extended/partioning logical disk created through raid controller.

[vclifford]

Hi,
I am new to this forum. I have this machine with RHEL 2.6.18-194. It has hardware raid controller . It used to have 3 disks which were visible as /dev/sda in fdisk with a size of 533g.

Now two additional disks are added which makes /dev/sda to about 1.2 TB. from original 533 GB. How to use this additional space . I think I need to add new partitions to /dev/sda which I am not able to do as fdisk says no free space. I tried parted but same story.

So how to get over this.

I think once I add new partitions I can extend VG and then LV etc etc..


fdisk looks like this:

Disk /dev/sda: 1197.7 GB, 1197759004672 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 145619 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 65 522081 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 66 2105 16386300 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 2106 3380 10241437+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 3381 72809 557688442+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 3381 72809 557688411 8e Linux LVM


PVSCAN looks like this
PV /dev/sda5 VG VolGroup00 lvm2 [531.84 GB / 0 free]
Total: 1 [531.84 GB] / in use: 1 [531.84 GB] / in no VG: 0 [0 ]

My guess is that some hardware config is missing. The extra space should have been visible as free space in fdisk
Regards,
Vclifford

[HROAdmin26]

The extra space should have been visible as free space in fdisk

Nope - the partition table was written when the disk was 530GB and reflects that. Changing the disk geometry after the table is written does not change anything. To change the partition table:

1. Back up the data
2. Rewrite the partition table
3. Restore the data

Alternatively, if the "new disks" can be added as a new disk to the OS (/dev/sdb) then it can be partitioned as LVM, added to the volume group, and then the logical volume can be expanded.

[vclifford]

Nope - the partition table was written when the disk was 530GB and reflects that. Changing the disk geometry after the table is written does not change anything. To change the partition table:

.

Thanks, so you are saying that only after I format the whole logical drive the 1.1 TB space will be visible. That means that essentially this RAID device (/dev/sda) could not be extended. I guess my option will be to ask HW guys to add these disks either on a second channel of raid controller or just without the raid controller.
Regards,