On Fri, May 01, 2009 at 09:02:46PM +1000, ghostcorps wrote: > Thanks Roland, > > You have confirmed my worst fears. One thing though, apparently MatrixRAID > is a 'Firmware RAID' system as opposed to hard or software.
That just means that the BIOS understands that RAID layout and knows how to boot from a RAID array. Otherwise it is just like any other software RAID. (It is a fairly safe assumption that any 'RAID-controller' that is built-in on a motherboard is actually software RAID.) > I don't quite > know how that would effect anything but that's all I can say really. It > looks like I'm buying some more disks. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Matrix_RAID > > Regards > > > > On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 7:53 PM, Roland Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Fri, May 01, 2009 at 06:12:42PM +1000, ghostcorps wrote: > > > Hi Guys, > > > > > > This seems liek a really basic question, I expect a simple 'no', but I > > > havn't found anything definative yet. > > > > > > I currently have a hardware RAID5 array, using the Intel Matrix RAID > > > capability onboard, encrypted with GELI. > > > > According to ataraid(4), Intel MatrixRAID is software RAID, not real > > hardware RAID. > > > > > I need to add 2 new discs to the array. If I add a disc to the array and > > > have it rebuilt with the Intel Matrix Storage Manager, prior to booting > > > FreeBSD will that destroy the encrypted data? > > > > In short, no. > > > > The long answer is that the raid array functions at a level below GELI > > which in turn is below the filesystem layer. GELI writes its metadata in > > the last sector of the device, and the ffs(7) filesystem records the > > size of the underlying device at creation time. > > > > Adding the two disks will make the array larger. The metadata for geli > > will probably not be on the last sector anymore, so geli will not > > recognize the enlarged device. > > > > So you'll have to save your data elsewhere, put in the extra disks, > > recreate the array, re-initialize and attach the geli device for the new > > array and newfs(8) the new geli device. > > > > > If so, how can I decrypt the disk without copying the data to another > > > partition? > > > > There are no tools for that at this time, although it should be feasable > > by reading a (multiple of) block(s) from the geli device and then > > writing it to the non-encrypted device. Note that whenever you write a > > block to the unencrypted device, the contents of that block on the geli > > device become gibberish! So you'll have to do the whole device, unless > > you can beforehand make a list of all the blocks that are in use by the > > filesystem. And if even a single block failed in transit, you're > > potentially screwed. > > > > And even if you could perform this in-place decryption, you should make > > a full backup anyway in case the procedure goes horribly wrong, which is > > always a possibility. :-) > > > > If you want to decrypt the device in place because you don't have enough > > backup capacity to store the contents of you raid array, you're aleady > > in trouble even if you don't know it yet. What will you do if your RAID5 > > fails? > > > > Roland > > -- > > R.F.Smith > > http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/<http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Ersmith/> > > [plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated] > > pgp: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 (KeyID: C321A725) > > > _______________________________________________ > [email protected] mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[email protected]" -- <Insert your favourite quote here.> Erik Trulsson [email protected] _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[email protected]"
