Is wikipedia incorrect about ext3 size limits?

larold · 06-16-2010, 12:23 PM

Check out the commands I just tried on a RHEL 5.5 box. The Logical
Volume in question is 12 TB large...

$ mke2fs -j -b 4096 /dev/mapper/DPFileLibVolGroup01-DPFileLibLV01
mke2fs 1.39 (29-May-2006)
mke2fs: Filesystem too large. No more than 2**31-1 blocks
(8TB using a blocksize of 4k) are currently supported.
$ mke2fs -j -b 8192 /dev/mapper/DPFileLibVolGroup01-DPFileLibLV01
Warning: blocksize 8192 not usable on most systems.
mke2fs 1.39 (29-May-2006)
mke2fs: 8192-byte blocks too big for system (max 4096)
Proceed anyway? (y,n) n

Now, take a look at the chart on the wiki page for ext3:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext3#Size_limits

Is the chart wrong, or do I have some patching / upgrades that need to be done to this rhel box? (I didn't do the install.)

Thanks!

pljvaldez · 06-16-2010, 12:42 PM

Did you read the note under that table?

Quote:

1. ^ In Linux, 8 KB block size is only available on architectures which allow 8 KB pages, such as Alpha.

EDIT: Sorry, my bad. I see you're using 4kb block sizes and should be able to get to 16TB, but your error says only 8TB...

Googling around a bit, it seems like you should be able to upgrade e2fsprogs and it should allow you to use 16TB (or actually just shy of 16TB). Not sure if this update also requires a kernel update.