How do you expand a RAID5 Array?

[Madison Kelly]

William O'Higgins Witteman wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 11:54:02AM -0400, Christopher Browne wrote:
>> On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 10:00 AM, William O'Higgins
>> Witteman<william.ohiggins-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>> I have a server with three drives in a RAID5 configuration.  I have
>>> three more drives which I would like to add.  Do I just plug them in, or
>>> do I need to plug them in a reboot, or will it require a reinstall of
>>> the OS?
>> That seems *really* likely to depend heavily on your hardware choices.
> 
> I'm beginning to see that.  This is inherited hardware, and I am stuck
> with RAID5 and no resizing.
> 
>> Some changes may be made, but you shouldn't pretend RAID is an
>> alternative to doing backups :-)
> 
> Heavens no!  RAID is an alternative to single-point-of-failure HDs, not
> backups.  Now the single-point-of-failure is the RAID controller :-)
> Hopefully the RAID controller is solid state, and that is its saving
> grace, but that doesn't prevent it from going pear-shaped and taking all
> your disks with it.
> 
> The only replacement for backups is not caring about your data.

As a cheap work around, can you create another RAID5 beside the existing 
one and move a couple of your directories onto it? I know it's not the 
same as growing it, but it might solve your space problems for now.

Madi
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