Would like to identify nature of block devs on new Dell Poweredge host following Rocky 9.5 install

Rocky Linux Help & Support
1

What are the following please and where did they come from?! -

[root@myhost tmp]# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
[——————8<————blockdevices containing data]
nvme0n1 259:1 0 447.1G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:2 0 250M 0 part <—— what is this and is it from Dell or Rocky?
├─nvme0n1p2 259:3 0 2G 0 part <—— what is this and is it from Dell or Rocky?
[——————8<————blockdevices containing Rocky 9 (/, /boot, swap and /boot/efi)]
[root@myhost tmp]#

2

Please provide output of:

fdisk -l /dev/nvme0n1

also:

df -h

can also give an idea of what is mounted and help clear up what those partitions are.

3

And

lsblk -f

My psychic guess is “Microsoft Windows or Dell install/recovery/darkmagic” stuff.

Rocky installer adds fstab entries for all the filesystems that it automatically creates.

4

Thanks for getting back to me

I had found the following previously but forgotten how I did so, thanks.

[root@myhost ~]# fdisk -l /dev/nvme0n1
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 447.07 GiB, 480036519936 bytes, 937571328 sectors
Disk model: Dell BOSS-N1                            
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 3C59BAFB-D7DB-4727-9FDA-492A43AF99A6

Device           Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1    2048    514047    512000  250M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2  514048   4708351   4194304    2G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p3 4708352   5937151   1228800  600M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p4 5937152   8034303   2097152    1G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p5 8034304 937089023 929054720  443G Linux LVM
[root@myhost ~]#

df -h does not list the partitions and neither does mount

[root@myhost ~]# lsblk -f
NAME              FSTYPE            FSVER    LABEL                      UUID                                   FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
[cut]
nvme0n1                                                                                                                       
├─nvme0n1p1       vfat              FAT32    ESP                        F44E-99E1                                             
├─nvme0n1p2       vfat              FAT32    OS                         A450-27D4
[cut]

So … from all of that it looks the 250MB partitions is a 2nd EFI partition - used for finding data in early boot. I don’t know why I would need that when I have /boot/efi mounted as 600MB partition. ESP = EFI System Partition. I doubt that this partition is used, a problem or needed.

Re: the 2GB OS partition - OS = Operating system. 2GB is physical memory limit for 32-bit addressing. I installed Rocky from a mountable USB. I formatted said USB using my mac and used Etcher to make Rocky mountable. I doubt that this partition is used, a problem or needed.

The systems Rocky is installed on - with the mystery partitions - are working fine including after multiple reboots.

I have other systems (same server model and indeed delivery) … with Rocky 9.5 installed … which work ok and on which these block devs do not exist. On those systems, I deleted then recreated the factory supplied vdisk0 (BOSS-N1 controller) then installed Rocky 9.5 in exactly the same way.

Based on the above, I wonder if the Rocky installer found them on my USB stick and wrote them on the original vdisk0. An alternative possibility is that Dell put them on vdisk0 (I don’t allege that, it is merely a possibility) and I deleted them when deleting/recreating vdisks on the hosts on which the mystery partitions do not exist. If the former is true, I don’t know why Rocky would not install them on a recreated vdisk0.

I’d like to know what the partitions are for and where they came from.

5

OK, so the first one is EFI which is what I suspected it would be, the other is related to Windows. Potentially that EFI is also related to your Windows install. If you aren’t using Windows, those partitions could have been deleted before installing Rocky, and starting with a clean disk partition setup.

If this is a new install that you haven’t used much, I would say reinstall the system, deleting all partitions on the disk first before installing Rocky again. It’s difficult to delete those first two partitions and reclaim the space. And you cannot shift the existing partitions to earlier on the disk without losing data. You can copy everything off, recreate, etc using a rescue disk and I have done that, but it’s quicker and easier to reinstall.

1 Like
6

Thanks for the markdown amendments - I will try to learn how to / do that

The machines and USB were brand new so I can’t imagine how Windows is involved. I wonder if I formatted my USB for (MS) FAT32 but I don’t recall nor do I see why what would appear as a block device in Rocky, on the host, after removing USB (or before doing so).

I couldn’t see any partitions on the host from the Dell iDRAC - I could only see vdisk0. I don’t believe I could have deleted these before installing Rocky without deleting/recreating vdisk0.

It is a new install but resident applications are now built and in use on the machines, so I can’t reinstall or take the rescue disk approach without causing a substantial fuss. I can’t justify as the machines are working ok unless I can show that the partitions are, or will be, problematic. I can’t show that unless I know exactly what the partitions are.

I am very grateful for the insights and possibilities that you have both presented, but I would need more specific details to decide if, recommend that & explain why, they should be removed.

Thank you.

1 Like
7

Microsoft says that having more than one ESP on same drive is strongly not recommended.
No idea what the EFI specs say.

You could mount those FAT filesystems to see what they have.

GParted had “move partition” that could make even overlapping moves, but reinstall is most likely cheaper and safer. You do need backups anyway.

More likely that Dell has tiny “OS install” for diagnosis[1] and troubleshoot system. The iDRAC could regognice it and hide in order to not “bother” the user …

[1] I think it were PowerEdge without iDRAC, where they wanted diagnostic report for hardware issue and that was booted from USB/CD as we did not have any on disk. iDRAC has LifeCycle Controller (a mini-OS that is not stored on the disk, AFAIK.)

8

I think the Dell option is the most plausible. I have asked their L3 and they suggested it was part of the Rocky install. Given this is not the case if I delete the vdisk, I think that suggestion is disproven. I will ask them again, partly in the light of what you said about the extra EFI partition. If we need to delete partitions after system delivery, that should be made clear. Thanks.

9

I recently had a Dell PowerEdge server, and when booting and installing Rocky I went into custom partitioning, and deleted all partitions that existed prior to installing. Then created my new partition layout. I also had two partitions to delete. I didn’t pay much attention at the time to their type or sizes, because I wasn’t interested in it too much.

For the sake of 2GB it’s not worth all your effort to reinstall it.

1 Like
10

True.

Applications tend to be either RPM packages, or not. A list of packages is relatively easy to (re)install. Non-packaged versions should preferably be in separate directories to be easy to copy.
Config for applications (in e.g. /etc) could become easier to replicate with configuration management systems, but naturally setting them up the first time is “a substantial fuss”.

(User) data … is what backups protect.

The most recent PowerEdge that I have access to is a R640 and has no odd partitions, as everything was wiped before install.

11

Agreed. I would at most remove those partitions.

Look also with efibootmgr -v
There might be UEFI Boot entries that refer to the first ESP. The efibootmgr can probably delete those.

1 Like
12

Thanks very much - this helps to validate the Dell theory.

1 Like
13

Very interesting … I will indeed look into that. Thanks very much.