From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Mar 21 01:48:57 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9B084106566B for ; Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:48:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from modulok@gmail.com) Received: from mail-pw0-f54.google.com (mail-pw0-f54.google.com [209.85.160.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 723D58FC14 for ; Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:48:57 +0000 (UTC) Received: by pwj4 with SMTP id 4so3451844pwj.13 for ; Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:48:56 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=puIpSMiBr1BUVNHP1ouH1sK3jBYVZWhDLqvv1s0Wp04=; b=wU9jqFFPMMKb+1RAb/9pUBuaP6sYcUOJE7tnvdt4uPDEXwZKUNqwhRbJk+1C5B8axC f6wf+S6DHJQaN+T75vfa6GWEWmkv9R/eB4w9Bn08A7SCJKynzkS9eVNYCkWpmXtk+3vF 8xBonW5Un7xZKVUBvow5Fteda0TgHeAB8u3TA= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; b=uin78wH28tsj0yEQ+arNzacPmqul9YHoirWVx0zCcKPkveC16g1IlXH9spB1NMD2Ep jdWuTNymCqcoIByAb0m41BZRuiHqju8wsoeWxMQ4/dJNUYyN4TEVaDsO4Eo9UWEgr04V hc+CwZuMJATVFFI8R9XLZ2zUEueMDnXmOnmiY= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.142.121.5 with SMTP id t5mr2566035wfc.277.1269136136850; Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:48:56 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <201003201532.48793.jmc-freebsd2@milibyte.co.uk> References: <201003201532.48793.jmc-freebsd2@milibyte.co.uk> Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:48:56 -0600 Message-ID: <64c038661003201848o1379a891t680593cf3594b7b0@mail.gmail.com> From: Modulok To: Mike Clarke Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Copying mirrored partitions - will this work? 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: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:48:57 -0000 How valuable is your data? I recommend you make an offline backup. There's a lot of steps in your procedure which introduce room for error. You could perhaps disconnect one of the hard drive's data cable (same thing). Also, make a backup copy of your geom meta data somewhere. Other than that, your procedure sounds like it should work. Though, I've never tried it. I do recall, that when updating from 6.2-RELEASE to 8-RELEASE, the geom meta data was automatically updated. I'm not sure if there is any change between Release and Stable, though. I'm also not sure if it was a backward incompatible change, as I never went back to 6.2. Just something to be aware of. Sorry I can't be more helpful. Maybe someone else knows more. -Modulok- On 3/20/10, Mike Clarke wrote: > > I'm currently running 8.0-RELEASE and am considering experimenting with > 8.0-STABLE. I'd like to preserve my existing system in case things go > pear-shaped so I'll copy the entire system onto a spare slice and then > use csup to upgrade the copy to STABLE. Normally I'd go through the > steps of bsdlabel, newfs and then dump|restore to create the copy but > I'm wondering if I can take advantage of my recently created gmirror to > cut down the work. > > I have two 500GB disks, /dev/ad4 and /dev/ad8, each partitioned into 4 > slices of 88, 88, 42 and 259GB. My system is installed on the first > slices (ad4s1 and ad8s1) which are mirrored as /dev/mirror/gm0. The > second slices (ad4s2 and ad8s2) are currently unused. My thoughts are > to temporarily add ad4s2 into gm0 with "gmirror insert gm0 ad4s2" and > wait for the mirror to synchronise. I should then be able to remove the > temporary addition with "gmirror remove gm0 /dev/ad4s2" at which point > ad4s2 should be a duplicate of the original system and I can then go > ahead and create a new mirror with "gmirror label -b load gm1 ad4s2" > and "gmirror insert gm1 ad8s2". After editing /etc/fstab in the new > mirror to use gm1 instead of gm0 I should then be able to boot into the > system on slice 2 and upgrade it to STABLE while still keeping my > original system to fall back to if required. > > Is this approach of moving disks from one mirror to another workable, or > have I missed something that would lead me into deep trouble? I don't > mind unduly if I make a mess of the second slice and have to start > again but I don't want to lose the contents of my original system on > slice 1. > > -- > Mike Clarke > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >