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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

How To Resize ext3 Partitions Without Losing Data


1 Preliminary Note

(I run all the commands in this tutorial as the root user, so make sure you're logged in as root. If you are on a Ubuntu system, you can become root like this:

sudo su

)

I have tested this on a Ubuntu Edgy Eft desktop system that has all files in one large partition (around 10 GB, device /dev/sda1). The partitioning looks like this:

df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 9.5G 4.1G 4.9G 46% /
varrun 94M 132K 94M 1% /var/run
varlock 94M 0 94M 0% /var/lock
udev 10M 52K 10M 1% /dev
devshm 94M 0 94M 0% /dev/shm
lrm 94M 18M 77M 19% /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/volatile

The partition that is to be resized must be unmounted when we do the resizing; obviously this is not possible if this is the partition that holds all important system files like in this example. Therefore we download a Live Linux-CD such as Knoppix from which we boot later on (if you have physical access to the system). If it is a remote system that you don't have physical access to, you need a rescue system on that system (a lot of hosting companies offer dedicated servers with rescue systems nowadays) that you can boot into (instead of Knoppix), and this rescue system must have the following tools: fdisk, umount, fsck,tune2fs, e2fsck, resize2fs.

If the partition that you want to resize doesn't hold any system files (such as /home partitions, partitions for backups, etc.), you don't need a Knoppix Live-CD or a rescue system, because all steps can be run from the original system.

If you want to resize partitions on production systems, please back up your data before, because it is possible you lose all your data if you don't calculate the size of your new partition correctly (especially when shrinking a partition)! You have been warned! Tutorials about backups can be found here:http://www.howtoforge.com/taxonomy_menu/1/34

I'm going to resize /dev/sda1 in this tutorial. If your partition is named differently, please replace /dev/sda1 with your own device (e.g. /dev/hda5, /dev/sdb3, etc.).

2 Shrinking An ext3 Partition

This chapter is about shrinking an ext3 partition. I want to shrink /dev/sda1 in this example. First we gather some details on our original system:

df

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 9859036 4234908 5123304 46% /
varrun 95480 132 95348 1% /var/run
varlock 95480 0 95480 0% /var/lock
udev 10240 52 10188 1% /dev
devshm 95480 0 95480 0% /dev/shm
lrm 95480 17580 77900 19% /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/volatile

df -B 4k

Filesystem 4K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 2464759 1058727 1280826 46% /
varrun 23870 33 23837 1% /var/run
varlock 23870 0 23870 0% /var/lock
udev 2560 13 2547 1% /dev
devshm 23870 0 23870 0% /dev/shm
lrm 23870 4395 19475 19% /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/volatile

df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 9.5G 4.1G 4.9G 46% /
varrun 94M 132K 94M 1% /var/run
varlock 94M 0 94M 0% /var/lock
udev 10M 52K 10M 1% /dev
devshm 94M 0 94M 0% /dev/shm
lrm 94M 18M 77M 19% /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/volatile

fdisk -l


Disk /dev/sda: 10.7 GB, 10737418240 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1305 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1247 10016496 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1248 1305 465885 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1248 1305 465853+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

fdisk -s /dev/sda1

10016496

Then we shut down the system and boot into our Knoppix Live-CD (or your rescue system) (if the partition you want to resize doesn't hold any system files, you can do everything from the original system; the steps are the same, just omit booting into Knoppix/your rescue system).

shutdown -r now

After Knoppix has booted, open a terminal and become root by running

su

/dev/sda1 should be unmounted by default, but you can run

umount /dev/sda1

to go sure.

Then run

fsck -n /dev/sda1

The output looks like this:

fsck 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
e2fsck 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
/dev/sda1: clean, 159037/1254176 files, 1095299/2504124 blocks

Next we remove the journal from /dev/sda1, thus turning it into an ext2 partition:

tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sda1

The output looks like this:

tune2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)

Then run

e2fsck -f /dev/sda1

e2fsck 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/sda1: 164178/1254176 files (0.6% non-contiguous), 1051617/2504124 blocks

Now we resize our file system with resize2fs. resize2fs can resize ext2 file systems, but not ext3 file systems, that's why we had to turn /dev/sda1 to ext2. Currently, 4.1GB are used on /dev/sda1 (see the df -h output above), So it's safe to shrink it from 10GB to about 6GB (if you make it smaller than 4.1GB, you will lose data!). Therefore we run

resize2fs /dev/sda1 6000M

The output is as follows:

resize2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/sda1 to 1536000 (4k) blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/sda1 is now 1536000 blocks long.

