Shrinking physical volumes in LVM on a Linux Guest in ESXi 5.0

Posted by Stew on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Stew
Published on 2012-04-15T11:28:05Z Indexed on 2012/04/15 11:32 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 240

Filed under:

linux

|

vmware-esxi

|

lvm

|

vmware-vsphere

The problem:

Linux guest (OpenSuse 12.1), with multiple virtual disks attached.

3 disks are in a logical volume, two of which are exactly 2TB.

None of the disks are independent, and due to the backup software we use, cannot be independent.

When the two 2TB virtual disks are "dependent", the snapshot fails stating that the file is too large for the datastore. When I put those two disks in independent mode, snapshots work fine (the other disk is 1.8TB).

I have therefore concluded that even shrinking the two physical disks by 100GB should solve the problem, however I am having trouble conceptualizing how to go about getting those disks smaller without breaking the LVM entirely.

The actual LV has 1.3TB free, so there is plenty of space to shrink with.

What I need to accomplish:

Deallocate 100GB from the two, 2TB virtual disks within the linux guest.

Shrink the two virtual disks by 100GB within vsphere (not as complicated).

Are there any vsphere/LVM gurus that can give me a clue?

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about linux

apt-get install and update fail

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I've got a problem with apt-get update and apt-get install ... commands . every time update or installing fails and errors are : Get:1 http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg [198B] Ign http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable/main Translation-en_US Get:2 http://dl… >>> More
kernel module compiling error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
sh@ubuntu:/home/ccpp/helloworld$ make gcc-4.6 -O2 -DMODULE -D_KERNEL_ -W -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -isystem /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include -c -o hello-1.o hello-1.c hello-1.c:4:0: warning: "MODULE" redefined [enabled by default] <command-line>:0:0: note: this is… >>> More
Build-Essentials installation failing

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having trouble accessing the several critical header files that show to be a part of the build process. The "Ubuntu Software Center" shows "Build Essentials" as installed: Next I did the following two commands, which did not improve the problem: ~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential [sudo]… >>> More
Updating Debian kernel

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm trying to update my Debian machine to 2.6.32-46 (which is the new stable). However, after doing apt-get update my apt-cache search linux-image shows me: linux-headers-2.6.32-5-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-486 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem linux-headers-2… >>> More
Serial connection over a single USB cable (Windows to linux, or linux to linux)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm helping out with a project for an embedded device that only has USB and no serial. This device is running Linux. These days, when we need to connect to a serial port on a device we typically use a USB to serial adapter (on something like a phone system or a load balancing device, etc). I would… >>> More

Related posts about vmware-esxi

VMWare ESXi, change the default path for a VM

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
For some reason VMWare ESXi has decided that one of my VMs is on a completely different path to the path it is actually on. So my VM is on /vmfs/volumes/long-guid-here/my-vm-name but when I try to open it I get the message "File < unspecified filename was not found." Which is not really surprising… >>> More
VMWare ESXi 3.5 Wake On Lan

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hello everyone! I am using VMWare ESXi 3.5 on my server, and I want to be able to remotely boot the server up. In the bios settings of the computer, I enabled Wake on Lan. I know usually with Windows XP and other Windows Operating Systems, you have to also enable wake on lan in the network card settings… >>> More
blu-ray archiving in vmware ESXi 4

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi, I need some advice about using blu-ray writer for archiving data on vmware ESXi 4. At office we have IBM System x3400 Tower server with ESXi 4 hipervisor and OpenSuse and CentOS GNU/Linux system as guests. Will blu-ray writer work in this setup, and if it will is there any particular model you… >>> More
I need to get VMWare Server running inside of a VMWare ESXi virtual machine

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Yes, I know running a virtual machine inside of a virtual machine is a bad idea. Yes, I know it will be very slow. However, our production system required VMs in VMWare server and I do not want to setup a real server for each of our developers for testing. I would like to be able to setup all of… >>> More
Eject disk on Mac Pro running VMWare ESXi

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm almost embarrassed to ask this, but I'm stuck. I installed VMWare ESXi on a Mac Pro. It's working great! The problem is that you press F12 to eject the disk, and F12 is what you use to shutdown ESX. I can power down, open the case, pull out the CD drive and use a paper clip to force the drawer… >>> More