I have an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server that has 6x600GB SAS drives in a RAID 5 configuration (Perc 6/i).The partition scheme looks like this:Partition    File System   Mount Point    Size/dev/sda1    ext2          /boot          243.00 MiB/dev/sda2    extended                     1.09 TiB  /dev/sda5  lvm2                         1.09 TiBunallocated  unallocated                  1.64 TiBI want to extend the /dev/sda5 partition to include the unallocated space, and create one large partition. However, when I attempt to extend the partition, I get an error:partition length of 5854484482 sectors exceeds the msdos-partition-table-imposed maximum of 4294967295I believe that I need to create a new partition table. However, I have also read that doing so can cause problems.My basic question is this: if I boot from the GParted Live CD, apply a new partition table, extend the /dev/sda2 partition, and increase the size of the LVM, is the system going to boot up afterwards, and will the LVM still be intact? I understand that there is always the possibility of data corruption, and I've backed everything up. The real question is whether this is the correct way to go about modifying the disk configuration.Alternatively, is there a better way to incorporate the unallocated space into the LVM?
Change Partition Table with GParted
linux;ubuntu;lvm;raid;gparted
jordanm had the best suggestion. Although the msdos partition table cannot accomodate a single partition that is larger than 2TB, because I have a logical volume, I can create a new partition from the unallocated space (which is smaller than 2TB) and add it to the logical volume.First I create a new, unformatted partition named /dev/sda3 in GParted from the unallocated space.Now that a new partition exists, I need to create an LVM physical volume:nalice@gerty:~$ sudo pvcreate /dev/sda3  Physical volume /dev/sda3 successfully createdNext I need to extend the Logical Volume to include the new physical volume:nalice@gerty:~$ sudo lvextend -L2731.75G /dev/mapper/GERTY-root  Extending logical volume root to 2.67 TiB  Logical volume root successfully resizedNote that the -L paramter of lvextend indicates the total size of the Logical Volume, not the amount that the Logical Volume is extended.Lastly, I extended the filesystem to include all of the available space in the Logical Volume:nalice@gerty:~$ sudo resize2fs /dev/mapper/GERTY-root   resize2fs 1.42 (29-Nov-2011)  Filesystem at /dev/mapper/GERTY-root is mounted on /; on-line resizing required  old_desc_blocks = 67, new_desc_blocks = 171  Performing an on-line resize of /dev/mapper/GERTY-root to 716111872 (4k) blocks.  The filesystem on /dev/mapper/GERTY-root is now 716111872 blocks long.And there you have it, a 2.9TB Logical Volume without having to change the partition table.Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/40702/how-to-manage-and-use-lvm-logical-volume-management-in-ubuntu/