Linux increase root partition

Increase the Size of a Linux Root Partition Without Rebooting

Table of Contents

Introduction

A typical Linux server deployed from a ProfitBricks supplied image has a single storage volume, /dev/vda . If we take a look at that using fdisk we will see that the disk is divided into two partitions. The first one, /dev/vda1 , is the boot partition where the OS resides. The second partition, /dev/vda2 , is configured as swap space.

In the example above, the total 50 GB storage volume is split into 46 GB usable space and 4 GB for swap. What if after provisioning we find that 46 GB of disk space is not enough but we prefer not to add an additional storage volume? The goal is to increase the amount of disk space available on the root filesystem. This can be accomplished with minimal disruption. We do not need to reboot the server!

Requirements

• A Linux Server created from a ProfitBricks supplied image.
• SSH or console access (via the DCD) to the Linux Server.
• The partprobe command. Can be installed from the parted package on most Linux distributions.
• The fdisk , swapoff , mkswap , swapon , and resize2fs commands. Likely available by default.
• A current snapshot or other backup of the system you are working on. Just to be safe!

Provision Additional Space

To increase the size of the hard drive, go into the DCD (Data Center Designer) and upscale the drive.

After you have increased the amount of drive space, click on «provisioning» to process the change. Takes around a minute and your hard drive is bigger.

We then need to switch off the swap — so make sure you can live a few minutes without swap space:

Once swap has been disabled, we need to reconfigure the partitions using fdisk :

We will delete the two existing partitions first. We run fdisk /dev/vda and then use the d command to delete partition 2, and then delete partition 1. Follow the example below:

Now we recreate our partitions. In the example we have 4 GB of swap space. So we need to keep at least that much space available for the new swap partition.

Recreate /dev/vda1 first. Press n to create a new partition. Enter p to create a primary partition. We can press Enter to accept the default value of 2048 for the first sector. Then enter a size for the partition. You can enter a value in GB, so if we are increasing the disk to 100 GB, we subtract our 4 GB for swap, and enter +96G for 96 GB.

Now we recreate the swap partition following a simalar process. Press n and then p to create a new primary partition. Press Enter to accept the default value for «First sector». We can also press Enter again to accept the default value for «Last sector».

Since this second partition is going to be used for swap space, we need to change the partition type. This can be done by pressing t at the fdisk prompt. We then press 2 to select the second partition. If you want to see the list of available partition types, press L, otherwise enter 82 to select «Linux swap / Solaris».

fdisk helpfully informs us that we have changed the partition type with the message:

After that, we save using the w command and are returned to a shell prompt:

You may get a message like this before the shell prompt:

Lets forgo rebooting and instead tell the kernel about the new partitions using partprobe :

We should be returned to the shell prompt with no output from partprobe .

Now we need to resize our filesystem on /dev/vda1 :

The filesystem on /dev/vda1 is now 25165824 (4k) blocks long.

Initialize the new swap location of /dev/vda2 :

Finally we edit /etc/fstab and replace the old UUID with the new one returned in the output of the mkswap command. The line to change has no value for «mount point» and has «type» set to swap.

After editing /etc/fstab , we need to enable swap again:

Verify

We can verify the new larger disk size by utilizing df and/or fdisk .

We can also confirm that the server was not rebooted by looking at the output of uptime :

Summary

We have successfully increased the amount of disk space available on our Linux server. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them here, or in the DevOps Community section of this site.

Источник

Increasing the size of a root partition on a Linux VM

When you create a new virtual machine in Oracle VM VirtualBox, most often you create it with the default settings which means you’ll have a virtual hard disk of size anywhere between 2GB — 12GB depending up on the version of Linux that you selected. Usually this default disk size will be just enough to do a full install of your selected operating system. However if you have to install several additional packages then you’ll run out of space in your root volume.

