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E-Series Systems

Create partitions and filesystems

Contributors netapp-driley NetAppZacharyWambold netapp-jolieg
PDFs

Because a new LUN has no partition or file system when the Linux host first discovers it, you must format the LUN before it can be used. Optionally, you can create a file system on the LUN.

Before you begin

Make sure you have the following:

  • A LUN that is discovered by the host.

  • A list of available disks. (To see available disks, run the ls command in the /dev/mapper folder.)

About this task

You can initialize the disk as a basic disk with a GUID partition table (GPT) or Master boot record (MBR).

Format the LUN with a file system such as ext4. Some applications do not require this step.

Steps

  1. Retrieve the SCSI ID of the mapped disk by issuing the sanlun lun show -p command.

    Note Alternatively, you can retrieve these results through the multipath -ll command.

    The SCSI ID is a 33-character string of hexadecimal digits, beginning with the number 3. If user-friendly names are enabled, Device Mapper reports disks as mpath instead of by a SCSI ID.

    # sanlun lun show -p

                E-Series Array: ictm1619s01c01-SRP(60080e50002908b40000000054efb9d2)
                   Volume Name:
               Preferred Owner: Controller in Slot B
                 Current Owner: Controller in Slot B
                          Mode: RDAC (Active/Active)
                       UTM LUN: None
                           LUN: 116
                      LUN Size:
                       Product: E-Series
                   Host Device: mpathr(360080e50004300ac000007575568851d)
              Multipath Policy: round-robin 0
            Multipath Provider: Native
--------- ---------- ------- ------------ ----------------------------------------------
host      controller                      controller
path      path       /dev/   host         target
state     type       node    adapter      port
--------- ---------- ------- ------------ ----------------------------------------------
up        secondary  sdcx    host14       A1
up        secondary  sdat    host10       A2
up        secondary  sdbv    host13       B1

  2. Create a new partition according to the method appropriate for your Linux OS release.

    Typically, characters identifying the partition of a disk are appended to the SCSI ID (the number 1 or p3 for instance).

    # parted -a optimal -s -- /dev/mapper/360080e5000321bb8000092b1535f887a mklabel
gpt mkpart primary ext4 0% 100%

  3. Create a file system on the partition.

    The method for creating a file system varies depending on the file system chosen.

    # mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/360080e5000321bb8000092b1535f887a1

  4. Create a folder to mount the new partition.

    # mkdir /mnt/ext4

  5. Mount the partition.

    # mount /dev/mapper/360080e5000321bb8000092b1535f887a1 /mnt/ext4