Dear Guy, On Monday 10 January 2005 11:40 am, you wrote: > First, use mdadm, not the obsolete raidtools! > > You could create 3 arrays, each with 1 disk missing, then add/remove the > extra disk where needed. Your system and filesystems would be up and > running during the add and remove, and all other times, if you want. > > The disks should be partitioned. Partition type FD (RAID autodetect). > If you have data on these drives that you want to keep, please explain. > > To create the arrays: > mdadm -C /dev/md0 -l1 -n2 /dev/hda1 missing > mdadm -C /dev/md1 -l1 -n2 /dev/hdc1 missing > mdadm -C /dev/md2 -l1 -n2 /dev/hde1 missing > > Create your ext3 filesystems on /dev/md0 md1 and md2. > > To add the extra disk: > mdadm /dev/md0 -a /dev/hdg1 > > A re-sync or re-build will start. But your filesystem is still usable. > > To remove the extra disk: > First fail it: > mdadm /dev/md0 -f /dev/hdg1 > Then remove it. > mdadm /dev/md0 -r /dev/hdg1 > > Now you can add it to another array. > > Just be sure to not fail a disk if the other disk in the array has failed! > Or, game over! > > Guy > thank you very much, for your detailed guide to using mdadm. I now understand it more. I will try to use it from now on. I must review how a nice configuration file gets created by these actions so that I can keep track of what I did on the machine (similar to /etc/raidtab which is easy to review). PS. I like the game over bit :) ! I have practiced last night with using raidsetfaulty and raidhotadd and raidstart and raidstop and thesee seem analogous to that. I will work to convert over to mdadm. Mitchell > > > -----Original Message----- > From: linux-raid-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:linux-raid-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mitchell Laks > Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 2:03 AM > To: linux-raid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: convert degraded raid1 drive to ext3 format > > Hi, > > Only a newbie could ask this question. Guess what, I really am! > > I have 4 hard drives on my ssytem to store data. currently i use raid5. > > I am seriously considering using raid1 instead of raid5. > But I only need raid1 while data is being initially collected on the > server. > So I would like to use raid1 (with ext3 format) initially and then convert > to standard ext3 drives.if this is possible. > > i have 4 drives > /dev/hda, /dev/hdc, /dev/hde, /dev/hdg > > What I would like to do is use > stage 1) /hda and /hdg as a raid initially and leave /dev/hdc, > /dev/hde > > alone > then use > stage 2) /hdc and /hdg as a raid and use "/hda as if it were a ext3 > drive" > then use > stage 3) /hde and /hdg as a raid and use "/hda and /hdc as if there were > ext3 drives" > > Now i see easily that I can run at stage3) > > /dev/md0 -- /hda alone in degraded mode > /dev/md1 ---- /hdc alone in degraded mode > /dev/md2 --- /hde and /hdg together. > > if i do raidsetfaulty to /dev/hdg and raidhotremove /dev/hdg each time and > add > it to the new /dev/md1 and /dev/md2 as I need them. > > But i would prefer REAL ext3 drives instead of degraded /dev/md0 and > /dev/md1 > (i think???). In place of /dev/md0 and /dev/md1. > > So my question is: I s it possible to "convert a degraded raid1 consisting > of > a single hard drive over to a standard ext3 format drive (ie /dev/md0 is > only > one drive so can it become ext3) ?" without doing something like rsync of > the > data on /dev/md0 to a fresh drive "the new /dev/hda" ??? > > Thanks, > Mitchell Laks > > > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
