   Model: Virtio Block Device (virtblk)
   Disk /dev/vdb: 3299GB
   Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
   Partition Table: unknown
   Disk Flags:
   (parted)

   In the command output, the Partition Table value is unknown, indicating that no partition style is set for the new disk.

4. Run the following command to set the disk partition style:

   mklabel Disk partition style

   In this example, run the following command to set the disk partition style to GPT: (Disk partition styles can be MBR or GPT.)

   mklabel gpt

   

   The maximum disk capacity supported by MBR is 2 TB, and that supported by GPT is 18 EB. Because a data disk currently supports up to 32 TB, use the GPT partition style if your disk capacity is larger than 2 TB.

   If you change the disk partition style after the disk has been used, the data on the disk will be cleared. Therefore, select a proper disk partition style when initializing the disk.

5. Enter p and press Enter to view the disk partition style.

   Information similar to the following is displayed:

   (parted) mklabel gpt
   (parted) p
   Model: Virtio Block Device (virtblk)
   Disk /dev/vdb: 3299GB
   Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
   Partition Table: gpt
   Disk Flags:
    
   Number  Start  End  Size  File system  Name  Flags
    
   (parted)

6. Enter unit s and press Enter to set the measurement unit of the disk to sector.
7. Run the following command and press Enter:

   mkpart Partition name Start sector End sector

   In this example, run the following command:

   mkpart opt 2048s 100%

   In this example, one partition is created for the new data disk. Value 2048s indicates the disk start sector, and 100% indicates the disk end sector. The two values are used for reference only. You can determine the number of partitions and the partition size based on your service requirements.

   Information similar to the following is displayed:

   (parted) mkpart opt 2048s 100%
   Warning: The resulting partition is not properly aligned for best performance.
   Ignore/Cancel? Ignore 

   If the preceding warning message is displayed, enter Ignore to ignore the performance warning.

8. Enter p and press Enter to view details about the new partition.

   Information similar to the following is displayed:

   (parted) p
   Model: Virtio Block Device (virtblk)
   Disk /dev/vdb: 6442450944s
   Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
   Partition Table: gpt
   Disk Flags:
    
   Number  Start  End          Size         File system  Name  Flags
    1      2048s  6442448895s  6442446848s               opt

   Details about the dev/vdb1 partition are displayed.

9. Enter q and press Enter to exit parted.
10. Run the following command to view the disk partition information:

    lsblk

    Information similar to the following is displayed:

    [root@ecs-centos74 ~]# lsblk
    NAME   MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
    vda    253:0    0  40G  0 disk
    ├─vda1 253:1    0   1G  0 part /boot
    └─vda2 253:2    0  39G  0 part /
    vdb    253:16   0   3T  0 disk
    └─vdb1 253:17   0   3T  0 part

    In the command output, /dev/vdb1 is the partition you created.

11. Run the following command to set the file system format for the new partition:

    mkfs -t File system format /dev/vdb1

    In this example, run the following command to set the ext4 file system for the new partition:

    mkfs -t ext4 /dev/vdb1

    Information similar to the following is displayed:

    [root@ecs-centos74 ~]# mkfs -t ext4 /dev/vdb1
    mke2fs 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013)
    Filesystem label=
    OS type: Linux
    Block size=4096 (log=2)
    Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
    Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
    201326592 inodes, 805305856 blocks
    40265292 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
    First data block=0
    Maximum filesystem blocks=2952790016
    24576 block groups
    32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
    8192 inodes per group
    Superblock backups stored on blocks:
            32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
            4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968,
            102400000, 214990848, 512000000, 550731776, 644972544
     
    Allocating group tables: done
    Writing inode tables: done
    Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
    Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

    The formatting takes a period of time. Observe the system running status and do not exit.

    

    The partition sizes supported by file systems vary. Therefore, you are advised to choose an appropriate file system based on your service requirements.

