Extending File System

[aique]

Hi,
can i combine 2 hard disks to make a single File System.

Thanks.

[Mark Poeschl_2 · Accepted solution]

You can if you have either "ADVFS-UTILITIES" or "LSM" licensed on your Tru64 system. I much prefer the 'addvol' utility that you get with ADVFS-UTILITIES for its ease of use compared to LSM in this particular application.

[Joseph P. Smith]

Abdul,

This answer depends on the following items being true:
1. You will use all space available on both disks,
2. Your controller supports combining physical disks into a single volume,
3. If the files already exist on the disk that will be used, you can backup/restore the files to the new logical disk,
4. Downtime is O.K.
If so, then read on.

You can use the controller to create a single volume that it then "presents" to the system as diskx, You can then allocate the C partition from this volume, and create the file system, ADVFS being preferred, from there.

With this configuration the volume/disk's integrity then depends less on system software and will help it (and you) survive OS failures, updates, bugs, etc. etc.

As a personal statement, I've found controller configurations more durable and understandable than LSM. Of course controller software is not perfect, but the SmartArray and KZPxx families work well.

If it's possible to implement controller based RAID with a hot spare, then all the better.

Good Luck!
Joe S.