On 2013-04-09 02:40, James Harper wrote:
> I have a server that had 4 x 1.5TB disks installed in a RAID5
> configuration (except /boot is a 'RAID1' across all 4 disks). One of
> the disks failed recently and so was replaced with a 3TB disk, and the
> goal is to replace the remaining 3 disks with 3TB disks to get more
> storage (holds Bacula backups so more storage = more online backup
> history).
> 
> Being a 3TB disk I had to make it a GUID Partition Table, and aside
> from a clean install I did once where Debian installer just did
> everything for me, I've never used gpt before. I believe I'm supposed
> to make a partition called the BIOS boot partition... can I store data
> on here or is it separate to my existing /boot partition? I created
> such a partition and did grub-install /dev/sda but then on boot from
> that disk all I get is "GRUB _" (where _ is the flashing cursor).
> 
> Any hints or links to good online resources would be appreciated. I've
> googled and can find a bunch of information about it but it's not
> working for me so I'm missing something somewhere...

Hi James,

I've long ago given up on GRUB, and now use Extlinux. I recently built a
Debian Wheezy system with a single 250GB disk, and then replaced that
with 4 3TB disks which had /boot in RAID1 and the rest of the space
consumed by a single RAID10 partition containing everything else inside
LVM. I successfully migrated the system from the 250GB disk to the new
RAIDed disks with minimal pain.

I have vaguely documented my setup, and supplimented it with information
from Trent Buck:

http://www.cyber.com.au/~twb/snarf/extlinux.page
http://www.cyber.com.au/~twb/snarf/extlinux-gpt.page

The steps I followed, mostly, were:

| # For all 4 disks
| for f in /dev/sd[abcd]
| do
| # Give them a GPT label, 256MiB /boot, <rest> LVM space
|   parted -a optimal -s "$f" mkl g mkpart boot 0% 256Mi set 1 r on mkpart lvm 
256Mi 100% set 2 r on
| # Set the GPT "boot" bit on each disk
|   sgdisk "$f" -A 1:set:2
| # Install the syslinux/extlinux GPT MBR on each disk
|   cat /usr/lib/syslinux/gptmbr.bin > "$f"
| done
| # Build the 2 RAID arrays. Note the metadata versions. Extlinux
| # *requires* 0.90 (metadata at end) so it can find itself, and Linux
| # should have 1.2 (metadata at start) for the last array to prevent it
| # from seeing metadata at the end and thinking the whole *disk* is one
| #big RAID array and getting very confused.
| mdadm -C /dev/md0 -e 0.90 -n 4 -l 1  -b internal /dev/sd[abcd]1
| mdadm -C /dev/md1 -e 1.2  -n 4 -l 10 -b internal /dev/sd[abcd]2

* Copy over any data, generating VGs/LVs and formatting/dd-ing as
  necessary.

* Ensure extlinux config is correct (see extlinux.page above)

* Chroot into system on new disks, and make any necessary mdadm.conf
  changes, then re-generate the ramdisk so those changes are propagated.

And... I think that's it.

I realise these instructions don't exactly fit your use case, but
hopefully they give you some idea of what's required, and in any case I
can't be much more help if you want to stick with GRUB.

Good luck!

-- 
Regards,
Matthew Cengia

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