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Resize VirtualBox LVM

2020/01/26 Linux

When you launch a virtual machine with VirtualBox, the disk space may be far more enough at that time, let’s say 20 GB. But after a long time, too many softwares are installed, it may become short. So you have to resize the disk space, if you do not want to deploy a new one and start it over. This article discuss how to do it for a guest linux operating system with LVM storage.

Resize VDI File

Warning: If you don’t want to lose your data, backup is strongly recommended. VirtualBox can export virtual machines, use it wisely.

Go to your VirtualBox installation path, for me, it is F:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox, there is an executable file named VBoxManage.exe. Press Shift key and right click to open a command line window, run command VBoxManage.exe list hdds and you might get message:

F:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage.exe list hdds
UUID:           b889a3a4-b6d4-4109-be18-d17c5f7f883e
Parent UUID:    base
State:          locked write
Type:           normal (base)
Location:       F:\VirtualBox VMs\ubuntu1604\ubuntu1604.vdi
Storage format: VDI
Capacity:       20000 MBytes
Encryption:     disabled

Run command VBoxManage.exe modifyhd <UUID> --resize <new size in MB> to resize it. (Note that using Location instead of UUID might fail with message vboxmanage.exe: error: Could not get the storage format of the medium <Location> (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED).) You have to specify a value large than current Capacity, because VirtualBox can only increase disk space. For instance, VBoxManage.exe modifyhd b889a3a4-b6d4-4109-be18-d17c5f7f883e --resize 50000, which means upgrade to 50000 MB, around 49 GB.

Now you can check your virtual machine’s storage in VirtualBox panel, if it doesn’t change, close and open VirtualBox again.

Resize LVM

After boot your virtual machine and log into it, you might notice that your root disk / is still out of space.

root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# df -lh
Filesystem                   Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev                         981M     0  981M   0% /dev
tmpfs                        201M  3.2M  197M   2% /run
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root   18G   16G  313M  99% /
tmpfs                       1001M     0 1001M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                        5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs                       1001M     0 1001M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1                    472M  106M  342M  24% /boot
virtualBoxShares             313G  208G  105G  67% /media/sf_virtualBoxShares
tmpfs                        201M     0  201M   0% /run/user/1000

This is because your disk space is increased but it is still not partitioned yet, hence you cannot not use them. Run fdisk -l to check:

root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 48.8 GiB, 52428800000 bytes, 102400000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x46bb1322

Device     Boot   Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *       2048   999423   997376  487M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2       1001470 41940991 40939522 19.5G  5 Extended
/dev/sda5       1001472 41940991 40939520 19.5G 8e Linux LVM


Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root: 17.5 GiB, 18811453440 bytes, 36741120 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-swap_1: 2 GiB, 2147483648 bytes, 4194304 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Notice that we have a bigger /dev/sda up to 48.8 GB.

Partition Disk

Now we need to add a new partition, run fdisk /dev/sda, and then:

  1. input n for new one,
  2. input p (or press Enter key directly because it is the default choice) for primary type,
  3. press Enter key directly to choose the default partition number,
  4. WARNING input First sector carefully, it should be right after the End sector in the above fdisk -l output, which means 41940991 plus one, finally is 41940992
  5. press Enter key directly to choose End sector to be the last one, which means use all left free space.

The screen log might be:

root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# fdisk /dev/sda

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.27.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.


Command (m for help): n
Partition type
   p   primary (1 primary, 1 extended, 2 free)
   l   logical (numbered from 5)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (3,4, default 3): 
First sector (999424-102399999, default 999424): 41940992
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (41940992-102399999, default 102399999): 

Created a new partition 3 of type 'Linux' and of size 28.8 GiB.

