I built a Bacula server a while back with a 500GB HDD, which I use to backup a number of servers including a mail server. I had it setup so it would recycle the volumes every 180 days (roughly six months), thinking that each volume would well and truly be ready for recycle by that time.<\/p>\n
The trouble was, the mail server’s popularity, not to mention the users desire to keep every Powerpoint presentation touting the latest emotional platitudes (you know the ones) meant that recycle time came around much faster than I thought.<\/p>\n
I didn’t want to rebuild the server, so the plan was to clone the 500GB drive onto a 1TB drive, and resize the partitions accordingly.<\/p>\n
The plan was to follow these general steps:<\/p>\n
Simple right? Well, yes… in a sort of round about way. You have to remember the context I operate in – I use free stuff as much as possible!! Most free tools out there allow you to do most things, but don’t make it too easy for you because they want you to buy the posh version (of course!)<\/p>\n
So, that said there are probably paid applications which will do it all for you – this HOWTO is based on some of the FREE tools I had at hand.<\/p>\n
If you don’t have it already, grab a copy of the “Ultimate Boot CD<\/a>” or UBCD as it’s often referred to. It’s a great ISO packed with tons of tools that can either be burnt onto CD or imaged to USB.<\/p>\n I had mixed results with some of the tools so I’ll give you a rundown own what worked\/didn’t work for me:<\/p>\n Once the disks had been cloned, I removed the original drive and booted off the clone drive as normal.<\/p>\n I’ll add “the<\/strong>” disclaimer at this point: This was the way I resized my volume – there may be other ways, better ways. Most importantly, make sure you have a backup of your data as working with the partitions and volumes can result in loss of data!!<\/p>\n OK, are we good to go on?<\/p>\n I used ‘parted<\/strong>‘ to create a new partition because fdisk didn’t give me any options to display or use the unallocated free space.<\/p>\n (parted) print free<\/p>\n Model: ATA ST31000524AS (scsi)<\/p>\n Disk \/dev\/sda: 1000GB <– !!Take note of this disk id, we’ll need it later !!<\/p>\n Sector size (logical\/physical): 512B\/512B<\/p>\n Partition Table: msdos<\/p>\n Number Start End Size Type File system Flags<\/p>\n 32.3kB 1049kB 1016kB Free Space<\/p>\n 1 1049kB 256MB 255MB primary ext2 boot<\/p>\n 256MB 257MB 1048kB Free Space<\/p>\n 2 257MB 500GB 500GB extended<\/p>\n 5 257MB 500GB 500GB logical lvm<\/p>\n 500GB 500GB 1049kB Free Space<\/p>\n 500GB 1000GB 500GB Free Space <– Note the ‘Start’ and ‘End’ value.<\/p>\n 1000GB 1000GB 745kB Free Space<\/p>\n Look at the entries listing the free space and note down the ‘Start’ and ‘End’ value for the corresponding block of free space you want to use. In this case it’s ‘500GB’ and ‘1000GB’ respectively. It’s also worth noting down the disk id as we’ll need this in a later step – in this case it’s \/dev\/sda.<\/p>\n Time to create our new partition…<\/p>\n (parted) mkpart<\/p>\n Partition type? primary\/logical? p<\/p>\n File system type? [ext2]? ext3<\/p>\n Start? 500GB<\/p>\n End? 1000GB<\/p>\n …and check to confirm it’s been created, then quit parted<\/p>\n (parted) print<\/p>\n Model: ATA ST31000524AS (scsi)<\/p>\n Disk \/dev\/sda: 1000GB<\/p>\n Sector size (logical\/physical): 512B\/512B<\/p>\n Partition Table: msdos<\/p>\n Number Start End Size Type File system Flags<\/p>\n 1 1049kB 256MB 255MB primary ext2 boot<\/p>\n 2 257MB 500GB 500GB extended<\/p>\n 5 257MB 500GB 500GB logical lvm<\/p>\n 3 500GB 1000GB 500GB primary <– Your new partiton! Note the number ‘3’<\/p>\n (parted) quit<\/p>\n Information: You may need to update \/etc\/fstab.<\/p>\n Now some wichery as we use fdisk to change the new partition’s system type.<\/p>\n sudo fdisk \/dev\/sda<\/p>\n Command (m for help): t<\/p>\n Partition number (1-5): 3 <– Use the number obtained above using parted<\/p>\n Hex code (type L to list codes): 8e<\/p>\n Changed system type of partition 3 to 8e (Linux LVM)<\/p>\n Now check to make sure changes have taken…<\/p>\n Command (m for help): p<\/p>\n Disk \/dev\/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes<\/p>\n 255 heads, 63 sectors\/track, 121601 cylinders<\/p>\n Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes<\/p>\n Sector size (logical\/physical): 512 bytes \/ 512 bytes<\/p>\n I\/O size (minimum\/optimal): 512 bytes \/ 512 bytes<\/p>\n Disk identifier: 0x0002a3e6<\/p>\n Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System<\/p>\n \/dev\/sda1 * 1 32 248832 83 Linux<\/p>\n \/dev\/sda2 32 60802 488136705 5 Extended<\/p>\n \/dev\/sda3 60802 121602 488374272 8e Linux LVM <– Here is the changed partition!<\/p>\n \/dev\/sda5 32 60802 488135680 8e Linux LVM<\/p>\n … and write the changes.<\/p>\n Command (m for help): w<\/p>\n The partition table has been altered!