For example, if you select Red Hat as the Linux version then the default size of your virtual disk will be 8GB. Then when you install a Linux Operating System on this virtual machine with default partitioning scheme you’ll have around 6GB of space on your root partition (/) and remaining space taken by boot and swap partitions. Typically 6GB root partition could be just enough for a full install of Red Hat / CentOS operating system but if you want to install additional software on top of it say, Oracle client, Node, meteor, React etc. finally you will reach a situation where there is no more space left on your filesystem. This article shows you how to increase the size of the LVM root partition on a Linux Virtual Machine running on Oracle VM VirtualBox.

Warning!! Incorrect use of fdisk utility and LVM commands may result in data loss or may even damage the entire virtual disk. Remember to save a backup copy of your Virtual Machine disk files before you make any changes.

Step 1: Extend the virtual disk file size

Open a command prompt and navigate to the Virtualbox installation folder.

List all virtual hard disks and take note of the Location of the disk you want to resize.

Resize the disk.

The size is specified in MB.

Verify disk size.

Note:To be able to resize a disk it should be created as a dynamically allocated disk. You cannot resize of virtual disk that is created as a fixed size disk.

To convert a fixed disk to dynamic, run

Step 2: Add new partition

List disk devices and partitions.

The above output shows there are two partitions on the disk /dev/sda . To add a new partition, run

In the fdisk command prompt,

• Enter n to create a new partition.
• Enter p to create primary partition.
• Press ENTER to accept default for first sector.
• Press ENTER to accept default for Last sector. This will create a partition with all the remaining available space on the disk. Alternatively you could specify the size, for example +2G will add a partition of size 2GB.
• Enter t to set the type of the new partition to Linux LVM.
• Select partition number 3.
• Enter 8e as the Hex code.
• Finally enter the command w to save the changes to disk and exit fdisk.

Step 3: Reboot the Virtual Machine and Initialize LVM

To initialize LVM on the newly created partition, run

Step 4: Add partition to volume group

To do this, first List physical volumes and note the VG Name from the output.

Extend the root volume group.

Step 5: Extend the root logical volume

Identify the path for the root logical volume.

Extend the logical volume and resize to filesystem.

Источник

2 easy methods to extend/shrink resize primary partition in Linux

Table of Contents

Related Searches: How to resize primary partition in Linux. How to extend non lvm root partition. How to change size of partition in Linux using parted and fdisk without destroying data. Steps to expand partition in RHEL/CentOS 7 and 8 Linux. Perform Disk Management in CentOS. How to use unallocated space to change size of partition in a disk in Linux. How to resize root partition not on LVM in Linux. Step by step guide to resize primary partition. How to expand partition with examples in Linux. centos disk management. rhel 7 extend non lvm root partition. centos 7 resize root partition. Steps to resize primary partition to extend non lvm root partition in linux. how to add unallocated disk space to a partition in Linux. centos shrink or extend non lvm root partition. add space to partition. fdisk extend partition. resize boot partition. extend non lvm root partition in linux. change size of partition.how to expand partition. centos resize primary partition. rhel change size of partition.

Earlier I had shared steps to create a file system and check file system type in Linux . Now in this article I will share the steps to resize primary partition, here we will extend non lvm root partition. With LVM it is far more easier and less riskier to change size of partition in an volume group in Linux .

• This article covers steps to resize primary partition (non-lvm) which can be dangerous and can leave your Linux system in an unusable broken state. It is important that you backup your content before you attempt to change size of partition.
• You can change size of partition (non-lvm) only on the last partition on the storage device with unallocated space. If the respective partition is not the last partition then the only way to expand partition is to backup your data , rebuild the disk and partitions, then restore the data. No tool such as gparted, parted or fdisk can help you change size of partition in such case.
• You must have some unallocated space or free space available in the concerned device to be able to expand partition. In some of the virtual environment you have an option to change the storage device size but on physical node if there is no enough unallocated space then resize primary partition (extend non lvm root partition) is not possible
• This article assumes you’re using either a GPT partition table, or an msdos partition table using primary partition types to extend non lvm root partition.

Lab Environment to resize primary partition (RHEL/CentOS 7/8) in Linux

I have performed resize primary partition operation on Virtual Machine running on Oracle VirtualBox installed on Linux server . My VM is running with CentOS 8 but I have also verified these steps on RHEL/CentOS 7 and RHEL 8 Linux.

