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LVM limit on PE's/size?

linux-lvm Scott P 3 participants 5 messages Nov 27, 2001 – Nov 29, 2001

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Scott P

author
#0 lore raw

Hi all...

I hope I'm not asking a too pettty of a question for this list!

We are planning to add a 3 rd EXP300 array to out current server w/ 2 EXP300's in place already!
We WILL surpass the 1 TB size, if possible?

A little history:

Linux ptb3 2.2.19 #2 SMP Tue Jul 24 11:53:29 CDT 2001 i686 unknown

I have two IBM EXP300 RAID arrays connected to a Netfinity 4500R running Redhat Linux 6.2.
LVM compiled into kernel AFAIK...w/ patch?

We are using:
lvm_0.9.1_beta7
reiserfsprogs-3.x.0j

Here is the current filesystem and size:

/dev/exp300_2/exp300_lv2 924160464 891307744 32852720 97% /files1

Just wondering about this faq:

Q:
Why are my logical volumes limited to 256
GB in size?
A:
This is NO absolute limit but it depends
on the physical extent size you configured at volume group
creation time.

Please use option -s of the vgcreate
command to give a larger physical extent size. For example with a

                               physical extent size of 524288 KB (512

MB) you are able to map a logical volume of 32 Terabyte.
Remember that current Linux kernels are
limited to 1 Terabyte.

***Especially about the part in bold!

Please let me know if you need more details, I will supply asap!

TIA!

-Scott

#1 lore raw
Quoted 2 lines · Scott P

We are planning to add a 3 rd EXP300 array to out current server w/ 2 EXP300's in place already! We WILL surpass the 1 TB size, if possible?

Depends if the driver does 32-bit block numbers with signed or unsigned values. The absolute maximum supported by 2.4 kernels is 2TB devices. I don't know if 2.2 will support > 1TB devices, but it is possible.

Quoted 5 lines

Linux ptb3 2.2.19 #2 SMP Tue Jul 24 11:53:29 CDT 2001 i686 unknown

We are using:
lvm_0.9.1_beta7
reiserfsprogs-3.x.0j

Get newer LVM tools, like 1.0.1, because the old ones have lots more bugs. Beta 7 has the PE alignment bug, so you should upgrade the tools even if you can't upgrade the kernel.

Quoted 7 lines

Here is the current filesystem and size:

/dev/exp300_2/exp300_lv2 924160464 891307744 32852720 97% /files1

Q: Why are my logical volumes limited to 256 GB in size?
A: This is NO absolute limit but it depends on the physical extent size you configured at volume group creation time.

Check what "pvdata -P /dev/whatever" tells you about the PE size. If it is 16386kB, then you are limited to 1TB in size. If it is larger than that, you _may_ be able to go past 1TB, but you may not, depending on whether your drivers and kernel work properly or not.

Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2resize/
http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/

author
#2 lore raw

Andreas,

Thanks so much for the insight!

Here is some ouput, it looks like we might be ok?
Please comment, if possible, thanks...

-Scott

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdisplay /dev/sdb1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdb1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   2
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               1gKwp2-dotn-0WJU-5FwZ-uScI-OyMH-SHVw5F

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdisplay /dev/sdc1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdc1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   1
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               ciUWIf-i9OO-okne-Fs6R-fjU1-NPpr-Ml4p8L

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdata -P /dev/sdb1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdb1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   2
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               1gKwp2-dotn-0WJU-5FwZ-uScI-OyMH-SHVw5F

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdata -P /dev/sdc1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdc1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   1
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               ciUWIf-i9OO-okne-Fs6R-fjU1-NPpr-Ml4p8L
Quoted 42 lines · Andreas Dilger
Quoted 2 lines · Scott P

We are planning to add a 3 rd EXP300 array to out current server w/ 2 EXP300's in place already! We WILL surpass the 1 TB size, if possible?

Depends if the driver does 32-bit block numbers with signed or unsigned values. The absolute maximum supported by 2.4 kernels is 2TB devices. I don't know if 2.2 will support > 1TB devices, but it is possible.

Quoted 5 lines

Linux ptb3 2.2.19 #2 SMP Tue Jul 24 11:53:29 CDT 2001 i686 unknown

We are using:
lvm_0.9.1_beta7
reiserfsprogs-3.x.0j

Get newer LVM tools, like 1.0.1, because the old ones have lots more bugs. Beta 7 has the PE alignment bug, so you should upgrade the tools even if you can't upgrade the kernel.

