GPT partitioning error during installation of Red Hat Linux

Troubleshooting

Problem

During the installation of Red Hat Linux 4.x, 5.x, and 6.x, as well as VMware ESX or ESXi 4.x, using an IBM ServeRAID H1110 SAS or SATA Controller, Option part number 81Y4492, with one or more drives that are 3 TB or greater, the installer presents the user with the following error: The following errors occurred with your partitioning: Your boot partition is on a disk using GPT partitioning scheme but this machine cannot boot using GPT. This can happen if there is not enough space on your hard drive(s) for the installation

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H203532

Symptom

	The following errors occurred with your partitioning: Your boot partition is on a disk using GPT partitioning scheme but this machine cannot boot using GPT. This can happen if there is not enough space on your hard drive(s) for the installation

Affected configurations

The system is configured with one or more of the following IBM Options:

ServeRAID H1110 SAS or SATA Controller, Option part number 81Y4492, replacement part number 81Y4494

This tip is not system specific.

This tip is not software specific.

Workaround

The user should create a boot partition that is less than two (2) terabytes (TB) (4294967295 sectors) using the sas2ircu utility, which is available at the following location:

http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5084955
The syntax to use is as follows:

	sas2ircu controller_number create volume_type size <enclosure:bay> [volume_name] [noprompt]

Additional information

Red Hat Linux 4.x, 5.x, and in some cases 6.x, as well as VMware ESX or ESXi 4.x, are Master Boot Record (MBR) based operating systems.

MBR partition scheme does not allow the maximum starting address or the size of a single partition to be greater than 2TB (4294967295 sectors). So the installer creates a GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition on the drive that is greater then 2TB. Because the IBM server booted to a legacy operating system in Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) mode, the operating system installer displays an error that the system will be unable to boot to the GPT partition in BIOS mode.

Red Hat 4.x, 5.x, and VMware ESX or ESXi 4.x are in BIOS mode only. For Red Hat 6.x, the system and installer can be booted in Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) mode, if the IBM System X server supports UEFI.

Note: GPT is a UEFI standard for the layout of the partition table on a physical hard drive. GPT uses 64-bit values to describe partitions, giving the user the ability of a maximum partition size of 2<caret_character>64 (2 to power 64).

Document Location

Worldwide

Operating System

System x Hardware Options:VMware ESX Server

System x Hardware Options:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4

System x Hardware Options:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 x86-64

System x Hardware Options:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

System x Hardware Options:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 x86-64

System x Hardware Options:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

System x Hardware Options:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 x86-64

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Tips

GPT partitioning error during installation of Red Hat Linux - ServeRAID H1110 Controller