PRIMECLUSTER Global File Services Configuration and Administration Guide 4.2 (Solaris(TM) Operating Environment)

23.5 Extending a File System

The GFS Shared File System can increase the size of an existing file system without saving or restoring data.

Use the sfcadd command to enlarge the file system. The file system can be enlarged by adding new file data partitions while the file system is mounted (online) or unmounted (offline).

For the execution procedure using Operation Management View, see Section 21.3.2, "Changing the file system configuration (partition addition)." For the execution procedure using line commands, see Section 22.5, "Change (partition configuration)."

If the file system is probably going to be extended, estimate the maximum size of the extension. Then, specify the data size of the file system when creating the file system (when the sfcnewfs or mkfs_sfcfs command is executed). The GFS Shared File System records a free data area as an extent. For the free data management area, the area size is calculated automatically so that data in the specified data area can be managed when the file system is created. However, if the file system is extended, this management area may become insufficient. (Because a free data area is recorded as an extent, it can be managed if it is not fragmented. If fragmentation is severe, the free data area cannot be used because of the insufficient management area.)

To check whether the management area is insufficient, specify the -ov option in the df_sfcfs(1M) command to display the total number of leafs and number of free leafs.