How do I expand a partition less virtual drive while preserving the data?
 

Hello guys, long time lurker/reader, but I think I need help.

I have a system that has a RAID 6 sliced-array, which means that I have a single RAID group that's split into 2 Virtual Drives (500GB OS and a 1.4TB DATA). I've been trying to figure out a way to make DATA larger than 1.4TB, but met without much success.

1. Posted on a Dell forum (Dell system with a PERC6 RAID Controller), and the response I got was that you can't grow a sliced-array with new disks.
2. Attempt to turn the new disks into it's own RAID group, and use LVM to put the two RAID groups together. Because the disk is partition less, I had to do a PVCREATE to add it to a Physical Volume. Almost thought this would work, but PVCREATE from LVM destroys my DATA.
3. Guess I can also slowly rebuild each of the 1TB disks with 2TB disks, that way I have free space, and grow the RAID with that...but doesn't seem worth it.


I can't figure out a way to bandage this thing, and the only thing I can do right now is start preparing a larger replacement system to copy the data over.

You never have data security when tinkering with partitions and filesystems. You always should make a backup first (in case you don't have a good backup plan anyways) and if you have a backup the whole thing about not destroying your data is mood.
Make a backup, setup your disks like you need, restore the backup.