make RDM available as mount point on Linux server
 

Newbie, so sorry if I don't use the correct terminology. I built a Suse Linux server on vmware. I attached an RDM to the server and can now see the drive as a "Mass Storage Drive" in Applications - computer. When I double click on the icon, I get an error message that indicates that the drive can not be mounted. I tried to mount in gnome terminal using: mount /dev/sdb and get "can't find .dev/sdb in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab". I tried adding device that I would like to mount to fstab, but don't think I have the settings correct. I looking for any info that might step me through the process. Thanks!

Hi gkmills,

When you attach the RDM device to the machine, what device does it become? You should be able to find this by running "dmesg" a few moments after attaching the device.

When you know what the device is, you can see if it has been automounted somewhere: "cat /proc/mounts" and then look through for the device name (/dev/sdXx) you just mentioned. Incidentally, the device itself will be /dev/sdX but the partition (where the filesystem is, which is what gets mounted) should be /dev/sdX1 (where 1 will be a number, not necessarily 1).

Try these and then come back to us. :)

Thymox.

Thymox,

Thanks for the reply. When I look in /dev the RDM shows up as sdb. I think my problem has some thing to do with formatting. I'm using cfdisk and have it setup as shown.

Disk Drive: sdb
Size: 241591910400 bytes, 241.5 GB
Heads: 255 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders: 29371

Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
sdb1 Primary Linux


I ran dmesg as you suggested and found two references to sdb:

VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev sdb.
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] 471859200 512-byte hardware sectors: (241GB/225GiB)
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 87 00 00 08
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sdb: sdb1 < sdb5 >
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] 471859200 512-byte hardware sectors: (241GB/225GiB)
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 87 00 00 08
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sdb:
VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev sdb.

and:

ppa: Version 2.07 (for Linux 2.4.x)
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] 471859200 512-byte hardware sectors: (241GB/225GiB)
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 87 00 00 08
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sdb: sdb1
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] 471859200 512-byte hardware sectors: (241GB/225GiB)
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 87 00 00 08
sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sdb: sdb1

The output from cat/proc/mounts is:

rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw,mode=755 0 0
/dev/sda2 / ext3 rw,errors=continue,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/proc /proc proc rw 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0
securityfs /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0
gvfs-fuse-daemon /root/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user_id=0,group_id=0 0 0

I have tried to manually mount the drive and got:

servername:/ # mount /dev/sdb1/dev
mount: can't find /dev/sdb1/dev in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
servername:/ # mount /dev/sdb1 /dev
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

I'm not sure what to enter for filesystem type.

I think that I'm almost there, but not sure what I am missing.

Thanks!