> Hi, I'm looking for information about whether it is possible to > span multiple partitions with a root filesystem. > > I found this item in some coursework I am looking at and (No its not an > assignment.) As far as my experiences with Unix/Linux have gone it isn't > possible to have a single file system span multiple partitions.
Sort of.. depends what you mean by span. If your using software raid, you can span the root filesystem accross multiple physical devices/partitions. I have several systems which have software raid for their root filesystems. On debian the only software raid which is supported for root is raid1. Under SuSE it can even do raid 5 somehow. (apparently this is a LILO/GRUB limitation). Not sure about redhat(haven't tried it). By using Raid0(even if you can't boot directly from it, you could boot from CD or floppy or even network), you could have a root filesystem that is spread accross drives, or raid5 if the system supports it. > I have always believed it could be done, but that no one had ever > implemented the necessary code to make it doable. another potential is LVM. I haven't tried it yet, SuSE has it nicely integrated into the system, but last I checked it wouldn't allow the root filesystem to be part of a LVM. Technically I think it is possible but it would take some work(stuffing stuff into the initrd image to support it, far from transparent to setup, may require booting from another media such as floppy/cdrom as well). Setting up software raid 1 on a debian system for the root filesystem isn't for the faint of heart either, but once its going it works good :) > Has this now changed? Is it now possible to have a single filesystem > spanning multiple partitions? I looked in Google for Linux and didn't > find anything so I'm skeptical, but I would like to be enlightened (bows > eastward 3 times). I belive what your asking for is LVM, though as above, you can accomplish the same result(root on multiple partitons) with software raid. One of the newer LVMs that should be more commonly available during the 2.6.x timeframe may offer more flexibility in this regaurd (ELVMS I think and LVM2). yet another option is use hardware raid. that way its spread accross multiple drives transparently. nate (debian user, though trying to get his feet wet with suse and redhat) -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
