From owner-freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 26 17:49:14 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 803C416A401 for ; Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:49:14 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from arne_woerner@yahoo.com) Received: from web30312.mail.mud.yahoo.com (web30312.mail.mud.yahoo.com [209.191.69.74]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3FD5513C483 for ; Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:49:13 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from arne_woerner@yahoo.com) Received: (qmail 38389 invoked by uid 60001); 26 Jan 2007 17:49:13 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:Date:From:Subject:To:In-Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Message-ID; b=Lp1oL7Z7jvaUxjJw5VHXB1DUNwB4BCxGPj/HwvNwyvXBiErOosTT4ThIkoHdWibb8uqdfN9sHwSXiTRdY+maeQ/4q2gcuOBr/EnXPzfRnT0PCbkCxfx/YvvjTXBbsdure6UnLO1RXEfwnQV1noRQINHs+Fm03rj99HZGK2gVJvk=; X-YMail-OSG: PPcLGEQVM1moHSXD0m8F2wMcPqXw4h0eucd1X5ZK80wyh2V9XrhSnh4gpFMyMNYdIA-- Received: from [213.54.12.90] by web30312.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:49:13 PST Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:49:13 -0800 (PST) From: "R. B. Riddick" To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <200701261711.l0QHBvOX077001@lurza.secnetix.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <308587.38343.qm@web30312.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: Re: gmirror existing installation? X-BeenThere: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: GEOM-specific discussions and implementations List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:49:14 -0000 Oliver Fromme wrote: Mike Jakubik wrote: > > I don't recommend to do it that way. It is better to first > > Exactly why is this better? Because you don't overwrite the last sector of a partition that contains an existing file system. Overwriting that sector might cause trouble depending on the layout of the file system. I think, he planned to re-bsdlabel that partition, which is possible, since sysinstall often leaves some sectors unused, because it believes it knows disk geometry... Furthermore a UFS does not use the last sector, if(? and only(?) if(?) the size of the partition is an integer multiple of 4... bsdlabel requires no service interruption (un-mount or so), if u want to enlarge a partition... > It's certainly much more time consuming... Not really much more. It's true that you have to copy over your files, but the computer does all that work itself. You only have to type one command, then spend your time doing something else. You don't have to watch it during the copying. (You don't have to watch the mirror being synchronized either, which has to be done anyhow and takes much longer, probably.) The service interruption is higher, because copying the system should be done with a read-only root-fs... Both methods need a reboot in order to change the root fs... So the method proposed intially in this thread is only feasible under certain circumstances, and involves nearly zero down time (if and only if the quite high disk load is tolerated by the services). It is always better to design the system before it is installed... :-) -Arne --------------------------------- Finding fabulous fares is fun. Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains.