How to Expand an Existing RAID 0 Volume

A concatenated stripe enables you to expand an existing stripe. For example, if a stripe has run out of space, you can make it into a concatenated stripe, and expand it without having to back up and restore data.

This procedure assumes that you are adding an additional stripe to an existing stripe.

Do not create volumes larger than 1TB if you expect to run the Solaris Operating Environment with a 32–bit kernel or if you expect to use a version of the Solaris Operating Environment prior to Solaris 9 4/03. See Overview of Large Volume Support in Solaris Volume Manager for more information about large volume support in Solaris Volume Manager.

1. Check Prerequisites for Creating Solaris Volume Manager Components and Background Information for Creating RAID 0 Volumes.

2. To create a concatenated stripe, use one of the following methods:

   • From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Volumes node. Choose Action->Create Volume, then follow the instructions in the wizard. For more information, see the online help.

   • To concatenate existing stripes from the command line, use the following form of the metattach command:

     metattach {volume-name} {component-names…}
     

     • volume-name is the name of the volume to expand.

     • components specifies the names of the components that will be used.

     See Example—Creating a Concatenated Stripe By Attaching a Single Slice, Example—Creating a Concatenated Stripe By Adding Several Slices, and the metattach(1M) man page for more information.

Example—Creating a Concatenated Stripe By Attaching a Single Slice

# metattach d2 c1t2d0s2
d2: components are attached

This example illustrates how to attach a slice to an existing stripe, d2. The system confirms that the slice is attached.

Example—Creating a Concatenated Stripe By Adding Several Slices

# metattach d25 c1t2d0s2 c1t2d1s2 c1t2d3s2
d25: components are attached

This example takes an existing three-way stripe, d25, and concatenates another three-way stripe. Because no interlace value is given for the attached slices, they inherit the interlace value configured for d25. The system verifies that the volume has been set up.

Where To Go From Here

For a UFS, run the growfs command on the volume. See How to Expand a File System.

An application, such as a database, that uses the raw volume must have its own way of recognizing the volume, or of growing the added space.

To prepare a newly created concatenated stripe for a file system, see “Creating File Systems (Tasks)” in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.