[CentOS] Re: RAID, LVM, extra disks...

Thu Nov 29 15:21:38 UTC 2007
Ugo Bellavance <ugob at lubik.ca>

Alain Spineux wrote:
> On Nov 29, 2007 6:59 AM, Ugo Bellavance <ugob at lubik.ca> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>>         This is my current config:
>>
>> /dev/md0 -> 200 MB -> sda1 + sdd1 -> /boot
>> /dev/md1 ->  36 GB -> sda2 + sdd2 -> form VolGroup00 with md2
>> /dev/md2 ->  18 GB -> sdb1 + sde1 -> form VolGroup00 with md1
>>
>> sda,sdd -> 36 GB 10k SCSI HDDs
>> sdb,sde -> 18 GB 10k SCSI HDDs
>>
>> I have added 2 36 GB 10K SCSI drives in it, they are detected as sdc and
>> sdf.
>>
>> What should I do if I want to optimize disk space?
>>
>> The simplest solution would be to create /dev/md3 out of sdc1 and sdf1,
>> and add it to the VG, and increase the size of my /vz logical volume.
>>
>> However, if I could convert that to a RAID5 (it could be possible to
>> re-install, but I would rather not), I could have 6 drives in RAID5, so
>> I'd have 5x36 GB (180) of space available total, instead of 3*36 (108).
> 
> 180, you mean 2 X 5x18

Oh, I just realized I have 2X18 and 4X36.  I have 2 other 36 GB HDD 
here.  Maybe I could have a 6x36 RAID5 this way.  Does it matter if I 
have 4 HDD that are 10K and 2 7200 rpm?

What about raid 6?  I don't think I need fault tolerance for 2 HDD 
failures...

> 
> Yes and without rebooting :-)
> 
> - break the 36GB mirror (using mdadm, faile /dev/sdd2, and then remove it),
> - break the 18GB mirror (using mdadm, faile /dev/sde1, and then remove it),
> - create sd[cf][123] of 200Mb, 18G, 18G (the 200Mb is useless but to
> keep the same partitioning schema)
> - create a _degraded_ raid5 with sd[cfd]2 sde1 named /dev/mdX
> - vgextend your VolGroup00 to use this new partition.
> # pvcreate /dev/mdX
> # vgextend VolGroup00 /dev/mdX
> - then move all PE  on md1  to mdX
> # pvmove /dev/md1/dev/mdX
> - then remove md1 from the VG
> # vgreduce VolGroup00  /dev/md1
> - now you dont need md1 anymore, stop it (sorry I'm less  skilled with
> mdadm command, without manual page )
> - now add /dev/sda2 to your _degraded_ raid 5