#fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 499.9 GB, 499999834112 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60788 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 5 40131 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 6 9885 79361100 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 * 9886 9910 200812+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 9911 60788 408677535 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 9911 60788 408677503+ 8e Linux LVM


#df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup_ID_14581-LogVol1
1008M 214M 744M 23% /
/dev/sda3 190M 15M 166M 8% /boot
none 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /dev/shm
/dev/mapper/VolGroup_ID_14581-LogVol2
496M 14M 458M 3% /tmp
/dev/mapper/VolGroup_ID_14581-LogVol5
377G 3.3G 354G 1% /usr
/dev/mapper/VolGroup_ID_14581-LogVol4
496M 433M 38M 93% /var
/dev/mapper/VolGroup_ID_14581-LogVolHome
75G 2.4G 69G 4% /home

Hi I am very new in linux.

I have Raid1 I use mirroring this is automatically generated by dell during installation I remember I move the /usr bar to 408G bytes during isntallation.
now my problem is I am out of space...How can I use the remaining 408g.
thanks. And also please explain my partition. and How to increase linux hard disk space.

You need to explain what you want to do more specifically. What I see is that many hundreds of Gibibytes are available in Linux filesystems, especially in /usr, so you'll need to explain where you need more space or for what purpose.

Normally, there is very little need to allocate over 400GB to /usr unless you have an application that requires so. In your case, it appears you can get away with a simple 10GB /usr partition. Nonetheless, you are using LVM, so you may be in a decent position. You did not mention your distribution, but in RHEL and its derivatives, you can issue system-config-lvm (if not installed, do a yum –y install system-config-lvm). There you will have a nice GUI in which you can resize your LVM partitions. You can also do this from the command line, but I have forgotten the syntax.

If that fails to work, then you are going to have to do some fancy moves. One thing you can do (I may get blasted for suggesting this) is to create a home directory under /usr. Rsync the contents of the present /home directory to the “new” /usr/home directory. Once that is good, move the old /home to /home1. Create a symbolic link to the new /usr/home by typing ln –s /usr/home /home. You may have modify your /etc/fstab also. This is not really fixing the problem, but it does give you some leeway for you to move some information around so that you can restructure your partitions without having to do a reinstall.

With the exception of /var being close to full, how are you out of space?
The key to using the LVM effectively is to allocate only what you need and keep the rest in reserve. You have allocated the majority of your space to /usr leaving little to be distributed elsewhere. This can be fixed with a little work.

As for the space from sda4, it may be a mirror of 5, depends on how it is setup. show the output of pvdisplay.

Guys! thanks a lot on your response.

How can I increase Linux space?
I created 6 users already.
How to access the Extended the /dev/sda4.
Is the mirror on RaID 1 active?


# pvdisplay

--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sda5
VG Name VolGroup_ID_14581
PV Size 389.75 GB / not usable 27.12 MB
Allocatable yes
PE Size (KByte) 32768
Total PE 12471
Free PE 117
Allocated PE 12354
PV UUID 1IooFh-oMOj-lcr5-oBSM-UE1w-sYz7-BkpZ0m

--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sda2
VG Name VolGroup_ID_14581
PV Size 75.68 GB / not usable 29.07 MB
Allocatable yes (but full)
PE Size (KByte) 32768
Total PE 2421
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 2421
PV UUID MwIOTG-m3be-ACuJ-5h85-fK9I-YAQK-K9i4MH

thanks to all!

It looks like you have just a tiny bit available. Just enough to free up home and free up that 75 gigs initially.

Here is what I would do:

1. use lvcreate to make a 3 gig partition with the available space in the vg. create a file system on it
2. copy the contents of /home to it
3. unmount /home and mount the new lv to /home
4. with that done and verified, destroy LogVolHome. that will put 75 gigs back in the pool
5. create a new 5 gig logical volume for usr and create a file system on it.
6. Copy all the data from /usr to the new volume.
7. Boot to CD, mount the drive and change the mount point for /usr to be the new partition.
8. Reboot.
9. verify that you are using the new partition.
10. Destroy the old usr lv (LogVol5) and you'll have 350Gigs in the free pool.

With the space in the pool, you can create LVs and mount them at will, or you can increase any lv and then file system as needed.

I usually name the logical volume the same name as the mount point. This way if I ever have a hardware failure and I need to move the disk to a new machine, I'll know what is on the lv without having to mount and look at it.

You should probably keep the hardware mirror active. You obviously don't need the space yet and it will protect your data in the event of a hardware disk failure.

Take a look at his /usr partition. He has 354G wasted since that is not a normal location for user created files. His /home partition has only 69G free--a lot, but not when you take into account he has a 500G hard drive. I believe this is what he is getting at.

Yea, that is why I suggested that he create new partitions for both /home and /usr and wipe out the old ones. All that free space will be put back into the vg. A similar suggestion to the one you made in your first post.

That's probably a good idea and likely what I'd do, but without knowing more precisely what RMLinux wants, it's impossible to give very good advice. All RMLinux has asked is "How can I use the remaining 408g.", "How can I increase Linux space?", "How to access the Extended the /dev/sda4." and "Is the mirror on RaID 1 active?" though it's quite clear that the vast majority of disk space is available in the existing file systems (but probably not in an optimal distribution).

I don't see anything to indicate the status of either hardware or software RAID 1 or mirroring. Unless /dev/sda is a hardware RAID, it doesn't look there are multiple disks at all.

Perhaps if RMLinux told us how many physical disks exist, what type of RAID 1 there is and gives us the ouput of "vgdisplay" and "lvdisplay" and the contents of /proc/partitions, we'll have a better idea of what's going on.