How to add unused space to an existing install

[Warren Block]

On Wed, 6 Feb 2013, Polytropon wrote:
> On Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:58:56 -0600, Paul Schmehl wrote:
>> When I try to create a new slice using fdisk, it doesn't seem to work.  If
>> I move to the label editor, I get this:
>>
>>  FreeBSD Disklabel Editor
>>
>> Disk: mfid0     Partition name: mfid0s1 Free: 0 blocks (0MB)
>>
>> Part      Mount          Size Newfs   Part      Mount          Size Newfs
>> ----      -----          ---- -----   ----      -----          ---- -----
>> mfid0s1a  <none>       2000MB *
>> mfid0s1d  <none>      65536MB *
>> mfid0s1e  <none>       4096MB *
>> mfid0s1b  swap        65536MB SWAP
>> mfid0s1f  <none>      10240MB *
>> mfid0s1g  <none>        601GB *
>>
>> As you can see mfid0s1g is 601GB, and according to fstab that's /var.
>>
>> Yet df -h shows:
>>
>> # df -h
>> Filesystem       Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
>> /dev/mfid0s1a    1.9G    726M    1.0G    41%    /
>> devfs            1.0k    1.0k      0B   100%    /dev
>> /dev/mfid0s1e    3.9G     38M    3.5G     1%    /home
>> /dev/mfid0s1d     62G    6.6M     57G     0%    /tmp
>> /dev/mfid0s1f    9.7G    7.5G    1.4G    84%    /usr
>> /dev/mfid0s1g    582G     39G    496G     7%    /var
>>
>> So apparently I'm not creating this new slice?  It should be /dev/mfid0s1h,
>> correct?
>
> If you're creating a new slice, that would be mfid0s2, because
> mfid0s1 is the 1st slice ("DOS primary partition") carrying the
> partitions a, swap, d, e, f, g. If I remember correctly, h is
> the last partition letter that can be assigned, so this one
> should be available.
>
> Problem: The 1st slice mfid0s1 is already of fixed size, so
> you cannot add a new partition here without growint that
> slice first. Attention, that step isn't free of danger and
> should be done with a backup at hand, just in case, and
> because you _always_ need a backup. :-)
>
> This problem is not a problem if you create a 2nd slice
> mfid0s2 to use it separately.
>
> If you can _really_ create mfid0s2 as a slice, you only need
> to format it, e. g. "newfs -U /dev/mfid0s2" which creates
> mfid0s2c which in turn is called mfid0s2). You can then assign
> that new partition (the one covering the whole slice) to
> a new mountpoint, e. g. /data, /stuff or whatever you want.

Yes, but creating FreeBSD partitions inside that slice allows them to be 
aligned.  That may not be a problem on these 1T drives, some 1T drives 
have 512-byte blocks.  Or the slow misaligned speed might be disguised 
by the slow RAID5 speed...

fdisk and bsdlabel always align to fictional CHS values.  gpart can 
align FreeBSD partitions.