Extending a slice

[Jerry McAllister]

On Thu, Dec 07, 2006 at 10:56:41PM +0000, Vince wrote:

> Jerry McAllister wrote:
> >>Hello,
> >>
> >>I have and existing FreeBSD 5.4 box with 2 6GB hard drives in a RAID 1 
> >>mirror using gmirror. Due to physical space restrictions I cannot put 
> >>more drives into this box and yet I need more physical drive space. I 
> >>have 2 blank 40GB drives to replace my 2 current 6GB drives. I broke the 
> >>mirror and inserted one 40GB drive into the mirror and removed the 
> >>remaining 6GB drive. So, now I have a 40GB drive with only 6GB's of 
> >>space on it and 34GB's of unused space. I have and existing mount point 
> >>in the 6GB of space called /data. I would like to extend the slice and 
> >>add the 34GB of unused space to the current /data mount point. Does 
> >>someone even "extend" an UFS slice? Or do I create a new slice in the 
> >>unused section and somehow merge the existing slice's /data with the new 
> >>one? Or am I missing something rudimentary? Any direction would be 
> >>appreciated.
> >>    
> >
> >If the space was already in a slice and you just wanted to expand
> >a partition in to the unused space, then you could use growfs(8), but
> >I don't think that will work to expand a slice.
> >
> >  
> To be fair the growfs man page does say
> " If you wish
>     to grow a file system beyond the boundary of the slice it resides 
> in, you
>     must re-size the slice using fdisk(8) before running growfs."

Yes.  But using fdisk will nuke it I believe.
Then it is easier to just use bsdlabel and make the partitions
and newfs to make the file systems and load stuff back in from
either dumps - or that other copy, if it is usable.

////jerry

> I've never tried this but since this is one of a mirrored pair and you 
> still have the other mirrow you're in a good position to try it ;)
> There is a rather old (example is on 4.4) but i think still valid, 
> example here
> http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200111/growfs.html
> 
> (that said I've never tried it and it could easily hose your system. try 
> at your own risk)
> 
> 
> Vince
> >Really, the easiest thing is to use dump(8) to back up the existing 6 GB. 
> >It will be necessary to do a dump for each file system (partition) you
> >have in the slice other than swap or /tmp.
> >
> >Then build the 40 GB disk as needed.   You can best do this from
> >a fixit CD.    You will need to make a slice with fdisk, then
> >divide that slice into partitions with bsdlabel.   Then for each
> >partition except for swap, use newfs to build a file system in them.
> >When that is done, make temporary mount points, mount the partitions
> >and restore the dumps.   This sounds long and drawn out telling it,
> >but it is actually quite easy and works well.
> >
> >If it is your boot disk, then the fdisk should write the MBR and
> >the bsdlabel needs to write the boot sector for the slice.  
> >There is a good example of fdisk and bsddlabel use for creating
> >a brand new bootable disk with one FreeBSD slice in the bsdlabel
> >man page near the bottom.   Also, in the last few days I have 
> >posted several replies to questions that would cover this process
> >and included extensive examples.    The only difference is that
> >they weren't for mirrored disks.  But, it sounds like you got
> >rid of the mirror anyway.   
> >
> >The dump/rebuild/restore is the way to go
> >even if you do it to a new mirror of the 40GB drives.  
> >Or you could write the dumps to one of the rather than tape
> >and restore from that.
> >
> >////jerry
> >
> >
> >  
> >>Thank You.
> >>Peter Clark
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> >>http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> >>To unsubscribe, send any mail to 
> >>"freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
> >>    
> >_______________________________________________
> >freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> >http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> >To unsubscribe, send any mail to 
> >"freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
> >  
> 
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"