Ubuntu-Certification

Install 14.0 on a Dell PowerEdge R720xd

Asked by nwmrtim

when installing, I got the latest LTS 64 bit (14..)

I install, and either custom or standard partitioning I see:

attempt to read or write outside of disk (hd0)

rescue mode>

I have all 25 disks in a RAID 5 and I set up a 1GB boot, 7TB data and 128GB swap

I have read all about the boot loader and how to edit GRUB to look for the hd0,2 instead of the UUID but nothing has helped

there is no more menu.lst file as indicated in one forum

I have installed other flavors of LINUX before, but I dont install or support LINUX on a regular basis (ok yeah I'll work on that!)

how can I install it without getting that error>? skip grub altogether?? there is no plan to run any other OS

Thanks

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Ubuntu-Certification Edit question
Assignee:
Jeff Lane  Edit question
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nwmrtim
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Revision history for this message
nwmrtim (mr-tim-walsh) said : 		#1

sorry the exact error is:

error: attempt to read or write outside of disk (hd0

grub rescue>

Revision history for this message
Jeff Lane  (bladernr) said : 		#2

There is a lot going on there...

First things first, can you try re-installing and this time create only th following partitions:

1GB Boot /ext4
100GB / ext4
16GB swap

This is just to make sure there's nothing wonky with your RAID card or any BIOS issues or whatever (it's just a check).

I'm wondering if that 7TB data partition is the issue.

Other questions, why do you have 128GB of swap? that seems, in general, pretty large (thought here are cases where it may be a necessity).

The R720xd IS supported, and I'll see if I can get some more specific info for you as well.

Also, can you verify that you created a root filesystem mounted to "/" that is 7TB?

And what filesystems did you use for that? ext4? ext3? bttrfs? xfs, gfs?

Thanks

Revision history for this message
nwmrtim (mr-tim-walsh) said : 		#3

Good morning, thank you for the reply

the server has 25 300GB spindles all in a raid 5. it has dual 8-core CPUs and 128GB memory, the purpose will be to handle a large, high payload database

I could try to mirror the first 2 spindles and make the rest a Raid-5 - perhaps setup has a problem with writing a grub to MBR on a 7TB logical drive?

I used GPT with ext4 file system, and yes the goal is to have a huge file system mounted off root

if there is a better way to mount a file system (as large as possible) where its /home/data instead of /data that would be great.

Thanks

Revision history for this message
nwmrtim (mr-tim-walsh) said : 		#4

OK So the problem appears to be using a basic partition on a GPT partition TABLE...

I created those 3 partitions, and on a (msdos) basic partition it worked.

I will follow up with a test where I install those 3 partitions on a GPT and see if that works

Revision history for this message
Jeff Lane  (bladernr) said : 		#5

Interesting... I've added Rod to this because he knows a good deal about GPT partition tables and maybe he can provide some insight here.

Revision history for this message
Rod Smith (rodsmith) said : 		#6

With over 7TB of total disk space. my hunch is you're running into this:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1284196

In short, try either booting in EFI mode rather than in BIOS mode or use a separate /boot partition (~500MB) at the START of the disk.

Revision history for this message
nwmrtim (mr-tim-walsh) said : 		#7

Yes, that bug was exactly the problem regardless of BIOS or UEFI

I had to mirror the first 2 300GB drives for /boot and use the rest for the large database drive

Thanks!

Revision history for this message
Rod Smith (rodsmith) said : 		#8

If you're saying you ran into that same problem on an EFI-based installation, could you please add a note to that effect on the bug report page? Be sure to include the computer make and model information. An EFI should not have the same 32-bit limitation as a BIOS, so it's both very surprising and very important if an EFI exhibits this problem. Thanks!