How to Increase Hard Disk Size Without adding a new disk

Table of contents

  1. 1. Resize actual disk
  2. 2. Boot the VM and do as follows:
  3. 3. Reboot the VM

1.  Resize actual disk

Use the vmware-vdiskmanager utility in order to change the actual size of the Virtual Disk.

  • Turn off the virtual machine
  • Find the name_of_VM.vmdk file
  • Execute 
 vmware-vdiskmanager -x SIZEGb/SizeMb name_.vmdk

where SizeGb/SizeMb is the new dimension of your HD.

2.  Boot the VM and do as follows:

  • Use fdisk utility, 
fdisk /dev/sda
  • see the partition table, 
Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sda2              14         318     2449912+  8e  Linux LVM
  • delete the second partition, 
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 2

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
  • recreate the partition, 
Command (m for help): n
Command action
  e   extended
  p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (14-391, default 14):
Using default value 14
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (14-391, default 391):
Using default value 391

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 2
Hex code (type L to list codes): 8e
Changed system type of partition 2 to 8e (Linux LVM)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sda2              14         391     3036285   8e  Linux LVM
  • write all the changes, 
Command (m for help): w

3.  Reboot the VM

In order to get everything work you should reboot your machine and do as follows on the VM:

  • resize the physical partition: 
pvresize -v -d /dev/sda2
  • extend the logical volume 
lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
  • resize the Volume Group: 
resize2fs /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00