How do you increase a KVM guest's disk space?

Question

I setup an Ubuntu guest on a CentOS KVM host with initially 6GB of disk space. How do I go about increasing the Ubuntu guest's disk space from the command line?

EDIT #1: I'm using a disk image file (qemu).

Online resize: https://serverfault.com/a/952868/30946 – Mircea Vutcovici Feb 07 '19 at 22:36 — Mircea Vutcovici, Feb 07 '19 at 22:36

score 145 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 24 '11 at 15:32

145

stop the VM
run qemu-img resize vmdisk.img +10G to increase image size by 10Gb
start the VM, resize the partitions and LVM structure within it normally

answered Oct 24 '11 at 15:32

dyasny

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Ah, you beat me to it, I just noticed the resize options on qemu-img in the man page. So this save a couple of steps. Nice! – slm Oct 24 '11 at 15:53
it has been around forever. actually, your way will not work with qcow, only with raw images, and will definitely fail if there's a snapshot chain involved – dyasny Oct 24 '11 at 15:55
The version of qemu-img on CentOS5.6 doesn't include the resize option, so your only option is to use the trick of creating a raw 10GB .img file and then catting it together with the existing .img file, like so: cat vmdisk.img addon.raw >> vmdisk_new.img. The 10GB .img file can be created like so: qemu-img create -f raw addon.raw 10G. – slm Dec 07 '11 at 05:40
Just checked in RHEL6.1 - the option is there. – dyasny Dec 07 '11 at 08:54
This worked fine on resizing raspberrypi.img +1 (I had to remove root symlinks, resize and redo the symlinks though) Perfect. Thanks! – Piotr Kula Feb 21 '15 at 02:47
2

Worked for re-sizing my *.qcow2 img on RHEL6.6. Thanks! – Jacob Goulden Mar 12 '15 at 17:54
23

`start the VM, resize the partitions and LVM structure within it normally` How to do it? Please explain it. – Waki Jul 02 '15 at 19:17
1

You can't have everything handed to you on a platter. If you have tried and failed to resize partitions or LVs, open a new question, describe what you tried and what didn't work – dyasny Jul 02 '15 at 22:43
10

To resize partions and LVM, follow all steps as explained in this excellent article: https://sandilands.info/sgordon/increasing-kvm-virtual-machine-disk-using-lvm-ext4 – skonsoft Jul 03 '16 at 18:55
7

why don't you just use `1. fix the problem`? the vague part is `3.`... are you kidding me? – d9ngle May 04 '20 at 15:47
1

@d9ngle Well, see, here's the thing. dyasny's answer isn't vague. It explains exactly how to grow a VM image's allocated space. Step 3 involves resizing the _filesystem_, which is the same whether or not you're using a VM, **but** is different for every OS, distro, and release. So if you don't know how to resize disk volumes in your (guest) OS, then _you have two questions_. **One** of them has now been answered. – FeRD Jan 06 '22 at 20:34

billyw · Answer 2 · 2018-05-01T16:30:51.590

37

Online Method (using qemu, libvirt, and virtio-block)

For better or worse, the commands below will run even if the target virtual disk is mounted. This can be useful in environments where the disk cannot be unmounted (such as a root partition), the VM must stay on, and the system owner is willing to assume the risk of data corruption. To remove that risk, you would need to log into the VM and unmount the target disk first, something that isn't always possible.

Perform the following from the KVM hypervisor.

Increase the size of the disk image file itself (specify the amount to increase):
```
qemu-img resize <my_vm>.img +10G
```

Get the name of the virtio device, via the libvirt shell (drive-virtio-disk0 in this example):

virsh qemu-monitor-command <my_vm> info block --hmp
  drive-virtio-disk0: removable=0 io-status=ok file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/<my_vm>.img ro=0 drv=raw encrypted=0
  drive-ide0-1-0: removable=1 locked=0 tray-open=0 io-status=ok [not inserted]

Signal the virtio driver to detect the new size (specify the total new capacity):
```
virsh qemu-monitor-command <my_vm> block_resize drive-virtio-disk0 20G --hmp
```

Then log into the VM. Running dmesg should report that the virtio disk detected a capacity change. At this point, go ahead and resize your partitions and LVM structure as needed.

edited May 01 '18 at 16:30

answered Sep 22 '15 at 23:08

billyw

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The man page for qemu-img (mine is dated 2016-05-08) says: "**Warning:** Never use qemu-img to modify images in use by a running virtual machine or any other process; this may destroy the image. Also, be aware that querying an image that is being modified by another process may encounter inconsistent state." So I am not sure whether (the first step) is safe when the virtual machine is still running. – user44400 May 30 '17 at 07:51
Does not work on centos7+kvm – e-info128 Dec 27 '17 at 13:27
1

This worked perfectly for me. Using ceph and virtio block devices. we store application data / MySQL db on a separate partition. Stop the applications accessing this partition. Unmount it. Resize it. fsck. then mount it again with the new size. No shutdown needed. – nelaaro Apr 30 '18 at 14:44
Same as this answer, but using libvirt instead of monitor console: https://serverfault.com/a/952868/30946 – Mircea Vutcovici Feb 09 '19 at 17:18

score 22 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

These serverfault questions are similar but more specific, KVM online disk resize? & Centos Xen resizing DomU partition and volume group. The 1st asks the question of how to increase a KVM guest while it's online, while the 2nd is XEN specific using LVM. I'm asking how to accomplish this while the KVM is offline.

NOTE: This link was useful for METHOD #1, and shows how to accomplish increasing a KVM's disk space (ext3 based), HOWTO: Resize a KVM Virtual Machine Image.

One thing to be aware of with KVM guests is that the partitions they're using inside can effect which method you can use to increase their disk space.

METHOD #1: Partitions are ext2/ext3/ext4 based

The nuts of this method are as follows:

# 1. stop the VM
# 2. move the current image
mv mykvm.img mykvm.img.bak

# 3. create a new image
qemu-img create -f raw addon.raw 30G

# 4. concatenate the 2 images
cat mykvm.img.bak addon.raw >> mykvm.img

Now with the larger mykvm.img file in hand, boot gparted and extend the existing partition into the newly added disk space. This last step basically extends the OS partition so that it can make use of the extra space.

METHOD #2: Partitions are LVM based

Here are the steps that I roughly followed to resize a KVM guest that used LVM internally.

Shutdown the VM
add more space to the guest's "image file" (something like: cat old.img 10G_addon.raw >> new.img
start the VM (using the newly created new.img)

run fdisk inside VM and delete & re-create LVM partition

% fdisk /dev/vda
...
Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/vda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/vda2              14        3263    26105625   8e  Linux LVM

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 2

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/vda: 48.3 GB, 48318382080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 5874 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/vda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux

Command (m for help): n 
Command action
  e   extended
  p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (14-5874, default 14): 14
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (14-5874, default 5874): 
Using default value 5874

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/vda: 48.3 GB, 48318382080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 5874 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/vda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/vda2              14        5874    47078482+  83  Linux

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/vda: 48.3 GB, 48318382080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 5874 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/vda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/vda2              14        5874    47078482+  8e  Linux LVM

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or 
resource busy.
The kernel still uses the old table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
Syncing disks.
%

Reboot the VM

Resize the LVM physical volume

% pvdisplay 
  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/vda2
  VG Name               VolGroup00
  PV Size               24.90 GB / not usable 21.59 MB
  Allocatable           yes (but full)
  PE Size (KByte)       32768
  Total PE              796
  Free PE               0
  ...

% pvresize /dev/vda2

% pvdisplay
  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/vda2
  VG Name               VolGroup00
  PV Size               44.90 GB / not usable 22.89 MB
  Allocatable           yes 
  PE Size (KByte)       32768
  Total PE              1436
  Free PE               640
  ...

Resize the LVM Logical Volume

  % lvresize /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 -l +640
  Extending logical volume LogVol00 to 43.88 GB
  Logical volume LogVol00 successfully resized

Grow the File system

  % resize2fs /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 
  resize2fs 1.39 (29-May-2006)
  Filesystem at /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 is mounted on /; on-line resizing required
  Performing an on-line resize of /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 to 11501568 (4k) blocks.
  The filesystem on /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 is now 11501568 blocks long.

The above is my example, but I followed the steps on this website

method #1 in this post doesn't seem to work that well - virtual machine manager in red hat does not report the new size afterwards. The method suggested by @dyasny seems to work better at-least in this respect. — Iwan Aucamp, May 30 '14 at 08:36
@IwanAucamp - interesting, I use `virt-manager` and have used method #1 & #2 extensively before I migrated our KVM servers to a newer version of KVM (CentOS 5 -> CentOS 6). I now use the `qemu-img resize` method as well. — slm, May 30 '14 at 11:53
For method #2, you might find lvextend handier as step 7: `lvextend /dev/Volgroup/lvname /dev/vda2` (all on one line, where /dev/vda2 would be your physical volume). Without any other options, it will use the maximum size in that volume group. — Mike S, May 05 '15 at 18:42
Method #2, step 4 won't work if there are logical volumes in a partition table. After recreation of extended type of a partition, first available sector will no longer match what one had prior to the changes. E.g. if first sector of your logical partition was 1001472, after the changes it will be 1003518 (assuming 10G disk before and 50G after resizing). Anybody knows how to recreate, if at all possible, logical volumes at the same first sector? — ILIV, Nov 17 '16 at 17:18
This is due to fdisk by default applying alignment constraints (1MB step) to partitions. To work around, accept default value of 1003518, enter expert mode (x) then choose b and set first sector to 1001472. See http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/320447 for details. — ILIV, Nov 17 '16 at 18:06

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 13 '16 at 14:02

Resize and Expand Internal Partitions in One Step

I had an Ubuntu host with a qcow2 guest file image and wanted to resize the disk and expand the appropriate partitions all in one step. It requires you to set up the libvirt guest filesystem utilities, but those are useful to have around anyway.

Inspiration from here: http://libguestfs.org/virt-resize.1.html

The key command here is: virt-resize

this is a libvirt utility
it can expand a guest disk AND expand the partitions inside in one step
it copies the disk, it doesn't expand it in-place
- this is good because you have the untouched original as a backup

Preparation:

* Install libvirt file system utilities package 
    * sudo apt-get install libguestfs-tools

* Test to see if it works (it won't) -- you need to see "===== TEST FINISHED OK =====" at the bottom:
    * sudo libguestfs-test-tool

* If you don't see "===== TEST FINISHED OK =====" at the bottom then repair it:
    * sudo update-guestfs-appliance

* Run the test again and verify it works
    * sudo libguestfs-test-tool

Now do the following:

1) shutdown the guest:

2) Check out the current sizing and view the partition name you want to expand using libvirt utility:

sudo virt-filesystems --long --parts --blkdevs -h -a name-of-guest-disk-file

3) Create the new (40G) output disk:

qcow: sudo qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o preallocation=metadata outdisk 40G
img:  sudo truncate -s 40G outdisk

4) Copy the old to the new while expand the appropriate partition (assuming your disk partition from step 2 was /dev/sda1):

sudo virt-resize --expand /dev/sda1 indisk outdisk

5) Rename the indisk file as a backup, rename the outdisk as indisk (or modify the guest XML)

6) Reboot the guest and test the new disk file carefully before deleting the original file

7) Profit!

This almost does the job in my case. Sadly, almost. When the guest (a CentOS 7 server) is rebooted, it finds the expanded disk unbootable. — Urhixidur, Oct 14 '16 at 19:08
It worked great for me. Omitting `-o preallocation=metadata` creates a sparse file. With that option it pre-allocates the entire size. — Dennis Williamson, Dec 14 '16 at 01:28
Excellent, this answer nailed it for me. Thanks so much! The "official" documentation for libguestfs (http://libguestfs.org/virt-resize.1.html), unfortunately is not well written and ends up being quite confusing. — mbello, Aug 16 '17 at 14:27
Worked well for me, remember that you don't actually need to use `-o preallocation=metadata` and if you don't you should also skip the `truncate` step. `virt-resize` will grow the file as appropriate anyway. — amoe, Nov 13 '17 at 16:29

Mircea Vutcovici · Answer 5 · 2021-05-11T13:01:03.083

It is possible to do online resize, without stopping the VM. libvirtd supports this natively:

Find the block device name. Should be something like "vda"

$ virsh domblklist <libvirtd_vm_name>

Resize the virtual device:

$ virsh blockresize --domain <libvirtd_vm_name> --path <block_device_name> --size <new_size>

Here is an example were I expand the vda disk from 50GB to 51GB for undercloud VM.

