LVM Resizing Overview

In our LVM Configuration KB, we showed how to create a linear mapped logical volume (LV).  In this KB, we are going to build on our LVM knowledge and show you how to resize an existing ext3 file system and it's associate LV.

Note: Procedures for resizing XFS, ResierFS and other volumes may differ.  You should check your documentation for non ext3 volumes before proceeding.  Resizing a file system can also be destructive if not done properly.  You should always make sure you have a backup of your data before attempting a resize!

Logical Volumes can be increased or decreased in size depending on your needs.  However, resizing the LV does not eliminate the need to resize the file system contained within the LV.  This is an important concept to understand since resizing the LV without resizing the file system can cause corruption of your data.

In the following pages, we will guide you through expanding and contracing LV's and their associated file systems.  Let's get to it!

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papi |28/11/2009 10:49:12 nice Reply | Quote

jay |07/12/2009 00:57:36 great write up. Would also like to know if there's a way to grow the LV to the maximum available without counting it manually and leaving slack. Reply | Quote

thirt |14/12/2009 03:20:22 Jay - You could do something like: Quote: lvresize -l +100%FREE That should use up all the remaining free space available in the volume group. Hope that helps, Tom Reply | Quote

Jean  - resize dynamic disk |14/07/2010 04:33:07 you can expand the dynamic volume. visit the web page to get more information.--http://www.dynamic-disk.com/resource/resize-dynamic-disk-partition-volume.html Reply | Quote

Slippery |21/01/2010 08:35:30 Many thanks indeed for helping out a Windows guru but Linux amateur. Steve Reply | Quote

nicobo |06/02/2010 11:20:52 Thanks for this 'quickstart' tutorial. I have two remarks : 1. I've found better to use 'lvresize -l' for growing the volume because 'lvresize -L' rounds the given size and therefore does not always end up in what you're expecting 2. In your example I find it a bit confusing to use a size in MB to resize the partition and then a (the same) size in GB to resize the volume. It probably worked for you but I'm not sure it will for everybody (?). Reply | Quote

lazymathstudent |18/05/2010 10:07:44 just look at how much space vgdisplay reports in "Free PE / Size". The correct size is A = PE*4MB, which gives lvresize -L +A /dev/mapper/cpool-bla Reply | Quote

Alex |18/10/2010 15:16:45 Thanks for this article it helped me a lot. Reply | Quote

Nare |24/11/2010 10:08:01 Thnx for this tutorial Reply | Quote

Bravo |21/01/2011 07:37:01 Wow, what a great and straight forward step by step guide My gratitude for the writer Reply | Quote

MXA |21/01/2011 08:55:55 step by step, great howto Thank you Reply | Quote

FooBar  - 1000MB vs 1024MB |06/04/2011 11:07:39 In steps 4 & 5, it looks like you reduce the file system more than you reduce the size of the logical volume. The file system is 1500MB vs 1536 MB (1.5GB) for the volume. Was this intentional to prevent resizing the volume too small? Or do either resize2fs or lvresize use mebibytes instead of megabytes? Thanks. Reply | Quote

Anonymous |29/04/2011 04:27:39 Great stuff buddy!! Reply | Quote

BK  - GREAT JOB! |02/06/2011 18:43:24 Thanks to your LVM refresher course in one URL, I was able to remember how LVM functionality actually works, and wrote some documentation for our staff. It's rough, but I felt I should give back given the excellent documentation you've written. EXPANDING LOGICAL VOLUMES ON A LINUX VM INSTANCE First, down the server you want to add space to. From the VM Console, add more virtual disk with more space than you need. You do NOT want to do this many times, as Logical Volumes (LVM2) have limits. Bring the VM Instance back online, and login as root. Next, we need to join the virtual disk free space to the virtual disk itself. #fdisk /dev/sda (dev/sda is “pseudo-physical” disk drive for the VM instance) M (to print whole list of options.) P (to print out the existing partitions) N (to create new partition, then choose a partition type “p” in this case.) Choose a partition # - one that is not in use, say 3 or 4. Let the system choose start points, and to end of disk. P (print it again, and see what you have created.) L (to label the partition) W (Write it to the disk) Q (Quit. You’ve made space, now to join it to the Volume Group.) Connect to the website below. This is where the real work begins. Read through this section once, noting where the PINK/RED highlights are. They provide the information to use in the next instructional steps! (Your work above fixes problems in Item #3, when vgdisplay does not have free PE.) http://www.tcpdump.com/kb/os/linux/lvm-resizing-guide/all-pages.html Useful command: lvresize -l +100%FREE /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 Instead of just “resizing” by adding 3GB (in the instructions) this one says to use all free space in the volume group for this partition. This is a “last step” instruction to make the change. I highly recommend to reboot and confirm your new partition sizes actually worked. Reply | Quote

Askar  - Nice work |23/06/2011 06:44:09 For for the nice work, using these small ariticles i'm learning about LVM Reply | Quote

Jake Tors |13/07/2011 07:56:53 just wondering where you came up with df -kh. You are asking to display in both kilobytes and human readable format at the same time. just use df -h my friend, df -h. same result. Reply | Quote

Gene Rye  - Trying to umount the drive |20/07/2011 10:26:59 When I try to umount the drive to resize the partion smaller, I get a device busy message. root ~ puts me in my /root directory. When I df -kh the system, I get /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00. Folloiwng Step 2, I cd /, and then umount /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00. Get message device busy. What should I do? thanks Reply | Quote

Gene Rye  - More Info |20/07/2011 10:43:57 I was trying to do this through the desktop. Should this be done through the command line interface? Reply | Quote

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