Challenge, Hard,  on  Linux

Split a Drive into Multiple Partitions And Format Them as Ext4 and Btrfs

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This challenge builds upon the basic GPT partitioning challenge by introducing multiple partitions with different filesystems.

Real-world servers often need their storage divided for different purposes: fast, journaled filesystems like ext4 for logs and system data, and advanced filesystems like btrfs for application data that benefits from features like snapshots, compression, and copy-on-write semantics.

Linux system with an additional drive split into two partitions: one ext4 for logs, one btrfs for data.

Device names on the diagram are deliberately generic.

Your mission is to:

  1. Create a GUID partition table (GPT) on the blank 40 GiB drive.
  2. Add a first partition of exactly 10 GiB for log storage.
  3. Add a second partition using the remaining ~30 GiB for data storage.
  4. Format the first partition as ext4 and mount it at /var/log/acme.
  5. Format the second partition as btrfs and mount it at /var/lib/acme.
  6. Write test files: service.log in the logs partition and dataset.txt in the data partition.
Hint: Finding the blank drive

Use lsblk or fdisk -l to identify the unpartitioned drive. Look for a device with no existing partitions or filesystems.

Hint: Partition sizing in parted

When creating partitions with parted, you can specify exact sizes like 0% 10GiB for the first partition, then 10GiB 100% for the second. The tool handles the math automatically.

Hint: Kernel partition updates

After creating partitions, you need to make the kernel aware of the new partition table before formatting. The best tool for this job is partx -u.

Hint: Installing btrfs tools

You'll need btrfs-progs to format and manage btrfs filesystems:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install btrfs-progs
Hint: Creating mount directories

Don't forget to create the mount point directories before trying to mount the partitions.

How to Author Challenges on iximiuz Labs

Instead of providing a subpar online editing experience, iximiuz Labs offers a helper CLI tool called labctl, allowing you to use your favorite text editor (or a full-featured IDE) to write content from the comfort of your local machine.

Install labctl CLI

curl -sf https://labs.iximiuz.com/cli/install.sh | sh

This will download and install the latest version of the labctl CLI. You only need to do this once per workstation.

Authorize labctl

labctl auth login

This will open a browser window asking you to authorize labctl to access your account. You need to do it after a fresh install of labctl and repeat it whenever the auth session expires.

Pull challenge content

labctl content pull challenge storage-partition-drive

This will create a local copy of the challenge content in a directory named storage-partition-drive. You only need to do this once per challenge.

Stream your changes

labctl content push -fw challenge storage-partition-drive

Run this command in a separate terminal to continuously upload your changes to the server while editing the challenge in your favorite text editor or IDE.

You can also use labctl to create, list, and delete your content. Learn more about the available commands: labctl content --help

Start challenge