On 10/05/97 18:00:36 you wrote:

And since we can add new drives by swapping them in, it doesn't seem like it would hurt to only bring 13 drives online at first. Since we have an active filesystem, can someone tell me what the best route to do this is? Any caveats?

Don't forget to calculate the space you'll need for snapshots and so on too... also, the filesystem optimizes much better if you have lots of free space rather than always running the ragged edge. You don't have to add a whole shelf at once, so if 14 or 15 drives makes more sense for you, do that. Also, feel free to leave one in as a hot spare.

I have had one report from someone at NetApp that I should erase disk labels (I don't know if he meant all of them, just the ones being removed, or the ones staying) before starting, and another that it would be fine to just yank the disks I don't want and newfs the remaining ones.

Yes, yank all the disks you don't want and boot off floppy, and then newfs the filesystem. That is the best way, and won't take very long at all on an F630. Stay away from other shortcut, quickie schemes that can have lots of hidden dangers.

Bruce