Expanding Linux RAID5 array

G

gurgle

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
344
I am going to be setting up a software raid5 array with ubuntu server in the coming weeks. Is there a way to expand the array with more disks easily?
 
You will need to use LVM to do it.

Do NOT put your OS on the RAID5. That's only asking for trouble. Use a cheap 80GB drive for the OS.

There are plenty of guides online for expanding the RAID5 using LVM.
 
why do you need to use LVM with raid though?

when you create the software raid with ubuntu-server, it creates it so the installer then just sees it as one volume.
 
I haven't done this in a while but I believe LVM is what actually allows you to expand it later on. LVM isn't required for just regular RAID though.
 
The last post in this thread may be useful:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=532509

Then it comes down to what FS you are using. If you were using XFS, expanding the filesystem would be trivial if you had XFS directly on the device with no partitions (xfs_growfs 10 seconds later and you are done)

If you had XFS on a partition, with XFS it is still fairly trivial. Delete the partition, recreate it to use all available space(YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE THE SAME PARTITION START POINT), then xfs_growfs

The reason I run XFS directly on the device with no partitions is so I don't have to mess with the 2TB MBR style partition limit.
 
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