[root@localhost ~]# virsh domblklist undercloud
Target     Source
------------------------------------------------
vda        /home/images/undercloud.qcow2

Now take a look at the .qcow2 image file's details:

[root@localhost ~]# qemu-img info /home/images/undercloud.qcow2
image: /home/images/undercloud.qcow2
file format: qcow2
virtual size: 50G (53687091200 bytes)
disk size: 38G
cluster_size: 65536
Format specific information:
    compat: 1.1
    lazy refcounts: false
    refcount bits: 16
    corrupt: false

Now let's resize the vda block device:

[root@localhost ~]# virsh blockresize undercloud vda 51G
Block device 'vda' is resized

And confirm:

[root@localhost ~]# qemu-img info /home/images/undercloud.qcow2
image: /home/images/undercloud.qcow2
file format: qcow2
virtual size: 51G (54760833024 bytes)
disk size: 38G
cluster_size: 65536
Format specific information:
    compat: 1.1
    lazy refcounts: false
    refcount bits: 16
    corrupt: false
[root@localhost ~]#

Then you can use this script inside the VM to show the commands to resize the block devices and fs: https://github.com/mircea-vutcovici/scripts/blob/master/vol_resize.sh. Here is a sample output:

mvutcovi@ubuntu1904:~$ wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mircea-vutcovici/scripts/master/vol_resize.sh

mvutcovi@ubuntu1904:~$ df /
Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1       15414216 7928904   6682600  55% /

mvutcovi@ubuntu1904:~$ sudo bash vol_resize.sh --block-device /dev/vda1
sfdisk -d /dev/vda > dev_vda-partition-table-$(date +%F_%H%M%S).txt   # Backup MS-DOS partition table for /dev/vda block device.
parted -s /dev/vda resizepart 1   # Resize MS-DOS partition /dev/vda1
# Update kernel with new partition table from disk
partx -u /dev/vda
partprobe /dev/vda
blockdev --rereadpt /dev/vda
kpartx -u /dev/vda
resize2fs /dev/vda1    # Resize ext3 or ext4 filesystem
mvutcovi@ubuntu1904:~$

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 24 '11 at 15:10

If you are using LVM within the VM the simplest way to do this woudl be to add a new virtual disk to the VM and expand the volume group and logical volumes onto that.

To check if you are using LVM run sudo pvs; sudo vgs; sudo lvs, you will get something like this out:

PV         VG     Fmt  Attr PSize  PFree
/dev/vda1  vgWWW  lvm2 a-   30.00g    0

VG     #PV #LV #SN Attr   VSize  VFree
vgWWW    1   2   0 wz--n- 30.00g    0

LV   VG    Attr   LSize 
root vgWWW -wi-ao 28.80g
swap vgWWW -wi-ao  1.19g

if the VM's OS is using LVM. In the above example the VM has a 30Gbyte vdisk, configured using LVM with one volume group called vgWWW containing two logical volumes, one for swap and one for everything else.

If LV is in use in the VM:

Shut down the VM
On the host create a new virtual disk file and add it to the VM
Restart the VM and login
Mark the new drive as being a physical volume for LVM with sudo pvcreate /dev/vdb
Extend the volume group to include this new block of disk with sudo vgextend vgWWW /dev/vdb
Extend the logical volume to take up the new space with sudo lvextend --extents +100%FREE /dev/vgWWW/root (or something like sudo lvextend --size +8G /dev/vgWWW/root if you don't want to grow it all the way, this example would add 8Gb to the volume)
Resize the filesystem with resize2fs /dev/vgWWW/root

Note: the above assumes the vg/lv names are the same as my example which is unlikely, change as appropriate, also if the VM already had a virtual drive called vdb the new one will be something else (vdc, and so on)

Note: resize2fs will only work on ext2, ext3 and ext4 filesystem. If you are using something else it will error and do nothing.

Note: as you are resizing a live filesystem resize2fs won't prompt you to run fsck first as it would for an unmounted filesystem, it will just go ahead. You might want to run a read-only filesystem check there are no issues before proceeding.

This can also be done with GUI that is quite nice http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/Deployment_Guide-en-US/s1-system-config-lvm.html — Nux, Jun 07 '13 at 16:13

score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 05 '17 at 23:53

5

This way you can expand the partition you want:

    # see what partitions you have? 
    virt-filesystems --long -h --all -a olddisk

    truncate -r olddisk newdisk
    truncate -s +5G newdisk

    # Note "/dev/sda2" is a partition inside the "olddisk" file.
    virt-resize --expand /dev/sda2 olddisk newdisk

See more examples here.

edited Apr 05 '17 at 23:53

slm

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answered Oct 01 '16 at 15:50

Hojat Modaresi

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score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 12 '13 at 10:25

There is a possibility to increase the size of your VM's disk without rebooting the VM if you're using virtio drive and LVM.

