Create large partitions on Linux / Bypass the 2TB partition Limit

The default partition schema (MBR based) limits partition to 2.2TB. With new hardrives this limit is easily reached.

In order to create partition bigger than 2.2TB you need to switch from MBR to GUID (GPT) partition table.
This can be done with the "parted" utility on Linux.

For exemple if you want to create a single big partition on /dev/sdb :

 # parted /dev/sdb  
 (parted) mklabel GPT  
 (parted) mkpart partition_name fstype 1 -1  
 (parted) print  
 Model: DELL PERC H700 (scsi)  
 Disk /dev/sdb: 4000GB  
 Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B  
 Partition Table: gpt  
 Number Start  End   Size  File system Name Flags  
  1   1049kB 4000GB 4000GB        data  

Note : I found out that partition name and fstype are quite useless.

You can then format the partition with the filesystem of your choice or create a LVM PV.

More info on GUID / MBR Limits :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

Parted official website :
http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/

More parted exemples :
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2011/09/parted-command-examples/

Hope that helps !