Here my VM is installed on /dev/sda device where /dev/sda1 is boot partition, /dev/sda2 is root while /dev/sda3 is for swap.. Additionally I have left some unallocated free space in /dev/sda for the demonstration of this article to extend non lvm root partition.

Method 1: Change size of partition using parted CLI utility

You can either use gparted (GUI utility) or parted (CLI utility) to change size of partition in Linux. Here we plan to resize primary partition which in our case is /dev/sda.

List available partitions

To list the available partitions in /dev/sda we will execute below command

As I mentioned in the disclaimer section, you can change size of partition only on the last partition of the device but here root partition ( /dev/sda2 ) is not the last one instead swap ( /dev/sda3 ) is my last partition. So to expand root partition I must delete swap device to be able to to use unallocated space and extend non lvm root partition. After deleting swap, root partition will become the last partition on /dev/sda after which we can resize primary partition.

Disable swap partition

Currently I have around 1GB reserved for swap partition

I will turn off my swap (disable swap partition) and use this space to extend non lvm root partition in Linux

Verify the swap partition space, as you see not it is 0

Update /etc/fstab to make sure swap partition is not mounted at boot up stage.

Delete swap and expand partition

Now to resize primary partition /dev/sda2 and expand partition to a new value we must first delete swap partition using parted utility. As we need root partition to be the last partition of /dev/sda before we expand partition.

But our root partition is showing the same size as earlier i.e.

To complete the steps to resize non lvm root partition, execute resizefs to expand partition and refresh the changes

Re-verify the new size of root partition to make sure our steps to extend non lvm root partition was successful.

Re-create swap partition

Now we must create Swap partition which we deleted earlier in this article. We will again use parted utility to create swap partition

Now with parted we only created a partition with file system type as swap. Use mkswap to turn this partition into swap.

Next we must update /etc/fstab with the UUID of our new swap partition. To get the new UUID of swap partition

Update this UUID in /etc/fstab as shown below

Finally turn on the new swap partition

Verify the new swap partition

Now you can reboot your Linux server to make sure everything is OK and resize primary partition was successful.

Method 2: Change size of partition using fdisk utility

Similar to parted command, you can also use fdisk utility to resize primary partition and extend non lvm root partition.

List available partitions

Before we resize primary partition, let us list the available partitions

Now as you see my existing root partition /dev/sda2 size is

10G . Here we will expand partition with +1GB using unallocated disk space from /dev/sda .

Delete swap partition

Currently my swap partition is enabled and is the last partition of /dev/sda . So we must first delete swap partition here before we change size of partition as we need root to be the last partition in /dev/sda

So we will turn off the swap partition before we disable it

Now it is time to use fdisk utility to resize partition

Part 1 — Resize root partition

We will continue with the steps to extend non lvm root partition in the same fdisk session. Note down the start sector of the root partition before you expand partition.

Create swap partition

After we resize primary partition, in the same fdisk session we will also create a new swap partition which we had deleted initially with new start and end sector

Update the kernel regarding the recent changes we did to change size of partition

But our swap partition is still shown as 0

Now let us complete our steps to create swap partition using mkswap

Next update /etc/fstab with the UUID for your new swap partition. You can use blkid to get the UUID

Update the same in /etc/fstab as shown below

Now you can turn on the swap partition

Verify the same using free command

Part 2 — Resize root partition

If not done already in above steps, once you exit fdisk utility, update the kernel regarding the recent changes we did to change size of partition

We are not done with resize primary partition, as df command still shows old partition size for root partition

Execute resize2fs to expand partition on /dev/sda2 with the new changes

Now you can verify the new size of root partition

Lastly I hope the steps from the article to resize primary partition and extend non lvm root partition on RHEL/CentOS 7/8 Linux was helpful. So, let me know your suggestions and feedback using the comment section.

Related Posts

Didn’t find what you were looking for? Perform a quick search across GoLinuxCloud

If my articles on GoLinuxCloud has helped you, kindly consider buying me a coffee as a token of appreciation.

For any other feedbacks or questions you can either use the comments section or contact me form.

Thank You for your support!!

Источник