Use virt-manager or virsh to define a new empty disk
The kernel should see a new /dev/vdb
(Optional) Create a primary partition with fdisk to get /dev/vdb1, then use kpartx -a /dev/vdb to reread the partition table
Use vgextend vg_name /dev/vdb1 (or /dev/vdb if you did not create a partition)
Use lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/vg_name/lv_name
Use resize2fs /dev/vg_name/lv_name to extend your filesystem

You're done.

I'll add that http://libguestfs.org/virt-resize.1.html should also help. — FearlessFuture, Nov 12 '15 at 17:49

score 2 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 13 '16 at 21:54

2

Another way to do it

truncate -s +2G vm1.img

go in the make a disk rescan and after you can do your lvm resize.

edited Jun 13 '16 at 21:54

slm

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answered Apr 18 '12 at 17:50

mandela900

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dtmland · Answer 10 · 2022-06-08T23:49:24.247

The 'follow up' you always wanted

stop the VM
run qemu-img resize vmdisk.img +10G to increase image size by 10Gb
start the VM, resize the partitions and LVM structure within it normally...

All credit goes to Josphat Mutai. Note that sizes, disk numbers and names mentioned below are different from the question and yours will be too.

Ubuntu / Debian

$ sudo apt -y install cloud-guest-utils gdisk

CentOS / RHEL / Fedora

$ sudo yum -y install cloud-utils-growpart gdisk

Check if using LVM (indicator for LVM something like /dev/mapper/xyz):

cat /etc/fstab

TL;DR

For 'non lvm', device vda, rootfs at partition 1:

$ sudo growpart /dev/vda 1
# Uncomment and run one of these (ext or xfs)
#sudo resize2fs /dev/vda1
#sudo xfs_growfs /

For 'lvm', device vda, partition 2, physical volume vda2, logical volume group rhel-root :

$ sudo growpart /dev/vda 2
$ sudo pvresize /dev/vda2
$ sudo lvextend -r -l +100%FREE /dev/mapper/rhel-root

For the longer versions of each, see below!

Non LVM

Find partition number using lsblk (in this example "1" from vda1)

$ lsblk 
 NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
 sr0     11:0    1 1024M  0 rom  
 vda    253:0    0   10G  0 disk 
 └─vda1 253:1    0   10G  0 part /

Grow partition '1' of 'vda' using growpart

$ sudo growpart /dev/vda 1
CHANGED: partition=1 start=2048 old: size=20969472 end=20971520 new: size=62912479,end=62914527

To grow the file system, first check whether ext2/3/4 or XFS using df:

$ df -hT | grep /dev/vda
/dev/vda1      ext4       30G  1.2G   7G   5% /

For ext4 file system, use resize2fs:

$ sudo resize2fs /dev/vda1
resize2fs 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013)
 Filesystem at /dev/vda1 is mounted on /; on-line resizing required
 old_desc_blocks = 2, new_desc_blocks = 4
 The filesystem on /dev/vda1 is now 7864059 blocks long.

For XFS, it can be grown while mounted using the xfs_growfs:

$ sudo xfs_growfs /

LVM

Find partition number:

$ lsblk 
 NAME          MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
 sr0            11:0    1 1024M  0 rom  
 vda           252:0    0   40G  0 disk 
 ├─vda1        252:1    0    1G  0 part /boot
 └─vda2        252:2    0   29G  0 part 
   ├─rhel-root 253:0    0 26.9G  0 lvm  /
   └─rhel-swap 253:1    0  2.1G  0 lvm  [SWAP]

Grow partition '2' of 'vda' using growpart:

$ sudo growpart /dev/vda 2
CHANGED: partition=2 start=2099200 old: size=18872320 end=20971520 new: size=60815327,end=62914527

Resize physical volume with pvresize:

$ sudo pvresize /dev/vda2
  Physical volume "/dev/vda2" changed
  1 physical volume(s) resized or updated / 0 physical volume(s) not resized

Find name of volume group using df (yours is likely different than below) and resize logical volume used by the root file system using the extended volume group with lvextend:

$ df -hT | grep mapper
 /dev/mapper/rhel-root xfs        27G  1.9G   26G   8% /

$ sudo lvextend -r -l +100%FREE /dev/mapper/rhel-root
Size of logical volume rhel/root changed from <26.93 GiB (6893 extents) to <36.93 GiB (9453 extents).
Logical volume rhel/root successfully resized.

If you didn’t use -r option in previous step, the file system will still show the old size. To make the file system report the actual size, including extended do the following.

