[DRBD-user] initial formatting of /dev/drbd0 device (with internalmetadata)

Todd Denniston Todd.Denniston at ssa.crane.navy.mil
Tue Mar 22 17:28:58 CET 2005

Note: "permalinks" may not be as permanent as we would like,
direct links of old sources may well be a few messages off.


Brett Bolen wrote:
> 
> If I want to setup drbd on a blank disk, do I need to compute
> the size of the partition ( or does the drbd drive do this for
> me)?
> 
> Say I have a 1 GB partition on moe's /dev/sda1, and something similar
> on larrys /dev/sdb1.
> 
> When I initially format moe's drive, can I just
> 
>    mke2fs -j /dev/sda1
> 
<SNIP>


You just invalidated your premise of putting drbd on a blank disk, i.e., you
put a filesystem on the lower level device.

assumption 1 you are using drbd 0.7.X.

Try the following 
1) backup any data you have that you want to keep from the filesystem on
/dev/sda1.
2) setup drbd to use /dev/sda1 
3) swear that you will never point any tool but drbd at /dev/sda1 again
(while drbd is using it).
4) mke2fs -j /dev/drbd1
5) read the DRBD docs a little closer.

drbd uses part of the partition for it's own metadata (~128MB) unless
configured to do otherwise, a filesystem applied to the lower level device
conflicts with that.

--
Todd Denniston
Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane) 
Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter



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