gfs_mkfs(8)

NAME
gfs_mkfs - Make a GFS filesystem

SYNOPSIS
gfs_mkfs [OPTION]... DEVICE

DESCRIPTION
gfs_mkfs is used to create a Global File System.

OPTIONS

-b BlockSize
    Set the filesystem block size to BlockSize (must be a power of two). The minimum block size is 512. The FS block size cannot exceed the machine's memory page size. On the most architectures (i386, x86_64, s390, s390x), the memory page size is 4096 bytes. On other architectures it may be bigger. The default block size is 4096 bytes. In general, GFS filesystems should not deviate from the default value.

-D  Enable debugging output.

-h  Print out a help message describing available options, then exit.

-J MegaBytes
    The size of the journals in Megabytes. The default journal size is 128 megabytes. The minimum size is 32 megabytes.

-j Number
    The number of journals for gfs_mkfs to create. You need at least one journal per machine that will mount the filesystem.

-O  This option prevents gfs_mkfs from asking for confirmation before writing the filesystem.

-p LockProtoName
    LockProtoName is the name of the locking protocol to use. Acceptable locking protocols are lock_dlm, lock_gulm or if you are using GFS as a local filesystem (1 node only), you can specify the lock_nolock protocol.

-q  Be quiet. Don't print anything.

-r MegaBytes
    gfs_mkfs will try to make Resource Groups about this big. The default is 256 MB.

-s Blocks
    Journal segment size in filesystem blocks. This value must be at least two and not large enough to produce a segment size greater than 4MB.

-t LockTableName
    The lock table field appropriate to the lock module you're using. It is clustername:fsname. Clustername must match that in cluster.conf; only members of this cluster are permitted to use this file system. Fsname is a unique file system name used to distinguish this GFS file system from others created (1 to 16 characters). Lock_nolock doesn't use this field.

-V  Print program version information, then exit.

EXAMPLE

gfs_mkfs -t mycluster:mygfs -p lock_dlm -j 2 /dev/vg0/mygfs
    This will make a Global File System on the block device "/dev/vg0/mygfs". It will belong to "mycluster" and register itself as wanting locking for "mygfs". It will use DLM for locking and make two journals.

gfs_mkfs -t mycluster:mygfs -p lock_gulm -j 2 /dev/vg0/mygfs
    This will make a Global File System on the block device "/dev/vg0/mygfs". It will belong to "mycluster" and register itself as wanting locking for "mygfs". It will use GULM for locking and make two journals.