Best way to resize an extended partition.

[Pierre MARC]

Hello,

I am currently using RH6.2 on a Compaq Proliant server with a Compaq
smart array card (hardware RAID).
I have recently added a new disk to expand the RAID capacity.
I have used offline Compaq raid tool to expand the capacity, and now, I
am ready to use parted to resize partitions.

Using fdisk, I can see now :
> Disk /dev/ida/c0d0: 255 heads, 32 sectors, 21786 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 8160 * 512 bytes
>
>          Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/ida/c0d0p1   *        10        11      8160   83  Linux
> /dev/ida/c0d0p2            12     17429  71065440    5  Extended
> /dev/ida/c0d0p3             1         9     36704   12  Compaq diagnostics
> /dev/ida/c0d0p5            12       513   2048144   82  Linux swap
> /dev/ida/c0d0p6           514      1517   4096304   83  Linux
> /dev/ida/c0d0p7          1518     17429  64920944   83  Linux


I only have a little problem :
Expansion of the RAID capacity with Compaq tool has been made in 36 hrs
!!!

I would like to know :
1- If I can resize the partition /dev/ida/c0d0p2 using parted, and the
server on line.
2- How many time I need to resize /dev/ida/c0d0p2 from cylinder 17429 to
21786.
3- Is it a fastest way to resize a partition whithout datas than with
datas already on it.

Thanks for your help.

-- 

Pierre MARC
address@hidden