Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 20:04:50 -0600 From: Scott Long <scottl@freebsd.org> To: Don Bowman <don@sandvine.com> Cc: "'current@freebsd.org'" <current@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: question about growfs, aac raid, enlarging by adding disks Message-ID: <408F1142.9070703@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <FE045D4D9F7AED4CBFF1B3B813C85337045D8B99@mail.sandvine.com> References: <FE045D4D9F7AED4CBFF1B3B813C85337045D8B99@mail.sandvine.com>
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Don Bowman wrote: > this is perhaps a naive question, but i > couldn't find the answer. > > if i have e.g. a 3-disk raid5 using aac, > and i add another disk, can i increase the > size of the logical disk using the aac bios > (or ideally aacli), and then use growfs to > increase the size of the filesystem? Can > this be done if i obey some restrictions, > e.g. resize the last filesystem on the partition? > > I would like to boot from the array, have swap > on it, and have a large partition that uses > the remainder of the space. I'm assuming i would > lay it out so that it goes root first, then > swap, then the large filesystem. > > The adaptec raid bios seems to indicate i can > grow by adding a drive, but only under windows. > The manual for it has no mention of this. The > datasheet also indicates i can increase size > 'on the fly'. > aaccli will let you increase the size of the container. If you are using Windows, then there is magic that will resize the partition table and the NTFS and/or FAT filesystems. I can't remember if the magic is in the driver, aaccli, or firmware, but it definitely only applies to FAT and NTFS _filesystems_. Growing the container is done in the firmware and is independent of the filesystems, MBR/slice table, etc. > Does vinum enter into this? ccd? Since the raid > is done in hardware i wouldn't think so. > neither vinum nor ccd apply here. A true LVM might be nice, but vinum doesn't provide the kind of LVM services that would help here. > It would appear that i might be able to add > a disk, convince the raid to increase in size > somehow, rerun fdisk to increase the size of > my partition, rerun bsdlabel to increase the > size of my slice, and then run growfs. > I agree with this. Of course, nothing beats a good backup first =-) Let me know if you need help with the aaccli magic. > this is all on 5.2. > > Anybody else ever done this? > Years ago I tried it and was somewhat successfull, but it was more of a proof of concept than anything else. > --don Scott
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