VirtualBox: extend partition

Question

I have virtualbox-4.1.0 with centos-5.6 installed in. Now I would like to extend the VM image, which I previously allocated for virtual machine installation, it was 8Gb, that's not enough now. Is there a way to extend the partition without loosing information?

Actually in centos I have one root fs with my home dir etc. so this partition eventually would need to be resized.

Thanks in advance for suggestions!

Answer 1

It can be done in 4 steps :

1. Clone your VMDK to VDI format with VBoxManage Tool.
2. Resize the disk to create free space with VBoxManage Tool.
3. Modify the filesystem to allocate free space for your drive with GParted.
4. Add created disk space to Linux FileSystem.

---

The detailed steps are below (tested with "Virtual Machine CentOS 6.4" and "VirtualBox 4.2.18");

1. Observe disk format of the virtualbox file, if it is not *.vdi, convert disk format from *.wmdk to *.vdi. Open windows terminal:
   $ VBoxManage clonehd --format VDI "path_of_wmdk_file" "path_of_vdi_file"

2. Resize disk size of vdi file. Open windows terminal. For example to do disk size ~500 GB => 512000;
   $ VBoxManage modifymedium "path_of_vdi_file" --resize 512000

3. Choose *.vdi file instead of *.wmdk file as disk
   Virtual Machine -> Settings -> Storage -> Controller : SATA (Right Click on *.wmdk file) -> Remove Attachment -> Add HardDisk and choose newly created *.vdi file

4. Download "gparted-live-x.xx.x-x-ixxx.iso" file from http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php. Mount this iso file as CD.
   Virtual Machine -> Settings -> Storage -> Controller IDE (Right Click) -> Add CD/DVD -> Select gparted-live-x.xx.x-x-ixxx.iso file

5. Run virtual machine, Virtual Machine will boot from this CD. Choose default values with pressing "Enter", "Enter" ... until Gpart ISO GUI starts. Select tool gpart program and start.

6. Extend disk size as below;

   • Right click on partitions and if "possible" click on "Disable Active Partion".
   • Extend Partition as much as possible from GUI (for this case 500GB).
   • Right click the partition which is disabled and select "Enable Active Partion".
   • Apply and wait until the operations finished.
   • Shut down virtual machine.
   • Unmount gparted-live-x.xx.x-x-ixxx.iso.
     Virtual Machine -> Settings -> Storage-> Controller IDE (Right Click on gparted-live-x.xx.x-x-ixxx.iso) -> Remove Attachement
   • Start the virtual machine.
     
     

7. Open linux terminal and login as root. Run commands below;

 lvm vgdisplay
       => Free  PE / Size       122880 / 480.00 GiB

 lvm lvdisplay /dev/VolGroup/lv_root
       => Current LE             3978

• Calculate the sum of the values above. In this case : 122880 + 3978 = 126858 <- will be used in the next command

 lvm lvresize -l 126858 /dev/VolGroup/lv_root

 resize2fs  /dev/VolGroup/lv_root   

 lsblk
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    NAME                        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
    sr0                          11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  
    sda                           8:0    0   500G  0 disk 
        +¦sda1                        8:1    0   500M  0 part /boot
        L¦sda2                        8:2    0 499.5G  0 part 
            +¦VolGroup-lv_root (dm-0) 253:0    0   480G  0 lvm  /
            L¦VolGroup-lv_swap (dm-1) 253:1    0     4G  0 lvm  [SWAP]
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

• Check whether the filesystem extended or not with creating a huge file:

 fallocate -l 480G /test_file

• Remove the test file of course:

 rm -rif /test_file