Re: question about growfs, aac raid, enlarging by adding disks

Don Bowman wrote:
> From: Scott Long [mailto:scottl_at_freebsd.org]
> 
>>Don Bowman wrote:
>>
>>
>>>this is perhaps a naive question, but i
>>>couldn't find the answer.
>>>
>>>if i have e.g. a 3-disk raid5 using aac,
>>>and i add another disk, can i increase the
>>>size of the logical disk using the aac bios
>>>(or ideally aacli), and then use growfs to
>>>increase the size of the filesystem? Can
>>>this be done if i obey some restrictions,
>>>e.g. resize the last filesystem on the partition?
>>>
>>>I would like to boot from the array, have swap
>>>on it, and have a large partition that uses
>>>the remainder of the space. I'm assuming i would
>>>lay it out so that it goes root first, then
>>>swap, then the large filesystem.
>>>
>>>The adaptec raid bios seems to indicate i can
>>>grow by adding a drive, but only under windows.
>>>The manual for it has no mention of this. The
>>>datasheet also indicates i can increase size
>>>'on the fly'.
>>>
>>
>>aaccli will let you increase the size of the container.
>>If you are using Windows, then there is magic that will
>>resize the partition table and the NTFS and/or FAT
>>filesystems.  I can't remember if the magic is in the
>>driver, aaccli, or firmware, but it definitely only
>>applies to FAT and NTFS _filesystems_.  Growing the
>>container is done in the firmware and is independent
>>of the filesystems, MBR/slice table, etc.
> 
> 
> The 'container extend volume' command doesn't exist
> in aaccli, the manual indicates its only for windows.
> 
> There is 'container reconfigure', i suppose that might be
> the right command?
> 
> However, when i try it, i get an error that there is not
> enough space on the specified device, as below.
> 
> AAC0> container list
> Executing: container list
> Num          Total  Oth Stripe          Scsi   Partition
> Label Type   Size   Ctr Size   Usage   C:ID:L Offset:Size
> ----- ------ ------ --- ------ ------- ------ -------------
>  0    Volume  410GB            Open    0:00:0 64.0KB: 136GB 
>  /dev/aacd0           v                0:02:0 64.0KB: 136GB 
>                                        0:03:0 64.0KB: 136GB 
> 
> AAC0> disk list          
> Executing: disk list
> 
> C:ID:L  Device Type     Blocks    Bytes/Block Usage            Shared Rate
> ------  --------------  --------- ----------- ---------------- ------ ----
> 0:00:0   Disk            286749610 512         Initialized      NO     320 
> 0:02:0   Disk            286749610 512         Initialized      NO     320 
> 0:03:0   Disk            286749610 512         Initialized      NO     320 
> 0:04:0   Disk            286749610 512         Initialized      NO     320 
> 
> AAC0> container reconfigure 0 4
> Executing: container reconfigure 0 (ID=4)
> Command Error: <The specified operation failed because there was not enough
> space on the specified device.>
> 
> AAC0> 
> 
> 

I'll look at this today and see what I can come up with.  It's been a 
while since I played with the aaccli.

Scott