Use p command to check current settings:

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 48.8 GiB, 52428800000 bytes, 102400000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x46bb1322

Device     Boot    Start       End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *        2048    999423   997376  487M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2        1001470  41940991 40939522 19.5G  5 Extended
/dev/sda3       41940992 102399999 60459008 28.8G 83 Linux
/dev/sda5        1001472  41940991 40939520 19.5G 8e Linux LVM

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Now we have a new partition /dev/sda3, but we need some modification. Note that the disk type is Linux instead of target Linux LVM, use t command to modify:

  1. choose partition number we just created, it is 3 in this example
  2. input 8e for Linux LVM type

The screen log might be:

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-3,5, default 5): 3
Partition type (type L to list all types): 8e

Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux LVM'.

Use p command to check current settings:

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 48.8 GiB, 52428800000 bytes, 102400000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x46bb1322

Device     Boot    Start       End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *        2048    999423   997376  487M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2        1001470  41940991 40939522 19.5G  5 Extended
/dev/sda3       41940992 102399999 60459008 28.8G 8e Linux LVM
/dev/sda5        1001472  41940991 40939520 19.5G 8e Linux LVM

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Use w command to save the settings:

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Re-reading the partition table failed.: Device or resource busy

The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8).

Extend LVM

Run command pvscan to check current physical volume:

root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# pvscan 
  PV /dev/sda5   VG ubuntu-vg       lvm2 [19.52 GiB / 0    free]
  Total: 1 [19.52 GiB] / in use: 1 [19.52 GiB] / in no VG: 0 [0   ]

Run command pvcreate /dev/sda3 to make new disk to be physical volume:

root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# pvcreate /dev/sda3
  Physical volume "/dev/sda3" successfully created
root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# pvscan 
  PV /dev/sda5   VG ubuntu-vg       lvm2 [19.52 GiB / 0    free]
  PV /dev/sda3                      lvm2 [28.83 GiB]
  Total: 2 [48.35 GiB] / in use: 1 [19.52 GiB] / in no VG: 1 [28.83 GiB]

Note, if it fail with message Device /dev/sda3 not found (or ignored by filtering)., you will need to reboot your virtual machice.

Now extend it to your volume group via vgextend ubuntu-vg /dev/sda3, the name ubuntu-vg must use the one printed in pvscan output:

root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# vgextend ubuntu-vg /dev/sda3
  Volume group "ubuntu-vg" successfully extended
root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# pvscan 
  PV /dev/sda5   VG ubuntu-vg       lvm2 [19.52 GiB / 0    free]
  PV /dev/sda3   VG ubuntu-vg       lvm2 [28.83 GiB / 28.83 GiB free]
  Total: 2 [48.35 GiB] / in use: 2 [48.35 GiB] / in no VG: 0 [0   ]

Modify your logic volume via lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root, the name /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root might different in your system but must strictly same as the value printed in df -lh output:

root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root
  Size of logical volume ubuntu-vg/root changed from 17.52 GiB (4485 extents) to 46.35 GiB (11865 extents).
  Logical volume root successfully resized

Finally, resize your file system via resize2fs /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root:

root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# resize2fs /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root
resize2fs 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)
Filesystem at /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root is mounted on /; on-line resizing required
old_desc_blocks = 2, new_desc_blocks = 3
The filesystem on /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root is now 12149760 (4k) blocks long.

Now your increased space is ready for use:

root@ubuntu:/home/zqfan# df -lh
Filesystem                   Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev                         981M     0  981M   0% /dev
tmpfs                        201M  3.2M  197M   2% /run
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root   46G   16G   28G  37% /
tmpfs                       1001M     0 1001M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                        5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs                       1001M     0 1001M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1                    472M  106M  342M  24% /boot
virtualBoxShares             313G  208G  105G  67% /media/sf_virtualBoxShares
tmpfs                        201M     0  201M   0% /run/user/1000

Reference

  1. https://segmentfault.com/a/1190000013812527
  2. https://www.cnblogs.com/xueweihan/p/5923937.html

License: (CC 3.0) BY-NC-SA

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