<\/p>\n Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.<\/p>\n WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.<\/p>\n The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at<\/p>\n the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)<\/p>\n Syncing disks.<\/p>\n Reboot the system for the changes to take effect.<\/p>\n sudo shutdown -r now<\/p>\n A volume by any other name.<\/p>\n Once the system has restarted, log on and create a new physical volume, on the new partition…<\/p>\n sudo pvcreate \/dev\/sda3<\/p>\n Physical volume “\/dev\/sda3” successfully created<\/p>\n Confirm the new volume has been created…<\/p>\n sudo pvdisplay<\/p>\n — Physical volume —<\/p>\n PV Name \/dev\/sda5<\/p>\n VG Name vgname<\/p>\n PV Size 465.52 GiB \/ not usable 2.81 MiB<\/p>\n Allocatable yes<\/p>\n PE Size 4.00 MiB<\/p>\n Total PE 119173<\/p>\n Free PE 12<\/p>\n Allocated PE 119161<\/p>\n PV UUID vdZpKf-KkHG-mEtw-2vsh-khTT-rRr2-6qhbuL<\/p>\n “\/dev\/sda3” is a new physical volume of “465.75 GiB”<\/p>\n — NEW Physical volume —<\/p>\n PV Name \/dev\/sda3<\/p>\n VG Name<\/p>\n PV Size 465.75 GiB<\/p>\n Allocatable NO<\/p>\n PE Size 0<\/p>\n Total PE 0<\/p>\n Free PE 0<\/p>\n Allocated PE 0<\/p>\n PV UUID UfF1rK-Lx8e-G8Vg-A321-uJQO-5I5O-gqS4XZ<\/p>\n Now we extend the volume group to include the new physical volume.<\/p>\n sudo vgextend vgname \/dev\/sda3<\/p>\n Volume group “vgname” successfully extended<\/p>\n We can confirm the logical volume name…<\/p>\n sudo lvdisplay<\/p>\n — Logical volume —<\/p>\n LV Name \/dev\/vgname\/root <– this is what we’ll use in the next step<\/p>\n VG Name vgname<\/p>\n LV UUID ebGsgt-CNyw-MsMw-cMM1-ORiD-uZyI-jQqCU4<\/p>\n LV Write Access read\/write<\/p>\n LV Status available<\/p>\n # open 1<\/p>\n LV Size 459.82 GiB <– this will increase after we extend the LV<\/p>\n Current LE 117715<\/p>\n Segments 1<\/p>\n Allocation inherit<\/p>\n Read ahead sectors auto<\/p>\n – currently set to 256<\/p>\n Block device 251:0<\/p>\n … and extend the logical volume to include the physical volume (which is now in our volume group).<\/p>\n sudo lvextend \/dev\/vgname\/root \/dev\/sda3<\/p>\n Extending logical volume root to 925.57 GiB<\/p>\n Logical volume root successfully resized<\/p>\n A quick check now reveals…<\/p>\n sudo lvdisplay<\/p>\n — Logical volume —<\/p>\n LV Name \/dev\/vgname\/root <– this is what we’ll use in the next step<\/p>\n VG Name vgname<\/p>\n LV UUID ebGsgt-CNyw-MsMw-cMM1-ORiD-uZyI-jQqCU4<\/p>\n LV Write Access read\/write<\/p>\n LV Status available<\/p>\n # open 1<\/p>\n LV Size 925.57 GiB <– HOORAY!!<\/p>\n Current LE 236946<\/p>\n Segments 2<\/p>\n Allocation inherit<\/p>\n Read ahead sectors auto<\/p>\n – currently set to 256<\/p>\n Block device 251:0<\/p>\n Finally, we use resize2fs to resize the file system to include the new space created in the logical volume.<\/p>\n sudo resize2fs \/dev\/vgname\/root<\/p>\n resize2fs 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)<\/p>\n Filesystem at \/dev\/vgname\/root is mounted on \/; on-line resizing required<\/p>\n old desc_blocks = 29, new_desc_blocks = 58<\/p>\n Performing an on-line resize of \/dev\/vgname\/root to 242632704 (4k) blocks.<\/p>\n This last step took almost an hour to complete. The rough maths would be 60 minutes divided by the 29 block increase equals ~2 minutes per block. I’m guessing that this would change depending on the specifications of your hardware, disks, interfaces etc…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The concept and objective I built a Bacula server a while back with a 500GB HDD, which I use to backup a number of servers including a mail server. I had it setup so it would recycle the volumes every 180 days (roughly six months), thinking that each volume would well and truly be ready… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[84,80,86,87,83,79,85,88,82,81],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recovery","category-technical-resource","tag-fdisk","tag-logical-volume","tag-lvdisplay","tag-lvextend","tag-parted","tag-physical-volume","tag-pvdisplay","tag-resize2fs","tag-ubcd","tag-volume"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Come out, come out free space wherever you are?<\/h2>\n
sudo parted\r\n\r\n(parted) print free<\/strong>\r\nModel: ATA ST31000524AS (scsi)\r\nDisk \/dev\/sda<\/strong><\/span>: 1000GB <-- !!Take note of this disk id, we'll need it later !!<\/span><\/strong>\r\nSector size (logical\/physical): 512B\/512B\r\nPartition Table: msdos\r\n\r\nNumber Start End Size Type File system Flags\r\n 32.3kB 1049kB 1016kB Free Space\r\n 1 1049kB 256MB 255MB primary ext2 boot\r\n 256MB 257MB 1048kB Free Space\r\n 2 257MB 500GB 500GB extended\r\n 5 257MB 500GB 500GB logical lvm\r\n 500GB 500GB 1049kB Free Space\r\n 500GB 1000GB 500GB Free Space <-- Note the 'Start' and 'End' value.<\/span><\/strong>\r\n 1000GB 1000GB 745kB Free Space<\/span><\/pre>\n