12.5 Adding Other Types of File System Partitions

NSS and Linux POSIX file systems can co-exist on a device that is managed by EVMS. Use NSSMU or the iManager Storage plug-in to manage NSS pools and volumes on OES 2 Linux. Use the EVMS GUI (evmsgui) management tool to create Linux POSIX file systems on the device. For more information, see Section C.2, Using Linux POSIX File Systems and NSS Pools and Volumes on the Same Device.

Do not use YaST or LVM2 management tools to create or manage NSS pools and volumes on EVMS-managed devices. During the partition creation process, the YaST partitioner modifies the /etc/fstab configuration file to incorrectly identify NSS pools as Ext2 partitions instead of NSS partitions. This can make your system unbootable.

For example, a command like this is added to the /etc/fstab file for each NSS pool:

/dev/evms/poolname /nss/.pools/poolname ext2 defaults 1 2

where poolname is the name of the pool.

Instead of ext2, the partition type should be nss:

/dev/evms/poolname /nss/.pools/poolname nss defaults 1 2

To work around this problem when using the YaST partitioner, after you create a Linux POSIX file system and before you reboot your system, edit the /etc/fstab file to remove or comment out the lines that identify NSS partitions as Ext2 partitions.

To recover your system if you reboot your server before editing the /etc/fstab file:

  1. Boot your OES 2 Linux server in Single User mode.

  2. Mount the root (/) file system with the remount and read/write (rw) options by entering the following at a terminal console prompt:

    mount -n -o remount,rw /
    
  3. Edit the /etc/fstab file to do the following, then save the file:

    • If a line wrongly identifies an NSS partition as an Ext2 partition, correct the entry by changing ext2 to nss.

    • If a line wrongly identifies an NSS partition as an Ext2 partition, and if the entry duplicates a correct entry for the NSS partition, then remove or comment out the line that wrongly identifies the NSS partition as an Ext2 partition.

  4. Reboot the server to apply the changes.