partitioning dilemma

[Scot Hetzel]

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 5:41 PM, Aragon Gouveia <aragon at phat.za.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Between MBR and GPT, I'm struggling to find the right partitioning scheme to
> meet my requirements.  Suggestions on below would be highly appreciated.
>
> I have 2 disks.  I want 2 independent gmirror volumes, ie. 2 partitions on
> each disk, with one partition from each disk in a gmirror volume. Each
> gmirror volume would contain a bootable FreeBSD system (BSD label), and I'd
> selectively boot between them when testing new releases or other big
> changes.
>
> Then I'd like a 3rd partition on each disk, both of which for swap space.
>
> Then a 4th partition on each disk which I plan to use as a ZFS mirrored ZIL.
>
> Finally, a 5th partition on each disk which would both serve as ZFS L2ARC.
>
> My dilemma:
>
> All documentation and mailing list discussion about GPT seems to indicate
> that creating BSD labels inside GPT partitions is a Bad Idea, which would
> mean putting two GPT partitions into a gmirror volume is a bad idea.  Is
> this still the case?
>

Use the -l option to gpart to create a label for the partition:

gpart add -s 4G -t freebsd-swap -l swap0 ad0

The label would then show up under /dev/gpt (i.e. /dev/gpt/swap0).

Scot