nested labels

[Alex Zbyslaw]

On 9/21/06, Jeffrey Katz <off at panix.com> wrote:

> I have hit the limit of 8 disklabels per slice.  Supposedly, one can
> create lables within a label, thus overcoming this limit.  I googled
> everything but could only find references to gpt-- nothing about nested
> labels or partitions.  Can anyone detail the steps involved in setting up
> nested labels or partitions? 

There was a discussion on hackers@ recently which mentioned nested 
labels.  Have a search of the archives.

Personally I wouldn't touch that solution with a 10ft pole.

You explain far too little about *why* you have run out of partitions 
and what your current disk setup is like.  Another option to consider is 
logical/extended slices (DOS partitions).  Inside one of those you can 
create more FreeBSD slices.  The only caveat is that I believe 
sysinstall will not recognise them so you are down to bsdlabelling them 
by hand (but you are with nested labels as well); or you can forget 
labelling them and just use each slice as a partition.

Another solution: buy another disk.  Slightly wasteful, but by far the 
easiest.

--Alex