i have a basic samba server running under redhat 9. i have the operating system installed on an 8gb ide hard drive connected to the primary ide controller. this drive holds the o/s only.

i have a larger 120gb ide drive connected to the secondary ide controller. this drive holds our samba shares.

i perform tape backups as a safe guard, but to add an additional safety net, I'd like install a second 120gb ide drive as a raid-1 mirror for my samba shares.

the software raid documentation that i have read outlines how-to add raid-1 during the creation of partitions. these articles seem to assume you are setting up raid-1 during redhat installation.

since i'm trying to add raid after-the-fact, i don't want to delete my current samaba data. i simply want to add a second matching hard drive, and establish a mirror.

can i do this without having to destroy the exisiting partition and restore from tape?

You sure can. I'll assume your raid drives are hdb and hdc, and that hdb is your current drive with content already on it.

1) partition hdc as one big partition as a raid parition
2) make a file system on this partition

(1 and 2 are idential to the steps for initial install)

3) mount hdc1, copy contents from hdb1 to hdc1
4) repeat 1 and 2 on hdb

5) write you /etc/raidtab file that describes your setup

6) umount hdc1

7) mount the raid array md0 (or what ever you call it in step 5)

now, your raid-checking procedure will kick in and build a mirror of hdc1 onto hdb1. This will take a while.

If you're nervous about trying this with production data, build hdc1 and hdc2, and mimic the above procedure on these dummy partitions before you start with the real deal...

-Larry