13.5. Resizing a Partition with fdisk
The
fdisk
utility allows you to create and manipulate GPT, MBR, Sun, SGI, and BSD partition tables. On disks with a GUID Partition Table (GPT), using the parted
utility is recommended, as fdisk
GPT support is in an experimental phase.
Before resizing a partition, back up the data stored on the file system and test the procedure, as the only way to change a partition size using
fdisk
is by deleting and recreating the partition.
Important
The partition you are resizing must be the last partition on a particular disk.
Red Hat only supports extending and resizing LVM partitions.
Procedure 13.4. Resizing a Partition
The following procedure is provided only for reference.
To resize a partition using
fdisk
:
- Unmount the device:
#
umount /dev/vda
- Run
fdisk disk_name
. For example:#
fdisk /dev/vda
Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.23.2). Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them. Be careful before using the write command. Command (m for help): - Use the
p
option to determine the line number of the partition to be deleted.Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/vda: 16.1 GB, 16106127360 bytes, 31457280 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 label type: dos Disk identifier: 0x0006d09a Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/vda1 * 2048 1026047 512000 83 Linux /dev/vda2 1026048 31457279 15215616 8e Linux LVM
- Use the
d
option to delete a partition. If there is more than one partition available,fdisk
prompts you to provide a number of the partition to delete:Command (m for help): d Partition number (1,2, default 2): 2 Partition 2 is deleted
- Use the
n
option to create a partition and follow the prompts. Allow enough space for any future resizing. Thefdisk
default behavior (pressEnter
) is to use all space on the device. You can specify the end of the partition by sectors, or specify a human-readable size by using+<size><suffix>
, for example +500M, or +10G.Red Hat recommends using the human-readable size specification if you do not want to use all free space, asfdisk
aligns the end of the partition with the physical sectors. If you specify the size by providing an exact number (in sectors),fdisk
does not align the end of the partition.Command (m for help): n Partition type: p primary (1 primary, 0 extended, 3 free) e extended Select (default p): *Enter* Using default response p Partition number (2-4, default 2): *Enter* First sector (1026048-31457279, default 1026048): *Enter* Using default value 1026048 Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (1026048-31457279, default 31457279): +500M Partition 2 of type Linux and of size 500 MiB is set
- Set the partition type to LVM:
Command (m for help): t Partition number (1,2, default 2): *Enter* Hex code (type L to list all codes): 8e Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux LVM'
- Write the changes with the
w
option when you are sure the changes are correct, as errors can cause instability with the selected partition. - Run
e2fsck
on the device to check for consistency:#
e2fsck /dev/vda
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010) 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 ext4-1:11/131072 files (0.0% non-contiguous),27050/524128 blocks - Mount the device:
#
mount /dev/vda
For more information, see the fdisk(8) manual page.