# Use entire array, problem.



## gordone (Apr 10, 2013)

Label in sysinstall will not allow me to use the entire disk space. Array is 2TB x 2 in RAID0.

Picture 1:
http://temp.dynamitt.net/div/disc1.JPG
Here you can see that fdisk found 3.8xxx TB

Picture 2:
http://temp.dynamitt.net/div/disc2.JPG
Here can you see that label only creates 1.67xxx TB maximum

What is the problem and what can I do?

Thanks for helping.


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## Terry_Kennedy (Apr 10, 2013)

gordone said:
			
		

> Label in sysinstall will not allow me to use the entire disc space.
> Array is 2TB x 2 in RAID 0.
> 
> What is the problem and what can I do?


Looks like your using [cmd=""]bsdlabel[/cmd] and [cmd=""]fdisk[/cmd]. To get a single partition > 2TB, you'll want to use either geom(4) and/or zfs(8) on this disk. If you're using hardware[-ish] RAID, ZFS is probably overkill for 2 drives. You can use gpart(8) to set up larger partitions. You _can_ use newfs(8) to create UFS2 partitions in there, though caution is advised for really big UFS2 partitions as fsck(8) can take (what seems like) forever on them.


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## gordone (Apr 10, 2013)

Terry_Kennedy said:
			
		

> Looks like your using [cmd=""]bsdlabel[/cmd] and [cmd=""]fdisk[/cmd]. To get a single partition > 2TB, you'll want to use either geom(4) and/or zfs(8) on this disk. If you're using hardware[-ish] RAID, ZFS is probably overkill for 2 drives. You can use gpart(8) to set up larger partitions. You _can_ use newfs(8) to create UFS2 partitions in there, though caution is advised for really big UFS2 partitions as fsck(8) can take (what seems like) forever on them.



Thank you for this information. I can give you some more information this is a home server. The array will be used for data storage for home network, it will be 3x 2TB in RAID5.

You will advise to use GEOM?


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## Terry_Kennedy (Apr 10, 2013)

gordone said:
			
		

> Thank you for this information.
> I can give you some more information this is a home server.
> The array will be used for data storage for home network, it will be
> 3x 2TB in RAID5.
> ...


If you won't be adding more drives, ZFS would probably be overkill for this and might even cause problems if you're on i386 architecture and not amd64, or if you don't have a lot of memory in the box. 

Since your pictures show a single /dev/da0 device, I think you have a hardware RAID controller managing your drives. If you're happy with it (some are better than others, for both raw performance and ease of management), I'd stay with that and use glabel(8) / gpart(8) to label and partition your disk.

Another alternative, which may or may not be useful for you, is that some RAID controllers (3Ware, for example) allow you to create multiple logical drives from the RAID set. This can be used to export drives smaller than the 2TB size limit on the tools you used in the pictures. If you don't need a single filesystem larger than 2TB, this might work for you if your controller supports it.


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## wblock@ (Apr 10, 2013)

For clarity: the old MBR partition format does not support partitions greater than 2TB in size.  The new GPT partitioning scheme supports larger partitions and more of them.  See gpart(8) and Disk Setup On FreeBSD.


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