Root partition out of disk space - how to increase?

[martcj]

One of our vSphere nodes that connects to a SAN via FC has run out of disk space on root. It was set up with all the default partition sizes when it was built.

The reason that the partition is full is that our backup software agent (installed in /opt) that backs up all our VM's and only resides on this node has used all the available space creating backup catalogs etc.

My question is -

Is it possible to increase the size of the root partition and if so, what would the best method be?

I use linux a bit but have never had to really dabble with changing partitions before and haven't found a definitive answer from searching.

These are the file system details- VMFS_1, 2 and 3 are volumes on our SAN and vsphere-local is the local hd:

# vdf -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sde5 4.9G 4.9G 0 100% /

/dev/sdd1 1.1G 93M 934M 10% /boot

/dev/sde2 2.0G 80M 1.8G 5% /var/log

/vmfs/devices 68G 0 68G 0% /vmfs/devices

/vmfs/volumes/4bc316f4-60f7ceda-dd8e-18a905636a92

67G 8.1G 58G 12% /vmfs/volumes/vsphere-Local

/vmfs/volumes/4bc32f57-d986f429-5408-18a90566f334

1.6T 648G 1.0T 38% /vmfs/volumes/VMFS_1

/vmfs/volumes/4bc32f91-fcb43a6b-62be-18a90566f334

1.6T 307G 1.3T 18% /vmfs/volumes/VMFS_2

/vmfs/volumes/4c8f535f-938270cf-09fa-18a90566f33a

1.6T 703G 970G 42% /vmfs/volumes/VMFS_3

# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 1798.5 GB, 1798524895232 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 218658 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sda1 1 218658 1756370321 fb VMware VMFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 1799.0 GB, 1799049805824 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 218722 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdb1 1 218722 1756884401 fb VMware VMFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 1797.9 GB, 1797999984640 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 218594 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdc1 1 218594 1755856241 fb VMware VMFS

Disk /dev/sdd: 73.3 GB, 73372631040 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8920 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdd1 * 1 140 1124518+ 83 Linux

/dev/sdd2 141 154 112455 fc VMware VMKCORE

/dev/sdd3 155 8920 70412895 5 Extended

/dev/sdd5 155 8920 70412863+ fb VMware VMFS

Disk /dev/sde: 8095 MB, 8095006720 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 984 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sde1 1 91 730926 82 Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sde2 92 346 2048287+ 83 Linux

/dev/sde3 347 984 5124735 5 Extended

/dev/sde5 347 984 5124703+ 83 Linux

[Troy_Clavell]

I would start here

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003564

[AndreTheGiant]

Using ESX 4.x the service console disk is a vmdk file.

But this does not meat that is simple to extend or that you can (in a simple way) add another vmdk.

The best choice is rebuild the ESX with a bigger disk for the service console, or plan to migrate to ESXi.

How many space is used by /opt ? If is around 1 GB you can move the opt to the /var/log partion... it's a dirty solution but it can work.

The commands are:

cd /

mv /opt /var/log/

ln -s /var/log/opt /opt

Andre

[martcj]

Thanks for that. Unfortunately /opt is 3.2GB so not worth moving.

I think I will have to reinstall vSphere on this particular server. Is it possible to set larger partition sizes for the root partition as part of the GUI installation?

[Troy_Clavell]

>Is it possible to set larger partition sizes for the root partition as part of the GUI installation?

yes

[malaysiavm]

I previously tried to do this before, but answer is not success. The ESX hypervisor had been virtualize in vmdk format as well. If you tend to do it from CLI, it will end up corrupted the entire hypervisor. Re-install is the most easiet way to go

:smileywink:

Craig

vExpert 2009 & 2010

Malaysia VMware Communities -