The recommended method to convert these disks is to upgrade the operating system to Windows 10 first, then perform the MBR to GPT conversion. So 2k8 sounds like a no no even for an offline conversion.

This post explains what is MBR (Master Boot Record), GPT (GUID Partition Table) and which technology is better for your SSD.

Turns out by default Linux (RHEL8) is still using MBR disks and so you run into the 2TB max limit. Found that there is a command "sgdisk" that will do a live conversion to GPT without any data loss.