Alan Dayley wrote: > I have lost the web page with the steps to do an extension of an LVM > into unused disk space. Let me explain my situation and ask my > question. > > I have a server with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. It had two 250GB > hard drives in a hardware RAID 1 mirror. Working fine. We needed > more space, so here is what I did: > > - Bought two identical model and recommended 1TB drives from Dell. > (It's a Dell server.) > - Using the RAID control interface, I took one 250GB drive offline. > - Shutdown the server and removed the 250GB drive. > - Installed one of the new 1TB drives in place of the 250GB drive just > removed. > - Powered up the RAID controller BIOS interface and commanded a > rebuild of the mirror from the remaining 250GB drive to the 1TB drive. > - Booted the system and everything was working. > - Shutdown the system and removed the second 250GB drive, replacing it > with the other 1TB drive. > - Again used the RAID controller BIOS interface to rebuild the mirror > from the first 1TB drive to the second one. > - Booted the system and all is working well! > > Except... > > Now the partition table of the mirrored 1TB drives still only has > partitions to use up to the old 250GBs. I need to: > > 1 - Update the partition table to expand the last partition into the > unused 750GB of space. (parted?) > 2 - Expand the one or more logical volumes into the new space (lvextend) > 3 - Expand the file system(s) into the new space (resize2fs) > > I plan to expand /dev/sda5 into the empty space. It is the last > partition defined and so the least risky to expand, in my mind. Here > is the fdisk output: > > # fdisk -l > > Disk /dev/sda: 248.9 GB, 248999051264 bytes > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30272 cylinders > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes > > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > /dev/sda1 1 7 56196 de Dell Utility > /dev/sda2 8 1052 8393962+ 8e Linux LVM > /dev/sda3 * 1053 1077 200812+ 83 Linux > /dev/sda4 1078 30272 234508837+ 5 Extended > /dev/sda5 1078 30272 234508806 8e Linux LVM > # > > Question > > I am extending into empty space on currently installed drives. The > instructions I can find online all seem to assume a new physical drive > has been added and don't go into the partition issues on step 1 of my > outline above. All the utilities and commands that produce LVM > information do not show the vast, unpartitioned space out there. So, > I assume step 1 is needed to open up the unallocated space into one of > the partitions. > > Am I on the right track, to use "parted" and expand the partition > definition before expanding a logical volume? Or am I missing > something or making something more difficult? > > Alan
Alan, I think you're pretty much on track. You can of course expand sda5 partition (I'd use qtparted if possible, probably with a live knoppix disc). You'd need to then expand the physical volume that's on the partition (remember, logical volumes belong to a physical volume). I've never expanded a physical volume, so I don't know if that's even a possibility or not. I believe you'd either have to expand the physical volume in the expanded partition, or as an alternative simply create a new partition in the unused space, then create a new physical volume in the new partition. Any of your existing logical volumes could then be expanded by utilizing chunks of the new physical volume. Make sense? I hope that someone corrects me if I'm wrong here. -- -Eric 'shubes' --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
