# FreeBSD labeled filesystems



## qsecofr (Feb 7, 2012)

Hi,

I've used the guide here http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/labels.html to label my workstation.  Worked perfect!

Question I have is about my server.  It is running FreeBSD 7.4 release, with gmirror RAID across 2 disks.  Will the above guide work similarly well in that system? - (substituting /dev/mirror/gm0s1a etc where applicable)


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## SirDice (Feb 7, 2012)

It should also work on 7.4, labels have been around for a while.


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## kpa (Feb 7, 2012)

You don't need to use labels necessarily if you already have gmirror(8) setup. The /dev/mirror/name* naming already serves as labels, those names will not change as long as the mirror exists.


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## qsecofr (Feb 7, 2012)

Beautiful.  Didn't realize the gmirror labels were somewhat equivalent.


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## wblock@ (Feb 7, 2012)

gmirror With Disk Partitions uses partition labels when creating the mirror.  As opposed to filesystem labels, device or partition labels don't change with the filesystem, and remain even if there is no filesystem, like a swap partition.

Filesystem labels could be assigned to the mirrored filesystems ...if desired.  Offhand, I can't think of a use for that, but there probably is one.


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## qsecofr (Feb 7, 2012)

I'd seen that blog post before and think gmirror with disk partitions is eventually where I want the server to end up.  The idea of not having to re-build the whole mirror is appealing.  I just need to plan how to get from here to there to make best use of my available time.


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## wblock@ (Feb 7, 2012)

The downside is if the two mirror drives get out of sync, and all the mirrors get out of sync, it will thrash the heads rebuilding them.  I've been meaning to ask someone about serializing the gmirror code to prevent that, but haven't done it yet.


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## qsecofr (Feb 8, 2012)

Understood.  I'm not in the greatest of hurries.  In the meantime I'll work on my grammar.


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