Please take note of the amount of blocks (1536000) and their size (4k). We need that soon.

Now we delete our /dev/sda1 partition (don't be afraid, no data will be lost) and create a new, smaller one (but still big enough to hold our resized file system!). We can do this with fdisk:

fdisk /dev/sda

(Yes, it's /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1.)

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 1305.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Type m to get a list of all commands:

Command (m for help): m
Command action
a toggle a bootable flag
b edit bsd disklabel
c toggle the dos compatibility flag
d delete a partition
l list known partition types
m print this menu
n add a new partition
o create a new empty DOS partition table
p print the partition table
q quit without saving changes
s create a new empty Sun disklabel
t change a partition's system id
u change display/entry units
v verify the partition table
w write table to disk and exit
x extra functionality (experts only)

Now we delete partition no. 1 (/dev/sda1):

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-5): 1

Next we create a new /dev/sda1 partition. It was a primary partition before, so we choose p again, and again it is our partition no. 1:

Command (m for help): n
Command action
l logical (5 or over)
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1

Now comes the crucial part - we are asked about the size of the new partition. The first cylinder is no problem, it is the one from the fdisk -l output at the beginning of this chapter (1).

First cylinder (1-1305, default 1): 1

But we don't have a value for the last cylinder of our new partition. Fortunately, we can specify the size in kilobytes (K), so we calculate the size like this:

We multiply the amount of blocks from the resize2fs output (1536000) by the size of a block (4k), and to go sure the partition is big enough, we add 3 to 5% to it (3% was enough for me, but if you want to go sure take 5%):

1536000 * 4k * 1.03 = 6328320k

So we prepend that value with a + sign and replace the small k with a capital one (K) and enter it:

Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-1247, default 1247): +6328320K

Our original /dev/sda1 had the bootable flag (see the fdisk -l output from the beginning of this chapter), so we must add it to our new /dev/sda1 again:

Command (m for help): a
Partition number (1-5): 1

Now let's write our new partition table and exit fdisk:

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.
Syncing disks.

Now we reboot the system, and again we boot into our Knoppix system (rescue system; original system if resized partition doesn't hold system files):

shutdown -r now

Become root again (on Knoppix run

su

)

and then run this:

fsck -n /dev/sda1

The output should look like this:

fsck 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
e2fsck 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
/dev/sda1: clean, 159036/765536 files, 1047239/1536000 blocks

Then we create the journal on our new /dev/sda1, thus turning it into an ext3 partition again:

tune2fs -j /dev/sda1

tune2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
Creating journal inode: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 30 mounts or
0 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

Now we are done. Shut down the system and boot into the original system:

shutdown -r now

If everything goes well, the original system will boot up, and no data has been lost. Now we can gather some details about our new partitioning and compare them with the information we collected at the beginning of this chapter:

df

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 6047868 4224140 1639408 73% /
varrun 95480 132 95348 1% /var/run
varlock 95480 0 95480 0% /var/lock
udev 10240 52 10188 1% /dev
devshm 95480 0 95480 0% /dev/shm
lrm 95480 17580 77900 19% /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/volatile

df -B 4k

Filesystem 4K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 1511967 1056035 409852 73% /
varrun 23870 33 23837 1% /var/run
varlock 23870 0 23870 0% /var/lock
udev 2560 13 2547 1% /dev
devshm 23870 0 23870 0% /dev/shm
lrm 23870 4395 19475 19% /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/volatile

df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 5.8G 4.1G 1.6G 73% /
varrun 94M 132K 94M 1% /var/run
varlock 94M 0 94M 0% /var/lock
udev 10M 52K 10M 1% /dev
devshm 94M 0 94M 0% /dev/shm
lrm 94M 18M 77M 19% /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/volatile

fdisk -l


Disk /dev/sda: 10.7 GB, 10737418240 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1305 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 789 6337611 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1248 1305 465885 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1248 1305 465853+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

fdisk -s /dev/sda1

6337611


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