Online Capacity Expansion, RAID, Etc.

Nikolas Britton freebsd at nbritton.org
Sun May 29 12:02:24 PDT 2005


Hello all,

I'm going to be purchasing a HighPoint RocketRAID 2220 (SATA II) to 
build a 1.7TB RAID 5 array but I have some relatively simple 
questions... I'm going to be starting the array in a RAID 1 config using 
2 drives, I will then migrate, and grow, the array to RAID 5 using the 
ORLM and OCE features of the board when more space is required. FreeBSD, 
RELENG_5_4, will NOT be install on this array, it will be on a separate 
RAID 1 array using the motherboard's on-board SATA RAID controller.

1. How do I grow the slice and file system, ufs2, when we upgrade? 
growfs looks like the right tool for the job but could someone provide 
some practical examples of how to do all of this, yes I've read the man 
pages. I'm hoping it goes something like this:
*Install the new drive into the hot-swap tray, then pop the tray into 
the hot-swap backplane.
*Un-mount the array.
*Use the RAID management program to expand the array, then use the 
FreeBSD tools to expand the file system.
*Re-mount the array.

2. What's the best way to get this array started on the right track so 
we don't have problems when were at 1.7TB?

3. Could you please share any tips, tricks, or problems I might run into 
with the array? We burn archive CD's for every client, but It would 
really suck If I had to restore the last few months of image and video 
files. The bulk of are files will be uncompressed raw image files, next 
would be photoshop psd, then tiff and jpegs files. The Array will also 
store support files; drivers, programs, and iso's as well as 60-200MB 
SVCD slide shows and office docs. My guess at the average file size 
would be 15MB.

-----------------------------------------

If you want to know the specs, I haven't bought the parts yet, here they 
are:
Motherboard: Intel SE7210TP1-E with,
    Boxed mPGA478 P4 3E Prescott and 1GB ram kit (I already had these).

Chassis: Chenbro SR10769-BK with,
    2x Chenbro 84-210710-006 4-Disk SATA Backplanes (only buying 1 for now).
       8x Western Digital WD2500SD 250GB SATA Hard Drives (only buying 2 
for now).
    FSP Group FSP550-60PLG Power Supply, EPS12V 550W.

Other:
HighPoint RocketRAID 2220 PCI-X SATA-II.
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB SATA Hard Drives.
    2x SATA Mobile Racks (will buy these when I buy the 2nd SATA Backplane).
CD-RW and Floppy drive. (I already had these)

Thanks for your time,
    Nikolas





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