R80.20 Management VM fresh install on a 4TB Disk anyone?

[dj0Nz]

Hi There,

does anybody manage to install a R80.20 management VM (in VMware) using more storage than about 1.9TB? And if so, what are the requirements on the VMware side?

Yesterday I installed a new SMS at a customer side using a 4 TB disk. The system didn't boot after installing. I solved it by installing on a 1.9TB disk and adding additional space afterwards using lvm manager but that was not what I expected from a RHEL 7 based operating system.

Did I miss something in the documentation?

Cheers
Michael

[Daniel_Taney]

That is strange, as I would have expected this issue to be resolved in R80.20 with the newer kernel and file system. 

This sk mentions explicitly disabling UEFI boot in versions R80.10 and lower. I don't see any documentation that references whether UEFI should or shouldn't be used in R80.20.

Depending on the version of VMware, I think it still defaults to Legacy BIOS for new VMs. You could try going into the advanced settings for the VM and explicitly telling it to use UEFI? 

[Timothy_Hall]

Make sure you used the Security Management Server "Clean Install" iso for R80.20 which includes the new kernel and XFS filesystem, and not the R80.20 "Standalone/Security Gateway" iso which still uses the older 2.6.18 kernel.

[Daniel_Schlifka]

Hi,

booting from  2TB+ drives requires gpt labeled partition.(instead of old mbr type)
GPT requires afaik UEFI . 
Therefore check you have set VM-Firmware to (u)efi.

[HeikoAnkenbrand]

Two posible solutions:

1) Use clean install R80.20 3.10 kernel with XFS filesystem as @Timothy_Hall described it.

or

2) Use LVM for 2.6 kernel with old file system to add more disk space.

[HeikoAnkenbrand]

Here are the SK to LVM:

Managing partition sizes via LVM manager on Gaia OS

[John_Fulater]

I had the same issue when I wanted to create a R80.20 MLM with 10TB disk.  I followed the directions on CHeckMates about Other linux 3.0 64bit as the OS and using UEFI instead of Bios.  

1.  I could get the VM to boot to the ISO but what I found was there were no keyboard or pointer controls (even though they were listed in the VM settings.

2.  If I when back to Bios - the Keyboard and pointer worked but the system would not reboot.

Yes, This was on a clean install.  I was thinking that "Here we go again"  I would need to create partition of 1.9TB an list the rest as secondary storage, use LVM after the build....

What I found was:

1. I built the systems as I described; 1.9TB and the rest as secondary storage.

2.  When I booted the ISO and started the configuration - it asked me which of the 2 partitions I wanted the OS on.  I choose the 1.9TB.

3. I was the presented with the sizing screen - with all my disk space available.  I made my /var/log 9TB and finished the installation.

All was good - I had all the space allocated and I did not have to use the LVM utility.  Quick and easy.  I would have thought I could do all in one partition but this worked for me.

[dj0Nz]

Hi,

thanks for your answers. Of course I used the clean install ISO and EFI settings in VMware. Nevertheless, installation always ended with an unbootable operating system. Only solution was to install on a disk < 2TB and expand file systems afterwards.

Unfortunately, this is a production environment and I don't have a large disk in my home lab ... yet 😉
If I can get one I will check what happens there.

Cheers
Michael

[Aaron_Vivadelli]

I got this to work by creating 2 virtual disks, the first one less than 2 TB, the second one as large as you like.

When you perform a fresh install, the Gaia Install will see these 2 disks as one and partition it accordingly.

The release notes do make it confusing because it explicitly states support for disks larger than 2TB, but it doesn't state how to actually do it.  This is how I was able to make it work.

[dj0Nz]

Holy... I didn't try that, but this might work. Thank you, I will try to reproduce that in the lab.