Ubuntu – How to automatically increase the partition size of multiple Ubuntu nodes in VMware vSphere

cheflvmpartitionUbuntuvmware-vsphere

We have dozens of Ubuntu nodes where I have to resize the hard disk drive to different sizes. Currently I’m doing all of the following steps manually:

  1. Increase the size of each node’s virtual hard disk in VMware vCenter.
  2. Change the configuration of the DVD drive, mount a GParted ISO, boot from BIOS, and change the boot order.
  3. Boot into GParted, manually increase /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda5.
  4. Stop the VM, disable the DVD drive, and start the VM.
  5. Use lvextend -r /dev/ubuntu/root /dev/sda5 to extend the LVM and resize the partition to its maximum possible size.
  6. Optional: Check with df -h if everything’s OK.

I would love to automate this process, in a best case to provide a list of node names and corresponding sizes and let the tool do its job. In the case where there is no automated solution available I would love to hear about micro-optimizing every of these steps to make my tedious job easier.

We’re already automatically provisioning our nodes with Chef, and a VM template with a hard disk size of 16 GB.

Any smart ideas?

Best Answer

This can be done without a reboot or the nasty DVD step...

First, expand the disk at the vCenter/vSphere level. You know how to do that. It can also be automated or scripted.

Show your current block device size...

# fdisk -l

Rescan the SCSI bus within the VM to realize the new drive size.

# echo 1 > /sys/class/scsi_disk/0:0:0:0/device/rescan

(Note: The disk identifiers may vary, but tend to correspond with the VM's SCSI device nodes. You'll likely see 0:0:0:0 for the root volume you're dealing with.)

Verify this with dmesg | tail or another fdisk -l

Continue with your LVM magic...

That should take care of everything.

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