From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 13 19:45:17 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4AC5316A401 for ; Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:45:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david.robillard@gmail.com) Received: from wr-out-0506.google.com (wr-out-0506.google.com [64.233.184.227]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F184413C458 for ; Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:45:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david.robillard@gmail.com) Received: by wr-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id q50so1437873wrq for ; Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:45:16 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=CVjQ++e8as2d0jJtsWNygZw7L3TY+bydCl8f8mELM2Vf03g8XKY6yXxec3VCvUpc198+2IpJCaaii317dvi6GZUWrg/k+h+NmFNXb5ArQa4wsjhsyFEOkE8fLLs6IYAb69M01P1mylMshp2a57xTxjV4H2tiDxU7N2KVzH+Vo2U= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=e41AeZnPMpRNVdkQ/UhMUQhok6wD8bi7r6mBOcxJZ1eaIRZ9ASoy2XTInRjKS9//Qj6/f3BfqSx/kkCx/dggyS7rbkc1WDFhH3zmEJWJImNTtIjV6ih69Oewq75C4QEH425AiotBDT1x6sdVN332TeCjzgEmUGgwvq+kKhp14qs= Received: by 10.64.125.17 with SMTP id x17mr2004589qbc.1173815116206; Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:45:16 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.64.210.7 with HTTP; Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:45:16 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <226ae0c60703131245k6a9774f5ub3f26da690dda22d@mail.gmail.com> Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:45:16 -0400 From: "David Robillard" To: "FreeBSD Questions" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Cc: Steve Franks Subject: Re: mirror without destroying existing contents X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:45:17 -0000 >> Anyone made a mirror w/o destroying what's in the disk already? The >> atacontrol man page is less than adequate in this respect...is is even >> possible? > > Oh, yes-- it's certainly possible to create a mirror with live data, > but one is advised to be cautious and have a full backup available in > case of problems. With hardware-based ATA controllers like Promise, > 3ware, etc, they should have a BIOS utility which you can use to > create the mirror-- make sure to add the drive with valid data first, > and then add the second or additional drives to the mirror set. > > The same approach ought to work with software-mirroring such as (g) > vinum. I'd add gmirror(8) to the list of software RAID solutions. Man page: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=gmirror&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+6.2-RELEASE&format=html Handbook: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/book.html#GEOM-MIRROR Cheers, David -- David Robillard UNIX systems administrator & Oracle DBA CISSP, RHCE & Sun Certified Security Administrator Montreal: +1 514 966 0122