LinuxQuestions.org - Partition Issue?

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Partition Issue?

I have recently installed a new RHEL 5.3.
I have partitioned structure:

Code:

 fdisk -l



Disk /dev/sda: 441.0 GB, 441046794240 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 53620 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes



  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/sda1  *          1          14      112423+  83  Linux

/dev/sda2              15        1289    10241437+  83  Linux

/dev/sda3            1290        1544    2048287+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sda4            1545      53620  418300470    5  Extended

/dev/sda5            1545        2819    10241406  83  Linux

/dev/sda6            2820        3711    7164958+  83  Linux

/dev/sda7            3712        4348    5116671  83  Linux

/dev/sda8            4349        4985    5116671  83  Linux

/dev/sda9            4986        5240    2048256  82  Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sda10          5241        5495    2048256  82  Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sda11          5496        5750    2048256  82  Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sda12          5751      11830    48837568+  83  Linux

/dev/sda13          11831      17910    48837568+  83  Linux

/dev/sda14          17911      23990    48837568+  83  Linux

/dev/sda15          23991      30070    48837568+  83  Linux

I have totally 441 GB.Now I started creating the partition as shown above.

Code:

#df -h

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda2            9.5G  436M  8.6G  5% /

/dev/sda8            4.8G  139M  4.4G  4% /home

/dev/sda7            4.8G  207M  4.3G  5% /var

/dev/sda6            6.7G  3.0G  3.3G  48% /usr

/dev/sda5            9.5G  5.8G  3.3G  64% /opt

/dev/sda1            107M  12M  90M  12% /boot

tmpfs                2.0G    0  2.0G  0% /dev/shm

/dev/sda12            46G  1.3G  43G  3% /u01

/dev/sda13            46G  181M  44G  1% /u02

/dev/sda14            46G  181M  44G  1% /u03

/dev/sda15            46G  181M  44G  1% /u04

YOu would see that I have only utlized 250 GB.
Now when I am trying to create further partition it says:

Code:

Command (m for help): n

The maximum number of partitions has been created

Why is it behaving so?

Hi,

as the message told you, one SCSI disk cannot hold more 15 partitions, so create larger partitions to get a fewer number.

Normally you can have up to 64 partitions on an IDE/ATA device or up to 15 on SCSI disk. This is limited by kernel. So you have reached the limit of possible partitions per disk. Possible this can be changed on the kernel.

I assume you are installing several operating systems.

You've created a monster cutting up your hard drive like that.

Why do you have 4 swap partitions? You only need ONE.

You do not need to make separate partitions for boot, var, opt, home, and usr.

You can create ONE / root partition for every operating system.
You can share ONE /home partition amongst all operating systems but I prefer not to do this. I install everything in / and share ONE data partition for simplicity.
ONE boot partition is enough to boot all your operating systems if you know how to setup one bootloader to boot solaris and others.

This is only my opinion.

Breaking out partitions like that is well regarded in the server market. Simple answer is to use LVM - create one big partition, and create LVs within that for your partitions as above. Also allows for dynamic expansion should other disks be added.
And strictly speaking it's not a kernel limitation, but the underlying interface definition - SCSI in this case.

I am trying to install just one RHEL OS on the hardware.
How can I extend the partition after this?

As indicated above, if you have a SATA or SCSI hard drive, you are limited to 15 partitions which you already have. You could delete three of your swap partitions as there is no reason to have more than one.

It doesn't matter how much space you have if you have used up your partitions which your error message clearly shows. If you have 15 partitions of 1 GB each you will have 485 GB of useless space.

Delete some swap partitions and make a larger partition for Red Hat.

I have deleted the partitions through fdisk followed by options >> d >> w.
Do I need to reboot the Machine.

Hi,

there is no need to reboot after repartitioning your disk. This can all be done one the fly.