How to resize / enlarge / grow a non-LVM ext4 partition
- by Mischa
I have already searched the forums, but couldnt find a good suitable answer:
I have an Ubuntu Server 10.04 as KVM Host and a guest system, that also runs 10.04. The host system uses LVM and there are three logical volumes, which are provided to the guest as virtual block devices - one for /, one for /home and one for swap. The guest had been partitioned without LVM.
I have already enlarged the logical volume in the host system - the guest successfully sees the bigger virtual disk. However, this virtual disk contains one "good old" partition, which still has the old small size.
The output of fdisk -l is
me@produktion:/$ LC_ALL=en_US sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/vda: 32.2 GB, 32212254720 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3916 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c8ce7
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/vda1 * 1 3917 31455232 83 Linux
Disk /dev/vdb: 2147 MB, 2147483648 bytes
244 heads, 47 sectors/track, 365 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 11468 * 512 = 5871616 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000f2bf7
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/vdb1 1 366 2095104 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(0, 32, 33) logical=(0, 43, 28)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(260, 243, 47) logical=(365, 136, 44)
Disk /dev/vdc: 225.5 GB, 225485783040 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 27413 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00027f25
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/vdc1 1 9138 73398272 83 Linux
The output of parted print all is
Model: Virtio Block Device (virtblk)
Disk /dev/vda: 32.2GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 32.2GB 32.2GB primary ext4 boot
Model: Virtio Block Device (virtblk)
Disk /dev/vdb: 2147MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 2146MB 2145MB primary linux-swap(v1)
Model: Virtio Block Device (virtblk)
Disk /dev/vdc: 225GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 75.2GB 75.2GB primary ext4
What I want to achieve is to simply grow or resize the partition /dev/vdc1 so that it uses the whole space provided by the virtual block device /dev/vdc. The problem is, that when I try to do that with parted, it complains:
(parted) select /dev/vdc
Using /dev/vdc
(parted) print
Model: Virtio Block Device (virtblk)
Disk /dev/vdc: 225GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 75.2GB 75.2GB primary ext4
(parted) resize 1
WARNING: you are attempting to use parted to operate on (resize) a file system.
parted's file system manipulation code is not as robust as what you'll find in
dedicated, file-system-specific packages like e2fsprogs. We recommend
you use parted only to manipulate partition tables, whenever possible.
Support for performing most operations on most types of file systems
will be removed in an upcoming release.
Start? [1049kB]?
End? [75.2GB]? 224GB
Error: File system has an incompatible feature enabled. Compatible features are has_journal, dir_index, filetype, sparse_super and large_file. Use tune2fs
or debugfs to remove features.
So what can I do? This is a headless production system. What is a safe way to grow this partition? I CAN unmount it, though - so this is not the problem.