How to install a USB disk on SME Server
7.x |
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Copyright © Darrell May
<dmay@myezserver.com> NOTE: The commands presented below are very DANGEROUS. If you do not fully understand Linux hard disk partitioning and formatting, please seek further assistance. |
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STEP 1: To start, I suggest you
connect
the USB drive to a SME 7.x test server. Get used to the commands below
before
you perform the same on a production server. On your test server,
connect your
USB drive and see whether it gets automatically recognized and what
device is assigned
to the drive. I recommend you reboot your test server after connecting
the drive
for the first time. Search /var/log/messages
for an
entry similar to the one below:
# tail -100 /var/log/messages Dec 8 10:49:07
test fstab-sync[3298]: added mount point
/media/usbdisk for /dev/sda1 |
STEP 2: USB drives typically
ship with a
FAT32 file system. Wipe the drive and prep for partitioning and
reformatting as
ext3 file system. Substitute the correct device identified above for
/dev/sda1
below:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=512 count=63 63+0 records in 63+0 records out |
STEP 3: Partition the drive.
The basic
steps are highlighted then detailed below:
# fdisk /dev/sda1
Press p >
Press n >
Press p, partition 1, default 1 > Press w
# fdisk /dev/sda1 Device contains
neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel Building a new
DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in
memory only, until you decide to
write them. After that, of course, the previous content won't be
recoverable. The number of
cylinders for this disk is set to 10010. There is nothing
wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in
certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that
runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and
partitioning software from other
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) Warning: invalid
flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite) Command (m for
help): |
Command (m for
help): p Disk /dev/sda1:
82.3 GB, 82343245824 bytes 255 heads, 63
sectors/track, 10010 cylinders Units = cylinders
of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks
Id System Command (m for
help): |
Command action
e extended
p primary partition
(1-4) p Partition number
(1-4): 1 First cylinder
(1-10010, default 1): Using default
value 1 Last cylinder or
+size or +sizeM or +sizeK
(1-10010, default 10010): Using default
value 10010 |
Command (m for
help): w The partition
table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. WARNING:
Re-reading the partition table failed with error 22: Invalid argument. The kernel still
uses the old table. The new table
will be used at the next reboot. Syncing disks. |
STEP 4: Format the drive:
# mkfs.ext3
/dev/sda1 mke2fs 1.35
(28-Feb-2004) Filesystem label= OS type: Linux Block size=4096
(log=2) Fragment
size=4096 (log=2) 10059776 inodes, 20103331 blocks 1005166 blocks
(5.00%) reserved for the super user First data block=0 Maximum filesystem blocks=20971520 614 block groups 32768 blocks per
group, 32768 fragments per group 16384 inodes per group Superblock backups stored
on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736,
1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424 Writing inode tables: done Creating journal
(8192 blocks): done Writing superblocks and filesystem
accounting information: done This filesystem will be automatically checked every
36 mounts or 180 days,
whichever comes first.
Use tune2fs -c or -i to
override. |
STEP 5: Reboot the server.
# signal-event
reboot |
STEP 6: Verify your drive is
recognized
after reboot.
# tail -100 /var/log/messages Dec 8 10:49:07
test fstab-sync[3298]: added mount point
/media/usbdisk for /dev/sda1 |
STEP 7: Mount and test the
drive.
# mount
/media/usbdisk # ll /media/usbdisk total 20 drwx------ 2 root root 16384 Dec 8 10:42 lost+found |