I had a Ubuntu virtual machine that I needed to extend cause my /var partition was full.
I challenged myself and wanted to do it live, without downtime.
⚠️ Making changes to the partition table can result in data loss. It is therefore important to have a full backup of your machine before making any changes.⚠️
As explained my /var partition was full so I needed to extend it.
First of all, we need to increase the virtual disk. In this example I will increase my virtual disk by 20G with 4G dedicated to my /var partition. I will keep the remaining 16G as a reserve for the future.
⚠️ Just in case, I recommand here to take a snapshot of the Virtual Machine.⚠️
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.5
Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 125829120 sectors, 60.0 GiB
odel: Virtual disk
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 76AC5877-F92F-4C0E-BC53-504F7E90466A
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
ain partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 125829086
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 4029 sectors (2.0 MiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 1050623 512.0 MiB EF00
2 1050624 3147775 1024.0 MiB 8300
3 3147776 125827071 58.5 GiB 8300
user@ubuntu:~$ echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/block/sda/device/rescan
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.5 Partition table scan: MBR: protective BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: present Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT. Disk /dev/sda: 167772160 sectors, 80.0 GiB odel: Virtual disk Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes Disk identifier (GUID): 76AC5877-F92F-4C0E-BC53-504F7E90466A Partition table holds up to 128 entries ain partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33 First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 125829086 Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries Total free space is 4029 sectors (2.0 MiB) Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name 1 2048 1050623 512.0 MiB EF00 2 1050624 3147775 1024.0 MiB 8300 3 3147776 125827071 58.5 GiB 8300
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo gdisk /dev/sda GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.5 Partition table scan: MBR: protective BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: present Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT. Command (? for help): w Warning! Secondary header is placed too early on the disk! Do you want to correct this problem? (Y/N): Y Have moved second header and partition table to correct location. Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!! Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): Y OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sda. Warning: The kernel is still using the old partition table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8) The operation has completed successfully.
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.5
Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 167772160 sectors, 80.0 GiB
odel: Virtual disk
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 76AC5877-F92F-4C0E-BC53-504F7E90466A
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
ain partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 167772126
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 41947069 sectors (20.0 GiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 1050623 512.0 MiB EF00
2 1050624 3147775 1024.0 MiB 8300
3 3147776 125827071 58.5 GiB 8300
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo gdisk /dev/sda Command (? for help): d Partition number (1-3): 3 Command (? for help): n Partition number (3-128, default 3): 3 First sector (34-125829086, default = 3147776) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 3147776 Last sector (3147776-125829086, default = 167772126) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: Current type is 8300 (Linux filesystem) Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): Changed type of partition to 'Linux filesystem' Command (? for help): w Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!! Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): Y OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sda. Warning: The kernel is still using the old partition table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8) The operation has completed successfully.
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo partprobe
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo pvdisplay /dev/sda3 --- Physical volume --- PV Name /dev/sda3 VG Name ubuntu-vg PV Size <58.50 GiB / not usable 2.00 MiB Allocatable yes (but full) PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 14975 Free PE 0 Allocated PE 14975 PV UUID ThZ9VT-3zCa-SQrB-6s9a-ZiWL-DbqP-TqRNxM
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo pvresize /dev/sda3 Physical volume "/dev/sda3" changed 1 physical volume(s) resized or updated / 0 physical volume(s) not resized
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo pvdisplay /dev/sda3 --- Physical volume --- PV Name /dev/sda3 VG Name ubuntu-vg PV Size <78.50 GiB / not usable 1.98 MiB Allocatable yes (but full) PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 20095 Free PE 5120 Allocated PE 14975 PV UUID ThZ9VT-3zCa-SQrB-6s9a-ZiWL-DbqP-TqRNxM
Final step, we now need to resize our partition /var.
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo lvextend -r -L+4G /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-lvvar Size of logical volume ubuntu-vg/lvvar changed from 4.00 GiB (1024 extents) to 8.00 GiB (2048 extents). Logical volume ubuntu-vg/lvvar successfully resized. resize2fs 1.45.5 (07-Jan-2020) Filesystem at /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-lvvar is mounted on /var; on-line resizing required old_desc_blocks = 1, new_desc_blocks = 1 The filesystem on /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-lvvar is now 2097152 (4k) blocks long.
user@ubuntu:~$ df -h | grep var /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-lvvar 7.9G 5.3G 2.2G 71% /var
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