Quoted 7 lines

Here is the current filesystem and size:

/dev/exp300_2/exp300_lv2 924160464 891307744 32852720 97% /files1

Q: Why are my logical volumes limited to 256 GB in size?
A: This is NO absolute limit but it depends on the physical extent size you configured at volume group creation time.

Check what "pvdata -P /dev/whatever" tells you about the PE size. If it is 16386kB, then you are limited to 1TB in size. If it is larger than that, you _may_ be able to go past 1TB, but you may not, depending on whether your drivers and kernel work properly or not.

Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2resize/
http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/

_______________________________________________
linux-lvm mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.sistina.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm
read the LVM HOW-TO at http://www.sistina.com/lvm/Pages/howto.html

#3 lore raw

Scott,

with your PE size of 32MB, you can achieve to create LVs up to 2TB in size (actually it is a little bit less than 2TB, because every LV can have up to 64K - 2 extents). You can have multiple 2TB LVs this way, because your VG capacity is in no means limited to 2TB! In theory you could have 128 SCSI IDs with 8 LUNs each providing up to 1 or 2TB in 1 VG.

Because your PVs are smaller than 1TB in size, you will not suffer from the block adrdessing sign bit danger Andreas was explaining in his email.

In general you should plan for the largest possible Logical Volume size during the lifetime of a Volume Group and set the Physical Extent size (vgcreate -s) acordingly. Even though Linux does not support more than 2TB per block device today, it will be in the future and you won't suffer from the LVM1 constraint ITR.

Regards,
Heinz -- The LVM Guy --

Quoted 120 lines · Scott P

Andreas,

Thanks so much for the insight!

Here is some ouput, it looks like we might be ok?
Please comment, if possible, thanks...

-Scott

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdisplay /dev/sdb1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdb1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   2
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               1gKwp2-dotn-0WJU-5FwZ-uScI-OyMH-SHVw5F

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdisplay /dev/sdc1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdc1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   1
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               ciUWIf-i9OO-okne-Fs6R-fjU1-NPpr-Ml4p8L

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdata -P /dev/sdb1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdb1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   2
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               1gKwp2-dotn-0WJU-5FwZ-uScI-OyMH-SHVw5F

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdata -P /dev/sdc1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdc1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   1
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               ciUWIf-i9OO-okne-Fs6R-fjU1-NPpr-Ml4p8L
Quoted 37 lines · Andreas Dilger
Quoted 2 lines · Scott P

We are planning to add a 3 rd EXP300 array to out current server w/ 2 EXP300's in place already! We WILL surpass the 1 TB size, if possible?

Depends if the driver does 32-bit block numbers with signed or unsigned values. The absolute maximum supported by 2.4 kernels is 2TB devices. I don't know if 2.2 will support > 1TB devices, but it is possible.

Quoted 5 lines

Linux ptb3 2.2.19 #2 SMP Tue Jul 24 11:53:29 CDT 2001 i686 unknown

We are using:
lvm_0.9.1_beta7
reiserfsprogs-3.x.0j

Get newer LVM tools, like 1.0.1, because the old ones have lots more bugs. Beta 7 has the PE alignment bug, so you should upgrade the tools even if you can't upgrade the kernel.

Quoted 7 lines

Here is the current filesystem and size:

/dev/exp300_2/exp300_lv2 924160464 891307744 32852720 97% /files1

Q: Why are my logical volumes limited to 256 GB in size?
A: This is NO absolute limit but it depends on the physical extent size you configured at volume group creation time.

Check what "pvdata -P /dev/whatever" tells you about the PE size. If it is 16386kB, then you are limited to 1TB in size. If it is larger than that, you _may_ be able to go past 1TB, but you may not, depending on whether your drivers and kernel work properly or not.

Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2resize/
http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/

Quoted 5 lines

_______________________________________________
linux-lvm mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.sistina.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm
read the LVM HOW-TO at http://www.sistina.com/lvm/Pages/howto.html

Quoted 5 lines

_______________________________________________
linux-lvm mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.sistina.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm
read the LVM HOW-TO at http://www.sistina.com/lvm/Pages/howto.html

*** Software bugs are stupid.
Nevertheless it needs not so stupid people to solve them ***

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Heinz Mauelshagen Sistina Software Inc.
Senior Consultant/Developer Am Sonnenhang 11
56242 Marienrachdorf Germany
[email protected] +49 2626 141200

                                                       FAX 924446

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

author
#4 lore raw

Heinz,

Thanks for clarifying further, I appreciate the extra info!

