Migrating from ext2 fs to ext3 fs?

[K.C. Chan]

Gurus,
what command do you use if you want to migrate from ext2 to ext3 filesystem (Yes my kernel supports ext3 fs)? Thanks in advance for your help.

[I_M]

Hi

before you start to work, please confirm following pkg version.
e2fsprog 1.20 or later

tune2fs -j /dev/sda6

You can use this command either mounted or not mounted the /dev/sda6.

Regards,

[Peter Kloetgen]

Hi Michael,

before doing the upgrade, please think over that some commercial backup products don't support ext3 backups, like Ominback.

Allways stay on the bright side of life!

Peter

[K.C. Chan]

Firstly, I don't have the luxury for a commercial backup system. But thanks for your input. Lastly, No I don't have the version of the package. Please let me know where I can get it and update it. Thanks for your assistance.

[Mark Fenton]

Michael,

Quoting from the man page:
AVAILABILITY
tune2fs is part of the e2fsprogs package and is available
from http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net.

i suspect that if you have the files:

/sbin/e2fsck
/sbin/tune2fs

then you probably have the requisite version:

/sbin/e2fsck -V
e2fsck 1.23, 15-Aug-2001 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
Using EXT2FS Library version 1.23, 15-Aug-2001

from my installation (RH 7.2).

man tune2fs for more details on the command's usage.

happy journaling!

[K.C. Chan]

All, I've download an upgrade e2fsprogs to version 1.23. Here's what I have as my filesystem:
/dev/hda5 /
dev/hda1 /boot

I've already converted /dev/hda5 to ext3. Here's the output of tune2fs on /dev/hda5: "
tune2fs -j /dev/hda5
tune2fs 1.23, 15-Aug-2001 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
Creating journal inode: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 20 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override."

Do I need to change anything in /etc/fstab in regards to /dev/hda5? Since, this is my root filesystem, Do I need to create an initial ramdisk? Thanks for your input.

[Eric Ladner]

FYI. Omniback does support ext3 now. See patch PHSS_25949 (HP-UX 11.0 Omniback, other OS's have equivalents).

[Mark Fenton · Accepted solution]

Michael,,

Check that tune2fs properly updated /etc/fstab to indicate that the partition is now ext3:

cat /etc/fstab
~~~
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
........
RedHat uses this funky LABEL stuff which I find annoying, but...
mount
~ ~ ~
/dev/hda2 on / type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
...

shows the real deal.
I didn't have to create a new initrd for my system, but there have been several discussions on the topic on this board.

[K.C. Chan]

Mark,
df -Tk would also show the Type of filestystem being mounted.

Mark, do you have hour /boot and / (root) filesystem on ext3? If so, were you able to boot w/o initial ramdisk?

If somecould clarify why and when initial ramdisk is needed when you're on ext3 filesystem? Thanks.