Fedora on XenServer VM - Expand primary Partition

DustinB3403

So I have a Fedora VM that I need to expand the primary partition on, and I'm kind of at a loss on how to do this for this VM.

A key point

the VM does not & cannot have internet access

So how can I go about increasing the primary partition of this VM?

coliver

Did you set up LVM?

DustinB3403

@coliver I didn't build this VM so I'm uncertain of that.

Let me investigate.

coliver

If you didn't it is still possible but I don't think you can do it with the system running. Do you have access to a live cd or the Fedora installer iso?

DustinB3403

Yes LVM is active.

DustinB3403

@coliver I am able to mount the Fedora ISO if need be.

stacksofplates

You should be able to just increase the size of the VHD. Then increase the size of the logical volume.

After increasing the actual VHD you should just be able to do:

pvresize /dev/xvda2

vgextend fedora /dev/xvda2

lvextend -l 100%FREE /dev/fedora/root

If the 100%FREE doesn't work, you can check the number of extents with

vgdisplay

Then just use the same number of PEs.

lvextend -l 4567 /dev/fedora/root

DustinB3403

So this is what vgdisplay reports

Which appears it only has 1 PE available.

Which how does this make sense?

stacksofplates

What does fdisk -l show?

DustinB3403

Performing

vgextend fedora /dev/xvda2

results in

"Physical volume '/dev/xvda2" is already in volume group 'fedora' unable to add physical volume to '/dev/xvda2' to volume group 'fedora' "

DustinB3403

DustinB3403

It's as if adding the storage to the VHD is expanding the wrong partition.

stacksofplates

@DustinB3403 said:

It's as if adding the storage to the VHD is expanding the wrong partition.

Increasing the VHD increases the physical disk. Then you need to increase the physical volume with pvresize then extend the volume group with vgextend then the logical volume with lvextend.

You may need to recreate the physical partition with fdisk. I didn't think you had to with the VHD but you might need to.

You would run

fdisk /dev/xvda

Then delete the 2nd partition and recreate it spanning the whole disk. Then expand the logical volume.

To do that on a root volume you would need to boot with a recovery disk.

stacksofplates

I can't test it right now or I would be able to confirm you would need to recreate the xvda2 partition or not.

stacksofplates

So looks like you will need to take the root partition offline. Another option is to create a third partition with fdisk.

fdisk /dev/xvda

Then go through the menu to create a third partition that fills up the rest of the disk

Then run vgextend /dev/xvda3

Check the PEs with vgdisplay

Then run lvextend -l 100%FREE (or the extent size) /dev/mapper/fedora-root (or /dev/fedora/root)

DustinB3403

fdisk /dev/xvda2

and 'p'
0_1459532049564_upload-f2fbfadc-5f0e-4a36-9128-ed2f6fa85a19

scottalanmiller

part of thei ssue is partitions needing to be resized. You either have to grow the right partition which is often not an option or you need to let LVM handle it. In this case, just make a new partition, use pvcreate to add it under LVM, add it to the existing volume group then grow things as before.

DustinB3403

So as a follow up to what @johnhooks and I were working on. This is what I have. (Had to revert as something broke) This VM only has 1 VHD. Of which I'd like to either expand the boot partition, or create a new partition and then allow it to be used by the primary.

DustinB3403

In a LiveCD now and this is what Parted has.

stacksofplates

@scottalanmiller said:

part of thei ssue is partitions needing to be resized. You either have to grow the right partition which is often not an option or you need to let LVM handle it. In this case, just make a new partition, use pvcreate to add it under LVM, add it to the existing volume group then grow things as before.

For some reason I thought I resized a disk and live root volume on a VM before. I guess I was dreaming.