Disclaimer: The following instructions can easily screw your data if you make a mistake. I was doing this on a VM which I backed up before performing the following actions. If you loose your data because you didn’t backup don’t come and complain.
Increase the disk size.
In ESXi this is simple, just increase the size of the virtual disk. Now you have a bigger hard drive but you still need to a) increase the partition size and b) resize the filesystem.
Increase the partition size.
You can use fdisk to change your partition table while running. The stock Ubuntu install has created 3 partitions: one primary (sda1), one extended (sda2) with a single logical partition (sda5) in it. The extended partition is simply used for swap, so I could easily move it without losing any data.
Steps
- Delete the primary partition
- Delete the extended partition
- Create a new primary partition starting at the same sector as the original one just with a bigger size (leave some for swap)
- Create a new extended partition with a logical partition in it to hold the swap space
fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 64.4 GB, 64424509440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7832 cylinders, total 125829120 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 identifier: 0x0004dd36
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 75503614 37750783+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 75503615 83886079 4191232+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 75505663 83886079 4190208+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
root@rl-web:~# fdisk /dev/sda
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 64.4 GB, 64424509440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7832 cylinders, total 125829120 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 identifier: 0x0004dd36
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 75503614 37750783+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 75503615 83886079 4191232+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 75505663 83886079 4190208+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-5): 1
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-5): 2
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 64.4 GB, 64424509440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7832 cylinders, total 125829120 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 identifier: 0x0004dd36
Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
e extended
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-125829119, default 2048):
Using default value 2048
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-125829119, default 125829119): 117448703
Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
p primary (1 primary, 0 extended, 3 free)
e extended
Select (default p): e
Partition number (1-4, default 2): 2
First sector (117448704-125829119, default 117448704):
Using default value 117448704
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (117448704-125829119, default 125829119):
Using default value 125829119
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 64.4 GB, 64424509440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7832 cylinders, total 125829120 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 identifier: 0x0004dd36
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 117448703 58723328 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 117448704 125829119 4190208 5 Extended
## Recreate Swap Parition in sda2
logical partition will be created in extended file system and will be assigned Hex code 82 for marking it swap partition
Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
p primary (1 primary, 1 extended, 2 free)
l logical (numbered from 5)
Select (default p): l
Adding logical partition 5
First sector (117450752-125829119, default 117450752):
Using default value 117450752
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (117450752-125829119, default 125829119):
Using default value 125829119
Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-5): 5
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82
Changed system type of partition 5 to 82 (Linux swap / Solaris)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 64.4 GB, 64424509440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7832 cylinders, total 125829120 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 identifier: 0x0004dd36
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 117448703 58723328 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 117448704 125829119 4190208 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 117450752 125829119 4189184 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: 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)
Syncing disks.
at this point you can reboot the system
root@rl-web:~# sudo reboot
resize your disk
root@rl-web:~# sudo resize2fs /dev/sda1
check the space increase
df -h
Recreate Swap:
remember the UUID you will need to change your fstab
bash
root@rl-web:~# mkswap /dev/sda5
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 4189180 KiB
no label, UUID=9bcfb33b-a900-4688-875c-d5cfd02a7120
make swap active
root@rl-web:~# sudo swapon --all --verbose
change swap UUID in /etc/fstab
root@rl-web:~# vim /etc/fstab