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Date:      Tue, 22 Apr 2003 17:24:35 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu>
To:        michaela@bsd.maa-net.net (Michael A. Alestock)
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Adding a new IDE harddrive
Message-ID:  <200304222124.h3MLOZZ7006803@clunix.cl.msu.edu>
In-Reply-To: <200304221610.21113.michaela@bsd.maa-net.net> from "Michael A. Alestock" at Apr 22, 2003 04:10:21 PM

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> 
> I have a question...I already know how to add a new harddrive to my system, 
> however, what I wanted to know is how do I use the new harddrive's space to 
> add more space to my current filesystem's directories?  Do I have to LINK the 
> new harddrive to the old drive?  How would I go about this process??

It really depends on what you want to do.  You have three basic choices.

One is to make a big file system - lets call it /big on the new drive and 
divide up some of what is on the old drive, move it over there and create  
links to it.   For example, you could make directories var.log, var.spool, 
usr.local and usr.srv on the new drive in /big.  Then copy everything from 
your /var/log directory in to /big/var.log and make /var/log a link to it,
copy everything from /var/spool to /big/var.spool and make /var/spool a
link to it, etc.

Two is to just put some of your file systems on the new drive which will
enable to make them bigger and then give you room to make the remaining
ones on the old drive bigger too.  Candidates for file systems to live
on the new drive are typically /usr, /var and one called /home where you 
put all of your users' home directories (or pick your own name, I use /lump), 
Instead of putting all of /usr over there, you might want to split out
the disk hog stuff such as /usr/src and make it into its own file system
which mounts as /usr/src.   With this method, there are no links to make
but you still will have to move all the stuff in to the new space.
Then you will want to rethink the sizes on the remaining file systems
and remake them.   First make backups, then in the middle, make more 
backups.  

Your thirst choice is to learn about the raid/stripping ability 
in FreeBSD.   You can  make much larger file systems stripped across
more than one disk.   This ability is called vinum in FreeBSD.  You 
will need to study the handbook carefully before diving in to this,
but it works and can even improve your disk performance.

I have both choice one and two in lots of places but haven't gotten 
in to vinum yet.

Good luck,

////jerry

> 
> Thanks!  : )
> 



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