From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Alex Lilley Subject: Raid 5 --grow to fewer, larger drivers Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:56:51 +0000 Message-ID: <492AA493.6080605@redwax.co.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Sender: linux-raid-owner@vger.kernel.org To: linux-raid@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-raid.ids Senario: raid5 with 4 x 120gb. aim: raid5 with 3 x 250gb 3 x 120gb disks replaced with 3 x 250gb, array has been rebuilt/resync'd at original size. Can we remove the remaining 120gb drive and reshape the array over the remaining 3 drives using all the new space. I guessed --grow --raid-devices=3 --size-max would work but returns "can change at most one of size, raiddisks, bitmap and layout" I then --failed and --remove the remaining 120gb drive and tried --grow --raid-devices=3 but receive "Cannot reduce number of data disks (yet)". I am therefore slightly stumped! Is this something that is actually possible or something that is planned for because as the size of disk drives multiplies and the desire to keep tabs of power usage increases it is likely that we will want to reduce the number of disk, besides the obvious increased risk of failure introduced by having a greater number of drives. Regards Alex