-Scott

Quoted 165 lines · Heinz J . Mauelshagen

Scott,

with your PE size of 32MB, you can achieve to create LVs up to 2TB in size (actually it is a little bit less than 2TB, because every LV can have up to 64K - 2 extents). You can have multiple 2TB LVs this way, because your VG capacity is in no means limited to 2TB! In theory you could have 128 SCSI IDs with 8 LUNs each providing up to 1 or 2TB in 1 VG.

Because your PVs are smaller than 1TB in size, you will not suffer from the block adrdessing sign bit danger Andreas was explaining in his email.

In general you should plan for the largest possible Logical Volume size during the lifetime of a Volume Group and set the Physical Extent size (vgcreate -s) acordingly. Even though Linux does not support more than 2TB per block device today, it will be in the future and you won't suffer from the LVM1 constraint ITR.

Regards,
Heinz -- The LVM Guy --

Quoted 120 lines · Scott P

Andreas,

Thanks so much for the insight!

Here is some ouput, it looks like we might be ok?
Please comment, if possible, thanks...

-Scott

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdisplay /dev/sdb1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdb1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   2
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               1gKwp2-dotn-0WJU-5FwZ-uScI-OyMH-SHVw5F

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdisplay /dev/sdc1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdc1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   1
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               ciUWIf-i9OO-okne-Fs6R-fjU1-NPpr-Ml4p8L

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdata -P /dev/sdb1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdb1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   2
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               1gKwp2-dotn-0WJU-5FwZ-uScI-OyMH-SHVw5F

[root@ptb3 pichelma]# /sbin/pvdata -P /dev/sdc1
--- Physical volume ---

PV Name               /dev/sdc1
VG Name               exp300_2
PV Size               440.71 GB / NOT usable 26.75 MB [LVM: 176 KB]
PV#                   1
PV Status             available
Allocatable           yes (but full)
Cur LV                1
PE Size (KByte)       32768
Total PE              14102
Free PE               0
Allocated PE          14102
PV UUID               ciUWIf-i9OO-okne-Fs6R-fjU1-NPpr-Ml4p8L
Quoted 37 lines · Andreas Dilger
Quoted 2 lines · Scott P

We are planning to add a 3 rd EXP300 array to out current server w/ 2 EXP300's in place already! We WILL surpass the 1 TB size, if possible?

Depends if the driver does 32-bit block numbers with signed or unsigned values. The absolute maximum supported by 2.4 kernels is 2TB devices. I don't know if 2.2 will support > 1TB devices, but it is possible.

Quoted 5 lines

Linux ptb3 2.2.19 #2 SMP Tue Jul 24 11:53:29 CDT 2001 i686 unknown

We are using:
lvm_0.9.1_beta7
reiserfsprogs-3.x.0j

Get newer LVM tools, like 1.0.1, because the old ones have lots more bugs. Beta 7 has the PE alignment bug, so you should upgrade the tools even if you can't upgrade the kernel.

Quoted 7 lines

Here is the current filesystem and size:

/dev/exp300_2/exp300_lv2 924160464 891307744 32852720 97% /files1

Q: Why are my logical volumes limited to 256 GB in size?
A: This is NO absolute limit but it depends on the physical extent size you configured at volume group creation time.

Check what "pvdata -P /dev/whatever" tells you about the PE size. If it is 16386kB, then you are limited to 1TB in size. If it is larger than that, you _may_ be able to go past 1TB, but you may not, depending on whether your drivers and kernel work properly or not.

Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2resize/
http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/

Quoted 5 lines

_______________________________________________
linux-lvm mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.sistina.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm
read the LVM HOW-TO at http://www.sistina.com/lvm/Pages/howto.html

Quoted 5 lines

_______________________________________________
linux-lvm mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.sistina.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm
read the LVM HOW-TO at http://www.sistina.com/lvm/Pages/howto.html

*** Software bugs are stupid.
Nevertheless it needs not so stupid people to solve them ***

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Heinz Mauelshagen Sistina Software Inc.
Senior Consultant/Developer Am Sonnenhang 11
56242 Marienrachdorf Germany
[email protected] +49 2626 141200

                                                       FAX 924446

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

_______________________________________________
linux-lvm mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.sistina.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm
read the LVM HOW-TO at http://www.sistina.com/lvm/Pages/howto.html