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Automatic Partitioning

Note

Automatic Partitioning is the default disk layout for all PXE profiles. It is recommended to use this layout as the default value unless there are specific reasons to use a different layout.

If you select "Automatic Partitioning" as the disk layout during a PXE reinstallation, the RAID level is automatically configured according to the number of hard disks:

  • 1 disk: No RAID, standard partition.
  • 2 disks: RAID 1
  • 3 disks: RAID 5
  • 4 Disks: RAID 10
  • >4 disks: RAID 10

If the server has more than 4 disks, but an odd number, the remaining disk is marked as a spare device.

Unlike the specific RAID profiles, the server does not need to be inventoried to know the number of disks. If the server is inventoried and there is incorrect information about the hard disks, it doesn't matter for Automatic Partitioning. The number of hard disks is checked during the installation.

Automatic Partitioning is the default layout for all OS profiles. However, you can change this in the OS profiles.

Advantages of Automatic Partitioning

Note

The listed advantages also apply to all other default RAID profiles.

If Automatic Partitioning is deselected on the reinstallation page, the selected PXE profile is installed with the default disk layout stored in the PXE profile. However, we strongly recommend always using Automatic Partitioning and you can also enforce the Automatic Partitioning disk layout in the PXE profiles.

  • Automatic Partitioning works also if only one hard disk is installed. In this case, simply an LVM is created.
  • Automatic Partitioning ensures that disks are cleaned before installation so that installers do not complain about existing RAID meta data or existing partitions.
  • Automatic Partitioning includes a number of workarounds for common reasons that can cause PXE installations to fail.

We have optimized the default PXE profiles down to the smallest detail to make PXE installations as painless as possible. But the best PXE profile is of no use if the installer throws errors during partitioning - and unfortunately, the installers are often picky about the hard disks.

Automatic Partitioning (and all other default RAID profiles) tries to solve this issue. We put immense effort into the RAID disk layouts and included various checks and tricks so that the installers run as flawlessly as possible.

Boot Partition

The /boot partition is always created as RAID 1 for compatibility reasons, and the boot loader is automatically installed on all available disks (/dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc.).

Supported Templates

kickstart, autoinstall and preseed templates are supported (CentOS, Ubuntu, ...). Windows PE is not supported at the moment.

Device Namings

Automatic Partitioning automatically detects the correct device naming (vda, sda, nvme).