Chapter 13. Increasing the size of an XFS file system


As a system administrator, you can increase the size of an XFS file system to make a complete use of a larger storage capacity. However, it is not currently possible to decrease the size of XFS file systems.

Important

Increasing a filesystem from a very small size to a significantly larger size creates a high number of allocations groups, potentially leading to performance issues. As a best practice, limit the size increase to a maximum of 10 times the original size.

This procedure describes how to grow an XFS file system using the xfs_growfs utility.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that the underlying block device is of an appropriate size to hold the resized file system later. Use the appropriate resizing methods for the affected block device.
  • Mount the XFS file system.

Procedure

  • While the XFS file system is mounted, use the xfs_growfs utility to increase its size:

    # xfs_growfs file-system -D new-size
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
    • Replace file-system with the mount point of the XFS file system.
    • With the -D option, replace new-size with the desired new size of the file system specified in the number of file system blocks.

      To find out the block size in kB of a given XFS file system, use the xfs_info utility:

      # xfs_info block-device
      
      ...
      data     =              bsize=4096
      ...
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    • Without the -D option, xfs_growfs grows the file system to the maximum size supported by the underlying device.

      For more information, see the xfs_growfs(8) man page on your system.

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