Daily Archives: August 26, 2014

Computer - Linux, Server Information

Impending hard drive upgrade and howto for the server.

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Well, this weekend, I am planning on upgrading the 1TB storage drive on the server to a 2TB drive.  I now already have a 2TB backup drive, and the storage and backup drives are in ‘hot swap’ SATA bays, so it will be fairly easy…. So, I thought I would go over the steps required.  (There aren’t that many.)

First, become root user!

Step #1 : Partition the new disk using fdisk command

Following command will list all detected hard disks:

# fdisk -l | grep '^Disk'

Output:

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe88de88d
Disk /dev/sdc: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa982b1a3
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5f09e44e

You may see a few lines like /dev/dm-x: .  I have snipped them out as they are from LVM and of no concern. The disk identifier lines can also be ignored.

To partition the disk – /dev/sdc, enter:

# fdisk /dev/sdc

The basic fdisk commands you need are:

  • m – print help
  • p – print the partition table
  • n – create a new partition
  • d – delete a partition
  • q – quit without saving changes
  • w – write the new partition table and exit

Step#2 : Format the new disk using mkfs.ext4 command

To format Linux partitions using ext2fs on the new disk:

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1

(I chose the ext4 filesystem, because it’s a journaling filesystem.)

Step#3 : Mount the new disk using mount command

First create a mount point /disk1 and use mount command to mount /dev/sdc1, enter:

# mkdir /mnt/disk1
# mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/disk1
# df -H

(I will create /mnt/disk1 as a temporary ‘landing zone’,  since I shall be ‘cloning’ /dev/sdb1 to /dev/sdc1 —  I will go over that easy command in the next post covering this.)

Step#4 : Update /etc/fstab file

Open /etc/fstab file, enter:

# nano /etc/fstab

Append as follows:

/dev/sdb1  /mnt/disk1   ext4   defaults    1 2

Save and close the file.

(You can use vi instead of nano, but I prefer the feel of nano as it’s almost identical to pico.  Guess I’ve dated myself, heh)

I will cover the directory and file cloning in a day or so.