Hi,

My system is Suse Linux 11 PL4.

I need to enlarge my file system /dev/sdb1.

In my VM I enlarged /dev/sdb from 200GB to 300GB.

I went in to the YAST expert partitioner and tried to resize /dev/sdb1 to the new maximum.

But I got a message that says I need to unmount the file system.

I tried doing this using both Yast and umount but both times got a message that the system was in use.

What is the best way to get this filesystem resized?


I have read about changing the kernel parameters to boot in single user mode. I am a little wary of this because I don't want to end up with a problem booting. If this is the correct approach please provide and example of the change to make.

Thanks for any help.

Mel

I gather that is file system is in a VM. There are two primary steps, and I'm not quite sure in what order they must occur. One is to enlarge the file system. The other is to tell the virtualizer that the file system has been enlarged.

What virtualizer are you using?

This link may help: http://www.howtogeek.com/124622/how-...box-or-vmware/

You can't resize a partition while the system is up and running.

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frankbell:
Would g-parted work in a VM?

in that case (partition is in use and you cannot umount) you may need to boot another os (from usb) to make it work. But still unlcear (for me) if that partition is handled by the guest or host os.

If you have ext4 you can online resize even if mounted. But only once. At least I had this behaviour 2 years ago. Might have changed that you can resize it more often now.

Just like pan64 said. I'm not sure where (vm or host) the filesystem is to be enlarged. What I guess is that the vm resize was okay. But sdb1 in the vm is not sdb1 on the host. You could try to shutdown the VM I and retry.

Booting into single user mode wont help. Due to the filesystem still being mounted. At least if you want to enlarge the root filesystem of the host. In that case boot of a nother os like pan mentioned.

Please give more informationen so we are able to help you better.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

The virtualizer is Vmware/VSphere. I used this to enlarge the underlying Virtual Disk. And this worked with no problem.

The expert partitioner now reports the maximum available size as the new size of /dev/sdb (300G).

But the size of /dev/sdb1 is still 200G.

When I use the resize option it gives the error that /dev/sdb1 should be unmounted.

When I try to unmount it says /dev/sdb1 is in use.

So linux can see the enlarged virtual disk but cannot enlarge the filesystem on it.

I suspect this may be because of some of the processes that are automatically starting when the system boots up are using /dev/sdb1.

Is there a way to force linux to boot so that no additional processes are automatically started?

Is the a file somewhere where the startups could be commented out temporarily until I get the filesystem enlarged?

Thanks for any help.

Mel

Run these commands. Use root/sudo as appropriate. Post the output - all of it.

Personally, sometimes it is better to goto the source to find the answers to your questions.

• Support1
• Support2

the virtual disk is logically enlarged, that means it is physically smaller and VM will try to grow it as needed. Actually it occupies less space on the real disk and VM will not be able to grow it because there is no enough space to do that. So you will not be able to use it as long as the underlying filesystem is not enlarged.

Assuming that you're talking ext4 and not using LVM, my view of it is that there are 3 stages involved:

(i) Increase the size of the underlying virtual HDD - you've done this.

(ii) Increase the partition to fill the HDD.

(iii) Increase the filesystem to fill the partition.

The second should be achievable by booting within the VM off a virtual CD with a Gparted Live ISO.

The third can be done by using an online resize2fs once you've rebooted into the system.

Hydrurga,

Thanks for the reply. It is going to be difficult to boot off a virtual CD. Is there no way to do this by booting the existing Linux OS differently?

Mel

Out of interest, why is it going to be difficult to boot off a virtual CD?

Surely you did that to install the operating system using the Linux install ISO, no?

Yes I can get the ISO with some effort. I can boot into the BIOS if needed.

Of course I can take the machine out of production temporarily if needed.

Still, I am frustrated that there is not a way to do it without that.

I will probably go that route but I would still like to know if there are other options.

Thanks,

Mel

You wouldn't have to go anywhere near the BIOS, it's the VM we're talking about. Also, the ISO is a simple download. See here for how to mount the ISO: https://www.petri.com/use-iso-image-files-vmware

I wasn't aware that taking the machine out of production was a problem for you until now. Someone may come up with a way that it can be avoided, but in likelihood it won't. You should be making a complete backup of the VM before you start anyway.

Also, if taking the machine out of production is an important issue for you, then you should do a dry run by setting up a non-production machine and VM and carrying out the steps you are planning to carry out so that you can iron out any potential problems and keep down-time to a minimum.