On 11/10/2017 02:22 PM, Jun-Kai Teoh wrote:
>> On Nov 10, 2017, at 11:04 AM, Phil Turmel <philip@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> wrote:
>>
>> On 11/10/2017 01:15 PM, Jun-Kai Teoh wrote:
>>
>>> I'm backing up as much as I can, but I don't think I'll be able
>>> to back up everything. I can back up very little of the data, so
>>> I'm trying to prioritize carefully right now.
>>
>> Ah, ok. Well, after you get the important stuff backed up, you
>> can add more devices as spares and try to let MD continue its grow
>> and rebuild operations. It might end up completing.
>
> Again, pardon me if I sound super ignorant, I just want to do all of
> this right.
>
> Do I just plug in another blank 4TB, and run "mdadm -A /dev/md126
> /dev/sd[newdrive]" into it?
>
> Or leave it as it is, and just ask it to continue growing with "mdadm
> -A -R", and *then* add a blank drive into the raid but don't ask it
> to grow?
Neither.... With your array mounted and running as it is right now, but
after all backups are done, use:
mdadm --add /dev/mdXXX /dev/sdX1
with the new device's *partition*.
MD should recognize the opportunity to proceed and will resume
rebuilding and growing.
>> But don't add any more complete devices to the array -- use a
>> partition that starts at 1MB and covers the rest of the device
>> (default for most partition tools nowadays).
>
> Where can I read about how to do this properly? I tried googling it
> but I'm pretty lost. Or what tool I should use etc.
parted or gdisk or a very modern version of fdisk will let you partition
your new drives. They will default to a "GPT" disk label and will
generally place the first partition you create in the "right" place -- a
multiple of 4K, typically 1MB. When you save the new partition table
(aka disk label), the #1 partition will show up in your list of devices.
>> I recommend that when/if your array is stable again, you add one
>> more spare (with partition) and then use mdadm's --replace
>> operation to move complete-device members to the new member. When
>> each is done, take the newly freed device and partition it and do
>> the next. When you have no more complete-device members and have
>> the last freed device partitioned, consider converting to raid6
>> with that spare.
>
> I think I understand what you mean here, but it sounds like I need to
> figure out the top two parts first and that'll take me awhile.
Same partitioning procedure for each free disk.
> I'll probably have questions again, later, haha.
Sure, no problem.
> I really appreciate all the support and patience from this list.
>
> Y'all lifesavers.
You're welcome.
Phil
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