For ext4 file system, use resize2fs:

$ sudo resize2fs /dev/name-of-volume-group/root

For xfs filesystem use xfs_growfs:

$ sudo xfs_growfs /
 meta-data=/dev/mapper/rhel-root  isize=512    agcount=4, agsize=1764608 blks
          =                       sectsz=512   attr=2, projid32bit=1
          =                       crc=1        finobt=1, sparse=1, rmapbt=0
          =                       reflink=1
 data     =                       bsize=4096   blocks=7058432, imaxpct=25
          =                       sunit=0      swidth=0 blks
 naming   =version 2              bsize=4096   ascii-ci=0, ftype=1
 log      =internal log           bsize=4096   blocks=3446, version=2
          =                       sectsz=512   sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1
 realtime =none                   extsz=4096   blocks=0, rtextents=0
 data blocks changed from 7058432 to 9679872

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Dec 22 '15 at 04:40

If you have LVM in your VM then this is crazy easy and fast.

Turn off VM (guest machine).
In your host machine add new storage device.
Turn on guest.
Open System -> Administration -> Logical Volume Management (or type sudo system-config-lvm in terminal)*.

I found the GUI quite intuitive, but follow next steps if you have problems.

Open "Uninitialized Entities" and find your new drive.
After selecting new drive, below the image you should find an initialize button. Press it.
It will ask you about partitioning - you don't need it.
When done add your drive to existing volume group.
Finally you need to grow your logical volume(s) - this is done in Logical View of the group by editing properties of your volume.
Save and your done. No need to restart VM.

Note! At least on CentOS 6 LVM GUI is not installed by default, but you can install it with yum install system-config-lvm.

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 05 '17 at 22:32

Shutdown the VM
Resize image:
```
qemu-img resize vmdisk.img +16G
```
increases image size by 16 GB.
If your image has GPT (GUID Partition Table) then drive size used in GPT will differ from new size, you need to fix it with gdisk:
```
MY_DRIVE=/dev/vda
gdisk $MY_DRIVE <<EOF
w
Y
Y
EOF
```
or with parted:
```
parted $MY_DRIVE print Fix
```
For some reason parted fix is not working when no tty is presented (for example when provisioning with Vagrant) so I use gdisk.

Increase partition size to fill all available space:

MY_PARTITION_GUID=$(
gdisk $MY_DRIVE <<EOF | sed -n -e 's/^Partition unique GUID: //p'
i
EOF
)

MY_PARTITION_FIRST_SECTOR=$(
gdisk $MY_DRIVE <<EOF | sed -n -e 's/^First sector: \([0-9]\+\).*/\1/p'
i
EOF
)

gdisk $MY_DRIVE <<EOF
d
n

$MY_PARTITION_FIRST_SECTOR


x
a
2

c
$MY_PARTITION_GUID
w
Y
EOF

The x a 2 <Enter> part is optional and needed if you are using legacy BIOS. MY_PARTITION_GUID=... and c $MY_PARTITION_GUID parts are also optional and needed only if you use partition UUID in /etc/fstab or somewhere else.

Reboot or reread partitions with partx -u $MY_DRIVE or partprobe.

Extend partition, example for ext2, ext3 or ext4:

MY_PARTITION="${MY_DRIVE}1"
resize2fs $MY_PARTITION

sgdisk -e works for me better instead of gdisk w Y Y – Gediz GÜRSU Jan 18 '21 at 07:44 — Gediz GÜRSU, Jan 18 '21 at 07:44

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jan 18 '21 at 07:56

GPT Disk and Non-Linux:

virsh shutdown myVM
qemu-img info mydisk.img
sudo qemu-img resize mydisk.img 50G  
sudo sgdisk -e mydisk.img

New size of mydisk.img of myVM will be 50G and gpt partition table backup will be re-taken to the last sectors of disk. Otherwise most OS does not recognize disk as resized ... Linux does because gparted automatically fixes it most of the time.

! Gparted gets confused if you clone your disk to bigger disk with dd without cleaning bigger disks backup gpt partition (virtual or bare metal disk doesn't matter)

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 31 '16 at 12:52

You can use solus vm with gparted mounted. Once used with the gparted you can easly boot the system and adjust the space. Make sure you have the correct boot priority set. As a reference please refer the below url that could come handy. https://greencloudvps.com/knowledgebase/11/How-to-Extend-the-Hard-drive-on-KVM-after-upgrading-VPS.html

How do you increase a KVM guest's disk space?

14 Answers14

Online Method (using qemu, libvirt, and virtio-block)

The 'follow up' you always wanted

TL;DR

Non LVM

LVM

Linked