On Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 05:38:10PM +1200, Michael JasonSmith wrote:
> Can someone remind me:
> * There is a limit on the number of primary partitions, but not on
> the number of logical partitions, yes?
Correct. The limit is 4 primary partitions per disk. The number of
logical partitions is, effectively, unlimited, because a logical
partition chain is formed using a linked list. Logical partitions must
be created "within" an extended partition. Most implementations limit
the possible number of extended partitions to 1. Extended
partitions are logically similar to BSD disk slices.
> * And am I right in thinking that the primary/logical distinction
> is peculiar to x86, and you only have primary partitions on
> large *nix boxen?
Somewhat. It depends on the system design, OS, and boot software. In
most cases, what is used is similar in principal (but not
implementation) to extended/logical partitions. It's really to vague a
question to answer specifically. Most high-end systems will support
some form of volume management.
> * And where does LVM come in to it, and is it the answer to all
> our worries?
Volume Management systems (e.g. LVM, EVMS) solve some problems and
introduce others. The largest problem they introduce, in my opinion, is
additional administration complexity.
Cheers,
-mjg
--
Matthew Gregan |/
/| [EMAIL PROTECTED]
