On 2004-03-31 at 08:24:34-0600 "Rodolfo J. Paiz" <rpaiz(a)simpaticus.com>
wrote:
At 05:14 3/31/2004, you wrote:
> I'm thinking about setting up a software raid level 5.
> Is it possible to start with 3 HDs and then later add more?
> I mean, without loosing the data on the first 3 HDs.
Yes, on most *good* hardware RAID cards and also (I think) on Linux
software RAID.
Linux software RAID (md) cannot do this: you can add and remove
hotspares at will, but the number of active disks in the RAID 5 array
is set when the array is created, and cannot be changed.
If you're using RAID 1+0 (i.e., striping across a series of mirrors),
you can do what you want by juggling degraded arrays.
--
James Ralston, Information Technology
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA