On 01/07/2010 04:01 PM, a...@nezmer.info wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 07, 2010 at 11:26:05AM -0600, David C. Rankin wrote:
>> Guys,
>>
>>      This is just a quick request to make sure I don't screw myself playing 
>> with new technology. I have a server 5 existing ext3 partitions on a dmraid 
>> array with several hundred gig of unpartitioned space. I have created the 
>> new partition and I'm about the create the filesystem. With ext4 now 
>> available, is there any reason I shouldn't go ahead and create the 
>> filesystem as ext4? It will simply be another data partition to supplement 
>> /home that was created rather small to begin with.
>>
>>      Any thoughts or gotchas on using ext4 instead of ext3 for this??
> No. There is no reason not to use ext4. It's a good all-around
> filesystem. Google are in the process of moving from ext2 to ext4.
> 
> Now, give me a reason why you should listen to me?
> 

Guys,

Partitioning is done, Always a bit more fun with dmraid. 

To begin with, I had simply used fdisk and mkfs to create dm-11 (6G) out of 
unpartitioned space at the end of my extended partition. I had then created a 
516G primary partition out of the remaining unpartitioned space which was 
created as dm-13 also with an ext4 filesys. The whole setup seemed sloppy to 
have 1/3 third of the array as an extended w/logical partitions and 2/3 of the 
disk as a big primary, so I thought I would do what I thought looked better and 
delete the new logical and primary partitions I had created, grow the extended 
to encompass the entire disk and then re-add new logical partitions with ext4 
filesystems instead (one 6G for an encrypted partition and then the remaining 
581G as the data partition I wanted to supplement /home.

One issue worth noting -- gparted recommended using 0.4.6-1 until a few bugs 
get ironed out with 0.5.X so I downloaded a fresh live cd iso and used that. I 
ran into an issue where gparted froze on the first attempt. My initial 
preparation resulted in 5 transactions for gparted to execute. gparted 
completed 2.5 of them and froze creating the 6 G extension which required a 
power-off hard reset. (always something that will cause your ... to pucker 
during the middle of writing partitions to disk)

On restart, gparted reported that the 6G partition was of "Unknown type", but 
other than that the array was perfectly fine. So I set it up to delete/recreate 
the 6G and create the 581G which completed without any issue. I don't know why 
gparted caused the system to freeze the first time, but be aware there may be 
some issues with gparted right now that are being investigated according to the 
gparted site. The impressive part of the whole endeavor was the fact that 
gparted handled the power-off hard reset without scattering my entire drive :p

Thanks for all your feedback on the ext4 issue.

-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com

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