johnsfine, what kind of "better detail" do I need to post? If I know what would be helpful to post, I can post it.

So really it doesn't matter if I check or don't check the primary checkbox as I'm setting up each partition?

Here's a link to the picture showing the entire parted -l if that helps
parted -l

I don't see any relationship between what you described in the first post (Created / then /boot then swap but then could not create /home despite 130GB available space) vs. what you showed later (/boot and lvm filling the non raid drive)

I don't use LVM, so maybe someone else will tell you why you might want to use it and how to use it.

If you don't want to use LVM, then why did you not delete the LVM partition to make room for the partitions you want to create?

Also, you described the list of partitions you want, but you seem to have RAID and non RAID volumes. You didn't say what you want on RAID vs. what you want on non RAID.

Exactly, and therein lies the problem. What I described in the first post were my actions through the CentOS installer GUI when it gets to the disk partitioning stage. I'm assuming the parted -l is showing what came on the server by default from the manufactorer, which I don't want.

In the GUI the first thing I did was go through and highlight everything that was set up then hit the delete/remove button, so it then just leaves me with 4 areas of free space, my internal RAID1 and the 4 external RAID5's.

On the 4 external areas of space, i'm just going to use those as data volumes for file storage.

...
OK, now your posts make sense. The CentOS install GUI was getting your input to plan the partitioning changes. It doesn't actually make any of those partitioning changes until a later stage that you obviously never reached.

Possibly, that installer won't let you set up four primary partitions. The partition table structure allows that, but it is unusual enough that some GUI front end might not be designed to allow it.

If you start over and make most of your partitions logical rather than primary, there should be no problem. It doesn't matter which (if any) of the partitions are primary as long as you don't have more than three primary, and you keep all the logical partitions together (don't alternate logical and primary in your physical layout).

Many partitioning tools expect you to create an extended partition taking up the rest of the disk (outside of the primary partitions) before you create logical partitions. Other tools just expect you to request logical partitions and they automatically create the extended partition to wrap around the logical partitions. I think the Centos installer is the second kind (creates the extended for you when you ask for logical) but I'm not sure. I haven't used a Centos installer in a long time and when I did use it, I pre partitioned the drives with different tool, so I didn't use the part you need help with.

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When I click the Create button on the free space for the RAID1, it doesn't give me many choices, seem like I have to pick from either a standard partition (which then lets me mark as primary or not) or to make an LVM thing. I just keep picking the first option for a standard partition.

Now I just wish I knew how to get back to the GUI installer, I hit Alt+Ctrl+F2 to get to the shell prompt, but I don't know how to get back to the GUI haha.

I think Alt-Ctrl-F2 switched virtual terminals and left the GUI one running.

A different Atl-Ctrl-F should switch you back, probably F8 or F9. I'm not at all sure which, but it isn't hard to try each of them.

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OK, i'll give it a shot, didn't want to mess up anything. Although, guess I don't really have anything to mess up as of yet haha. Just wish I could figure out what I'm doing wrong trying to partition my drives up.

So have you tried standard and then not primary (which would mean "logical" but might not say it)?

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Just tried it and if I don't mark any as a primary partition I can make all the ones I want. it made the first 3 regular then the rest under an extended. although I don't really understand why

but now when I go to make my partitions on the four external arrays it tells me not enough free space on disks. I'm not checking the primary partition box either

Below is a pic of the screen I uploaded, showing what it let me setup. Now when I go to setup a drive on sdb using the entire space, it gives me the same error it did that led to my original post. and I made sure to only check sdb when saying which drives to use. or do i need to force the ones on the arrays to be primary (for some reason I dont know)?

http://tinypic.com/r/20aqn90/6

Each of those four external arrays already has a partition apparently filling the array.

What do you want there?

I expect you want the four partitions you already have, so you just want to specify mount points for those partitions, rather than create new partitions. If you want to create new partitions, you need to delete the ones you have.

Also, all of that may be easier to do after Centos is installed. You need to let the installer know where /boot and / and /home etc. are (any directory the installer needs to write to). But other mount points (such as the /data0 you already set up) can be done in the installer or done later, whichever you find more convenient.

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you are absolutely right. I deleted and recreated the rest of those. everything is okay now. forgot I already made those ext4. I'm still confused on the primary ones, like why i should our should not need them, like the pros vs cons

Primary vs. Logical makes no significant difference in Linux. What the GUI installer did with your selections for the first hard drive is fine.

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