[linux-lvm] Situation with PVRESIZE command

[Roger Lucas]

Hi,

I am running LVM on top of a large RAID controller with a 16-drive
capability (of which just 4 disks are currently active).  The RAID array
appears as a single SCSI disk, "/dev/sda".  A quick summary of the LVM
information is below.

tiger:~# lvm version
  LVM version:     2.01.04 (2005-02-09)
  Library version: 1.01.00-ioctl (2005-01-17)
  Driver version:  4.4.0
tiger:~# pvs
  PV         VG      Fmt  Attr PSize   PFree
  /dev/sda   storage lvm2 a-   745.05G 39.05G
tiger:~# vgs
  VG      #PV #LV #SN Attr  VSize   VFree
  storage   1   3   0 wz--n 745.05G 39.05G
tiger:~# lvs
  LV   VG      Attr   LSize Origin Snap%  Move Copy%
  home storage -wi-ao 2.00G
  root storage -wi-ao 2.00G
  var  storage -wi-ao 2.00G
  main storage -wi-ao 700.0G
tiger:~# mount
/dev/mapper/storage-root on / type reiserfs (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/hda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw,noatime)
/dev/mapper/storage-home on /home type reiserfs (rw)
/dev/mapper/storage-var on /var type reiserfs (rw)
/dev/mapper/storage-main on /main type reiserfs (rw)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (rw,size=10M,mode=0755)
tiger:~#

I now need to increase my RAID capacity.  I can increase the physical RAID
capacity by adding another disk to the controller and getting it to re-build
the array in the background, thus increasing the size of "/dev/sda", but I
am not clear as to how I can increase the PV size in LVM.  

I have seen some references to a "pvresize" command, but it isn't in the
latest 2.01.15 stable release (although it does appear in the 2.02.02
development release).

Hence, my questions are:

- Is it possible to re-size a PV whilst the system is online using the
2.01.15 tools?

- Is it possible to re-size a PV whilst the system is online using the
2.02.02 tools?

- How "stable" are the 2.02.02 tools, and are there any specific bugs in
them that may cause problems during typical usage.

Thanks,

Roger