12. Run the following command to create a mount point:

    mkdir Mount point

    In this example, run the following command to create the /mnt/sdc mount point:

    mkdir /mnt/sdc

13. Run the following command to mount the new partition on the created mount point:

    mount Disk partition Mount point

    In this example, run the following command to mount the new partition /dev/vdb1 on /mnt/sdc:

    mount /dev/vdb1 /mnt/sdc

14. Run the following command to view the mount result:

    df -TH

    Information similar to the following is displayed:

    [root@ecs-centos74 ~]# df -TH
    Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    /dev/vda2      ext4       42G  1.5G   38G   4% /
    devtmpfs       devtmpfs  2.0G     0  2.0G   0% /dev
    tmpfs          tmpfs     2.0G     0  2.0G   0% /dev/shm
    tmpfs          tmpfs     2.0G  8.9M  2.0G   1% /run
    tmpfs          tmpfs     2.0G     0  2.0G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
    /dev/vda1      ext4      1.1G  153M  801M  17% /boot
    tmpfs          tmpfs     398M     0  398M   0% /run/user/0
    /dev/vdb1      ext4      3.3T   93M  3.1T   1% /mnt/sdc

    New partition dev/vdb1 is mounted on /mnt/sdc.

Setting Automatic Mounting at System Start

To automatically mount disk partitions at system start, do not specify partitions, for example /dev/vdb1, in /etc/fstab because the sequence of cloud devices, and therefore their names may change during the server stop and start. You are advised to use the universally unique identifier (UUID) in /etc/fstab to set automatic mounting at system start.

UUID is the unique character string for disk partitions in a Linux system.

1. Run the following command to query the partition UUID:

   blkid Disk partition

   In this example, run the following command to query the UUID of the /dev/vdb1 partition:

   blkid /dev/vdb1

   Information similar to the following is displayed:

   [root@ecs-test-0001 ~]# blkid /dev/vdb1
   /dev/vdb1: UUID="0b3040e2-1367-4abb-841d-ddb0b92693df" TYPE="ext4"

   The UUID of the /dev/vdb1 partition is displayed.

2. Run the following command to open the fstab file using the vi editor:

   vi /etc/fstab

3. Press i to enter the editing mode.
4. Move the cursor to the end of the file and press Enter. Then, add the following information:

   UUID=0b3040e2-1367-4abb-841d-ddb0b92693df /mnt/sdc                ext4    defaults        0 2

   The preceding content is used for reference only. Add the information that is used in the environment. The parameters are described as follows:

   • The first column indicates the partition UUID obtained in 1.
   • The second column indicates the directory on which the partition is mounted. You can query the mount point using the df -TH command.
   • The third column indicates the file system format of the partition. You can query the file system format using the df -TH command.
   • The fourth column indicates the partition mount option. Normally, this parameter is set to defaults.
   • The fifth column indicates the Linux dump backup option.
     • 0: not use Linux dump backup. Normally, dump backup is not used, and you can set this parameter to 0.
     • 1: use Linux dump backup.
   • The sixth column indicates the fsck option, that is, whether to use fsck to check the attached disk during startup.
     • 0: not use fsck.
     • If the mount point is the root partition (/), this parameter must be set to 1.

       When this parameter is set to 1 for the root partition, this parameter for other partitions must start with 2 so that the system checks the partitions in the ascending order of the values.

5. Press Esc, enter :wq, and press Enter.

   The system saves the configurations and exits the vi editor.

6. Perform the following operations to verify the automatic mounting function:
   1. Run the following command to unmount the partition:

      umount Disk partition

      In this example, run the following command:

      umount /dev/vdb1

   2. Run the following command to reload all the content in the /etc/fstab file:

      mount -a

   3. Run the following command to query the file system mounting information:

      mount | grep Mount point

      In this example, run the following command:

      mount | grep /mnt/sdc

      If information similar to the following is displayed, the automatic mounting function takes effect:

      root@ecs-test-0001 ~]# mount | grep /mnt/sdc
      /dev/vdb1 on /mnt/sdc type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)