YAST: unable to create large EVMS volume with ext3 on OES SP2

I'm trying to create an EVMS volume formatted with ext3 on a HP DL385 G1
(Ultra 620 Smart Array 6i Controller) running OES SP2, 2.6.5-7.317-smp.
The most I get is about 200GB. Trying to create a larger volume or
enlarging the existing one with the YAST partitioning tool fails.
Is this a known issue with the YAST tools or ext3 with the default
settings for the file system on this old kernel? Should I change to
another file system or rather use the EVMS commands on command line? Any
tricks in block size or other file system parameters?

Günther