104.1 Create partitions and filesystems

Question 1

What does GPT stand for?

Answer 1

GUID Partition Table

Question 2

How many partitions does GPT support?

Answer 2

128

Question 3

What is the largest partition size GPT allows for?

Answer 3

1 ZB (zettabyte)

Question 4

What does the GPT need to boot?

Answer 4

It needs UEFI to boot

Question 5

What does this mean? /dev/sda1

Answer 5

This is the first partition of the sda drive.

Question 6

What does a block device called “vdb” mean?

Answer 6

v: virtual hard disk
d: disk
b: second virtual disk

Question 7

What is the command to create a legacy type MBR partition?

Answer 7

#fdisk  and then follow the wizard 
Example:
#fdisk /dev/sda

Question 8

What does a block device called “sda” mean?

Answer 8

s: scsi
d: disk
a: first disk of the drive

Question 9

What do you do after creating a legacy MBR partition?

Answer 9

You have to put a FS on it and then mount it

Question 10

What commands lets you see the partitions?

Answer 10

fdisk -l

Question 11

What is the command that creates partitions of MBR or GTP types?

Answer 11

parted and then follow the wizard

Question 12

What are the partition IDs?

Answer 12

83: Standard Linux FS
82: Linux swap partitions
8e: Linux LVM Volumes

Question 13

What commands can you use to find out what type of partitioning setup you have?

Answer 13

#lsblk
#fdisk   #fdisk /dev/sda

Question 14

What is the command besides #parted is used to create GTP partitions on disks?

Answer 14

Besides #parted, you can use #gdisk and follow the wizard.

Question 15

What utilities can be used to create swap partitions?

Answer 15

#fdisk > legacy type MBR partition
#gdisk > GTP partitions 
#parted >MBR or GTP types

Question 16

What are the 2 ways in which swap memory can be created?

Answer 16

Using a swap file within the FS as swap space

Question 17

What is the downside of using a swap file as swap space?

Answer 17

A swap file represents a performance hit for the system since the kernel has to write the data to a file.

Question 18

What is the preferred fashion to create swap space?

Answer 18

Use a swap partition dedicated to swap space since it is less taxing in performance on the system.

Question 19

What are the common options used once inside the #gdisk wizard?

Answer 19

P to see the partitions
N to create a new partition
83: Standard Linux FS
82: Linux swap partitions
8e: Linux LVM Volumes
W to write the partition

Question 20

Once a swap partition is created, what has to be done next?

Answer 20

A swap FS has to be put into the partition and then turn on the partition

Question 21

What command is used to put a swap FS into a swap partition?

Answer 21

#mkswap -L  
(it formats the partition to be used as swap space)
#mkswap -L SWAP /dev/sda2

Question 22

How do you turn on or enable a swap partition after creating the partition and putting a FS on it?

Answer 22

#swapon -U (UUID) given in the output of the #mkswap command  
#swapon -L

Question 23

What command can you use to verify swap space is available?

Answer 23

free -m

Question 24

What file has to be modified so that a new swap partition can keep on between reboots?

Answer 24

/etc/fstab and add the label of the swap partition

Question 25

How do you turn off or disable a swap partition?

Answer 25

#swapoff -L 
Verify with #free -m it is gone.

Question 26

What are the categories of file systems?

Answer 26

Non-journaling and journaling.

Question 27

What is an example of a Non-journaling FS?

Answer 27

ext2

Question 28

What is an example of a journaling FS?

Answer 28

ext3, ext4, xfs

Question 29

What is a journaling FS?

Answer 29

A journaling FS uses a journal to keep track of changes that have not yet been written to the file system.

Question 30

What is the default FS for CentOS 7 and RHEL 7?

Answer 30

xfs

Question 31

What is BTRFS?

Answer 31

It writes a copy of an original file

Question 32

What does BTRFS use?

Answer 32

CoW (copy on write)
Subvolumes, which are similar to partitions.
Snapshots

Question 33

What does FAT stand for?

Answer 33

File Allocation Table

Question 34

What does vFAT stand for?

Answer 34

Virtual File Allocation Table (it allows for longer file names compared to the older FAT FS)

Question 35

What type of FS does an EFI boot partition need?

Answer 35

It needs to use a FAT partition.

Question 36

What type of a FS do external HDD and thumb drives use?

Answer 36

exFAT (developed by Microsoft)

Question 37

What is the FS that most modern Linux distros use?

Answer 37

ext4

Question 38

What commands do you use to create a new file system on a partition?

Answer 38

#mkfs -t ext4   or
#mkfs.ext4 -L    or
#mkfs.xfs -L