Issues installing PFSense on 3TB HDD, partition capped at 746GB.

irishlad · Sep 25, 2015, 4:42 AM

I've tried to install PFSense 2.2.4 on a few different 3TB WD drives to use squid cache and the install limits the partition size to 746GB.
The reason for needing a larger drive is to cache all HTTP traffic, especially games, OS updates, etc.

I've tried the install on the following hardware with the same result-

System 1:

Hard drives
WD30EFRX
WD3001FAEX
Motherboard
ASUS AM1-M1 (Latest firmware)
RAM
CRUCIAL MT18KSF1G72PDZ-1G6E1 (8GBx2)

System 2:

Hard drives
WD30EFRX
WD3001FAEX
Motherboard
HDC-M/C-60 (Latest firmware)
RAM
CMX8GX3M4B1333C9 (8GBx2)

I'm pretty new to BSD, I've tried searching via google, etc. with zero results on this issue. Any suggestions on how to fix this issue or work around it would greatly be appreciated.

Derelict · Sep 25, 2015, 5:29 AM

I've tried searching via google, etc.

I searched 746GB and got a ton of probably relevant hits. Not necessarily for FreeBSD/pfSense but you're certainly not alone.

muswellhillbilly · Sep 25, 2015, 7:35 AM

From the limited Googling I've done on this problem, this looks more like an issue with your BIOS than with BSD or pfSense. Have you checked the WD website for any information or updates?

KOM · Sep 25, 2015, 1:05 PM

Watch out with Squid and massive caches. Squid won't cache a lot of content without custom tweaking, and searching a large cache on a slow disk can really affect performance.

heper · Sep 25, 2015, 1:16 PM

seems like a bad idea without some enterprise-level fiberchannel san running the squid cache.

no clue about the 746GB cap, sorry

irishlad · Sep 26, 2015, 5:59 AM

An update-
I've found that if I use the console and gpart commands I can manually create the partition on the 3TB drive when pfsense is installed on another drive with zero issues. With there being two different sets of hardware, and the above mentioned, i've ruled out the hardware and BSD, the only common variable here is PFSense.

I'll try the following-
1.) Use a smaller drive for the PFSense install and keep the 3TB drive separate.
2.) Use two partitions on the 3TB drive.

This isn't for enterprise, purely to cache larger files (white list)- Steam, Battle.net, windows updates, etc.
The idea came from a video I recently had seen-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOv62lBdlXU

I don't need anything that crazy and I don't have the time to build it up from scratch, so I figured I'd use pfsense.

irishlad · Sep 30, 2015, 4:40 PM

Confirmed the easiest way to handle this is with two drives-
Used a 60GB SSD for the OS and the 3TB drive for just Squid, so far without any issues.
Just used the shell after the install was completed, was able to easily configure the 3TB drive.