Linux LVM extend

HOW TO EXTEND A LINUX LVM VOLUME

This example is a Debian-based virtual machine managed by ESXi 4.1.

Let’s see what the disk space looks like before we make any changes:

$ df -h Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/vmorfels01-root                        19G  1.5G   17G   9% / none                  495M  172K  495M   1% /dev none                  500M     0  500M   0% /dev/shm none                  500M   40K  500M   1% /var/run none                  500M     0  500M   0% /var/lock none                  500M     0  500M   0% /lib/init/rw none                   19G  1.5G   17G   9% /var/lib/ureadahead/debugfs /dev/sda1             228M   33M  184M  15% /boot

This is a typical LVM config where the total disk size is about 20GB.

Give it more disk

Firstly I will change the provisioned size of the disk. In my example I am using vSphere client to change the provisioned size of the virtual server’s disk from 20GB to 30GB to be able to have some more space on the server.

Add a partition to the disk

Power up the machine and run fdisk to configure the disk.

orfels@vmorfels01:~$ sudo /sbin/fdisk /dev/sda

Print the partition table

Command (m for help): p   Disk /dev/sda: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0009b807      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System /dev/sda1   *           1          32      248832   83  Linux Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sda2              32        2611    20719617    5  Extended /dev/sda5              32        2611    20719616   8e  Linux LVM   Command (m for help):

Add a primary partition

fdisk commands used:

• n – New partition
• p – Print partition table
• t – Change system type
• w – Write changes to partition table

Command (m for help): n Command action    l   logical (5 or over)    p   primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 3 First cylinder (2611-3916, default 2611): Using default value 2611 Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (2611-3916, default 3916): Using default value 3916   Command (m for help): p   Disk /dev/sda: 32.2 GB, 32212254720 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3916 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0009b807      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System /dev/sda1   *           1          32      248832   83  Linux Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sda2              32        2611    20719617    5  Extended /dev/sda3            2611        3916    10484774   83  Linux /dev/sda5              32        2611    20719616   8e  Linux LVM

Change the system type of partition to 8e, which is type LVM:

Command (m for help): t Partition number (1-5): 3 Hex code (type L to list codes): 8e Changed system type of partition 3 to 8e (Linux LVM)   Command (m for help): p   Disk /dev/sda: 32.2 GB, 32212254720 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3916 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0009b807      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System /dev/sda1   *           1          32      248832   83  Linux Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sda2              32        2611    20719617    5  Extended /dev/sda3            2611        3916    10484774   8e  Linux LVM /dev/sda5              32        2611    20719616   8e  Linux LVM   Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered!   Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.   WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy. The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8) Syncing disks.

Now it is time to reboot the machine.

$ sudo shutdown -r now

Set up a new physical volume

Once the machine has been restarted, let’s use pvdisplay to see what the physical volume looks like now.

orfels@vmorfels01:~$ sudo /sbin/pvdisplay   --- Physical volume ---   PV Name               /dev/sda5   VG Name               vmorfels01   PV Size               19.76 GiB / not usable 2.00 MiB   Allocatable           yes   PE Size               4.00 MiB   Total PE              5058   Free PE               4   Allocated PE          5054   PV UUID               pt2ToJ-Bb55-Q82r-j4Tm-UZA9-KfJ4-H33YEA

Now run pvcreate to create a new physical volume.

orfels@vmorfels01:~$ sudo /sbin/pvcreate /dev/sda3   Physical volume "/dev/sda3" successfully created

Consume the new physical volume

Extend the volume group to consume the new physical volume, allowing us to use some or all of the new physical volume.

orfels@vmorfels01:~$ sudo /sbin/vgextend vmorfels01 /dev/sda3   Volume group "vmorfels01" successfully extended

Considering that for this example I have added 10GB to the virtual machine’s disk, let’s check how much free there is:

orfels@vmorfels01:~$ sudo /sbin/vgdisplay | grep Free   Free  PE / Size       2563 / 10.01 GiB

Grow the logical volume across the new partition, extending the logical volume with all the amount of free space found.

orfels@vmorfels01:~$ sudo /sbin/lvextend -L+10GB /dev/vmorfels01/root   Extending logical volume root to 28.88 GiB   Logical volume root successfully resized

Expand/resize the file system to use the space. The following command will grow to the maximum available size.

orfels@vmorfels01:~$ sudo resize2fs /dev/vmorfels01/root resize2fs 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010) Filesystem at /dev/vmorfels01/root is mounted on /; on-line resizing required old desc_blocks = 2, new_desc_blocks = 2 Performing an on-line resize of /dev/vmorfels01/root to 7570432 (4k) blocks. The filesystem on /dev/vmorfels01/root is now 7570432 blocks long.

We have more space!

Now check the space to see the change:

orfels@vmorfels01:~$ df -h Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/vmorfels01-root                        29G  846M   27G   4% / none                  496M  176K  495M   1% /dev none                  500M     0  500M   0% /dev/shm none                  500M   36K  500M   1% /var/run none                  500M     0  500M   0% /var/lock none                  500M     0  500M   0% /lib/init/rw /dev/sda1             228M   17M  199M   8% /boot