Hey everyone!!! I need some help. I'm not sure if this is possible or not, or what it would be called if it is (so I couldn't find anything on google, etc), so I'm hoping someone out there does!!!

We have a RH 8 server with two SCSI drives in it that are running out of space. We want to add another drive to the mix. However, is there a way to make the third drive look like part of the same partition on one of the other drives to the system?? I don't know if I'm explaining it well or not.

For example:

Our original two drives have the following partitions:

a /boot partition, /var, /home, /usr, <swap>, and two others that are the main space hoggers.

Can I make the third drive look like part of one of those other partitions so that the system can use it as if it were???

Thanks for your help in advance!!!

software raid :: linear is your best bet.
will probably require reformatting, so backing up data is required

In linux its called Logical Volume Management (LVM)

Check your fstab. If it uses the LABEL=(volume label) entry for the space hogs then move them to the new drive.

I am assuming here that you have checked to make sure that the partitions on your hard drives are being used, because /usr, /home and /var are generally the space hogs. Make sure that the /etc/fstab is actually mounting the partitions, not failing over to "/
".

Find out which directories are taking the space. Make sure the logs are being cleaned up properly. You did know that any directory in linux which is not directly involved with the actual kernel boot process can be moved to a partition and mounted with fstab didn't you?

The "/" needs /libs, /initrd. /bin, /sbin, and /etc to be actually there, the others can be mounted into it--so it generally is quite small.
(I'm not positive about "/root" being mounted with fstab as I haven't needed to--I keep it cleaned up. But I'm pretty darn sure.)

Do not do this process with "/" or "/boot" unless you are going to edit your boot loader, and know how to mount and run it from RIP.

The only program which seems to care as to what you label a volume is the install program--you can call stuff any thing you want as long as you don't exceed 16(?) characters.

Download RIP (Recovery Is Possible) burn it to a CD. If you don't have goofy hardware it should boot. Make sure it boots.

Install mister hard drive. Boot RIP. Partition it, mke2fs it, e2label it. LOG EVERYTHING. Reboot using init 6. (Just to be sure. I had to before I could fsck everything.)

$>: cd /;

$>: ls /mnt;

$>: mkdir (many as you need);

$>: swapon /dev/(your existing swap partitions on hard drives)

$>: less /proc/swaps (just to make sure they mounted)

$>: less /proc/partitions (Are they all there?)

$>: fsck -f /dev/( the new partitions before you mount them); Error 2 means you have to reboot before the partition tables can be read without error.

Let us call the two new directories /mnt/Bill and /mnt/Ted. The new partitions are bogus1 and bogus2.


$>:mount LABEL=bogus1 /mnt/Bill; mount LABEL=bogus2 /mnt/Ted; This does two things at once. It checks out whether you labeled the partition properly with a label that is acceptable, and whether the partition table can be read.

$>: mount /dev/(the first partition which is the space hog) /mnt/hd

#>: rm -r /mnt/Bill/lost & found; Be very, very careful! You want to remove the lost and found directory from (bogus1) what is going to be a file-by-file duplicate of the first space hog.

$>: cp -dpvR /mnt/hd/* /mnt/Bill; Check to see if there are any "." files in the root of the "hog" partition. They won't be copied for some reason. You have to copy those manually. cp -dpvR /mnt/hd/. x* /mnt/Bill;

$>: sync

$>: umount /mnt/hd; Repeat with Ted.

$>: sync

umount the new partitions and fsck them. There should be no errors

mount the "/" to /mnt/hd and edit /etc/fstab to mount the partitions over the existing ones. If it boots and runs, and everything is okay, get a drink.

Double check the commands and stuff. Also it can be done with dump piped through recover, but I couldn't figure it out. You may already know dump well enough to do it that way.

LVM is great, except I have never invested the time to make it work.