Support for GPT partition tables

[kras.pten]

Hi,
I have got 5 recycled 3TB disks and would like to upgrade my 5Big1 from 5x1.5 TB to 5x3 TB.
Now I am on Lacie firmware 2.2.8 and I have managed to setup raid0 or raid5 with the new disks, but due to MBR partition table limitations I only see 10TB instead of 15TB.

I would install fvdw-sl if it supports GPT partition tables and I can get 15TB. Or if I can have some alternative partition option to profit the full disk size. I have seen GPT is supported for spd8020 in the last version, but cannot find details for 5Big1.

Thanks
KP

[Jocko]

Hi Kras.pten,

Currently the bootloader on 5big1 supports only ms-dos partitions table so sda must use it and so you can not use fully a 3TB on sda.

For the other disks, the fvdw's kernel supports gpt partitions table and so you can handle fully your 3TB on the other sata port (<=> sd[bcde]).

I have managed to setup raid0 or raid5 with the new disks, but due to MBR partition table limitations I only see 10TB instead of 15TB.

:disapprove with a raid5 you never can get a 15TB raid with 5 3TB but only 12TB (5-1)*3TB. Only with a raid0 you may get a 15 TB in this configuration.

But I discourage strongly (strongly and strongly,...) to use a raid0: if only one disk fails you lose all your data (15TB) :cry: :cry: :cry: There is no way to restore the data on a raid0. With a 5big1 you can not get a real write speed improvement with a raid0 (cpu limitation). So a raid0 is useless and unsafe with a 5big1.

So what you may do with fvdw-sl:
- either set a raid5 with the 4*3TB => (4-1)*3TB = 9TB and use sda as a single disk 2TB, and then the total size is 11 TB; if you want to have a raid5
- or use all disks as single disks => (4*3TB + 2TB) => total size 14 TB; if you wanted to use a raid0

Note: I never tried to include a disk with ms-dos partition in a raid built on gpt disk (on our board you can find some posts about it but the attempt has been done with a wrong ms-dos partition. so no significant information with this attempt).
Anyhow if you may do it the total size would be (5-1)*2TB= 8TB

[kras.pten]

Great answer, thanks :applause .
I will attempt the 2TB+(4-1)*3TB suggestion that reaches 11TB useful. That is much better that the current 8TB I have now in (5-1)*2TB.

Edit:
This is to confirm that I have managed to setup the nas. I used one of the original 1.5TB disks (not the first one that had the boot partition) as the first disk, MBR. Installed fvdw with fvdw-sl-console v5.5 , upgraded to 16.1 and patched.
Then I formatted GPT with gdisk the new 3TB disks as described in the raid tutorial. About 50 hours later I could format the raid5 volume and ready to go.